🎵 AotW AOTW: LOVE, TOGETHERNESS & DEVOTION (A&M SP 3602)

[LPJim]

Love Togetherness & Devotion (LTD)
LOVE TOGETHERNESS & DEVOTION
A&M SP3602

Love, Togetherness and Devotion have to be there for great music to come from more than one musician at the same time. With those feelings, each person in a group can make his own music, and thus make everyone else's sound better.
It has taken the eleven members of LTD five years to develop that intense harmony. During that time many of them have played and written for more established acts. Now they're ready.
This is their first recording and it comes with as much love, togetherness and devotion as any music you've ever heard.

"Love is what we feel for each other. Through good times and through the trials of human frailties. It is what we feel for mankind and above all, it is what we feel for Music, which is none other than the refreshing of the spirit and the glorification of God.

Togetherness is the combination of our individual lives, aspirations, talents and diligence into one destiny.

Devotion is that unerring effort that we make to wholly dedicate ourselves to the fullest exploration of our talents as individuals and as a group."

--- (liner notes by) Carle Vickers, LTD ---

SIDE ONE
To the Bone 3:22/ Elegant Love 3:46/ Not on Your Life 2:58/ Gestures Unfulfilled 3:59/ What Goes Around 3:44/ Success 4:15.

SIDE TWO
Thank You Mother 3:11/ How Could You Be So Cold? 2:46/ Whatcha Wanna Do 3:10/ I Told You I'd Be Back 3:20/ Lucky Day 5:51.

Produced by Calvin Carter/ Executive Producer: Jerry Butler

Carle Vickers - trumpet, percussion, flugel horn, piccolo
Jake Riley - trombone
Lorenzo Carnegie - sax
Abraham "Onion" Miller - sax, percussion, vocal
Toby Wynn - sax, percussion
Billy Osborne - organ, clavinet, vocal, arranger
Jimmy Davis - electric piano, vocal, arranger, clavinet
Henry Davis - electric bass, flute
Jeffrey Osborne - drums, vocal, arranger
Robert "Pondaza" Santiel - bongos, congas, Latin percussion
Celeste Cole - vocal, percussion, arranger

Henry Lewy, engineer/ Milton Calice, assistant engineer
Recorded at A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA
Art Direction: Roland Young
Emblem Design: Lorenzo Carnegie
Emblem Construction: Eileen Anderson
Special Thanks to: Jerry Butler

All selections published by Irving Music, Iceman Music, McDorsbov Music BMI
(Assigned "SP 3047" but not released in that configuration)



JB

 

[Dave]

I thought this album had a different cover; that's how I rememeber it... Never really heard much , if anything from this group, 'cept the lyrics for one song of their's, "Kickin' Back" appeared in a con-current issue of Song Hits with a photo of their's above it...

Jeffrey Osbourne (I'm sure there's NO relation to Ozzy...!) :bigevil: is of course, known for a more Pop-Oriented Solo Career, and his one hit, "On The Wings Of Love..."


Dave

 

[LPJim]

LTD didn't hit the charts until their 1976 album LOVE TO THE WORLD (SP 4589) came along, with the single "Love Ballad."
The group's single "(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again," got lots of airplay in 1977.
JB

 

[W.B.]

I thought this album had a different cover; that's how I rememeber it... Never really heard much , if anything from this group, 'cept the lyrics for one song of their's, "Kickin' Back" appeared in a con-current issue of Song Hits with a photo of their's above it...

If there was a change to the album cover, I could see why . . . I noticed that there was some slight resemblance to the CBS "eye" there . . .

LTD didn't hit the charts until their 1976 album LOVE TO THE WORLD (SP 4589) came along, with the single "Love Ballad."
The group's single "(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again," got lots of airplay in 1977.

The latter song, I like. As for the former, I'll take former A&M/CTi artist George Benson's 1979 cover any day . . .

 

[Mike Blakesley]

LTD is one of those groups I always felt would be more successful if they'd had a different name. They were clearly trying to hop on the coat-tails of Earth, Wind & Fire, but "Love, Togetherness & Devotion" just doesn't roll off the tongue as well.

I like the song "Love Ballad," although I think George Benson did the best version of it. I don't think I ever heard this particular album.

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

I thought this album had a different cover; that's how I rememeber it... Never really heard much , if anything from this group, 'cept the lyrics for one song of their's, "Kickin' Back" appeared in a con-current issue of Song Hits with a photo of their's above it...

Jeffrey Osbourne (I'm sure there's NO relation to Ozzy...!) :bigevil: is of course, known for a more Pop-Oriented Solo Career, and his one hit, "On The Wings Of Love..."


Dave

I know "Back In Love Again" was a full-on hit when it came out, and several of their other songs were R&B charters, right? As far as Jaffrey Osborne, he wasn't a one-hit guy - he had, if I recall, at least a half dozen top 20 pop hits or more. (oddly enough, he never cracked the top 10, although "Love Power" with Dionne Warwick got to #11 - correct me if I'm wrong).

JTCW

 

[LPJim]

You're right; Jeffrey Osborne had 6 albums in the Top 200, 5 of which were on A&M. He had ten singles in the Top 100. All of this was between 1982-90, according to Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums."
JB

 

[Dave]

This past Mother's Day, I think I remember LTD's "Thank You Mother" getting played; the radio station was playing "songs for Mom"... I don't think it even identified the song or the group--it just went to "Sadie" by The Spinners and at least mentioned THAT! ...Followed by "We Remember You, Phillipé... The Late-Phillipé Wynne..."

^Sure would like to know more...^

Is their "Love Ballad" really the same as the one George Benson did? Who wrote these songs? I don't see any writing-credits for 'em...

I remember seeing this album on an A&M Records Inner-Sleeve, from The-'70's and thought it had a yellow cover, too...



Dave

 

[W.B.]

Is their "Love Ballad" really the same as the one George Benson did?

One and the same . . . only Mr. Benson's version was of a somewhat quicker tempo, more on the order of LTD's own "Back In Love Again" (again, tempo-wise).

 

[Dave]

OK, thanks, W.B.! I remember Benson's version, now--had it on his George Benson Collection album...!!

If only I could find this record!


Dave

 

[W.B.]

OK, thanks, W.B.! I remember Benson's version, now--had it on his George Benson Collection album...!!

If only I could find this record!

If this is of any help, the original album from which Mr. Benson's cover came, was called Livin' Inside Your Love, a 2-record set (2BSK 3277); the 45 release was WBS 8759 (B-side: "You're Never Too Far From Me"). There was another A&M connection to George's recording of this besides himself: producer Tommy LiPuma.

 

[Dave]

Well, this album is more and more worth checking out--and after going to a half-dozen of stores, I am bordering on going the "ordering it off the Internet" route... Too bad it still has yet to make it to CD, or more songs from it (or ANY) have yet to make it to a Compilation... (Unless a well-thought-out 2-CD Retrospective comes along)

In suspense over "Thank You Mother", I had to make a call to our AOTW Contributor to find out if it IS the same song I heard and sure enough from what he read to me from the LYRICS SHEET It Is! In fact, the songs each have their personnel who played on each track by the the song-title, too!

Thanks, Jim! You made this outing worth really seeking out! :goofygrin:


Dave

...er, if only the words to "Thank You Mother" could be typed here--might need them as a...CHRISTMAS PRESENT--for her! :twitchy:

 

[LPJim]

That 'different cover' mentioned earlier actually belongs to LTD's second album , GITTIN' DOWN (A&M SP 3660), released in 1974.
It's a great cartoon drawing of a dancing couple dressed in early '70s wide cuffed slacks and platform shoes.
Looks like something Jimmy Walker's "Good Times" character J.J. Evans (Kid Dy-Na-Mite) might have sketched.
Stay tuned; it's only a little over 50 weeks ahead,
JB

 

[Dave]

Eh...No Luck finding EITHER of those two! Even called one record place I was Just At, for the past few weekends or so, that was too far to get to today... And just got back from a "record nook" at a Public Marketplace/Flea Market/Trade Center Facility, with no such "finds"!

Guess there's still the Record Trade Show that's taking place tomorrow, or I'll have to order L.T.D. (Love Togetherness & Devotion) LOVE TOGETHERNESS & DEVOTION Online...!


Dave

 

[Dave]

In Honor of MOTHER'S DAY, here are what I think are the lyrics to L.T.D.'s "Thank You, Mother"; least from what I remember hearing on the radio, a year or two ago and from what I saw on the Internet, after a brief, but tiresome search:

I'm sitting here, I'm thinking back to a time when I was young,
My memory is clear as day, I'm listening to the dishes clink,
You were downstairs; you would sing songs of praise,
And all the times we laughed with you,
And all the times that you stayed true to us,
Now we say, I said, I thank you,
I'll always thank you,
More than you could know,
Than I could ever show,
And I love you, I'll always love you,
There's nothing I won't do to say these words to you,
That you're beautiful forever,
You were my mom,
You were my dad,
The only thing I ever had was you, It's true,
And even when the times got hard you were there,
To let us know that we'd get through, you showed me how to be a man,
You taught me how to understand the things people do,
You showed me how to love my God,
You taught me that not everyone knows the truth,
And I thank you,
I'll always thank you,
More than you could know,
Than I could ever show,
And I love you, I'll always love you,
There's nothing I won't do to say these words to you,
That you will live forever, always​

Dave

...Hoping for a "correction", otherwise! inkshield: