Taking a Raggedy Ride with Barbara Acklin

Barbara Acklin - A Raggedy Ride

It's a shame that the late singer/songwriter Barbara Acklin's legacy came more from her outstanding compositions for others (Jackie Wilson's "Whispers (Gettin' Louder)," "Oh Girl," "Have You Seen Her" and others for the Chi-Lites) than from her own career as an artist, because she had a pleasant voice that graced quite a few fine records for Brunswick in the '60s and '70s, most notably hits like "Love Makes a Woman" and her duets with Gene Chandler. The unlikely story of her rise as Brunswick's top songwriter and of her own (sometimes star-crossed, as in the case of "Am I The Same Girl") recording career can be found at the Brunswick Records website.

One of the more interesting records Acklin made was 1969's "A Raggedy Ride," the flip to "Seven Days of Night." Co-written with Eugene Record and Brunswick exec and producer Carl Davis, "Raggedy Ride" is a quirky piece of light funk with a jaunty groove, and Acklin's sassy vocal puts over the "I'd rather have a raggedy ride than a dressed-up walk" lyric appropriately.