During my years as a sports statistics gatherer, I'd usually call or hear from a newspaper staffer at least once per night. One staffer, while checking to see if he'd received a schedule or box score, would sometimes sing to himself. "Strangers In The Night" was the default tune he'd hum.
Once, I asked offhandedly, "May I make a request? Do you know 'It's Your Thing' by The Isley Brothers?"
He obliged by singing a verse. He segued it unexpectedly however, by quoting part of Archie Bell's spoken intro to "Tighten Up," "And we dance just as good as we walk."
I hope that recently departed Isley Brothers founding member Rudolph Isley approves of that segue. I trust that many stations have been playing "It's Your Thing" these last few days; rhythmically and vocally, that song holds up decades later. Fewer stations have likely played my favorite Isley Brothers song, "If You Were There," or the group's solid cover of the Seals & Crofts hit, "Summer Breeze," but I trust that some DJs, at least on noncommercial stations, have had the freedom to air those tracks.
