The Stylistics (album)

The Stylistics
Studio album by
The Stylistics
ReleasedNovember 6, 1971
Recorded1970–1971
StudioSigma Sound, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[1]
GenreR&B, soul, Philadelphia soul
Length29:24
LabelAvco
ProducerThom Bell
The Stylistics chronology
The Stylistics
(1971) 		Round 2
(1972)
Singles from The Stylistics
  1. "You're a Big Girl Now"
    Released: 1971
  2. "Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart)"
    Released: March 4, 1971
  3. "You Are Everything"
    Released: May 13, 1971
  4. "Betcha by Golly, Wow"
    Released: February 17, 1972
  5. "People Make the World Go Round"
    Released: 1972
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
BBC(favorable) [3]
Christgau's Record GuideA−[4]
Tom Hull – on the WebA−[5]

The Stylistics is the debut album by American R&B group the Stylistics, released in November 1971 on the Avco record label. It was produced by Thom Bell and recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. The album has been called "a sweet soul landmark."[6]

Group members Airrion Love, Herb Murrell, James Dunn, and James Smith can be heard on "You're a Big Girl Now," recorded and released as a single prior to the beginning of production on the album, but according to lead singer Russell Thompkins Jr., they're absent from the album's other eight songs aside from Love's harmony vocals on "You Are Everything."[7] In John A. Jackson's book A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul (2004), Sigma Sound Studios founder and engineer Joe Tarsia says, "I don't care if it was the Stylistics or Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, or whoever. All the backgrounds on all those songs were sung not by the groups, but by either Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, Thom Bell, Carl Helm [or] Bunny Sigler," while Sigler says that "most" of the male background vocals on the Stylistics' hit songs were provided by himself, Gamble, Bell and Helm.[8]

  1. ^ "Sigma Sound Studios: Albums 1968-1978". Billboard. September 16, 1978. p. SS-11. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
  2. ^ Wynn, Ron. The Stylistics review at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-10-16.
  3. ^ Easlea, Daryl. "The Stylistics review". BBC Music. Retrieved 2011-09-28.
  4. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: S". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 13, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  5. ^ Hull, Tom (June 22, 2021). "Music Week". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
  6. ^ BBC Music Review by Daryl Easlea. The album was featured on Trevor Nelson's Radio 2 show, 1 December 2010
  7. ^ Halliburton, Karen. "The Stylistics Russell Thompkins, Jr. is feeling brand new these days". 50Bold. Retrieved 21 December 2020. On the three albums, we did with Tommy Bell, they didn't sing on them. Only one of the guys sang on two songs. He sang on You Are Everything and You Make Me Feel Brand New. When we would go on the road people would say, "Ya'll don't sound like the record." The reason why we didn't sound like the record was that the group members weren't on the record!
  8. ^ Jackson, John A. (2004). A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 157–158. ISBN 0-19-514972-6.