Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes ~ The Love I Lost 1973 Disco Purrfection Version

This song has been recognized as a pivotal moment in the history of disco. It established the dynamics that would define disco from that day on. One of the hallmarks was the open hi hat in between the kick drum beats that Earl used to propel the song forward, galloping towards ecstasy! Another hallmark was the use of strings which were recorded live as with the rest of the orchestra, and not used to "sweeten" the mix (i.e overdubbed).

This had the effect of pulling you along into the groove of the song as they all were in the same studio so the group energy dynamic helped them to create the sonics that gave life to the sad lyrics....the beautiful energy of the pretty music contrasts oh so sweetly with the loss of love lyrics that the breakup could have been avoided and Pendergrass is preaching to us all over the wonderful music track about being careful not to do the same thing.

I was soooo stoked to get my paws on these stems, the classic "The Love I Lost" I set about putting the remix together and it took me about six hours to finish it...one interesting thing was that at the very end when the percussion wells up to close out the song, there is a very familiar rhythm you may recognize that was used to open a completely different blockbuster tune that got in trouble for copyrights in 1979.

Anyway, Kenny and Leon got busy with Harold Melvin and His Blue Notes with a ballad called "The Love I Lost". During the initial session, the orchestra felt that the slow and sweet arrangement was not working, so drummer Earl counted off (1-2-3-4!) and added the one element that was missing turning the song into a disco anthem sung by one of R&B's greatest voices. It spent two weeks on top the R&B survey, then peaked at #7 on the Hot100.

It was about year too early for the disco chart since that began in November of 1974, but you can bet it would have been #1 for weeks. "Bad Luck" from 1975 was there for eleven weeks, almost three months! Pendergrass feels that the song popularity was buoyed by the stellar production and the song's subject of love. The sadness of losing a love never sounded so joyous and Pendergrass' fervent pleading to take him back still gives me chills...the man is supremely talented and the marriage of song and vocals makes for pure gold.