The apogee of Gamble and Huff, McFadden and Whitehead: “Power of Love,” yes, but also The O’jays’ “Backstabbers” (known to me through Angie Stone’s sampling) and “Me and Mrs. Jones,” the latter of which went #1 pop but thanks to what Tom Breihan calls its “nightclub-singer hamminess” it doesn’t move me.
What does is one of Aretha Franklin’s few self-written songs to top a chart. A heady swirl, “Day Dreaming” conjures an erotic reverie with the help of Hubert Laws on flute and Donny Hathaway, here with his best duet partner Roberta Flack on “Where is the Love,” on electric piano. Quiet storm play hasn’t dimmed the fervor in Al Green’s pair of singles and the Chi-Lites’ “Oh Girl.” The most formally interesting song besides James Brown’s stentorian, skeletal funk tracks, “Family Affair,” is triumphant minimalism that still sounds beamed from early ’80s Lower East Side or late ’90s Bristol.
Sound, Solid
Billy Paul – Me and Mrs. Jones
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes – If You Don’t Know Me By Now
Billy Preston – Outa-Space
Joe Simon – The Power of Love
Good to Great
James Brown – Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing
Aretha Franklin – Day Dreaming
The Spinners – I’ll Be Around
The O’Jays – Back Stabbers
Sly and the Family Stone – Family Affair
Bobby Womack – Woman’s Gotta Have It
The Staple Singers – I’ll Take You There
Al Green – You Oughta Be With Me
James Brown – Get On the Good Foot
The Chi-Lites – Oh Girl
Al Green – I’m Still in Love With You
Bill Withers – Lean On Me
Luther Ingram – (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right
Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway – Where is the Love
Humanizing The Vacuum 
Billy Paul’s breathy contralto sells that song more than Breihan believes it does. And his beloved “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” has the same nightclub air he ungainly refers to. Unless we visit different nightclubs. Plus, it is never sentimental crap. It could have been “Secret Lovers” yet it avoids the hypocritical sermons and leaves the resolution with perfect, anguishing dots.