That Thing (That Thing, That Thi-i-i-ing) The Esquires Did!

The Esquires - Ain't Gonna Give It Up (Baba-Daba-Dop)

I had intended to include today's selection in Episode 35 and then in Episode 36 of the podcast, but in the former case the playlist veered from a good fit, and I simply forgot about it last weekend. I heard the song in my car yesterday, however, and I knew that it had to grace the blog today!

The Esquires, a Chicago soul group based in Milwaukee, hooked up with Bill "Bunky" Sheppard in the mid-'60s and found themselves enjoying a smash hit with "Get on Up." The group stayed with Sheppard for the rest of the '60s and into the '70s, picking up hits along the way but never reaching those lofty heights again. That, as always, is not to say that they didn't make good records, as evidenced here. "Ain't Gonna Give It Up (Baba-Daba-Dop)" was the flip to their early-'70s hit "Girls in the City," and although I find "Girls" to be a beautiful piece of laid-back Chicago soul, the bright, cheerful groove and vocals captured here really are the bee's knees for me. It hit the spot for Lauryn Hill, too, as she interpolated some of the song in her '90s smash "Doo Wop (That Thing)."