“Remember when we had the #1 song?” might be something Marshall Thompson might be asking his bandmates, which just might provoke a response like “old man, we weren’t even born then!” Because the Chi-lites had the magic – and the #1 song in the U.S. 50 years ago. “Oh Girl” displaced Roberta Flack’s biggie “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” after its six week run this day in 1972.
The Chi-lites were/are an R&B group that formed in Chicago back in 1959, smooth singers that kept pace with rival Motown acts like the Four Tops. Through the ’60s and into 1970, they’d had six R&B chart top 20 hits but failed to attract much attention on mainstream radio. That changed in ’71 with their breakthrough hit “Have You Seen Her?” which got to #3 on Billboard. Which set the pace for their ’72 album, A Lonely Man, and their hurting soul classic that topped the charts.
Marshall Thompson, one of their backing singers, played the memorable harmonica bits on the song which was written and sung (and the album produced) by the appropriately-named Eugene Record. Record played the guitar and bass as well. Oddly, when they cut seven songs for the demo for the album and Brunswick Records told him they would have a #1 hit on their hands, Record named the other six songs first…he didn’t really like “Oh Girl”. The public sure did though.
“Oh Girl” not only went to #1 on the R&B charts, but on the overall singles chart, and later would be a top 10 North American hit for Paul Young when he did a cover of it in 1990. The Chi-lites one made it to #14 in the UK at the time, but rose to #5 upon being re-released there in ’75. In Canada, it topped out at #9…however, it did spend two weeks at #1 on the CHUM charts there…
Speaking of which, this day in 1957 was an important one for pop and rock music in Canada, because it was then that CHUM radio in Toronto became the first “rock’n’roll” station in the country, kicking it off by playing Elvis’ “All Shook Up.” The AM station had been on air since 1945 (originally only during daylight hours!) but played light, easy-listening or classical music when not doing news; their format change in ’57 must have shaken listeners as much as those of the fictitious WKRP in Cincinnati. Around the time “Oh Girl” was #1, CHUM was easily the most listened-to and influential rock station in the country’s largest market and helped make many songs catch on nation-wide, helped along by popular DJs who’ve included J.D. Roberts (who changed to “John” and became an American network news anchorman) and actor Rick Moranis. In the ’70s, they launched CHUM-FM, one of the first “album rock” stations in North America. However, by the ’80s, their AM ratings were dropping and the FM station was second in local influence to more experimental CFNY; in 1986, CHUM dropped the hit pop/rock format.
There is still an AM station at 1050 in Toronto, but it’s largely a sports talk one. The Chi-lites, amazingly are still going, with Thompson being the sole founding member still with them…63 years later.