Cliff Nobles: The Vocal Version of 'The Horse' Story (1968)
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2010
- Chancellor of Soul, Mike Boone presents a very rare vocal version of legendary
artist, Cliff Nobles' 1968 classic instrumental hit, 'The Horse'.
Legendary songwriter / producer Jesse James took Cliff Nobles to Frank
Virtue's North Broad Street Studios located in Philadelphia in early 1968, to record a tune he had composed called 'Love Is All Right'. After the session, producer and arranger Bobby Martin and Virtue had asked James about
adding a B side to 'Love Is All Right'. Avoiding the hassels of extra studio
costs, James told them to add the instrumental track as the flip side.
A titled was to be added to the flipside, so Martin and Virtue decided on
'The Horse' a dance originally created in Chicago in 1960 but revived
in early 1968 by a song released in New York City by a group The
Preparations on Cathy Lynn's Heart & Soul label entitled, 'Get 'E Up
(The Horse)'.
'Love Is All Right' sank without a trace but its B side became a hit when
a disc jockey from Tampa Bay, Florida played the B side accidentally
instead of the A side 'Love Is All Right'., singing on the instrumental
version. Listeners jammed the switchboards asking the dee jay to be
quiet and let the music play.
Afterwards, the Horse became a hit nationally, hitting No.2 on Billboards
R&B singles charts, the week ending July 13, 1968, selling two million
copies. It also charted No.3 on the Pop singles charts the same week.
Months later, Cliff Nobles recorded a rare vocal version of 'The Horse'
after it gain popularity. A self-titled LP was released during the fall of 68'. - Hudba
47 years later, I find out there was a vocal version to this song. Geez. Talk about learning something new everyday! I'm reading comments that people say this is the only version they've heard or they've heard both. As someone said on another site of the instrumental of this song, in my neck of the woods, the instrumental was the only thing I heard on the radio, and when I was in high school, this is what I heard, also. So, July 19, 2015, I finally hear the rare vocal version of one of my favorite songs. A day to remember. :)
+ProudKansan08 You're not the only one, fo' shure!☺ Like you, I had NO-idea of any vocal version. As soon as I heard the beginning chords, I thought: "That rhythm sounds awfully familiar! Maybe somebody else covered it?" Well, HE certainly DID do a fine-job of "covering" his own song! All I could say when I found out the full-story was: "Well, I'll be damned...!"☺
+ProudKansan08 I knew it all along!!!
My husband and I never heard this until today! Only the instrumental, wow!
Me neither 🤔
It was the f lip side of the 45RPM hit record.
In 1968 as teenagers in Columbus, Ohio this singing version is all I remember us dancing to! And we danced! I had a copy of that!
Hey Columbus Ohio here too the way I know about the song is my mother used to work at Grant hospital and she was friends with a lady who was a lab technician and this is when iPods first came out and I got a degree in computers etc and my mother sent me to her house to fix her laptop or her iPod and she helped me there for like 6 hours but she told me the story about the horse. She said that they would have block parties down on Cleveland avenue with these trailers outside and that was the hot latest dance back in the 60s one particular summer when they had the block party on Cleveland avenue and everybody was doing the horse it was more interesting than I'm telling it but that's how I know and it's actually a great song I can't get it out my head sometime
Wasn't the Tighten up at #1 when this got to #2? What a helluva summer to be alive.
This is GREAT!!!
I LOVE your HISTORY behind the music !!!!!!
I play this song in my schools marching band and i really didn't know this song had lyrics
I knew I wasn't crazy that there were lyrics to the song
Cliff Noble. "The Horse." Classic. Thanks for the upload, Mike Boone, Chancellor of Soul, and Chance B...RIP Cliff Noble. Blessings
Love this history lesson. The horse was our high-school matching bands song. This brings back great memories.
We also played this in band :).
Mine too! Bri be back great memories!
Takes me back in time, and it feels good.
This is the best type of song there is: How to do a new dance.
I grew up on this song, great memories
Wow! Never knew there was a vocal version of this and I'm 62!
Granddad killed it .
Sad way to go. I had never heard the singing song version as well. I just found this out almost 53yrs.later. we used to dance to this song back in Junior High in Los Angeles,Ca with live bands. at a park call Darby Park in Ingelwood,Ca..........Jan 2021
Cliff Nobles was actually born in Grove Hill, AL.
I got the other Vocal Version but never heard it played on the Radio that I can Remember here in DC
I knew there were lyrics to the "Horse"..glad I found them.
I played the Baritone Horn in high school marching band. The "Horse" was my favorite song!
Baker/Harris/Young/Bobby Eli - backbone of Philly music including the Trammps/MFSB - wow!
💐💐💐MY MOTHER🥀AND FATHER🥀, WHEN THEY WERE ALIVE, THEY USE TO LOVE TO PLAY THIS 45" RECORD ON THE OLD FAMILY STEREO RECORD PLAYER. AND ME AND BROTHERS LOVED BOTH SIDES "THE HORSE🐴" AND "L❤VE IS ALRIGHT"💐💐💐
sorry that you have lost your parents. my kids are in their 40's and love all this music as they grew up listening to it. 😀
OOOH BAY-BEE ! This Song has always made the Hair on my Arm stand straight up ! It just doesn’t get any better than this - and that Killer R&B Guitar Chord Riff makes the whole song ! Thanks for the cool story behind this song & for the Memories.
This was one of my high school marching band's greatest hits back in the 80's. This and K-Jee.
He died? That sucks! I would've loved to have met him. This is my top five songs.
I actually have this song on an early 70s Warner LP comp.
I remember the music and the lyrics from when I was young.
Thank you! Thank You! THANK YOU! I had this 45 rpm record when I was a little boy! Loved to dance and used to do The Horse!! The B side on the record I had was The Horse part two! I had no idea there was a vocal version! That was over 50 years ago! I really appreciate and enjoy your presentations Chancellor of Soul! Thanks again! God Bless You!
I saw Cliff Nobles on a Big show at the Orlando Sports stadium in 1968 & no vocal version...just danced his ass off to the band playing it. It was a show headlined by Tyrone Davis, The Impressions, Barbara Mason & others.
Great story! The Phil~LA of Soul label with the fish skeleton reminds me of Capt Oveur’s tainted meal in Airplane. Love the movie and LOVE The Horse!
how it happened: The lyric version was actually supposed to be the A side, the instrumental the B side. However, they started doing the instrumental version in concert before the record came out. Everyone loved the instrumental version, nobody wanted to here the lyric version.
Yes, and the bulk of the B side-cum-A side was the instrumental actually created and added to Love Is All Right by said producer/arranger Bobby Martin, who, by the way, was denied songwriting credit--and therefore any royalties--for a 'hit' that was actually his work www.berklee.edu/berklee-today/summer-2014/case-arrangers-rights . According to that piece, they followed the usual practice of just muting the vocals and publishing the instrumental as a B side (originally). Arrangers are the unsung miracle workers in the Music Biz.
Instrumental sound. Better. Those were the days still like that 🎵
I knew there was a vocal version of this song!!!
8/7/2011
Hi all ! this rare vocal version of "The Horse" is available as a 45rpm, Phil L.A. of Soul #316, by "The James Boys". Clearly, Cliff Nobels is singing on the single, and should have been given Full Credit as vocalist !!!
Shetta discotheque 57 W. NY. 1969 the last dance before close 3am. was another world
2 great dance styles and accompanying songs from ‘68 the Tighten Up and The Horse.
Wow, this brings allot of clarity... An older Chicago-raised friend told me how she got expelled from Jr.-high for the way she was dancing to a song playing on the cafeteria jukebox, and when I asked her what the song was she replied "I think it was called 'The Horse'...". That was approx: 1959-60. I searched out a copy of this song & as I came to know more about it, I found it odd that a song that--as far as I knew--was released in '59 should become such a big hit 9-yrs later. Now I know better
RIGHT ON, RIGHT ON, RIGHT ON !!!
Thanks for giving credit to the musicians and naming them!
Thank you! Song starts at 3:30.
I knew love is alright but never this version EUWDABESS!!!
The 60s & 70s 😢😢😢😢💔💔💔💔💔....how I miss you
Great video of a great artist. Takes me back to 68 when I was in 8th grade. Thanks for posting.
The key person here is the great Bobby Martin, Philadelphia's greatest arranger, conductor (MFSB) and producer. Frankly, I preferred the instrumental. Both versions got plenty airplay on R&B stations in the Ohio Valley (Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dayton, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Lexington, Evansville).
Is this the same Bobby Martin that produced for Jeffrey Osborne's band LTD in the mid 70's?
teenager in Philly in 1968 senior citizen now but this is still cool in 2021
Hi Stan, No, Hugh Masakela's masterpiece instrumental 'Grazing In The Grass'
was in th No.1 position when 'The Horse' stalled at No. 2.
Thank you my Brother love 💘this song
Legend song...thank you Mr. Nobles
Atl Ga
Thanks morgankitty!
This vocal dance lyrics version of "The Horse" was released on Phil-L.A. of Soul #316 by The James Boys.
Wow!! This is exciting news for me!
It's the SouL 👏👏 👏👏👏 of it all 🎶⚛️🌌
A little bit more trivia to file away! Thanks, Chance B
First grade dancing to this wonderful song, with my sisters and friends!! 🎶💃🎶
Thanks for sharing. This song brings back a lot of memories at high school football games. It was a staple marching band song back in the 70s.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for posting! How wonderful to hear this version! Cliff Nobel r.i.p. We're still grooving to your sound as you are up there watching' over us.
I was 10 years old and boogieing
Thanks IPlay Covers!
Later,Masakela's "Grazing" was covered by The Friends Of Distinction,whose version made it to the top of the R&B Charts in the early '70's.
Thanks!
Had noooo idea!
Nice history....thank you!!!
Aug. 4th: Happy birthday Singer-songwriter / instrumentalist Clifford James "Cliff" Nobles (1941-2008) Thank you an God bless. R.I.P. Thanks for the upload, Mike Boone, Chancellor of soul. Blessings
Never knew any of this. I love it!
LOVE IT...LOVE IT..LOVE IT!!!
TAMPA...SOUL CITY!
caught this version in the 90's on a New York radio station. Being a naive teen got hooked because the beat was funky. I thought this was the only version out there. Didn't know about the instrumental
Sadly, the instrumental version was used by many stations as "bumper music" leading up to the top of the hour or to the News segment
In the ‘90s , I got deeper into R&B history and it turned up on a soul compilation CD at the radio station library where I DJed a show. It immediately sounded familiar but I didn’t know where from… I later started listening to all 77 WABC Radio shows and other old air-checks some years later and realized that I heard that in my earliest years as a catchy “ bumper” !
It was easy to fade in and out on the news at the top of the hour as stated above.
Not sure I would say sadly. At least it got air time and imprinted on a lot of minds. I do recall riding the after school athletes bus - it was the only one with an AM radio in it, and WABC NY would have Howard Cosell on leading up to 6p, and more often than not The Horse was used to fill in the gap between Cosell's show if it came up short, and the 6p news headlines, which usually came on just as the bus got to the drop stop for our area.
Hey Mike! Great job.
I like it.
Oh WOW I actually forgot about this arrangement my grandmother's cousin was a DJ back on the 60's and early 70's his Radio name was "DADDY O" and he had a song called, "Can your dog do the Monkey Like Daddy O Do It Do it"....
I remember hearing this version in the early seventies. My high marching band played this song after the football team scored a touchdown
Jesse James Love is alright is one of the biggest tunes on the U.K Northern soul Circuit
I heard the other version .....love is alright ......and I liked it much better.
I was 18 WOW! AM I OLD!
fantastic post !!! this is one of the many reasons people love you tube ! so, you tube don't destroy it with the excessive , long ass, nobody is going to buy it commercials !
He had a great voice!
really really great explanation as a preface to the actual recording of the song. This version is amazing of course, but it's the stories behind the music that make them timeless.
Correct me if i'm wrong sir, but before the dance called the horse back in the 60's , there was a dance in the early 60's 0r 1962 called the "Pony" which came out during the Chubby Checker days and on American Band Stand!!!!! And people used to dance to this cut doing the "Pony".
Lies
A similar incident happened with "Am I the Same Girl?" a/k/a "Soulful Strut"
The Horse was our high school theme song.....we were the Merritt Island Mustangs....never knew it had lyrics!
Hahaha your school is TRASH
Sincerely, Melbourne High
Yes, I was 15 years old we danced until the royal crown hair grease sweated down our necks memories 😁😎
OH, YEAH!!!!!! Now we're diggin' the diggin'…Everything is going to be EVeryTHING!~E
Now we know why this is 'rare'.
Aaaaaah
A bit late on my part but I must add that the backing musicians went on to become known as MFSB! Along with Vince Montana and Zack Zachary, they were the purveyors of the famous "Philly Sound".
--Æ.
Bobby Martin claims that Cliff Nobles didn't have anything to do with "The Horse". That he wasn't even in the building when the track was created. After the Instrumental became a hit, Martin says the musicians never saw a dime.
discoAL Sad and probably True!
Most likely that Cliff Nobles died in poverty without ever seeing a dime in royalties either..
Shit I didn't know he passed away. RIP man.
Yup. He died Gangnam-style.
I have just searched & found this on Phil LA of soul in a huge case of "Northern Soul" records I stashed in our stable that we use for storage back in the 1980's... when I stopped going to allnighters and switched to Funk alldayers in Purley and then caister!...Found Night Owl by Bobby Paris too wonder if they are worth anything (got all but 1 of the Jay Boy label Too :)
Was there an Instrumental of the Fidels Try a little harder anyone?
+Bob Funkhouse I think there was, it was released on Vee Jay but it was probably a boot! Its not very good either.
It should be noted that there are 2 Jesse James! One is from California and the other is from Philadelphia!
03:29 🐎
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMARCHING BANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND!
Jesse James did a version of Love Is Alright himself.
Jessie James originally recorded the song himself, but it was a totally different arrangement. You can hear his version here on You Tube
I just sen you the original Love Is All Right By Jessie James himself. I want to hear your opinion on it. It's fairly good, but I think you'll agree that Cliff's version was an improvement.
...First heard this on American armed forces radio....
...South Vietnam...Joey Heatherton was the disc jockey...;--),,,,,,
Are there any videos of 1968 teenagers dancing to this?
Can I get this song on vinyl.
Norristown is part of Philly.
Debra Williams - Montgomery County, sweetheart.
Does anybody know the name of the instrumental playing in the background at the beginning of this spot ?
Would like to know that opening instrumental aswell . Very smooth
It's "cardova - the meters " ... You're welcome ahead of time .
Thanks a ton......
This sounds like Jr Walker and the All Stars
What about. Classical Gas
It doesn't sound like Junior Walker at all.
MFSB baby!
I have the 45
bet he thought long and hard on those lyrics