The album I picked up by mistake. I saw the name Hurley and thought it was this group I heard about called Michael Hurley and the Holy Modal Rounders.
This was more than 30 years ago in Birmingham, although I liked the record with its full-throated backing gospel choir. The music was soul-inflected gospel with a hint of country. For years I thought Hurley on my album “John Hurley Delivers One More Hallelujah’ to be a black man. Just based on his vocals, the hallelujah choir and there were no pictures on the album and no Internet to disprove my pre-judgement.
Like I said I enjoyed the album but I had hundreds of albums before boxing them up and embracing the digital age. So, to be honest about it, after three children three states and 100s of CD’s , I never heard about John Hurley again and forgot that album languishing in hap-hazard alphabetical order in about six boxes.
As those of you know who have followed my column , I am chronicling and reviewing my album collection on my site as I count down my 678 (and growing) number of albums.
This is to raise awareness for Lewy body dementia which is the second leading cause of progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s. Please check out the About Me button on my blog for more on Lewy.
Moving, raising a family and all that put some pressure on my records to be sold, but I held on Alabama, Georgia, Florida, California and now back to Alabama.
Meanwhile back at the vinyl countdown. I had stored away my records for decades, became an early adopter of an iPod and Apple streaming music. But I always vowed that even if I have to wait to retirement I’ll get those records out and have a listening room (AKA ‘Man Cave”). This was an idea long before I became ill. The Lewy diagnosis just gave me a deadline about three years ago I started this blog, to have fun mostly but also to raise awareness to this crummy disease.
So back to Hurley. He resurfaced in my consciousness when I got down to the ‘H’s ( I am now on the ‘N’s in my alphabetical countdown.) I listened to the album again and was really impressed. So I did more research and found out he grew up in a poor neighborhood in Pittsburgh. He worked and lived in Nashville for a while . He and his songwriting partner Ronnie Wilkins had a big moment in Muscle Shoals when Jerry Hall asked them to do a song for Aretha Franklin. They came back with “Son of a Preacher Man,” a worldwide hit for Dusty Springfield. Aretha covered it later to good success but not as big as Springfield’s hit.
I knew that song well, sang it on the way to church on Sundays when it came on in the car. My attention then focused on a song that I heard so many accolades but was relatively unfamiliar with it. It was called ‘Living on the Love of the Common People.”
I found his first album ‘John Hurley Sings to the People.” That had the Common People song. I was blown away again. ‘Sweet Pain’ is another great song off of that album.
The Common People song was a simple tune and simple words that came together with the ability to pull tears out of your eyes, especially if you watch the video of the song put together by Hurley’s son from family pictures. I was happy to have found these records and so now I’m looking for his third and last album.
In the record store recently I found Hurley but it was the same album I had for so many years: John Hurley Delivers One More Hallelujah. Only this one had a birthday wish written in ink on the cover by presumably Hurley himself. See the picture.
I would love to find more information about this. Who’s Mom? Is this indeed from John Hurley?
I have tried to reach Hurley’s son, Ron, to no avail at this point.
John died in 1986 at age 45 of liver failure and brain failure, according to Wikipedia.
Meanwhile, another clue appeared on the same YouTube comment section suggesting Hurley at one point or several points in his life stayed or lived in Birmingham.
Here’s a post on the YouTube thread posted eight years ago.
@ronhurley1961 John Hurley was one of the, if not the most talented people that I have ever known. I met him when I was 17 years old in Birmingham Alabam at Bob Groves recording studio. He was there recording a friend of mine named Mike Gunnels. He drove a red sports car and always wore sunglasses. He stayed at my house and honored me with his friendship. That was over 40 years ago and I miss him to this day. He recorded the album “Street Gospel” shortly after and it is still my favorite.
NOTE TO READERS: The commenter’s user name was WiseGuyDogs1 and 8 years was how long ago this comment was published. Also ‘Street Gospel’ was the same record as ‘John Hurley Sings for the Common People.’ Lastly Mike Gunnels was the leader of a band called Hard Times, which later changed its name to Rites of Spring. They were considered by my own anecdotal research to be the best band in Birmingham for a few years there in the 1960s. Attempts to reach Gunnels were unsuccessful.
Among those dozen or so who have covered the song are Waylon Jennings, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Young, the Everly Brothers, and the Four Preps.
END NOTE: Those familiar with www.myvinylcountdown.com know that I have been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a fatal disease which will likely kill me. Meanwhile, I have been reviewing my collection — I’m at nearly 400 reviewed now at my website. on my way to 678. I am going in alphabetical order (more or less).