Here’s an excerpt about a pretty amazing song. I just posted on AL.com:
Living on free food tickets, Water in the milk, From a hole in the roof, Where the rain came through, What can you do? MmmWhat is it about this song?It’s called ‘Love of the Common People,’ first recorded in 1967, it has been recorded by many many artists — some quite big , yet it always seems to be flying under the radar.“I’ve heard that before. Who sings it?” is the reaction I get most often when I play it for someone.Maybe it was at a friend’s house? Or your parents played one of its abundant iterations. I’ve heard that song before. Who sings it?From country singers to reggae versions to punk and soul. Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Elton John and the Everly Brothers.
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.
Here’s the Happy Birthday message on an album I bought by John Hurt. Hurt, a singer-songwriter, grew up poor in Pittsburgh. He wrote several major hits but died relatively unknown at age 45.
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).
@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 stuido. 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.
It looks like it says:
FIRST LINE: Nov –14–1973
SECOND LINE: Happy Birthday “Mom” <unsure of the last word on line 2>
THIRD LINE: All the best —
FOURTH LINE: and you have! < not sure about <have>
NOTE: This was updated July, 2020, to reflect that when I did the original post I did not know about his other two albums. I began to do a litte research on this native of Pittsburgh and session musician in Nashville, and some in Muscle Shoals as well. Since I wrote the original column, I launched an unsuccessful search for a friend or relative. He died too early in his 1950s (It appears that he also had a Birmingham link in that he did some recording here as well.) I’ve not found family or friends but I quit pursuing because I felt like I would leave them alone and if they wanted to talk, they would contact me). Any way bottom line. I liked the other two albums better than One More Hallelujah. I have upgraded Hallelujah from 3.5 to 4.0; and the other two I’m grading to 4.5’s each. He was not only a great songwriter but also a great country-blues singer. I mean great.
ALBUM: John Hurley Delivers One More Hallelujah (1971)
This gospel-soul singer is probably best known for co-writing the classic ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ with the famous line: ‘The only man who could ever reach me was the son of a preacher man.’
The song was originally written for Aretha Franklin but when there were some delays in getting the Aretha version done and published, Wikipedia says the song was considered too gospel for the particular album Aretha was working on.
Dusty Springfield recorded it, and it became a massive hit.
Hurley was a fine singer as well as a songwriter but he only put out three albums. He died at 45 from liver failure and cerebral hemorrhage, according to his Wikipedia page.
He wrote songs with Ronnie Wilkins, for a while in Nashville. Some who have covered his songs include The Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings and Wayne Newton.
The title song on the album I have is a full-throated gospel number that almost crosses over the gospel- secular divide with its chorus-backed soul belting of Hurley.
If you like soul or gospel, this is a strong consistent album, top to bottom by an artist who deserves a little more recognition. As oneYouTuber put it: “Another buried treasure. What an amazing, unjustly forgotten career.”
Footnote: I picked this from a used record bin thinking I was buying something from Michael Hurley and the Holy Modal Rounders which I had read about and was looking for the name ‘Hurley’ and just snagged it without remembering that it was the wrong first name. Glad I did snag it.
But still looking for that Michael Hurley record.
PPS: Larry Carlton plays guitar on this Hurley record.
A tidbit came to me before I could close out: In the 90’s, the reggae-American group Cypress Hill, sampled “Son of a Preacher Man,’ put it in a song called “Hits from the Bong.”
That added even more to a growing audience for that song, contributing royalties for the songwriters.
