Curtis Mayfield or Patti Jo?

Well, its not really a competition. All the tracks featured here were produced and written by Curtis Mayfield and arranged by Rich Tufo. Curtis's versions are both buried on the B sides of their respective albums and at first listen seem like merely solid album cuts. But after listening to Patti Jo's excellent interpretations, I felt compelled to hear them back to back. Both of the Patti Jo tracks have been compiled and re-released before (though they are still rare and expensive in the original 7") I was lucky enough to glean them from Scepter records awesome "Disco Gold" (more on that later) which was kind enough to provide both singles.


Patti Jo- Ain't No Love Lost

Curtis Mayfield - Ain't No Love Lost I can really dig the warbling vocals on Patti's version here. Curtis does his smooth thing as usual. I love how he changes the lyric about becoming "some Casanova" to becoming "some Miss Casanova." The Curtis version is off his album "Got to Find a Way."


Curtis Mayfield - Make Me Believe in You

Patti Jo - Make Me Believe in You I first heard Patti's version of this song about eight years ago on a OST records re-edit I randomly bought at open mind records in San Francisco. I remember thinking: "Too funky..." I love the more psychedelic orchestrated direction Curtis takes his version in contrasted with Patti's harder one. In both cases Curtis's versions were released after Patti Jo's. the Curtis version is off his album "Sweet Exorcist."

Whew! Intense! Now that I got you in the mode, lets all chill out with this: (off his album, "Give Get Take and Have")

Curtis Mayfield - Only You Babe