Donnie Elbert

Born May 25, 1935, in New Orleans, Donnie Elbert later gained renown as a Northern soul legend. Three years afterward his family moved to Buffalo’s east side in New York, where he mastered both guitar and piano. The Drifters’ Clyde McPhatter exerted the strongest influence on his style, prompting Elbert to help launch the doo-wop ensemble the Vibraharps alongside Danny Cannon in 1955; within the group he handled guitar duties, composed material, and created arrangements, while mostly supplying background vocals. Following the Vibraharps’ recorded introduction on the single “Walk Beside Me,” creative disagreements led him to exit in 1957 and pursue solo work, a demo session that secured a contract with Deluxe, an imprint of the King label. His Deluxe bow, “What Can I Do?,” reached the R&B Top 20, yet the next release, “Believe It or Not,” made no impression. Many regard his third Deluxe outing, the 1957 single “Have I Sinned?,” as his strongest early effort; showcasing his commanding falsetto, the track became a major regional success, particularly in Pittsburgh, where DJ Porky Chedwick spun it repeatedly.

Although Elbert performed at New York’s Apollo Theater and traveled the African-American nightclub circuit known as the chitlin’ circuit, his momentum stalled. In 1958 alone he issued five unsuccessful Deluxe singles—“Let’s Do the Stroll,” “My Confession of Love,” “I Want to Be Loved But Only by You,” “I Want to Be Near You,” and “Just a Little Bit of Lovin’.” Tensions with the label intensified over disputes with producers concerning artistic direction; after finishing his debut album, The Sensational Donnie Elbert Sings, he departed Deluxe in 1959. A brief stint at the fledgling Red Top label yielded the 1960 release “Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You).” He then joined Vee-Jay and scored another regional hit with “Will You Ever Be Mine?,” reported to have sold roughly 250,000 copies around Philadelphia, though it never broke nationally. Two additional Vee-Jay sides—“Half as Old” and 1961’s “I’ve Loved You, Baby”—preceded a series of one-off recordings for Jalynne (“Mommie’s Gone”), P&L (1962’s “Nobody Knows”), Parkway (“Baby Cakes”), Cub (1963’s “Love Stew”), and Checker (“Just a Cotton-Pickin’ Minute”).

Deeply impressed by the emerging Motown sound, Elbert began shaping his own recordings in that mold. Whereas genuine Motown productions relied on the Funk Brothers, Elbert performed every instrument himself, generating faithful replicas of the label’s sweeping, luminous soul aesthetic. One example, the 1965 Gateway single “A Little Piece of Leather,” bypassed the U.S. charts yet became a major British success and a lasting favorite within the U.K. Northern soul scene. His skill at replicating the Motown style prompted Berry Gordy, Jr. to offer a contract; nevertheless, accounts indicate that Harvey Fuqua, head of artist development, revealed the label’s true motive was simply to neutralize a rival rather than promote Elbert’s career. After issuing one final Gateway record, “Your Red Wagon (You Can Push It or Pull It),” he returned to live performances. He composed “Baby Walk Right In” but passed it to fellow Buffalo vocalist Darrell Banks, who accelerated the tempo, retitled it “Open the Door to Your Heart,” and recorded it in Detroit. The resulting track reached the pop Top 40 and ranks among the era’s finest soul singles; moreover, Elbert initially received no composer credit, a dispute that lingered for years before Banks was awarded half the publishing royalties.

England appeared to offer safer prospects, so Elbert relocated there around 1966. Two years later he resumed recording with the Atco one-off “In Between Heartaches,” followed in 1969 by Deram’s “Without You,” whose rocksteady groove propelled it to number one on the Jamaican charts. Returning to the United States in 1970, he achieved his first national chart entry in more than a decade with Rare Bullet’s “I Can’t Get Over Losing You,” which peaked at number 26 on the R&B list. The following year he joined All-Platinum and released “Where Did Our Love Go,” a Supremes cover actually cut two years earlier in England; the single climbed to number two R&B and number 15 pop. Its successor, “Sweet Baby,” reached number 30 R&B in early 1972. For All-Platinum he also revisited several earlier compositions, including “A Little Piece of Leather.” He later moved to Avco-Embassy and worked with the production team Hugo & Luigi, yet resisted the label’s pressure to record Motown-associated material. Despite the number 14 R&B success of his Four Tops cover “I Can’t Help Myself,” the project was abandoned and the finished tracks were sold to Trip, which assembled the 1972 album Stop! In the Name of Love.

After leaving Avco, Elbert returned to All-Platinum and resurfaced in 1973 with “This Feeling of Losing You.” The next single, a 1974 version of Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange,” followed. Another publishing dispute prompted his exit: he asserted authorship of Shirley & Company’s R&B chart-topper “Shame, Shame, Shame,” officially credited to label owner Sylvia Robinson. Although the matter was never resolved in his favor, the arrangement bears hallmarks of his style. In 1975 he launched his own short-lived imprint, A/O, for “You Keep Me Crying (With Your Lying).” A later release, “I Got to Get Myself Together,” appeared on a label bearing his name and proved among his final recordings. During the mid-1980s he retired from performing and became director of A&R for Polygram’s Canadian division. On January 31, 1989, Elbert suffered a fatal stroke at age 53.