THE HIT HAMMER: The Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl"

(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)

The Chi-Lites - "Oh Girl"

Hit Number 1: May 27, 1972

Stay at Number 1: 1 Week

Predicting a #1 hit isn't a very easy thing to do, but it's actually been done several times. The Chi-Lites, who obviously come from Chicago, had already released three albums by the time 1972 rolled around, but out of those three albums they only achieved one major hit, which was "Have You Seen Her", a song that sounds a lot like a late 1950s doo-wop track. (It peaked at #3 in 1971. It's a 7) Eugene Record, the front man for the Chi-Lites, gave their record producer, Carl Davis, 7 songs on a tape for him to check out for some potential new material on their upcoming fourth album A Lonely Man. One of those songs was "Oh Girl", and Davis, who was very impressed by the song, told Record that there was a #1 song on that tape. Record said he named all the other songs before "Oh Girl", and when Davis told him it was in fact "Oh Girl", Record thought he was kidding. Because another funny thing about #1 songs is the skepticism of them by some of the artists. If there's one thing I've learned all these Hit Hammer entries later, it's that you should always trust your record producer.

Anyway, we'll never know what the other 6 songs on that tape were, so maybe it isn't fair to compare them to "Oh Girl", but I'm going to do it anyway. It's hard to imagine why Record thought it was the worst of the 7 songs. The Chi-Lites were different from a lot of the other soul bands in the early 70s, as they were a band that tried to bring back the classic doo-wop sound from a decade ago. "Oh Girl" still sounds very 50s, early 60s-esque to me. It doesn't necessarily sound like something from 1972, but if there was a band that could modernize a sound from years gone by, it was these guys. That's part of why I find "Oh Girl" to be so appealing. Combining doo-wop with early 70s rhythm and blues still sounds so fresh, even today.

You can also feel the heartbreak of the narrator on "Oh Girl". The song's content is pretty generic, as it's about a relationship on the verge of a breakup, but what makes "Oh Girl" work is the production put into it. Record's soulful lead vocals are paired up with a tired, weeping harmonica as well as the backing Chi-Lite singers. For good measure, there's even some lush strings that remain tucked behind the rest of the production, but they're prominent enough to where the song just wouldn't be the same without them. Some songs are good because of sheer production, while others have some powerful meaning behind them, or they make you feel a certain type of way. I wouldn't say that "Oh Girl" has a powerful meaning to it, but it almost seems that way because of how they chose to go about it. The Chi-Lites managed to take a song about breakup, and actually make it heartbreaking. I tip my cap to that kind of stuff.

GRADE: 8/10