Today: The late Curtis Mayfield was born in 1942 – 72 years ago (Read more)

Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999)  is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, and drums.

Curtis Mayfield’s songwriting and his distinct guitar playing have influenced a lot of artists.

Bob Dylan played Mayfield’s People Get Ready , and it is obvious he liked Curtis Mayfield’s work . The Impressions’s Keep On Pushing, the album, is on the Bringing It All Back Home cover.

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” is a soul single by Stevie Wonder, recorded for Motown’s Tamla label. Released June 3, 1970, the song spent six weeks at number one on the U.S. R&B chart and peaked at number three on the U.S. Pop chart. In the same year, the song was also released on the album Signed, Sealed & Delivered.

The song was a series of firsts for the 20-year-old Wonder: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” was the first single Wonder produced on his own, and was also the first to feature his female backup singing group composed of Lynda Tucker Laurence (who went on to become a member of The Supremes),Syreeta Wright (who also co-wrote the song), and Venetta Fields.

During a 2008 appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, he credited the song title and chorus “signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours” to his mother Lula, who exclaimed the words after listening to her son experiment with the melody. This song also marked Wonder’s first Grammy nomination.

Memphis Minnie (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973)

American blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. She was the only female blues artist considered a match to male contemporaries as both a singer and an instrumentalist.

She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being “Bumble Bee”, “Nothing in Rambling”, and “Me and My Chauffeur Blues“. Her performances and songwriting made her well known in a genre dominated mostly by men. She died on August 6, 1973, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Billy remained a member of the Skynyrd crew (as a roadie) for two years (which included, amongst the grittier shows, highlights such as Skynyrd landing a support slot for Leslie West’s “Mountain”) In his second year with them, 1972, Skynyrd played one particular gig, a show at the Bolles school prom. After his usual routine working with Kevin Elson, Billy had time to rest for a short while. In the corner he spotted a piano, so Billy went over and sat down with it. Just fooling around, Billy launches into his piano based version of Freebird for the boys in the band to listen to. Ronnie, astonished at his roadie’s hitherto secret ability said ‘You mean to tell me, you’ve been playing the piano like that and you’ve been workin’ for us for a year….’. Billy replied, “Well, you know, I’ve been classically trained most of my life.’ He was then told Skynyrd were looking for a keyboard man, and Billy was in!

Spotify Playlist – June 03: