The band you’ve heard without knowing it!
The O’Jays formed in 1958 under the name The Mascots whilst all members were still in high school. Amazingly, as of 2022, they are still together, albeit with only one original member left in the lineup.
During the 60s, now under the name The O’Jays, they had their first charting single in Lonely Drifter (1963), followed by a handful of other tunes that did get in the charts but never made a stir. You can’t fault them for not trying though with over 30 singles and 5 studio albums before success finally came.
1972, almost 15 years after they’d formed, The O’Jays released the album Back Stabbers, now three singles did well, the title track as well as their signature song, Love Train, even went to #1.
On a side note, check out Back Stabbers in the playlist above and compare it to Angie Stone’s I Wish I Didn’t Miss You, a great example of when sampling works! And who wrote this tune? McFadden and Whitehead, the guys behind Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.
Anyway, Love Train was the biggest song from this album, a fantastic tune, great fun to play, and guaranteed success at a wedding as it’s such a perfect invitation for audience participation, key for a working band.
On the next album (Ship Ahoy) we hear Now That We Found Love, later covered with great success by Heavy D and The Boyz in 1991, hitting the top 10 in 17 countries, the original version barely charted.
Also on this album was For The Love Of Money, another tune that was covered successfully. O’Jays really are one of those bands that you’ve heard plenty of their tunes but don’t realize it was by them, be it their original recording, sampled or covered.
The O’Jays Tunes | Related Pages
Love Train
You can learn how to play Love Train by O’Jays using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| C | D9 |
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The O’Jays on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was an article about The O’Jays tunes, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
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