Boogie Friday

Though this record has the swishy beat and tight-trousered falsetto vocals of Philly Soul, The Moments actually hailed from the exotic climes of Hackensack, New Jersey where they recorded for the Stang and All Platinum labels run by Sylvia Robinson (eventually to spawn Sugarhill Records.) Apparently the set up there wasn't as plush as Sigma Studios in Philadelphia and the production on The Moments' records was fairly primitive and low-budget in comparison, but they still managed to produce shimmering masterpieces like "Love on a Two-Way Street," "Look At Me (I'm In Love)" and "Girls" (recorded with labelmates The Whatnauts.) "Nine Times" from 1976 is one of the few uptempo numbers they recorded and shows the bubbling sounds of Disco coming to the surface with it's driving hi-hat groove and strings (in case younger readers are wondering, that sound effect at the start is a telephone dial, from the dark ages before they had buttons). This didn't make the charts but was one of the few tracks to become a hit on the UK Northern/Modern soul scene when it was a new release and was also the first 12" single ever put out on All Platinum.

The Moments eventually got cheesed off with Sylvia Robinson's cheapo approach and left the label in 1978 for the more luxurious pastures of Polydor. Unfortunately Stang owned their name so they had to change it to Ray, Goodman & Brown, they carried on having hits under that name through to the 80s and are still going today.

This doesn't appear on a lot of The Moments compilatons out there but you can get it on the terrific 2-disc set Love On A Two Way Street: The Anthology.

[Download]
Nine Times - The Moments