O-o-h Child

"O-o-h Child"
vinyl side label
One of US reissues
Single by Five Stairsteps
from the album Stairsteps
A-side"O-o-h Child"
B-side"Who Do You Belong To"
ReleasedApril 1970
Genre
Length3:11
LabelBuddah
Songwriter(s)Stan Vincent
Producer(s)Stan Vincent
Five Stairsteps singles chronology
"Because I Love You"
(1970) 		"O-o-h Child"
(1970) 		"Dear Prudence"
(1970)
Audio
"O-o-h Child" on YouTube

"O-o-h Child" is a 1970 single, written by Stan Vincent, recorded by Chicago soul family group the Five Stairsteps and released on the Buddah label.

The Five Stairsteps previously had limited success recording in Chicago with Curtis Mayfield.[3] When Mayfield's workload precluded his continuing to work with the group, they were reassigned to Stan Vincent, an in-house producer for Buddah Records who had recently scored a Top Ten hit with the Lou Christie single "I'm Gonna Make You Mine". The Five Stairsteps' debut collaboration with Vincent was the group's rendition of "Dear Prudence" designated as the A-side with Vincent's original composition "O-o-h Child" as B-side. However, "O-o-h Child" broke out in the key markets of Philadelphia and Detroit to rise as high as #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1970.

The track's R&B chart impact was muted, peaking at #14, although in time it came to be regarded as a "soft soul" classic. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 21 song of 1970.

  1. ^ Pitchfork Staff (August 22, 2016). "The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 13, 2022. ...together they are utterly disarming, and they all come together for one of pop's most affecting climaxes.
  2. ^ Pitchfork Staff (August 22, 2016). "The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s". Pitchfork. Retrieved October 13, 2022. ...when DJs flipped their cover of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence" in favor of a song that became R&B's answer to "Over the Rainbow."
  3. ^ "Soul icon Curtis Mayfield dies", BBC News, December 27, 1999: "Credited with introducing social comment to soul music". Retrieved 25 May 2021.