Today’s classic song of the day is “Right Back Where We Started From” by British singer Maxine Nightingale. It was released in late 1975 in the UK and Europe and in February, 1976, here in the U.S. It hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #5 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It was also a top ten hit in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK.
“Right Back Where We Started From” was written by Pierre Tubbs and J. Vincent Edwards, both Brits. Tubbs had previously written former classic song of the day “But It’s Alright” for J.J. Jackson; Edwards was better known as a singer in the UK, with several pop singles under his belt. The two of them decided to write “Right Back Where We Started From” specifically for Maxine Nightingale after hearing her sing background on a session for Brit artist Al Matthews. (Edwards also knew Nightingale when they both were members of the West End cast of the musical Hair.)
The version of “Right Back Where We Started From” you heard on record and on the radio was actually a demo recording, not intended for final release. Ms. Nightingale went into Soho’s Central Sound Studio, a small demo studio, within a week of Tubbs and Edwards writing the song. Mike de Albuquerque, how played bass on the session, remembers this about it:
“We were doing…one of those demo sessions where everybody goes and sits down with music in front of you and you try and get through as many tunes as possible….I remember [Pierre Tubbs]…saying, listen guys, I want to record in entirety four pieces in this three hour session…and we recorded two pieces with Maxine and two with somebody else….[Let] me stress, it was a demo session that this multi-million-selling thing came out of, it wasn’t let’s go and remake it… it was the original demo session.”
Those demo tracks were good enough to spur the quick release of the record. The single hit the stores two weeks after the recording session and started rising up the UK charts in November of 1975. It featured a four-on-the-snare beat and R&B vibe heavily influenced by the Motown hits of the Holland-Dozier-Holland team.
Ms. Nightingale initially didn’t think much of the song and insisted it be released under a pseudonym, so as not to bring shame to her good name. She also insisted on taking a flat $45 session fee instead of royalties; both situations got rectified when the single became a smash hit.
Maxine Nightingale started singing with local bands when she was just thirteen. She signed with Pye Records when she was seventeen and released her first singles in 1969, although they didn’t make much of an impact. That same year, she joined the West End cast of Hair and stayed there for 18 months or so. She also performed in productions of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell before hitting it big with “Right Back Where We Started From.” She had later hits in the UK with “Love Hit Me” in 1977 and in the U.S. with 1978’s “Lead Me On.” She also scored a U.S. R&B hit with “Turn to Me,” a 1982 duet with Jimmy Ruffin. She’s still performing on the retro soul circuit today.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Maxine Nightingale lip synching “Right Back Where We Started From” on the Dutch TopPop television program back in 1975. I don’t quite understand the palm trees and cruise ship, but that’s TV for you. (Or is it a Dutch thing?)
