Chickenshack -- Emotion

 

Fell pretty hard for "Emotion" when I first heard it on Chickenshack's 1987 album "Loving Power" which is a release of covers of past songs such as "La La Means I Love You" and "Me And Mrs. Jones". I will always be a sucker for the genres of soul, funk and Quiet Storm, and I think "Emotion" has plenty of that old soul. Looking at the video above, the band had guitarist Jun Yamagishi（山岸潤史）, the late Hidefumi Toki（土岐英史）on saxophone, Toru Tsuzuki（ 続木徹）on keyboards and bassist Darek Lane Jackson. As for the male and female vocal parts, looking at the Discogs page featuring the album, it included Carl Moore, Gwyndia Griffin, Joey McCoy, Tyrone Hashimoto, and Wornell Jones. I love the song but would have preferred it not ending as if someone had suddenly pulled the plug for the record player.

"Emotion" is indeed a cover of Webster Lewis' "Give Me Some Emotion", a single from 1980 which was created by him, Cheryl Pitts and Ray Barnes. It had an earlier appearance as a track on Lewis' 1979 album "Eight for the Eighties". Also in 1980, soul and gospel singer Merry Clayton covered it as a single under the shorter title of "Emotion", and it was also included as the title track of her own 1979 album. In any of its versions, "Emotion" is just a splendid reminder of that special music from my youth.