We're A Winner

In my inaugeral post, I'd like to explain why I created this blog, and what you can expect from me, and We're A Winner. This past year, I've been deeper into soul music than since I used to listen to "The Very Best of Otis Redding" on my Walkman every car ride when I was five. More recently, I've been taking some of my favorite soul singles, digitally slowing them down (usually to about 28-32% slower than the speed of the original recording), adding reverb, and exploring, in an almost underwater slow motion, the emergent sounds.

On this blog, I will be posting these songs, both the slow and original versions, and I sure hope you enjoy them!

That said, I'd like to leave you with one of my favorite singles, and the titular song of this blog - "We're A Winner," by The Impressions.

The Impressions - We're A Winner

Released in 1967, off their album with the same great title, it reached #14 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and #1 on the Singles chart in March of 1968. As the story goes, the inspiration for this song came to Curtis Mayfield in a dream, and he was stirred awake and impelled to finish the song before he forgot it.

The opening seconds of "We're A Winner," which contain boisterous applause and two resounding, regal chords played by an eloquent brass section, set the tone for the celebratory tone of the rest of the song. The buoyant applause and brass continue throughout, and underscore the uplifting message.

"We're A Winner" became a prominent slogan in the vocabulary of black pride movements, and was eventually adopted to be the motto of Mayfield's record label, Curtom Records.