Lowrell Simon (March 18, 1943 – June 19, 2018) – Three The Hard Way Chase & Theme (1974)
Lowrell Simon (March 18, 1943 – June 19, 2018) – Three The Hard Way Chase & Theme (1974)
Simon co-wrote and co-produced the Impressions' soundtrack to the classic Black action film starring Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly.
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The multi-talented Lowrell Simon was a singer/songwriter and producer, best known for his 1979 R&B hit “Mellow Mellow Right On” that later became a rare groove favorite.
Born and raised in Chicago, Simon formed the vocal group The Lost Generation with several friends in the late sixties. They were introduced to Brunswick Records producer Carl Davis in 1969, who produced their debut single, “The Sly, Slick and the Wicked.” It was a sizable hit, peaking at #14 R&B and crossing over to #30 on the Billboard Hot 100, and generated enough sales to allow Brunswick to buy itself out from its parent company Decca.
After the group broke up in 1974, Simon spent the next several years producing and writing songs for other artists, including “All About The Paper” for Loleatta Holloway in 1979, later covered by the Dells. Also in 1979, he released his debut solo album Lowrell. Its single “Mellow Mellow Right On” reached #32 on the R&B charts, and eventually became known as a rave groove classic.
Philly producer and songwriter Bruce Hawes co-produced the album with Eugene Record and Thomas “Tom Tom 84” Washington and played synthesizers on it. Hawes did not receive a writer’s credit for “Mellow Mellow Right On” despite writing the music for the track.
Simon’s first major project after The Lost Generation disbanded was co-writing and co-producing the soundtrack to the 1974 Black action film Three The Hard Way for The Impressions.
Directed by Gordon Parks, Jr., it was one of the most explicitly political Blaxploitation films of the 70s, and starred the trio of Black action superstars Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, and Jim Kelly.
The lyrics to its phenomenal title track “Chase & Theme” referenced the film’s storyline, in which the three heroes foiled an evil white supremacist plot to sterilize the nation’s entire Black population.
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