Willie Mitchell (March 1, 1928 – January 5, 2010) - That Driving Beat (1965)
This super funky, energetic dancefloor filler eventually became a Northern Soul classic, off Mitchell’s funkiest album of the sixties.
Watch full video on Substack or Twitter.
On January 5, 2010, we said goodbye to musical genius Willie Mitchell (born March 1, 1928) of Hi Records who co-wrote “Let's Stay Together” with Al Green and also produced that classic song.
Mitchell was a highly influential producer, arranger, songwriter and musician who ran Royal Studios and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1970s. Besides Al Green, who sold over 20 million records during his time on the label, the Hi Records roster included Ann Peebles, O.V. Wright, and Syl Johnson.
William Lawrence Mitchell was born in Mississippi and started playing the trumpet at age 8. While he was in high school, his family moved to Memphis. There he joined various local big bands and eventually became a bandleader himself, with Charles Lloyd on sax and Phineas Newborn, Jr. on piano.
He signed a deal with Hi Records in the early sixties as a recording artist and producer. Between 1963 and 1969, Mitchell released 13 singles, all of which charted, and an additional dozen full length LP’s. His most successful records during this period were his very first single, “20-75,” which cracked the top 40 on both the pop and R&B charts, and “Soul Serenade,” a #23 pop and #10 R&B hit from 1967.
In 1965, after his first three singles sold well, Mitchell was given free reign by the Hi Records owners to produce an album consisting entirely of material he wrote and arranged himself. He also directed the band during the recording sessions. The title track “That Driving Beat” came out first, released in late 1965 as the B-side to “Everything Is Gonna Be Alright.” The album itself hit stores in January, 1966 as Willie Mitchell’s Driving Beat.
“That Driving Beat” was a super funky, energetic dancefloor filler featuring Don Bryant on vocals that eventually became a Northern Soul classic. Other standouts included the instrumentals “Fat Cat,” with its wailing sax and psychedelic-tinged guitar solos, and “The Champion - Part 1,” powered by a heavy organ groove. It was arguably Mitchell’s funkiest album of the sixties.
Mitchell was promoted to Vice President of Hi Records in 1970 and took over running the company’s recording facility, Royal Studios. It was renamed Mitchell's Royal Sound Studio, and there he proceeded to produce an amazing string of seven consecutive gold singles with Al Green and all of Green’s classic 70s albums.
Other notable records recorded by Mitchell at Royal Sound included Otis Clay’s Trying To Live My Life Without You (1974), I Can't Stand The Rain (1974) by Ann Peebles, Syl Johnson’s Take Me To The River (1975), and Rod Stewart’s Atlantic Crossing (1975).
Today, more than a decade after Mitchell’s death from a heart attack in 2010, the studio remains in operation at its original location, managed by Mitchell’s son Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell. It has one of the largest collections in the world of functioning vintage reel-to-reel studio recording equipment.
#soul #funk #NorthernSoul #HiRecords #Memphis #WillieMitchell