Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion

A GLOWING CAREER, A ‘PRECIOUS’ TRIBUTE

He even wrote, recorded and produced a song about his hometown.

      In a few weeks’ time, the late Johnny Bristol will be celebrated with a special event in Morganton, the North Carolina city where he was born, raised and schooled. Over the years, the singer/songwriter/producer has been recognised, respected and rewarded for his creativity during Motown’s golden era – and after Motown, for one of 1974’s biggest R&B and pop hits, “Hang On In There Baby.”

Kidding and laughing (from left): Marvin Gaye, Johnny Bristol, Edwin Starr, Tammi Terrell

      On Saturday, October 18 at Morganton’s Municipal Auditorium, “Your Precious Love: A Tribute To Johnny Bristol” will feature local artists performing his best-known material, before a gathering of family, neighbours, classmates, friends and fans. Presumably, someone – or perhaps the whole crowd – will that night sing “Morganton, North Carolina,” the number which was part of his 1975 album, Feeling The Magic.

      The title of the October event is appropriate. It was Bristol’s work with his mentor Harvey Fuqua which helped Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell to become worldwide sweethearts of music. He and Fuqua produced the pair’s first three signature hits, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Your Precious Love” and “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You.”

      “They got along well as friends in the studio,” Bristol once told me for The Billboard Book of Number One Rhythm & Blues Hits, “so there was a lot of kidding and laughing, which took away any tensions, so when they sang, the positive side came through.”

      But Bristol and Fuqua collaborated with so many other Motown artists during the 1960s, and Johnny – in contrast to Harvey – was among the more accessible members of that unique community, happy to talk about the music and the people. Such conviviality meant that his career has been explored in depth by such music writers as Greg Burgess for In The Basement and Tony Cummings for Black Music.

      Among the notable Bristol/Fuqua jewels (whether written and/or produced by one or both) were Tammi Terrell’s “I Can’t Believe You Love Me,” Jr. Walker & the All Stars’ “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),” the Velvelettes’ “These Things Will Keep Me Loving You,” the Four Tops’ “What Is A Man,” David Ruffin’s “My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me),” Edwin Starr’s “Twenty-Five Miles,” Stevie Wonder’s “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday,” Diana Ross & the Supremes’ “Someday We’ll Be Together” and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “We’ve Come Too Far To End It Now,” as well as the Gaye/Terrell hits mentioned above, and other Jr. Walker successes cited below.

A ‘REASON’ FOR DIANA AND MARVIN

      Yours truly was fortunate enough to first interview Bristol in 1974, and he subsequently always took my calls (and occasionally wrote letters). Typical of the insights he provided was one about Shorty Long, offered when the singer had just died. “To me, Shorty was Motown’s Fats Domino – and he could do a wonderful Fats impression,” he said. “He was very talkative, one of the funniest guys, and I never saw him down. And he would clown around in the studio.” Still, Bristol could be honest: “Shorty was short, pudgy – and had a beer gait.”

      On another occasion, he told me that one of his post-Motown hits as a songwriter – the Osmonds’ “Love Me For A Reason” – was originally intended for Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, circa 1970. “We got Marvin’s track laid down, but Diana never found the time to add her vocal part. Years later, someone at Jobete…sent the song to the Osmonds.” Bristol was very happy with the result, “because I always knew it would be a smash hit.” (His own version was part of his Hang On In There Baby album.)

A family moment: Johnny Bristol, wife Iris and daughter Karla (is that on West Grand?)

      Bristol was also happy to learn that “Love Me For A Reason” was successful for a second time, when Irish boy band Boyzone took their 1994 remake to the top of the charts there, and to No. 2 in the United Kingdom. “I didn’t know that Boyzone had recorded it,” he confessed. His Bushka Music publishing company enjoyed the benefit.

      Bristol credited Harvey Fuqua with teaching him much about the music business when his first recordings as a singer, duetting with Jackey Beavers, were made for the Anna and Tri-Phi labels in the early ’60s. “At that time, you walk in as an unknown, they say, ‘OK, I want X percentage of the song as a writer, as well as the publishing.’ Because we had no contracts as far as publishing was concerned. I mean, what did we know?

      “Harvey was a very creative guy, a lot of fun with a good sense of humour. Always good – when he wasn’t on the golf course. He did a tremendous amount of work with Marvin Gaye, and a lot of it, he did not receive the credit for. He and Marvin were very close.”

      When Fuqua and his wife, Gwen Gordy, brought Tri-Phi into the Motown fold in 1963, Bristol became directly connected with Hitsville U.S.A. – and even more so when he married Iris Gordy, daughter of Berry’s older brother, Fuller.

      Among Bristol’s accomplishments at West Grand were such Jr. Walker hits as “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love),” “These Eyes” and “Walk In The Night.” In 1991, he said he was hoping to reunite with the sax master. “The chemistry is right: he trusts my opinion, I trust his, and we can play off each other without the egos getting in the way. He laughs at me ’cause I blow sax with my mouth to get him to do what I want him to do, and he’ll say, ‘Wait a minute, is this what you mean?’ It’s a lot of fun between us in the studio.”

      Not that the musician was always punctual. “I had studio time set up for Junior, I’d be sitting there, waiting, and he would call me from Indiana and say, ‘Look, I had to call you, man, ’cause this guy called me at the last minute, and I have to go make this money. I’ll be there tomorrow, can you set it up for tomorrow?’ ‘Yes, Junior, OK.’ We’re good friends, I liked him, so it was OK.”

      With luck, Johnny Bristol’s magic-making with Walker and many others will be amply reflected in the Morganton tribute. Precious, indeed.

Bristol notes: music so often speaks more powerfully than prose, so this WGB playlist exemplifies how many memorable songs and productions have been associated with Johnny, ranging from the original version of “Someday We’ll Be Together” to the worldwide hits that were “Hang On In There Baby” and “Love Me For A Reason.”

Offspring notes: Karla Gordy Bristol, daughter of Johnny and Iris, has continued the family tradition in music and entertainment, and is currently arts & culture commissioner for the city of Beverly Hills. In 2022, she created and produced a tribute show, “Motown: Celebrating the Music, the Magic and the Love” in Los Angeles, with Thelma Houston, Brenda Holloway and the Former Ladies of the Supremes among the performers; there was a panel discussion, too, with Claudette Robinson, Miller London, Janie Bradford and Iris Gordy. Karla is also CEO of Bristol Entertainment, which includes music publishing assets of her late father. Hang on in there, Karla.

English notes: the expression “ship shape and Bristol fashion” predates Johnny. When first used hundreds of years ago, it signified sailing ships that were perfectly built and of top quality, as evidenced in the major English port that was Bristol.