I Thank You (Remastered) Sam & Dave

• 1 I Thank You 02:58
• 2 Everybody Got To Believe In Somebody 03:14
• 3 These Arms Of Mine 03:11
• 4 Wrap It Up 02:33
• 5 If I Didn't Have A Girl Like You 04:26
• 6 You Don't Know What You Mean To Me 02:42
• 7 Don't Turn Your Heater On 02:19
• 8 Talk To The Man 03:05
• 9 Love Is After Me 02:21
• 10 Ain't That A Lot Of Love 02:44
• 11 Don't Waste That Love 02:48
• 12 That Lucky Old Sun [Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day] 03:09
• Total Runtime 35:30

Info for I Thank You (Remastered)

Joy and tears swirl together on Sam & Dave's 1968 Atlantic recording, full of both driving grooves and pleading ballads as only these two could deliver'em. "I Thank You" and its classic B-side "Wrap It Up" join "You Don't Know What You Mean to Me", "Ain't That a Lot of Love" and more!

Issued in 1968 after the mega hits, "Hold On, I'm Comin'" and "Soul Man," Sam & Dave became interested in the emerging funk sounds happening throughout the R&B scene. Thankfully, so was the writing team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, who wrote one of he singles from this set, the burning, gritty "I Thank You." Many don't see I Thank You as such a strong recording in contrast to the pair's earlier showings, but simply put, they're wrong. Hayes' production is ambitious, multi-dimensional, and pointedly accents the individual strengths of both singers. Check out the contrast in vocal styles on "Everybody Got to Believe in Somebody." Hayes puts them front and center and surrounds them with a rich, swirling string arrangement. The hit from the album is the wooly groover "Wrap It Up," where the pair rise above a killer Memphis Horn arrangement and Steve Cropper's funky guitar to wail in call and response on the choruses. The greasy, grainy, in-the-pocket instrumental production on "Ain't That a Lot of Love" lends itself to the rough-and-tumble execution by Sam & Dave; this is the kind of track they must have had a ball recording. It is one of the many great under-heard tunes in the pair's catalog. I Thank You stands the test of time very well. (Thom Jurek)

Samuel Moore, vocals
Dave Prater, vocals

Recorded at Stax Recording Studio, Memphis Tennessee
Reissue produced by Yves Beauvais
Digitally remastered by Bill Inglot and Dan Hersch

Digitally remastered

Sam & Dave
The greatest of all soul duos, Sam (Moore) and Dave (Prater) brought the sound of the black church to pop music with their string of call-and-response hits for Stax Records from 1965 to 1968. The pair usually worked with the songwriting and production team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, using Booker T. and the M.G.’s as backing musicians. From these collaborations came such soulful, fevered exchanges as “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” “You Got Me Hummin’,” “Soul Man” and “I Thank You.” Sam and Dave also gained renown as an electrifying live act in the Stax revues of the mid-Sixties, where they’d compete for applause with such labelmates as Otis Redding.

Prater was born in Georgia and Moore in Florida; the duo met in the latter’s hometown of Miami in 1961. Moore, a church-reared singer who sang with such gospel quartets as the Gales and the Mellionaires, once turned down an offer to replace the departing Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers. Prater had himself moved to Miami to sing in his brother’s gospel group, the Sensational Hummingbirds. But it was R&B that brought the two singers together onstage at Miami’s King of Hearts nightclub one fateful amateur night. Sam and Dave recorded for the Alston and Roulette labels before being discovered by Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler, who caught their act at the King of Hearts in 1964 and then sent them to Memphis-based Stax to record the next year.

Theirs was the perfect balance of pop melody and church feeling; moreover, the duo intuitively played off each other to great effect. Sam and Dave split up in 1970, only to reunite and part ways several more times over the years, with the Blues Brothers’ revival of “Soul Man” in 1979 instigating one of their more successful reunions. Never as close offstage as they were in performance, Sam and Dave finally called it quits after a performance in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve, 1981. Prater was killed in a 1988 auto accident. Moore, who continued singing, turned up on several tracks of Bruce Springsteen’s Human Touch album.

This album contains no booklet.