''Coming Together'' is the third album by American
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
and
R&B collective
New Birth, released in March 1972 by
RCA.
Like the collective's first two efforts, ''Coming Together'' was produced by mentor
Harvey Fuqua, whose style of building a whole song around a simple phrase is represented by "The Unh Song" (from
their debut album) and the bass-laden "Oh Baby I Love The Way", and his uncredited assistant, Vernon Bullock . It contained two tracks ("Don't Knock My Love" and "I Don't Want To Do Wrong") by its subgroup,
Love, Peace & Happiness, which featured Ann Bogan. formerly of
the Marvelettes
The Marvelettes were an American girl group that achieved popularity in the early to mid-1960s. They consisted of schoolmates Gladys Horton, Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart (now Cowart Motley), and Georgia Dobbins, who wa ...
. Leslie Wilson, who would later lead the group on ''I Can Understand It'' and ''Wildflower'', and his brother Melvin, which also appear on their "Here 'Tis" album. The song "African Cry" was an Afrocentric version of the
Paul Revere & The Raiders song "Indian Reservation". It was this album that brought the various elements of New Birth (which also included the instrumental group
The Nite-Liters
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...
and vocalists Londee Loren, Alan Frye and Bobby Downs) together and set the direction they would go in the future. On this album, their trademark cover is represented by
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
's "All The Way" (which. along with The Unh Song" was actually taken from their first album) and their funk jams are "Come Back Into My Life" and "Oh Baby I Love The Way." It was their previous single "It's Impossible" as well as their next single "I Can Understand It" and their next album, "Birthday" that would put them on the map. This album also inspired the name for the hip hop collective
Native Tongues
The Native Tongues were a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists known for their positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and jazz-influenced beats. Its principal me ...
.
Track listing
#Two Kinds of People (I Am) 3:09
#Oh, Baby, I Love the Way 3:59
#Yesterday I Heard the Rain 2:40
#African Cry 2:27
#I Don't Want to Do Wrong* 5:57
#Don't Knock My Love* 4:28
#If I Can't Have You 3:17
#All the Way 2:45
#Unh Song 3:10
#Come Back Into My Life 4:36
Charts
Singles
References
External links
New Birth-Coming Together at Discogs
{{Authority control
1972 albums
New Birth (band) albums
RCA Records albums
Albums produced by Harvey Fuqua