This episode, we take a deep dive into one of the funkiest singles ever recorded: “For the Love of Money” by The O’Jays. Join us as we explore the intricate production techniques, the powerful social message, the rich history behind this iconic track. and why this track remains a cornerstone of Philly Soul. Don’t miss out on this deep dive into one of the funkiest hits ever!
“For The Love Of Money” (Words & Music by Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Anthony Jackson) Copyright 1974, 1982 Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
TRANSCRIPT:
Some people gotta have it, some people really need it… it’s the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast, coming at you on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’m your host, Brad Page, and each episode here, I pick one of my favorite songs and we take a look at it from all angles, trying to understand what makes it a great song. If you’re a musician, great. But you don’t have to be one to enjoy this show. We don’t get into music theory or get bogged down in a lot of technical jargon. We just listen.
On this edition of the show, we’ll be listening to a song that’s one of the funkiest singles and biggest dance floor hits of all time. And I also think it’s one of the most sonically interesting tracks to ever hit the charts. It’s one of the key songs in the Philly Soul catalog and an important piece of R&B history. If you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m talking about “For The Love Of Money” by the O’Jays.
The O’Jays had a long road to the top. Eddie Levert and Walter Williams started singing together in Canton, Ohio as teenagers in church, where so many black artists started their career. Not much money in singing gospel, though, so they moved into the secular world, joined by William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles around 1960.
First, they called themselves The Triumphs, then The Mascots, and eventually the O’Jays, named after famed Ohio DJ Eddie O’Jay. But regardless of the name, they had no luck selling Records. They bounced from label to label with little success, scoring a few minor hits that didn’t leave much of a lasting impression. Finally, in 1968, they scored a top ten hit on the R&B charts with “I’ll Be Sweeter Tomorrow”.
None of the singles released after that did much business, though. They seemed stuck amongst the ranks of the lower tier acts, they just weren’t able to break through. Eventually, Bobby Massey and Bill Isles left the group, leaving Walter Williams, William Powell, and Eddie Leverett to soldier on.
But they had begun working with the production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. And when Gamble and Huff made a deal with Columbia Records and launched their Philadelphia International label, they signed the O’Jays– and that’s when things started to really fall into place.
Gamble and Huff assembled a team of top-notch musicians, including Norman Harris, Roland Chambers, and Bobby Eli on guitars; Anthony Jackson on bass; Earl Young on drums; percussionist Larry Washington; Vince Montana on vibes; and Leon Huff himself on piano. They became known as MFSB. Officially, that stood for “Mother, Father, Sister, Brother”, but unofficially, you can imagine a slightly more risqué interpretation.
With that lineup of stellar musicians, the production skills of Gamble and Huff, plus the songwriting talent of people like Gene McFadden and John Whitehead, you had the perfect team to put together songs for vocalists like the O’Jays to layer their magic on top of. Something great was bound to happen.
Their first masterpiece was a track called “Backstabbers”, released in 1972. It was a huge hit, and I think one of the greatest soul singles of all time.
The “Backstabbers” album followed, and that included a few more classics, including the Song that hit number one both on the R&B and the Hot 100 charts. You know this one– it’s “Love Train”.
As great as the Backstabbers” album was, their next album was even better. “Ship Ahoy” was an album full of politically and socially conscious R&B. The title cut, “Ship Ahoy”, is a nine- minute sonic masterpiece, an unflinching look at the slave trade. It’s one of the most powerful tracks ever laid down. It’s worthy of its own podcast episode.
The album was built around that track as the centerpiece. The album also featured the single “Put Your Hands Together”, and the sonic marvel that is “For The Love Of Money”.
“For The Love of Money” was written by Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, and bass player Anthony Jackson, who came up with the riff that this song is built on. It features the MFSB lineup of musicians, with the O’Jays on vocals: William Powell, Walter Williams and Eddie Levert. Walter Williams and Eddie Levert trade off on the lead vocal.
The title comes from a Bible verse from the First Epistle to Timothy: “For the love of money is the root of all evil”.
Now, I guess I have to acknowledge before we go further that this song was used as the theme song for “The Apprentice”, which hurts my heart, but don’t hold it against this song. This song was written and recorded over 30 years before that horrible show. It is incredibly ironic, to say the least. And for the record, lead vocalist Eddie Levert demanded that Donald Trump stop using “Love Train” in his campaign, which tells you where the O’Jays stand.
The song was recorded in the fall of 1973 at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. The way Gamble and Huff would typically plan a recording project would be to record the backing track in one session that might last a day or two. This would usually be a large ensemble with almost a dozen players. After overdubbing, they could end up with 50 to 60 parts.
Gamble and Huff would then take a rough mix of those backing tracks and listen to that over and over while they came up with the vocal parts. Once they worked out the vocal arrangements, then they’d bring in the singers, in this case the O’Jays, to record their parts. After that, any additional overdubs, such as guitar solos, string section, or horns, those would be recorded last in a separate session.
“For The Love Of Money” begins with Anthony Jackson’s bass part, one of the most memorable bass parts ever recorded. The first thing you notice is the heavy reverb on the first half of that bass part, which completely drops out the second time through the riff. That was done during the final mix when Kenny Gamble grabbed the knob for the reverb, cranked it up, and then immediately turned it all the way down, creating a stark contrast in the sound between the first and second halves of that part. It also sounds to me like Anthony Jackson is playing his bass with a pick rather than his fingers.
The other thing you may notice there is the phasing effect on the drums; that was recorded using an Eventide phaser that was a brand new toy at Sigma Sound at the time.
Another stunning effect is the ghostly sound of the backing vocals here. That is a reverse echo effect. Now, remember, this was in the days long before digital recording, when these effects had to be created manually. This was created by studio engineer Joe Tarsia. Tarsia took the tape, put it on the tape machine backwards, and recorded echo on different tracks in reverse. So that when you play the tape forwards, the echo comes before the original vocal.
Then there’s a short instrumental section before the first verse. Conga drums and percussion are added and the horns make their first appearance.
I love that little bass lick there.
Let’s pick it up with the first verse. Listen to how the horns beef up the bass part. They make it even heavier. And notice the guitar that’s using a wah-wah pedal and just chucking the strings.
And we’re gonna get a cool little bass guitar break here on the next verse.
The backing vocals are gonna change it up a bit; before, they were singing “money, money, money. Money’, but now they’re singing “for the love of money”. Of course, that’s the title of the song.
Let’s just go back and bring up the vocals there.
The congas are pretty active in the left channel. Horns are on the right.
Now we’ve come to the bridge. Walter Williams sings the first two lines, Eddie Levert takes the last two.
Here’s the next verse, and listen to how the sound has really filled out. Remember back when the track first started, it was mostly just the bass and the drums. Now you’ve got all kinds of instrumentation going on, plus the vocals, and I don’t think it sounds cluttered. There’s a lot happening, but it’s not overcrowded. Everything sits in the mix really well. It’s one of those tracks where you can focus on any one of the instruments, and they’re all doing something kind of interesting. And of course, the vocal performance is just great.
There’s a short instrumental section.
Here’s a repeat of the bridge. This time, let’s drop the vocals a bit so we can hear more of the backing track, because the band is really cooking here, especially Anthony Jackson’s bass.
Back to the verse section, and now you can hear some sound effects. Not sure if they were created by a synthesizer, but you can hear these swirling and swishing sounds start to appear throughout the song.
And now we hear a new musical refrain added by the horns, and that becomes a key element of the song as we approach the end.
I should note here that we’re listening to the album version of this song. When it was released as a single, it was edited down to 3:42, but the full album version runs about 7:15. Over this extended length, the track, especially that repeating bassline, becomes almost hypnotic, almost like the seductive pull of money itself. As the song says, “Money can drive some people out of their minds”.
Here’s one of the few times when you can really hear the electric piano in the left channel.
And now we get a new refrain from the backing vocals. “People, don’t let money change you.” Which is really the ultimate message of the song.
Let’s bring up the vocals one more time.
“For The Love Of Money” by the O’Jays.
The “Ship Ahoy” album sold over a million copies. It was the biggest selling R&B album of 1974, according to Billboard. But more importantly, it’s a milestone album for Philly Soul; it’s a social message that still resonates today, and it’s the O’Jays’ masterpiece. It’s up there with Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On’ in my opinion. If you don’t have a copy of this album, go get it!
William Powell passed away in May of 1977. At the time of this recording, Eddie Levert and Walter Williams are still with us, and up until recently, were still touring as the O’Jays with Eric Nolan Grant, who joined them in 1995. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, they’re still with us, too.
Thanks for joining me for this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” Podcast, here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. I’d love to hear from you, so post a comment on our Facebook page or send an email to lovethatsongpodcast@gmail.com. And please, leave a review of the show wherever it is that you listen. That’s always great.
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New episodes of this podcast come out on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so look for a new episode then. And all of our previous shows– all 180+ of them– are available on our website lovethatsongpodcast.com, and they’re also in your favorite Podcast app. So there’s plenty for you to listen to until I’m back here again. Thanks again for listening to this episode on the O’Jays and “For The Love Of Money”.
REFERENCES:
The O’Jays
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_O%27Jays
Eddie Levert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Levert
Walter Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Williams_(musician)
Kenny Gamble
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Gamble
Leon Huff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Huff
MFSB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MFSB
Sigma Sound Studios
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_Sound_Studios
Ship Ahoy album
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Ahoy_(album)
Backstabbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_Stabbers
Anthony Jackson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Jackson_(musician)
Norman Harris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Harris
Joe Tarsia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Tarsia
Philadelphia International Records
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_International_Records
Gene McFadden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_McFadden
Eric Nolan Grant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Nolan_Grant