The Stylistics Make Me Feel Brand New

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The Stylistics Make Me Feel Brand New
by Alexis Andrews - December 9, 2008

The Stylistics

It was just after the first date with my eventual first boyfriend. He was about to leave the city that afternoon, and we didn’t know when we were going to see each other again. I accompanied him to the airport, and we were eating fluffy cheesecake. And then – a song. I caught sight of the speakers on the caramel wall of a smoking area. Fingers in a distant studio plucked an electric guitar. Basic and sudden chords were struck at the piano. Slow and rhythmic, it was the kind of music that post disco pop fans usually laughed at these days, and which they dismissed as reserved for girlie bars. It was not from my generation: You Make Me Feel Brand New. Whoever remembered The Stylistics? Whoever sang these days in such a ridiculous, self-obsessed falsetto?

Eventually, it was the same Stylistics record that would become our theme song. I can only blame memorable airport farewells. When it was released in 1974 as a classic easy listening ballad, “You Make Me Feel Brand New” reached as high up as #2 on the US charts and stayed there for two weeks. It was certified as yet another gold record – the fifth one at the time – for the smooth and sweet-singing Philadelphia soul group, whose other famous hits include Betcha By Golly Wow, Break Up To Make Up, You Are Everything, Let’s Put It All Together, and Na Na is the Saddest Word.

The Stylistics actually formed in 1968 and began working three years later with legendary producer and songwriter Thom Bell. The signature sound of the group came to be characterized by intricate arrangements, lush production values, romantic and heartbreaking lyrics, and the falsetto voice of lead singer Russel Thompkins, Jr. Along with the Spinners and O’Jays, the Stylistics were one of the leading soul groups in the 1970s. Said a noted Stylistics fan and music critic: “Everybody likes to rock out and everybody likes to Wang Chung, but if there's a part of you that resonates with the gentle vulnerability of love offered up like a flower, you will find that this music wraps you like a warm coat in winter and a welcome breeze in summer.”

In recent years, artists like Prince, Johnny Mathis, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Michael McDonald, Jimmy Castor, New Birth, Mary J. Blige, and Aaron Neville have covered the catalog of hits by The Stylistics. “You Make Me Feel Brand New” has been covered by Boyz II Men, Roberta Flack, and Simply Red.

I just love the song. I’ve learned to play it on the guitar, starting with the E major chord, and then the A minor. Obscenely cheesy, I admit. And sappy, too, with lyrics like: “My love, I’ll never find the words, my love, to tell you how I feel...” But more than a random song played at an airport cafe, "You Make Me Feel Brand New" has indeed become, to me, the most romantic soundtrack.

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