I’m betting that you know the singer behind today’s classic song of the day, Freda Payne, but probably don’t remember the song. The song is “Deeper and Deeper” and it’s pretty much forgotten today—which is a shame, because it’s a damned fine piece of music.
Freda Payne released “Deeper and Deeper” on Invictus Records in September of 1970. It only went to #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 but made it all the way to #9 on Billboard’s R&B chart. It was the follow-up to her smash it, “Band of Gold.”
“Deeper and Deeper” has, to my ears, a bit of a Diana Ross and the Supremes vibe. That’s not surprising given that it was written by Norma Jean Toney, Ron Dunbar, and Edythe Wayne, the latter being a pseudonym for the legendary ex-Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who certainly knew their way around a Supremes record. They also produced the track.
For today’s daily bonus video of the day, here’s the very elegant Freda Payne at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center singing a truncated version of “Deeper and Deeper” to the injured soldiers there. It’s from the November 8, 1970, episode of The Ed Sullivan Show.
