Shorty Long was one of Fuqua’s Tri-Phi/Harvey artists, who came over to Motown’s Soul label in 1963.
His first Soul release was 1964’s “Devil With the Blue Dress”, a song that he wrote with Mickey Stevenson. Long’s Blues version failed to chart, but Mitch Ryder saw the song’s potential. His Rock & Roll version went to number four in 1966.
Album Cover image courtesy of Ace Records UK
Shorty Long saw two singles released on the Soul label in 1966. The first, “Function At The Junction”, issued in March, was a song that Shorty Long wrote with Eddie Holland. It is a Northern Soul dance track, which gave Long his first chart entry, number forty-two on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. On the B-side is a Gospel-inspired slow ballad entitled “Call On Me”, which shows another side of Mr. Long. It is a good song, written by Holland, Dozier, Holland, but he was probably happier singing songs like “Chantilly Lace”, which was his follow-up release. The song was an old hit from 1958, written and sung by the Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson), who was killed in a plane crash on February 3rd 1959, along with Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly.
Long was a talented musician who played a variety of instruments including keyboards, drums, trumpet and harmonica. He could clearly cover a range of different styles and also co-wrote several of his songs. He was the MC for many of the Motortown Revue shows, and yet Motown didn’t seem to make the most of his abilities.
Shorty Long released his first album on the Soul label in 1968. It contains tracks from his earlier singles and some new material, including the title track, “Here Comes The Judge”, which was issued as a single also in 1968. It is the usual mixture of Bluesy Soul and R&B with some good piano lines. Two of the tracks are instrumentals. Long wrote ten of the twelve album tracks, often in tandem with other Motown songwriters including Sylvia Moy, Clarence Paul, Eddie Holland, Edwin Starr and Ronald Dunbar. Shorty Long began 1969 with the release of another single, an instrumental track “Ain’t No Justice”, drawn from his 1968 album “Here Comes The Judge”.
Then, in June, Long died in a tragic accident. He and a friend drowned when their boat sank in the Detroit River following a crash.
In November, Motown released his final album on the Soul label, “The Prime of Shorty Long”. It contains a couple of covers of old New Orleans songs that Fats Domino had made famous (“I’m Walkin’” and “Blue Monday”), a cover of Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”, some smooth romantic ballads (including Ivy Jo Hunter’s “I Cross My Heart”) and some typical Detroit up-tempo R&B. “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” was also released as a single, but the best song on the album is “Baby Come Home To Me”, co-written by Clarence Paul, Luvel Broadnax and Roosevelt Smith, and arranged by Funk Brother guitarist Robert White. The album is a fitting tribute to one of Motown’s most versatile artists.
