Review: The Charmels made a handful of singles, none of which gained much national play. "As Long as I've Got You" originally came out in 1967 and, notably, was the an early product of a collaboration between Isaac Hayes and David Porter. It's a deceptively delicate and melancholy ballad, with its fragile-sounding opening piano melody by the Stax house band falling into a heavy backbeat that gives the sweet voices of The Charmels some rhythmic density. In 1972, The Emotions' members were recording what was supposed to be their third album -- Songs of Innocence/Experience -- but for reasons still not fully explained, Stax chose not to release most of it until years later, on the Sunshine album. Even then, one song stayed in the vault, UNTIL TODAY: a cover of The Charmels' "As Long as I've Got You" which rivals, and even threatens to exceed, the original.
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