You've Got It Bad Girl [180g LP]

by Quincy Jones

Overview

Quincy Jones followed up Smackwater Jack and his supervision of Donny Hathaway's Come Back Charleston Blue soundtrack with this, a mixed bag that saw him inching a little closer toward the R&B-dominated approach that reached full stride on the following Body Heat and peaked commercially with The Dude. That said, the album's most notorious cut is "The Streetbeater" -- better known as the Sanford & Son theme, a novelty for most but also one of the greasiest, grimiest instrumental fusions of jazz and funk ever laid down -- while its second most noteworthy component is a drastic recasting of "Summer in the City," as heard in the Pharcyde's "Passin' Me By," where the frantic, bug-eyed energy of the Lovin' Spoonful original is turned into a magnetically lazy drift driven by Eddie Louis' organ, Dave Grusin's electric piano, and Valerie Simpson's voice. (Simpson gives the song a "Summertime"-like treatment.) Between that, the title song (a faithfully mellow version, with Jones' limited but subdued vocal lead), a medley of Aretha Franklin's "Daydreaming" and Ewan MacColl's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," and a light instrumental, roughly half the album is mood music, and it's offset with not just "The Streetbeater" but a large-scale take on "Manteca," a spooky-then-overstuffed "Superstition" (where the uncredited Billy Preston, Bill Withers, and Stevie Wonder are billed as "three beautiful brothers"), and the "Streetbeater" companion "Chump Change" (co-written with Bill Cosby). The best here can be had on comps, but the album is by no means disposable. [Given a straight reissue in early 2009 via Verve's Originals series.] ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	07/18/2025
Label:	A&M
UPC:	0602475787044

Tracks

1. Summer In The City
2. Eyes Of Love
3. Tribute To A. F. - RO
4. Love Theme From "The Getaway" (Faraway Forever) [Instrumental]
5. You've Got It Bad Girl
6. Superstition
7. Manteca
8. "Sanford & Son Theme" (The Streetbeater) [NBCTV]
9. Chump Change

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Quincy Jones   Primary Artist,Vocals,Conductor
Toots Thielemans   Guitar,Harmonica
Eddy Louiss   Organ
Cat Anderson   Trumpet
Ernie Watts   Saxophone
Hubert Laws   Flute
Valerie Simpson   Vocals
Jerome Richardson   Sax (Soprano)
Tom Morgan   Harmonica
Bob James   Piano
George Duke   Piano
Dave Grusin   Piano
Dennis Budimir   Guitar,Sax (Soprano)
Phil Woods   Sax (Alto)

Technical Credits

Bob Russell   Composer
Dizzy Gillespie   Composer
Chano Pozo   Composer
Walter Fuller   Composer
Quincy Jones   Composer
Bill Cosby   Composer
Ewan MacColl   Composer
Steve Boone   Composer
Luciano "Chano" Pozo   Composer
Yvonne Wright   Composer
Aretha Franklin   Composer
Stevie Wonder   Composer
Gil Fuller   Composer
John Sebastian   Composer
Mark Sebastian   Composer