Today’s classic song of the day is “Oh Girl” by the Chi-Lites. This single, released in March of 1972, went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, and Billboard’s R&B chart. Billboard named it the #13 song for all of 1972.
“Oh Girl” was written by Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites’ lead vocalist. Released on the Brunswick Records label, it was their first and only number-one hit. Record not only wrote and sang lead on the song, he also produced it and played guitar and drums. Fellow Chi-Lite Marshall Thompson supplied the plaintive harmonica line.
The Chi-Lites were a Chicago based group (that’s the “Chi” in “Chi-Lites”) that first got together in 1959 when the members were all students at Chicago’s Hyde Park High School. They started out as a doo-wop group consisting of singers Robert “Squirrel” Lester, Eugene Record, Creadel Jones, Clarence Johnson, Burt Bowen, Eddie Reed, and Marshall Thompson. After a handful of minor R&B hits and having Johnson leave the group, the now four-member Chi-Lites had their first mainstream hit in 1971 with “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People,” which went to #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #4 on the R&B chart. That was followed by “Have You Seen Her,” #3 in 1971, and “Oh Girl,” in 1972. After that they had several other singles hit the R&B chart but none that made a huge dent on the Hot 100.
The group continued recording through the end of the ’90s and continue to tour today, albeit with only one original member (Marshall Thompson). They were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005 and the R&B Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Eugene Record and the Chi-Lites lip-synching “Oh Girl” on the March 9, 1972, episode of The Flip Wilson Show. Things were classier back then.
