Sunday News
Published: October 6, 2005
By JOHN DUFFY, Correspondent
Unlike many artists who emerge from brief pop music fads, The Persuasions didn't hit their creative stride until long after street corner do-wop had become a curiosity only to be found on oldies radio. Formed by five casual friends who frequented the same pickup basketball games in Brooklyn, the quartet has forged a singular trail touching five decades of music.
"We all came up to New York from the south at different times, and we all wanted to sing," recalls Jimmy Hayes, who founded the group in 1962 when he invited several of the basketball players/singers to his apartment for a rehearsal. The four who showed up became the Persuasions, and began working on complex arrangements before knowing each other's full names. Their first paying gigs were a series of cocktail receptions on a Sunday afternoon that same year.
"We went out and bought some of those Harry Belafonte-style puffy-sleeved shirts and thought we looked pretty good. We did four shows in order to make $25 between us," says Hayes from his Brooklyn home, a stone's throw from the same street corners where the group honed their skills as younger men.
By the mid-1970s, the Persuasions had recorded a series of critically lauded albums including "Spread The Word," and "Streetcorner Symphony," which actually made the charts. "Chirpin'," a return to their a cappella roots following some ill-advised attempts to sing with a band, was heralded by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 best albums of the 1970s. They became cult heroes to a younger generation years later when they recorded the songs of Frank Zappa following his death a tribute to the man who got them their first major recording contract.
Volumes of tunes written by the Grateful Dead and the Beatles followed, as well as a children's album and a collection of Christmas favorites. "All of those sold pretty well and brought us new fans so we were happy to do them," says Hayes. The band was accustomed to rearranging other people's songs for their repertoire, especially in its early days. "You had to be able to do what was popular, whether it was I Want Hold Your Hand' or The Great Pretender' or something by the Temptations," Hayes said.
For their twenty-seventh studio album, the group turned to the catalogue of Irish rock superstars U2 art the suggestion of an associate. On the surface, the pairing may seem odd, church-rooted street-corner harmonies blended with righteous post-punk rock anthems, but critics and musicologists have for years noted the highly spiritual elements of U2's music. U2 concerts are often invigorating, reaffirming, uplifting experiences of something close to messianic proportions.
Perhaps only Bruce Springsteen is better known for the rapturous nature of his performances. Bringing these elements together with the group's gospel and R&B roots, the Persuasions found a connection that could not be overlooked. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was one of the first songs Hayes listened to when the idea of recording U2 was suggested.
"I knew who they were and had heard some of their songs, but I never really listened until I heard that one." He put it on at home and was immediately taken by it. "It just floored me. It reminded me really of the struggles we had coming up in the south, dealing with the hardships of racism," he says, having sensed this connection between the struggle of American blacks and what the Irish have gone through as the underdogs of the British Empire.
That deep well of feeling and history convinced Hayes the project was well worth the attempt. "That's when I told the guys Hey, these songs are tailor-made for us.'" Tunes rendered include the recent hit "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own," "One," "Even Better Than The Real Thing," and "Pride (In the Name of Love)." With the exception of "Pride," which celebrates the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was a hit single in 1984, all of the songs chosen by the Persuasions were recorded by U2 from their 1987 multi-platinum album "Joshua Tree" onward.
Not surprisingly, this was the period where the Irish band became fascinated with various forms of American music like R&B, gospel, country, and blues. This is evidenced at moments like their collaboration with B.B. King on "When Love Comes to Town," the horn- laden "Angel of Harlem," recorded at Sun studios in Memphis, and "The Wanderer," sung originally as a duet with Johnny Cash.
All these songs are on the Persuasions' new disc as well. Over three days last April, the group recorded twelve tracks, eleven of which made the disc, at St. Peter's Church in Chelsea neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. Befitting the high-fidelity ideals of the group's label, Chesky Records, the songs were recorded with no overdubs, no signal processing, with all the singers around a single stereo microphone. The end sound is a collection of profound voices in a holy place.
This is far more than just doo-wop, a name woefully inadequate for what the Persuasions have accomplished. "We've seen so many groups come and go, so many styles, and we stick to what works and what we enjoy," says Hayes. "It's clear that we were meant to do it this way."
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