The Ghetto (song)
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| “The Ghetto” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Donny Hathaway from the album Everything Is Everything |
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| A-side | The Ghetto, Pt. 1 | ||||
| B-side | The Ghetto, Pt. 2 | ||||
| Released | 1970 | ||||
| Recorded | 1969 | ||||
| Genre | Funk/soul | ||||
| Length | 6:50 | ||||
| Label | Atlantic | ||||
| Writer(s) | Donny Hathaway & Leroy Hutson | ||||
| Producer | Donny Hathaway & Ric Powell | ||||
| Donny Hathaway singles chronology | |||||
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"The Ghetto" is a socially conscious, mostly instrumental funk/soul anthem, released as the first single off American soul singer Donny Hathaway's debut album, Everything Is Everything, released as a single in 1970 on Atlantic Records.
The song was co-written by Hathaway and Leroy Hutson, who was then the lead singer for soul group The Impressions. The song was a six minute and fifty second workout which built upon a cinematic feel with its lengthy instrumental though it did feature vocal ad-libs from Hathaway, who played electric piano on the song, and constant chants of the song, which had a distinguished Afro-Cuban sound with congas.
The song also featured additional backgrounds, dialogue from what sound like men talking in a street corner and a baby crying before Hathaway ended the song with frenetic hand claps.
When originally released in 1970, the song became a modest charted single peaking at number eighty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number twenty-three on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.
The song was also featured on Hathaway's revered Live album in which Hathaway and his musicians played a faster version of the song and later featured Hathaway getting the audience into it singing the final chorus.
Since then, the song has been covered in hip-hop singles, most famously, Too Short's "The Ghetto", which featured Gerald Levert re-singing the chorus.
[edit] Credits
- Donny Hathaway: All vocals, spoken dialogue (except for the crying baby), hand claps and electric piano
- Instrumentation by assorted musicians
- Master Henry Gibson: conga
- Morris Jennings: drums
- Marshall Hawkins: bass
- Phil Upchurch: guitar
- King Curtis: guitar
- Richard Powell: percussion
- Written and composed by Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson
- Conducted and arranged by Donny Hathaway
- Produced by Donny Hathaway and Ric Powell
