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MUSIC & ARTS
Philly 45s
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The Three Degrees
by Geno Thackara
New York City had the Ronettes and the Shangri-Las; Atlanta had Gladys Knight and the Pips. San Francisco gave us the Paris Sisters, the Pointer Sisters and Love Unlimited. The most famous mother lode of R&B girl groups came from Motown - the Marvelettes, the Jones Girls, Martha and the Vandellas, and the Supremes.
Regardless of which area produced the most, Philadel-
phia certainly has its share of the best. According to the folks behind Guinness Book of World Records, the city can also claim the longest-running female singing group out there. The Three Degrees have lasted from early 1963 to the present day - almost as long as the Rolling Stones, and without the endless old-age jokes. Granted, it hasn’t been the
MUSIC same group all along. Fayette Pinkney, Shirley Porter and Linda Turner started singing together between classes in high school. Even when they caught the ear of producer Richard Barrett and started to work on weekends, they never really considered it work.
Everyone was in it for the joy of singing. With hard work and dedication, the group persisted. Even when life lured two of them in different directions, Pinkney carried on with new trio mates.
Adapting to changes was already a habit by the time the Degrees recorded their first single, “Gee Baby,” in 1965. Helen Scott, who stepped in as one of those early replacements, soon stepped out to trade the music biz for married life and family. Her replacement, Sheila Ferguson, hung around for a couple of decades before moving on to a solo career. A remarkable 15 Degrees have come and gone and come again during the group’s existence.
Pinkney, Ferguson and longtime mainstay Valerie Holiday happened to make the lineup at the Degrees’ highest peak. It was one step up after another through the mid ‘70s: they hit the top 10, appeared in the occasional movie and TV sitcom, and worked their way through several record companies before landing at the iconic Philadelphia International Records. They’re the ones singing the only lyric line in MSFB’s otherwise-instrumental hit “T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia).”
It was natural that their own next release would hit gold. Besides having the iconic label’s support behind them, it meant working with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. 1973’s selftitled The Three Degrees included three songs co-written by the pair, and it’s no coincidence that they were the ones to become singles and ultimately hits. “Year of Decision” and “Dirty Ol’ Man” were catchy and sassy enough to earn some decent radio play. Even so, there’s one defining tune that most people associate with the group.
“When Will I See You Again” is a time capsule of the ‘70s for sure. There’s the warm electric piano, the coating of slow-flowing strings, and the Latin-flavored percussion that helped define the sound of Philly soul. The timeless theme beneath the dressing is even more universal than it first sounds. As love songs go, Gamble and Huff keep this one more mysterious than most. The title is one that relates to everyone, especially with today’s levels of isolation. Beyond that, there’s still a wealth of possible meanings one can read into it.
The ladies lead with some angelic cooing harmonies about precious moments. Ferguson soon takes the lead asking the key question, equally sad and sweet. Interestingly for a love song, though, there are more and more questions to follow. “Will I have to suffer / and cry the whole night through?” could refer to being apart or being together (and for vastly different reasons). “Are we in love or just friends?” is a worrying thought between new partners and even worse for old ones. It’s never clear just what the relationship is or how it might turn out. There’s no tidy chorus to shed more light on things, either - just the ladies continuing to wonder and wonder again until everything fades out.
Well, love songs aren’t always happy, after all. And there’s always going to be some mystery in life whether we want it or not. The single resonated with enough people to merit a #2 spot on the charts - which arguably should have been #1, considering that it was only topped by Carl Douglas’s disco novelty, “Kung Fu Fighting.” Despite that small injustice, the Degrees’ biggest hit has only continued to resonate from then to now, much like their catalogue and, indeed, the group itself. Scott (who returned in the mid-’80s) and Holiday are still going today, most recently accompanied by Freddie Pool for the last decade. If it wasn’t for the ongoing pandemic, they’d doubtlessly be performing somewhere right now. As it is, the question of seeing each other still lingers - though hopefully with an actual answer still to come. PRH
11TH HOUR THEATER COMPANY
On a mission to inspire kindness
by Marialena Rago
Ihave a deep, passionate love for musical theater. I love when a character is too emotional to speak how they are feeling, so they sing or put it to movement, instead. But I know that musicals can be seen as “cheesy” or “fluffy” to many people. Enter 11th Hour Theater Company, a boutique musical theater company based in South Philly.
Flashy showstoppers and big budgets won’t be found here. 11th Hour brings small, intimate, character-driven musical theater to Philadelphia with 21 full-scale musicals prior to this season. Steve Pacek, who co-founded the company 17 years ago, recently transitioned from Artistic Associate to Artistic Director. He and his team strive to find an accessible way for audiences to come and experience the magic of a musical. “We want to find a way that doesn’t scare people but also celebrates all parts of the musical.”
The company has received more than 50 Barrymore Award nominations (with 15 wins) since its inception. When asked why 11th Hour solely focuses on musicals,
THEATER Pacek says it comes down to the obvious - music. “We all have a passion and a love of music and the power of music. It’s a time machine that can transport you to different emotions, different memories, different feelings. So, musicals are that part of theater that has that magic portal to be able to transport an audience to places far away from reality.” 11th Hour likes to push the limits of what people expect from musicals. In fact, Pacek is thinking of new and immersive ways of presenting them. “What I’m really interested in exploring is how people experience theater differently. What I mean by that is by thinking outside of the box of a theatrical space and possibly doing some more site-specific things. How do you take something like a show and put it into a real-world environment like a bar and still create the art form we create which is musical theater?”
The 21-22 season will take place at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Old City. The venue is the biggest that the company has used at 126 seats, but the feel is still going to be small and intimate. The first show, Soon, follows a woman as she hunkers down in her home during the end of the world. Sound familiar? Though Pacek didn’t say the show was necessarily inspired by the pandemic, it was part of why it was chosen for their first production in 18 months.
“Hopefully, we provide some gateway for our audience to see situations that they have been in, or they can kind of see people working their way through difficult situations so if they are in a difficult situation, they’d be inspired because they’ve seen something like that happen,” he explains. “They have an example to help them get through it.”
As for theater in a post-covid world, Pacek is looking forward to a time where we can be in our own “Roaring ‘20s.” “I definitely hope we can experience being in a room with people, laughing and singing along carefree without having to wear a mask; where we can get back to that point and enjoy ourselves again fully.”
In the meantime, Pacek is on a mission to inspire kindness. “If I can help inspire the community here at 11th Hour... and help inspire the world around us to practice empathy and what that looks like, I believe the world can start to get back to being a kinder experience and place.”
Soon opens on October 28th and runs through November 7th. A world premiere concert, PROUD: A Cabaret in Color, takes place January 14th to 23rd. A final production, running April 23rd to May 1st, is Sweetwater, about the female pilots of World War II. For tickets and up-to-date health/safety info, visit 11thhourtheatercompany.org. PRH
