On March 10, Betty Wright \u2014 a successful singer, background vocalist, composer and producer with five decades of experience \u2014 watched the long-running soul group the O\u2019Jays take the stage in Miami for a set at Jazz in the Gardens Music Fest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople come from all over the world for that concert, and those women were going crazy,\u201d Wright recalls. \u201cI was sitting on the stage laughing through the whole show. Girls, older women, they were all there screaming together. I was saying, \u2018these boys still have it!’\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe people keep asking for more,\u201d acknowledges the O\u2019Jays\u2019 Eddie Levert. \u201cAs long as the people are asking for it, why should we not give it to them?\u201d To that end, the group released The Last Word<\/em>, their first non-Christmas album since 2004, on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGive the People What They Want\u201d has been a guiding principle for the group \u2014 so much so that it served as the title of a 1975 single \u2014 since they formed towards the end of the 1950s. The O\u2019Jays spent more than a decade in the music business, scoring several moderate hits but never a gold record, before they connected with the producer-songwriter duo Gamble & Huff, who were in the midst of ushering in a remarkable period of propulsive orchestral soul in Philadelphia. The combination proved immediately fruitful, yielding more than 20 R&B hits for the O\u2019Jays. Enduring singles like \u201cBack Stabbers\u201d and \u201cUse ta Be My Girl\u201d also allowed the group to remain on the road, decade after decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The group\u2019s commitment to live performance has barely wavered with time. \u201cThey would go out to Las Vegas every year and do a nine-week rehearsal for their upcoming new show,\u201d says Toby Ludwig, who manages the O\u2019Jays. \u201cAnd they would do seven days a week, 10 hours a day; they didn\u2019t take off even Sundays to rehearse.\u201d But like many of their peers who recorded through the Sixties and Seventies, the O\u2019Jays spent less and less time in the studio after the Eighties. As the R&B landscape shifted and hip-hop became prominent, new hits were hard to come by. Onstage, the O\u2019Jays still had plenty of old hits that moved crowds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Early in 2018, however, the group appeared on a CBS Sunday Morning segment to look back on their career. Sam Hollander \u2014 a writer mostly known for penning a slew of rock hits, including Panic! At the Disco\u2019s \u201cHigh Hopes\u201d \u2014 was among those watching that day. \u201cThis piece referenced the fact that they were going to call it quits in the next year after a 60-year run,\u201d Hollander recalls. \u201cI thought to myself, there has to be a farewell record. So I called up their manager and said, \u2018who\u2019s making the farewell record?\u2019 He said, \u2018you are.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Hollander joined the O\u2019Jays and Wright in the studio along with Steve Greenberg and Michael Mangini, veteran record men who enjoyed success producing the first two Joss Stone albums. \u201cSitting down and trying to tackle writing something for them [the O\u2019Jays] is like an archaeological dig,\u201d Hollander says. \u201cWe spent lots of time trying to figure out their melodic tendencies, but nothing pandering. I wanted this to feel like the lost record of the era. It was brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This exacting approach helped ensure that The Last Word <\/em>never strays far from the style of Seventies Philadelphia. The horn voicings and throbbing strings are pitched much as they would have been by Gamble & Huff. The guitar in \u201cI Got You\u201d suggests the Spinners\u2019 \u201cCould It Be I\u2019m Falling in Love,\u201d while \u201cStart Stoppin’\u201d unavoidably evokes another Philadelphia classic, \u201cAin\u2019t No Stoppin\u2019 Us Now.\u201d \u201cEnjoy Yourself\u201d is co-written by Bruno Mars, but Wright worried that a few of the original lyrics weren\u2019t precisely suited to the O\u2019Jays. \u201cSomething a young boy might say, an older guy might be like, \u2018nah,’\u201d she explains. \u201cSo I changed a couple things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the pitch-perfect reference points, the O\u2019Jays didn\u2019t cruise through the recording sessions. \u201cThey reminded me of a time when I was a young man and I would be in the studio with Bunny Sigler [who worked closely with Gamble & Huff] and he would be stretching my neck, every note was a high note,\u201d Levert says. \u201cYou had to be in good shape to do these songs.\u201d \u201cThey had me reaching for things I didn\u2019t even know I could do,\u201d adds the O\u2019Jays\u2019 Walter Williams. \u201cI bitched and moaned all the way. \u2018You\u2019re gonna ruin my career! I won\u2019t be able to sing anything after this!\u2019 They were reminding me of a time when I was very young.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To finish off The Last Word<\/em>, the O\u2019Jays returned to \u201cI\u2019ll Be Sweeter Tomorrow (Than I Was Today),\u201d an aching slice of doo-wop soul they originally released in 1968. The song is a pledge of personal reform; in a plaintive moment, the O\u2019Jays open the new version by acknowledging that when they first recorded the song, they \u201cdidn\u2019t know what sweeter meant, didn\u2019t know what sweeter was.\u201d They sing it differently now, distilling decades of experience into weighty, rending lines. \u201cThat\u2019s the same key as that was [when we first recorded it],\u201d Levert says proudly. \u201cThat was really high!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even with their hiatus from recording, the O\u2019Jays still have a perfectionist streak \u2014 Levert wishes they had more time to work on\u00a0The Last Word<\/em>\u2018s final track. But he\u2019s pleased he returned to the studio. \u201cIf this is the last album,\u201d Levert asks, leaving the door open, \u201cwhat better way to end up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n