"Little Anthony" Gourdine (born January 8, 1941) and the Imperials – Father, Father (1971)
The legendary R&B group's lead singer co-wrote and produced this gospel-flavored, socially conscious sermon that was their response to "What's Going On."
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Jerome “Little Anthony" Gourdine is the lead singer of Little Anthony and the Imperials, the R&B group from Brooklyn that formed in the late 1950s and are still performing today.
Gourdine was born and raised in Brooklyn. His family lived in the Fort Greene Housing Project, and he attended Boys High School. With his fellow classmates, he formed a doo-wop vocal group called the Duponts. In 1957, he became the lead singer of The Chesters, another Brooklyn doo-wop group founded earlier that year by Clarence Collins. Other original members included Tracey Lord, Nathaniel Rodgers, and Ronald Ross.
After Ross was replaced by Ernest Wright, they changed their name to The Imperials in 1958 and signed with End Records. Their first single “Tears on My Pillow” was a huge hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and going gold. Gourdine was stuck in summer school when he first heard the song on radio, and he immediately closed his books and walked out, never to return.
DJ Alan Freed gave “Little Anthony” his nickname because of how young his voice sounded. Gourdine sang in a distinctive falsetto that he modeled after jazz singer Jimmy Scott’s. When Freed introduced their hit record on air, he gave Gourdine top billing, and the name Little Anthony and the Imperials stuck.
Gourdine left the group to go solo in 1961, but came back two years later to rejoin Collins, Wright, and new member Sammy Strain (who in 1977 would go on to replace William Powell in the O’Jays). They had a string of hits throughout the sixties while working with their longtime friend, producer Teddy Randazzo.
They recorded a superb, Sly & the Family Stone-influenced song in 1969, “Anthem (Grow, Grow, Grow).” It was co-written by Randazzo and the unsung but prolific songwriter Victoria Pike, and produced by Randazzo. The track was originally the A-side on the single’s promo copies b/w the upbeat “Goodbye Goodtimes,” co-written by Gourdine and Collins and produced by New-Thing Productions, Inc. But the sides were flipped and “Anthem” was relegated to the B-side when it was officially released. It was a terrible decision, and the single did not chart.
In 1971, the group released two singles on Janus Records. The first was the powerful, socially conscious sermon “Father, Father.” Co-written by Gourdine and Kenny Seymour (who had been the group’s lead singer from 1961-63 when Gourdine went solo), and produced by Gourdine, Seymour, and Clarence Collins, it was the Imperials’ gospel-flavored response to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”
“Oh Lord, why must we fight and die? Oh, Lord, please show us wrong from right / Are we all to be brothers, to respect and learn from each another? Tell me why, Father, Father / My Lord, guide us to love and peace / My God, oh that our eyes could see"
The single’s B-side was another powerful message song, “Each One Teach One.” Co-written by Lloyd Campbell and Phillip James, its production was credited to “US.” Both sides were arranged by Horace Ott.
Their second single for Janus, released later that year, was the haunting love song “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story,” b/w “There's An Island (Where The Sun Shines Its Light On Everyone).“ Both tracks were produced by Billy Meshel and arranged by Jimmy “Wiz” Wisner.
In the early seventies, nostalgia for the 1950s gave them a second wind performing on the oldies circuit. It helped them endure several lineup changes and bad breaks, such as when their label Avco Records nearly went bankrupt and withdrew their 1976 album Hold On from sale in the United States.
Gourdine left the group in late 1976 to go solo for the second time, and they carried on as The Imperials. He returned in 1992, and they had a successful second act in the nineties and beyond. Gourdine remains with the group today.
Happy 83rd Birthday to the legendary “Little Anthony” Gourdine.
Further info:
“R&B Legend Little Anthony,” Thirteen.org, October 19, 2015.
“Little Anthony Documentary,” interview by TJ Lubinsky, YouTube, 2021.
#soul #funk #doowop #LittleAnthonyAndTheImperials
In 1965 Murray the K presented “It's What’s Happening Baby!” as a special tv program for us teens — something we were told was produced by the U.S. Government to promote LBJs Job Corps program. It was a fantastic show too — live performances by Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Chuck Jackson. Lipsynched songs by The Ronettes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, the horrible Herman's Hermits, and others. But the live performance of “I’m Alright” by Little Anthony and The Imperials was sensational. I never forgot it. And as great as their 70s performance of the song is, their performance that night in ‘65 had me and everyone I knew talking for days. It was never repeated. But it’s been recently released on DVD, all cleaned up and with excellent sound. Check it out.