DJDiscoCat's video: Brothers Johnson Strawberry Letter 23 1977 Disco Purrfection Version

The 45th anniversary of the release of this song on this day July 2 in 1977. This is a remix I have wanted to do for so many years and finally through the marvel of studio magic I can. There is a Beatlesque psychedelic quality to the music these brothers created for it with the calliope-like opening and closing chords and of course, that mysterious Strawberry Letter they keep chanting about. Did you know the song IS Strawberry Letter ?. Confusing? Read on The song was written by Shuggie Otis and stood out on the album since the men rarely did covers, but when they did, they shined it up like a diamond and gave it to the world. R&B has never been so exhilarating! Shuggie recorded that song for his own 1971 album Freedom Flight and George fell in love with the song and thought that they could do something great with it. Shuggie says he got the idea from his girlfriend who sent him strawberry scented letters, when they got to , Shuggie answered her letter with a song "Strawberry Letter ". You will notice that is not mentioned once in the song. When the brothers brought the song to Quincy Jones, he had never heard the song before but agreed to produce it for their album. Lee Ritenour was brought in to handle the guitars on the bridge and he did an outstanding job! Quincy was easy that way. It became an R&B on August 6, 1977 for one week and peaked at on the Hot100 whereas their "I'll Be Good To You" had peaked at for three weeks! The original pressing of the singles had picture sleeves and the scent of strawberries imbued in the paper label. 45 years later, there is STILL a faint odor ( I sniffed this morning). I think it was the first time something like that was done. One of the great songs of summer 1977! The loping insistent drum beat and those guitars, man those real life brothers knew how to grab you by the yankas! I did not realize how trancy the music track is until I started on this one, no wonder it was so hypnotizing! I found some hot loops to put space in between the main parts of the song leading to the to the break where the piano progression builds back into all tracks. This type of remix is something I have shied away from cos I didn't have the expertise yet, I had too many remixes to get done....until I did learn how during COVID mostly through trial and error and researching., messaging with others on reddit about it. Now these is a snap. And I get to mess around a bit with stone cold classics, I hope you find me respectful to the original material and enjoy this anniversary remix edition of "Strawberry Letter "