Your classic groovy song of the day is “Groovy Situation” by the Duke of Earl himself, Gene Chandler. Released in June 1970, this single reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #8 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart. It ended up selling more than a million copies to be certified Gold by the RIAA.
“Groovy Situation” was written by Russell Lewis and Herman Davis. It was first recorded by Mel and Tim as a track on their 1969 album Good Guys Only Win in the Movies. Gene Chandler decided to record his own version of the song, keeping many elements of the Mel and Tim version but adding a bit more soul. Chandler himself produced both recordings.
There are several notable features to Chandler’s version of the song. There’s the quote of “a tisket a tasket” at the head of the song. There’s that really cool cascading brass line in the intro and reprised later in the song. There’s the “Can you can dig it” line repeated throughout the track. All very groovy.
Then there’s the busy bass part that sounds a little like Motown James Jamerson but even more outside. That bass line was played by Richard Evans, a noted jazz bassist who’d played with Sun Ra, Ahmad Jamal, Eddie Higgins, Phil Upchurch, and more. Here’s how Tom Washington, who arranged the track, remembers it:
“We did the first arrangement on Mel and Tim for Bamboo Records. Gene produced it for Mel and Tim. But for Gene we hired Richard Evans to play the bass. That’s why it had more of a jazz influence. It became a hit for Gene. We had the hit ‘Backfield in Motion’ for Mel and Tim and that was some of Gene’s production. He evolved from Carl Davis (at Brunswick) as an artist into a producer. The jazz influence changed the face of a lot of music we were doing.”
Gene Chandler hails from Chicago. He formed his first band, the Gaytones, in the early ’50s and joined the Dukays in 1957. That group recorded several singles over the next few year, the last of which was “Duke of Earl.” The Dukays’ producers, Carl Davis and Bunky Shepherd, decided to shop “Duke of Earl” to a different label, Vee-Jay records, who released it under the lead singer’s name. That was Gene Chandler, of course, and “Duke of Earl” became a #1 million-selling hit in 1962.
Chandler had a few more minor hits through the rest of decade, several of which were written by fellow Chicagoan Curtis Mayfield. He later shifted to producing, including the record “Backfield in Motion” for Mel and Tim. When Chandler produced Mel and Tim’s version of “Groovy Situation” he decided it would be a good tune to record himself, and subsequently did.
Gene Chandler continued producing and recording all the way through the disco era, He’s since been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame (twice—once as a performer and again as an R&B Music Pioneer). He’s still alive today and still in Chicago, aged 86.
