The history-making election of Keisha Lance Bottoms as governor of Georgia might have the knock-on effect of reviving interest in her father, soul singer Major Lance.
Lance grew up in Chicago and went to the same high school as Curtis Mayfield, who wrote several of Lance’s chart hits in the mid-’60s. The first was “The Monkey Time,” a No. 2 R&B hit in 1963 that reached No. 8 on the pop chart. The record was the first chart appearance in a decade for the venerable jazz and blues label Okeh.
The monkey, for those too young to remember it, was one of the umpteen dance crazes that ruled the dance floor for weeks at a time back then. It helped that Lance was light on his feet – his first gig was as a dancer on a Chicago TV teen music show.
His stature got a further boost from those young British lads the Beatles. Paul McCartney was photographed holding Lance’s single “Um Um Um Um Um Um,” and John Lennon said he especially dug “Hey Little Girl” because he liked the arrangement.
The hits mostly dried up after Mayfield decided to concentrate on his own group, the Impressions, but Lance’s career revived with Britain’s Northern Soul movement in the ’70s. He moved to England and become one of the scene’s biggest draws. Many critics consider his 1973 LP “Major Lance’s Greatest Hits Recorded Live at the Torch” the best Northern Soul album ever made.
