These Other Ernies

This may come as a surprise to some of you but I am by no means the first or only Ernie to be a ground-breaker and taste-maker in the world of popular music. There are many who have toiled and some who have flourished, and I am going to pay tribute to one of the latter today.

Ernie Shelby released a handful of singles in his own right the 60s and 70s but made his living as a songwriter. Over the years his songs have been covered by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Little Richard, Rod Stewart, Three Dog Night, Bettye Lavette and many many more.  

Creatively one of his best periods was in 1972 when some bright spark had the brilliant idea of bringing him down to Muscle Shoals and teaming him up with the great Prince Phillip Mitchell. One of their co-writes was "Carry Me", originally released as a single by Ernie himself but later a big hit in the R&B charts for Joe Simon. With all due respect to Ernie I've opted for Joe's version.

Another Shelby/ Mitchell co-write was "I May Not Be What You Want". This one was recorded by Prince Phillip but never saw the light of day until 2005 when it appeared on a magnificent compilation of his Muscle Shoals recordings called "Pick Hit Of The Week". It is a must have album for any soul fans in my opinion.

The Three Dog Night cover mentioned above was a song called "Nobody", their debut single in 1968. Their version is fine but not a patch on the one from the decidedly weird combination of Larry Williams (of "Bony Moronie" fame), Johnny 'Guitar' Watson and the psychedelic folk outfit Kaleidoscope (the American one). 

"Carry Me" - Joe Simon

"I May Not Be What You Want" - Prince Phillip Mitchell

"Nobody" - Larry Williams & Johnny 'Guitar' Watson (with Kaleidoscope)

Try as I might I could not find any decent clips of people performing Mr Shelby's songs on YouTube, so so are getting one from another musical titan called Ernie instead.