Most Promising

Today, I try to do something else. You can test your knowledge, or your intuition, in a little quiz.
     The following list shows the categories of the 1967 winners of the NATRA-Awards (NATRA = »National Association of TV and Radio Announcers«, basically an associ- ation of Afro-American DJs) and you are invited to guess the right answers. Some answers are pretty obvious and you'll easily guess. However, some others are quite surprising and I bet you won't hit the correct solution.
     The Award list was published 44 years ago today, on August 31, 1967 in JET (p. 56 f.).

     To see the correct answers, move your mouse beyond the dotted lines!

Top Female Vocalist ........... ARETHA FRANKLIN

Top Male Vocalist .............. JAMES BROWN

Top R&B Record ............... ARETHA FRANKLIN: »Respect«

Top LP .......................... ARETHA FRANKLIN: I Never Loved A Man

Top Vocal Group ............... DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES, THE TEMPTATIONS

Most Promising Group ........ GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS

Most Promising Duo ........... SAM & DAVE

Top Instrumental .............. BOOKER T & THE MG's: »Hip Hug-Her«

Top Gospel Group ............. THE STAPLE SINGERS

Top Producer ................... HOLLAND, DOZIER & HOLLAND; JERRY WEXLER

Top Jazz Record ............... CANNONBALL ADDERLEY: »Mercy, Mercy, Mercy«

Top Jazz Vocalist (Male) ............... LOU RAWLS

Top Jazz Vocalist (Female) ............ NANCY WILSON, NINA SIMONE

Top Blues Vocalist ...................... BOBBY BLAND

Most Promising Vocalist (Male) ....... O.V. WRIGHT

Most Promising Vocalist (Female) .... BETTYE SWANN

Most Promising Duo (Mixed) ........... BRENDA & THE TABULATIONS; THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS

Some unexpected names on this list, huh? Especially in the lower part ... Not that there is a single name that wouldn't deserve to be mentioned in it ... but clearly, seen from today's perspective, some of them come to mind immediately, while others do not. And one could also consider which names are missing from the list
... and would maybe be included if the list was drawn up today.

One of the more unexpected names on the list is, to my mind, O.V. Wright as the Most Promising Male Vocalist. Well, in hindsight, his being mentioned was fully justified, but how many would have known in summer 1967? He had started out, on Goldwax, in 1964 and moved to Backbeat the following year. In 1967, he was nicknamed »The Nucleus of Soul« and had considerable success with »Eight Men-Four Women«. At any rate, he lived up to the promise of the 1967 list during the following years. He came to be one of the greatest soul singers of all times. It is fair to say that today he is best remembered for his truly wonderful songs »Ace Of Spades« (1970) and »A Nickel And A Nail« (1971). My favorite song of O.V. Wright is »When You Took Your Love From Me« (rel. in Feb. 1971 and in the charts up against Marvin Gaye's »What's Going On«). It is deeply moving and has beautiful lyrics spicked with poetical, strange and at the same time curiously appropriate metaphors. And nobody like O.V. Wright could have performed this tune with the same intensity. Promise delivered!

O.V. Wright: »When You Took Your Love From Me« on Backbeat # 620A (1971):