It's Soul, Children!

The Soul Children - Move Over

When Stax Records ended its distribution agreement upon the sale of Atlantic Records in 1968, one of the many changes the label faced (in addition to the shocking loss of its entire pre-1968 catalogue) was the end of Sam & Dave's tenure with the label, as the legendary duo was merely "loaned" to Stax and allowed to have records on the label. For about a year, Atlantic released Sam & Dave records written and/or produced by Isaac Hayes & David Porter on their main imprint. Once that stream dried up Hayes and porter needed a new act for which to focus their creative energies. Deciding not to appear imitative of Sam & Dave by forming a new male duo, the two assembled the Soul Children, a two-man, two-woman group assembled from solo acts, most notably J. Blackfoot, who would have a moderately successful career as a solo in the '80s, and Norm West, who had recorded for Hi prior to joining the group. The group would stay with Stax until the label's latter days, even after Hayes and Porter stopped working with them, scoring a few hits along the way such as the 1971 dancer "Hearsay" (one of the rare Jim Stewart productions on Stax in the post-Atlantic era) and awesome ballads such as "The Sweeter He Is" and "I'll Be The Other Woman." "Move Over" was the flip side of "Give 'Em Love," their first Stax 45. Whereas "Give 'Em Love" was a pretty forgettable uptempo thing, "Move Over" is a nice slab of deep soul on which Blackfoot and West do some great pleading over a stately groove. (The rhythm track and arrangement is very similar to that of "A-B-C-D," a Hayes-Porter production on Ollie & The Nightingales, which is a good record in its own right.)