The Monday After: O'Jays hit the top of music charts

Fifty years ago, The O'Jays and "Love Train" were atop the music charts.

The hit single by the singing group originating in Canton, a song written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and recorded on their Philadelphia International label in 1972, had been third on the charts the week before but moved to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on March 24, 1973. The previous month the song also was No. 1 on the R&B chart.

"It was 1973, the height of the Philadelphia soul genre was dawning, and 'Love Train' came along with just the right sound at just the right time," noted the website songfacts.com.

"The lyrics make a call for unity and world peace, mentioning England, Russia, China, Egypt, Israel, and Africa. 'Love Train" was the first of our big message songs,' O'Jays singer Walter Williams told The Guardian. 1972 was explosive – Vietnam was rumbling on, the rich were getting richer -- so it was the perfect time to sing about social issues."

Gamble and Huff, who became producers for the O'Jays, "also wrote 'Back Stabbers' and 'For The Love Of Money,' two more key songs in the O'Jays' career," the website recalled.

Group got start in Canton

In 2005, for an article about the O'Jays' induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame written by Dan Kane, who then was the entertainment editor of The Canton Repository, O'Jays member Walter Williams reflected about his hometown of Canton and on the origin of the singing group.

"When I was in high school, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers came to town and played the Canton Memorial Auditorium, and the girls went crazy," said Williams, 61 at the time.

It was following that concert that Williams and his friend Eddie Levert, a fellow student at McKinley High School, made plans for performing together.

"Eddie and I had been fooling around with singing at McKinley. There was a lot of marble and echo, and our harmonies would sound real good," recalled Williams. "We formed a little group."

Kane noted that the group – original members were Williams, Levert and Canton natives Bobby Massey, William Powell and Billy Aisles – went by such names as The Emeralds, The Triumphs and The Mascots before settling on The O'Jays. The latter name stemmed from well-known Cleveland disc jockey Eddie O'Jay.

"Eddie O'Jay would call us up to play sockhops at school gyms around Cleveland," Williams told Kane. "We'd pantomime to our records. From there it really started to feel like we were onto something."

Indeed, the O'Jays single "Back Stabbers" was a hit in 1972, followed by the even more popular "Love Train."

Quickly rose to stardom

Such hits as "For the Love of Money," "I Love Music," "Use Ta Be My Girl," "Put Your Hands Together" and other popular songs followed.

"The O'Jays were all over the radio and performed on the Dinah Shore, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin shows, and of course 'American Bandstand,'" Kane wrote.

Signing with Gamble and Huff and releasing records on the Philadelphia International label afforded the O'Jays opportunities to heighten their popularity through the decades.

And, in 2005, the O'Jays were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Enshrined, explained Kane, were four of the original members of the group – Williams, Levert, Massey and Powell – along with Sammy Strain, who became a member of the group after Powell left the group to battle against and sadly succumb to cancer.

Kane noted that Williams expressed disappointment that the fifth original group member, Billy Aisles, was not inducted into the Hall of Fame "because Rock Hall historians said he wasn't significant to the body of work."

"I totally disagree. We started out with the five of us," Williams told Kane in 2005. "We just went for it. ... Things just skyrocketed."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Monday After: O'Jays hit the top of music charts