The Manhattan Transfer -- Spice of Life

 

I figured last week that I would be doing this Reminiscings of Youth article today on the legendary vocal group The Manhattan Transfer. However, I didn't know that this year would mark the 50th anniversary since the formation of the second and current incarnation in 1972. It's just a pity that founder Tim Hauser is no longer around since he passed away in 2014 but perhaps somewhere, I'm hoping that he's looking fondly and proudly at his fellow Transfer mates still singing, scatting and crooning away to thrilled audiences.

My first ROY article regarding The Manhattan Transfer was a little over a year ago and not surprisingly, it was focused on the first two songs that I had probably ever heard by them as a little kid "Tuxedo Junction" and "Chanson D'Amour" back in the mid-1970s. Of course at the time, my musical vocabulary was extremely basic but even then I knew jazz when I heard it, thanks to all the standards that I heard on my parents' stereo.

However, as all Transfer fans know, their heroes didn't want to stick with doing jazz and chanson covers. In the latter half of that decade going into the 1980s, the Manhattan Transfer got onto some of the R&B and disco bandwagon. That culminated into one of their most famous hits "Spice of Life", a song that I heard frequently on the radio. This was a single which came out in 1983 with the source album being "Bodies and Souls" which was released in September of that year. "Bodies and Souls" was the very first Manhattan Transfer album that I ended up buying but certainly not the last.

After listening to "Spice of Life" at least hundreds of times over nearly forty years from radio to CD to YouTube, I really cherish this one. Looking back, I think that it's one of the truly great examples, alongside Swingout Sister's "Breakout", of sophisticated jazzy pop of an age when folks on either side of the Pacific were enjoying their caviar and champagne. It's sumptuous listening and vicarious living for a fun and luxurious night on the town. If such a thing were possible, I would even grant both "Spice of Life" and "Breakout" honourary Japanese City Pop status.

Not only is Stevie Wonder helping out with his harmonica solo, there are also plenty of musicians contributing to "Spice of Life" that have been well known among Japanese singers and their works, including Jerry Hey and Gary Grant on trumpet, Ernie Watts on sax, Paulinho da Costa on percussion and Neil Steubenhaus on bass. Perhaps it's no surprise then that "Spice of Life" was also popular in Japan. In fact, the Manhattan Transfer did a commercial over there for Suntory Brandy while doing an acapella version of the song.

Now, I would do the Oricon Top 3 for September 1983 but those three positions have already been mentioned for another ROY article back in May 2021. So, instead I'll cover Nos. 6, 7 and 8.

6. Seiko Matsuda -- Sweet Memories

7. Akina Nakamori -- Kinku （禁区）

8. H2O -- Omoide ga Ippai （思い出がいっぱい）

(cover version)