Four Below Zero ~ My Baby's Got E.S.P. 1976 Disco Purrfection Version

Patrick Adams is producer who was the former head of A&R at Perception/Today labels. Among his clients was Black Ivory and Four Below Zero. You will remember him most as the producer of disco group Musique whose explicit porno disco tune "In The Bush" and the B side "Keep On Jumpin'" was a double sided hit single that peaked at #1 disco for two weeks.

He wrote and produced Four Below Zero's disco single "ESP" in 1976 that effectively copied the Philadelphia sound. The New York vocal quartet consisted of Dornell Chavous, Moses McNeil, Cleveland Dickerson and Harry Watson had recorded one previous sweet soul single in 1974 entitled "Tell Me Why (Can't We Be Friends) that went nowhere.

"ESP" got traction in New York and the club response was overwhelmingly positive so Roulette Records stepped in to distribute the song nationally and it became an underground favorite due to the Northern Soul aficionados in the UK and in the US. Northern soul is a genre that was created in the early 70's to designate songs that were NOT Motown but had the same or similar sound. Motown is NOT Northern Soul, it is MOTOWN. The name came from UK soul record collectors who were on the search for failed soul records from the US to play in clubs. Eventually since there is a finite number of failed soul singles the movement died out but helped to connect the dots to disco.