Charles Crawford

In 1973 the Hy-Sign label, operating out of Shreveport, Louisiana, issued the lone single by soul singer Charles Crawford, coupling “A Sad Sad Song” with “Fat ’N Funky.” The A-side unfolded as a slow ballad cast in the pleading Otis Redding manner and opened with an extended spoken passage whose mawkish excess remained conspicuous even by soul-music norms. Kent subsequently placed the recording on its compilation Shreveport Southern Soul: The Murco Story.