When Bristol writes вЂњHang On In There, Baby,вЂќ he keeps it for himself-in fact, it becomes the title song of his debut album. The вЂњtick-a-tickвЂќ sound of two drumsticks striking the rim at the start of the song is Johnny Bristol helping out the drummer.Д«ut by 1974, heвЂ™s onstage in his own right. Bristol recorded them separately, but still made their chemistry audible, palpable. Of Terrell, he says, вЂњWhen she walked into a studio she was always up, never down, she was ready.вЂќ With Bristol and Fuqua co-producing, Gaye and Terrell recorded the original version of вЂњAinвЂ™t No Mountain High Enough,вЂќ in 1967 on Tamla Records, which became Motown.

The most fun, Bristol says, at ClarkвЂ™s prodding, was working with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. And that just gets us to the mid-Seventies. And on and on, starting with his Motown days and heading on into CBS Records (Boz Scaggs, Tom Jones, Johnny Mathis). Bristol supplied the lone male backing vocal in the SupremesвЂ™ вЂњSomeday WeвЂ™ll Be Together,вЂќ a song he originally recorded with his erstwhile collaborator Jackey Beavers almost a decade before Diana Ross sang it. Walker & the All-Stars (вЂњHow Sweet It Is вЂќ). Among them: Stevie Wonder (вЂњYester-Me, Yester-You, YesterdayвЂќ), David Ruffin (вЂњMy Whole World Ended вЂќ), Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (вЂњWeвЂ™ve Come Too Far To End It NowвЂќ), Gladys Knight and the Pips (вЂњDaddy Could Swear, I DeclareвЂќ and вЂњI DonвЂ™t Want To Do WrongвЂќ), Jerry Butler (вЂњMemories DonвЂ™t Leave Like People DoвЂќ), Jr. He takes a breath before attempting to enumerate some of the greats heвЂ™s worked with as a producer (often alongside co-producer Harvey Fuqua) and/or songs heвЂ™s written. On Bandstand, Bristol is fresh off of a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist for вЂњHang On In There, Baby,вЂќ his biggest solo record, number eight on the Hot 100s. Or, as Bristol sings in a funked-out soulful, Bill WithersвЂ“esque ballad of Morganton, вЂњItвЂ™s just a clean-faced small place in the land of Carolina.вЂќ That is, he is dressed worlds apart from the place where we were each born, nearly forty years apart-Morganton, North Carolina, in the Appalachian foothills, a town that is frequently described in relation to other, larger places nearby: a stop off I-40, surrounded by the cerulean haze of the Blue Ridge Mountains a town of state-run schools and institutions and, in BristolвЂ™s day before many of the mills were closed, a factory town where trees got turned into furniture and cotton into lingerie and hosiery, and where music venues and bars still existed only on the sly. Bristol is wearing a slate blue suit tailored to his six-foot-three or four frame and what must rank in the top ten pairs of coolest sunglasses of all time, lightly shaded so that you imagine the world appeared shadowed in a permanent vapor. It is 1976 and Dick Clark is interviewing Johnny Bristol, the r&b and soul singer and Motown songwriter and producer, on American Bandstand.

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