(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Billy Paul - "Me and Mrs. Jones"
Hit Number 1: December 16, 1972
Stay at Number 1: 3 Weeks
Imagine this scenario: You're already cheating on your wife. You meet this woman at the same place every day at the same time. You guys go there just to chat and hold hands. You know how wrong it is, but you still do it anyway, because of course, your love affair is too strong to break it at that point. Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but that's because it is ridiculous. That's the context of Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones", one of the first #1 hits out of the big Philadelphia music scene.
If you thought Helen Reddy, the artist of "I Am Woman", was a late bloomer in the music world, Paul one-upped her in a sort of "hold my beer" moment. Paul had close friendships with a lot of the bigger names in pop music, such as Marvin Gaye and Elvis Presley, yet he wasn't a star himself. Paul was a member of the U.S. Military in his younger years in the '50s, and often practiced the sport of boxing while over there. After his discharge, he still continued to box, sometimes going up against Miles Davis, another music icon that befriended Paul over the years. Paul said that one day, however, he got the ever-loving crap beat out of him while boxing once, and decided then and there that he would pursue his life long dream of becoming a professional singer instead.
Paul started out singing in jazz clubs, and he did that for several years, living in total obscurity. To be fair, he seemed to be perfectly happy doing that. That was until Kenny Gamble, one of the founders of Philadelphia International Records, discovered Paul singing at one of the clubs, and told Paul he wanted to sign him. So at nearly 40 years of age, Paul signed a deal with the company. He was officially on board in the music world. Perhaps what's even more astounding is that "Me and Mrs. Jones", a song that was scratched together for Paul, was a major hit. After thinking long and hard about what "sound" would suit best for Paul, Gamble and company pieced together the jackpot. Not only was Paul finally under a record deal, but he was a star. He was #1 for three weeks.
It's not too surprising to see how someone who sang in jazz clubs could make a hit out of this. "Me and Mrs. Jones" is a song that could only work for a 40-year-old black man who sang slow jazz jams. It's not a ballad, instead it's more of a tamed, drizzly, swaying song about hooking up at a café with a woman named Mrs. Jones. Paul sings in a low, hushed tone before taking off with the rest of the song during what I presume is supposed to be the song's chorus: "ME AND, Mrs. Mrs. JONES!" It's a good approach to what is still a very ridiculous song; Jones can prove that he has a strong singing voice, and his voice meshes with the glistening strings and women's choir behind him well. The narrative of cheating on someone, and meeting someone else at a café, every day, at the same time is easy to mock though. Everything on "Me and Mrs. Jones" sounds brilliant, and on some level Paul and company make me think for about 4 minutes that cheating isn't always a bad thing. (It's still not a good thing though folks, don't do what Paul's character is doing, please)
Though it's well-crafted, "Me and Mrs. Jones" is still kind of a boring song. I can't hang with slow, meandering songs very well, but I can still respect them. There's not enough there that makes me think "wow, what a great song" on this one. I'm still happy that Paul got his moment though, and it's unfortunate he never did much after "Me and Mrs. Jones". It didn't have to be that way though. After the success of "Me and Mrs. Jones", Paul was handed a new song, the much more upbeat, Stevie Wonder knock off "Am I Black Enough for You?" that obviously was met with a lot of controversy in the early '70s. Some radio stations were reluctant to play it, and when it was played, it got very polarizing reactions out of people, with some crowds shying away from Paul's music afterwards. (It did still manage to hit #79 on the Hot 100. It's an 8) Paul never recovered from that, but he had plenty of cool stories to tell about his life before music, the rise of his fame and "Me and Mrs. Jones" before pancreatic cancer took his life in 2016 at the age of 81. He still lived a life many of us would be glad to live.
GRADE: 6/10
JUST MISSED:
Gilbert O'Sullivan, the artist behind "Alone Again (Naturally)", almost hit #1 again, this time with the pretty good "Clair". It peaked at #2 behind "Me and Mrs. Jones", and while there's nothing that outstanding about it, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy listening to it. It's a 7.
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