With heat waves happening across the country, it can be hard to find relief. I happened to notice that July 21 is National Ice Cream Day and I’m smiling while deciding what flavor to scoop up for dinner instead of cooking over a hot stove.
I mentioned ice cream and music to my husband, who proceeded to name a bunch of R&B tunes about ice cream and sugar and desserts that were his favorites. Then I got to remembering some of mine. So let’s dive into some sounds of sweetness. The good news is that the music isn’t fattening!
”Black Music Sunday” is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 220 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
As a Black history note, Augustus Jackson was known as “The Father of Ice Cream.”
While most early ice creams were frozen egg custards, Jackson developed a lighter kind of ice cream. Thanks to Jackson’s eggless recipe, many ice cream recipes now do not have eggs.
Born on April 16, 1808, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Augustus Jackson started working at the White House in Washington D.C. when he was just nine years old.
He worked as a chef there from 1817 until 1837, cooking for Presidents James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. He also prepared formal meals at state dinners for dignitaries.
After 20 years at the White House, Jackson left Washington D.C. and went back to his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Face 2 Face Africa reports it was in Philadelphia where he opened his own catering and confectionery business and would build his fortune by making ice cream.
Ice cream has been around since the 4th century B.C.E. originating from Persia (now modern Iran). Although Jackson did not invent ice cream, he became famous for his unique ice cream-making techniques and recipes.
The first tune we both thought of dates back to 1955, when Richard Wayne Penniman, known to all as Little Richard, had a major hit with “Tutti Fruitti.” Tutti-fruitti is an ice cream flavor, a dessert, and in his inimitable style was a pretty risque tune, though it was cleaned up in the broadcast version.
Here he is performing it in the 1956 film “Don't Knock the Rock” which starred Alan Dale and Alan Freed:
The Library of Congress has this essay by Cary O’Dell on Little Richard’s “Tutti Fruitti” which was added to the National Register in 2009.
Little Richard signed his first recording contract in 1951, at age 19, with RCA records. … Finally, he joined Specialty Records where he was signed by Robert “Bumps” Blackwell as a potential rival to Ray Charles. There Little Richard’s luck began to change.
Richard’s early days with Specialty--trying to fit himself into the Ray Charles mold--were nomore successful than his partnerships with RCA and Peacock had been. One particular recording session, this one on September 14, 1955 was, typically, not going well. But at a break, supposedly taken at a nearby watering hole, Little Richard sat down at the piano and banged out an old, slightly obscene ditty he had often performed as filler in his nightclub dates. The tune, “Tutti Frutti,” accented heavily by Richard’s soon-to-be trademark “woos,” howls and scat-like singing, rocked the house; a potential hit was at hand—provide they could clean up the lyrics.
Originally, the lyrics of “Tutti Frutti” celebrated the female backside: “Tutti frutti, good booty.”Other lyrics later in the song got even more graphic and were definitely not airwave appropriate for 1955. Local songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie was drafted by Bumps to rework the lyrics. By the time LaBostrie was done, “good booty” had been replaced by “aw rootie,” a slang adaptation of “all righty.” Other provocative lines got replaced with relatively innocent odes to girls named Daisy and Sue. It was this version the Little Richard would commit to vinyl.
There are lots of tutti-frutti ice cream recipes online. Here’s one.
Fast forward to 1995, here’s Little Richard performing “Tutti Frutti” at the Concert for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:
RELATED STORY: He put the R in rock 'n' roll: Remembering Little Richard
In 1961, The Drifters recorded a hit tune with a cha-cha beat, “Sweets for My Sweet:”
Singles Stories recounts:
The Drifters released their first single to feature Charlie Thomas on vocals, a Doc Pomus / Mort Shuman composition which was a big hit for the group and an even bigger hit for a completely different group. Just before joining – or, more appropriately, being recruited for – The Drifters, Thomas had been a member of The Five Crowns. When manager George Treadwell, who owned the rights to The Drifters’ name, got fed up with his current crop of performers and decided to fire all of the existing members of The Drifters, he decided to grab The Five Crowns and recruit them to become the new incarnation of The Drifters.
One of the interesting facts about their tune is their backup singers: “It also featured Jimmy Radcliffe and four female backup vocalists, all of whom would later have hit records, Cissy Houston, Doris Troy, Dionne Warwick, and Dee Dee Warwick.”
The tune would reappear in a British reggae version, recorded by Steven James Lewis known as C.J. Lewis, in 1994.
In 1964, Marvin Gaye would have a hit with “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” written by Motown’s writing team of Holland–Dozier–Holland. It was released as both a single and as an album with that name. Here’s a live version:
Gaye also recorded “Wie Schön Das Ist,” the same song, but in German.
Motown’s The Four Tops would also sing about sweetness in their 1965 hit “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch):”
The Four Tops started their musical career as the Four Aims at a house party in Detroit in 1954. Members included Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton. They changed the group’s name to The Four Tops to avoid confusion with a popular group of the day, the Ames Brothers. A smooth lounge act, the Tops stuck to standards and ballads and recorded for at least four other record companies before Berry Gordy signed them to Motown in 1964.
Their breakthrough hit, “Baby I Need Your Loving,” was produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland in 1964, and was followed by greater success with “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” in 1965, the Tops’ first #1 hit. Other hits were released during this period, including “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)” and “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever.”
Soul singers Sam & Dave had a hit with “Soul Sister Brown Sugar.” Harly Osgood profiled them for Black Facts:
Sam & Dave were the most successful black rhythm and blues duo of the 1960s although they performed into the early 1980s.
Sam Moore, was born in Miami, Florida and Dave Prater, was born in Ocilla, Georgia. Both men sang in church while growing up. They performed separately in Southern clubs during the 1950s and met each other in Miami’s King of Hearts Club in 1961. Following that meeting, the two singers became a duo and signed with Roulette Records, releasing a few mildly successful singles.
In 1965, Sam & Dave got their big break, and signed with Atlantic Records which then turned over the duo to their affiliate, Stax Records, where they were paired with writing and production team, Isaac Hayes and David Porter. The writers gave Sam & Dave a string of hits including “You Don’t Know Like I Know” (1965), “Hold On! I’m Comin” (1966) and “Soul Man” (1967). They were known for their exciting live performances during the late 1960s, filling rooms with their infectious energy.
Here’s their “Soul Sister Brown Sugar” from 1968.
Since I started off talking about ice cream, I’ll close with a 1969 tune from an R&B soul group many folks may not remember: The Dynamics.
From the All Music Guide to Soul by Vladimir Bogdanov:
Isaac "Zeke" Harris, George White, Fred Baker, and Samuel Stevenson were the Dynamics. (Zerben R. Hicks also sang with them but left shortly after their first album release.) All Detroit natives, the group was managed by Ted White, who was married to the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Their first Cotillion release, the metaphoric "Ice Cream Song," did quite well on R&B charts. Following the lead of Atlantic recording Aretha in the South, White took the Dynamics to Memphis to record, which is why "Ice Cream Song" sounds like something the Mad Lads would have recorded at Stax. The Dynamics, however, were more versatile than the Mad Lads, and the material was better too. They had three lead voices, one being an outstanding falsetto.
Here’s their contribution, “Ice Cream Song:”
I’m going to stop here, for now. I have lots more sweet tunes to share and I hope you’ll post your musical sweet tooth tunes in the comments section below.
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