Song of the Day 10/28: Cliff Nobles, “The Horse”

A lot of people ignore the lyrics in popular music, and there’s good evidence they’re onto something — some songs do better with the vocals removed. That’s what happened to Cliff Nobles, whose single “Love Is All Right” is a footnote to the 1968 hit “The Horse.”

You can’t really call it “his” hit, because Nobles neither sings nor plays on “The Horse,” which is just “Love Is All Right” with Nobles’ vocals removed. The small label Phil-L.A. of Soul put it on the B-side of “Love Is All Right,” a cost-saving move that proved fortuitous after a late-night Tampa DJ started spinning it instead of the A-side. The tune lived on for years as intro music for TV programs.

The record should have been billed to Cliff Nobles and Co., which is how he performed around the Philly area in the ’60s. Many of the same players soon became better known as MFSB, Gamble & Huff’s house band. With nothing to do onstage as the band played his big hit, Nobles came up with some dance moves and called it the Horse, which became a local dance craze. Though I’ve heard he used to prance around the stage pretending to ride a steed, he’s more restrained in this TV clip.

Two corrections to the intro by Barry Richards, a D.C.-area DJ back in the day: He was not the “Boss with the Hot Sauce,” he stole that from Jerry Blavat; and “The Horse” made it to No. 2 for three weeks, not No. 1. It was kept from the top spot by Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s in Love With You.”

Here’s what the song sounded like with Nobles’ vocals.

Nobles lived in Norristown, Pa., just up the Schuykill River from Conshohocken, from the 1970s until his death in 2008.