“Fans with a “Mighty Love” for ’70s music ready themselves inside New Brunswick, NJ’s State Theatre New Jersey auditorium this Friday, April 14, 2023 evening for a Classic R&B Spectacular concert starring The Spinners, Sonny Bivens’ Manhattans, and The Trammps featuring Earl Young.
Emcees Alan David Stein and Harry G welcome the crowd and introduce tonight’s opening act, female vocalist Parker J.
Parker performs a pair of original songs including her newest single, the R&B ballad, “Up Down,” and “For One Night,” a bouncy R&B tune which has her singing and dancing to the beat.
The crowd cheers as The Trammps — Antwon Young, Renny Rankins, Adrian Jackson, and Earl Young — make their way through the audience and onto the stage.
After founding member Earl Young informs the crowd that he is currently 83 years old, he gets everyone clapping along to the music while he introduces the other members of the group. Telling the audience to “never stop dancing,” The Trammps launch into “The Night the Lights Went Out,” an upbeat disco number where they sing in harmony, “Where were you when the lights went out in New York City?”
The group follows up with “Hold Back the Night,” a swinging number on which Earl goes down into the audience and finds a male volunteer to sing the song’s catchy “Hold back the night/Turn on the light/I want to dream about you baby” refrain.
Earl’s colleague, Antwon Young, finds a female volunteer from the other side of the auditorium to sing the refrain. Then, Antwon launches into a disco rendition of the Judy Garland classic, “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart.”
Earl asks the audience to stand and wave their phones from side to side over their heads as he and The Trammps perform their 1977 hit from the film, Saturday Night Fever, “Disco Inferno.”
The crowd happily sings and dances to the “Burn baby burn/Disco inferno” refrain before Earl and his collegues take turns dancing across the stage to large applause.
“We love you!” exclaims Earl as he and The Trammps exit and Stein and Harry G take the stage to introduce Sonny Bivens’ Manhattans featuring Harsey Hemphill, Kirk Hill, Charles D. Hardy, and Keni Jackson.
“How are you all doing?” asks lead singer Jackson as the group steps and claps their way out onto the stage. Opening with the lively R&B tune, “Crazy,” Jackson’s smooth vocal impresses the crowd before he and the quartet segue into the easy rocker, “Never Find Another.”
Following the soulful ballad, “Am I Losing You,” Jackson and Co. perform “We Never Danced to a Love Song” where three-part harmonies accompany Jackson’s lead on this sensual soul tune.
Audience members sing along with Jackson on the R&B ballad, “It Feels So Good to be Loved So Bad,” to which he exclaims, “You sound like you’re feeling good!”
After thanking concertgoers for coming tonight, Jackson and his stagemates perform their signature song, The Manhattans’ 1976 #1 hit, “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” which has audience members happily swaying to the music.
Concluding with their 1980 Top 5 hit, “Shining Star,” music lovers in the crowd energetically sing along on the song’s well known “Honey, you are my shining star/Don’t you go away” chorus before responding with a standing ovation.
During intermission, we chat with several audience members who comment on the Classic R&B Spectacular performance thus far. Remarks Marlene from New Brunswick, “This is one great show,” explaining, “I came to see The Trammps but I grew up with The Manhattans, and both groups brought back a lot of memories!” Eddie from New Brunswick acknowledges, “A friend of mine used to play with The Trammps so I really love that group, but I also love The Manhattans, as well.”
Jimmie from New Brunswick, NJ reveals, “I’ve been a Trammps fan since the 1970s so I live for The Trammps and wish they could have kept on going and going, but I enjoyed The Manhattans, too,” insisting, “They’re so smooth because they’re true crooners!”
Reveals Lisa from South Brunswick, “This is the first show we’ve seen since the pandemic, and it’s amazing — all of the voices are fantastic!” and her husband, Bruce, insists, “It’s the perfect show to come back to,” before concluding, “Now we’re looking forward to hearing The Spinners.”
Stein and Harry G introduce The Spinners — Ronnie “Raheem” Moss, Marvin Taylor, Jessie Robert Peck, and CJ Jefferson — who take the stage singing the group’s 1972 Top 5 hit, “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love.”
The audience claps and sings along with CJ Jefferson on the song’s well-known “Could it be I’m falling in love/With you baby” chorus and responds with avid cheers and applause on The Spinners’ 1970 Top 20 Motown hit, “It’s a Shame,” written by Stevie Wonder.
Bass singer Jessie Robert Peck starts off the 6/8 R&B number, “Funny How Time Slips Away,” and high tenor Ronnie “Raheem” Moss hits notes in the stratosphere which elicit hoots and hollers from music lovers in the crowd.
Fancy footwork takes center stage on The Spinners’ 1972 Top 5 smash, “I’ll Be Around,” where concertgoers happily sing and clap along on the tune’s famous “Whenever you call me, I’ll be there/Whenever you want me, I’ll be there” chorus.
The quartet launches into their 1979 remake of the Four Seasons’ hit, “Working My Way Back to You” and dedicates their next song, “Sadie,” to the “greatest gift God gave the world — women.” Audience members pay tribute to the significant women in their own lives as they join in singing the “Oh, Sadie/Don’t you know we love you, sweet Sadie?” chorus before erupting into avid cheers and applause.
Continuing with a lively performance of their 1973 Top 20 hit, “Mighty Love,” The Spinners follow up with the R&B ballad, “Love Don’t Love Nobody,” and a pair of Sam Cooke cover tunes — “Cupid” and “Having A Party” — where vocalist Marvin Taylor croons as he moves in time to the music.
The quartet concludes the evening with a string of hits including 1974’s “Then Came You” — a number they originally recorded with Dionne Warwick — along with 1973’s “One of a Kind (Love Affair),” 1975’s “Games People Play,” and 1976’s “Rubberband Man,” to cheers, applause, and a rousing audience ovation.
As music lovers make their way out of the STNJ auditorium, we chat with several in the crowd who share their thoughts on The Spinners’ performance this evening. Comments Jacqueline from East Brunswick, “I really liked all the hits The Spinners did, and they had such a great rapport with the audience.” Notes Glenn from Rahway, “I especially loved Ronnie “Raheem” Moss — the singer with the very high voice. When he hit those high notes it was like an ‘Is it real or is it Memorex?’ moment!”
Whereas Joe from North Brunswick declares, “Their songs brought me back to my dancing days when times were simpler and the music was great,” Stephanie from Newark recalls, “We saw the original Spinners back in the day and this new group pays tribute to the originals. It was great to hear the music done live — everyone was dancing, and it was fun singing along with the group and this great audience!”
Lastly, Jimmie from New Brunswick sums things up by exclaiming, “This show was so fantastic! It was energetic, nostalgic, and sexy,” before concluding, “I just love good music, a good time, good energy, and great people, so, for me, this show was everything!”
To learn more about The Spinners, please click on thespinners.com. For further information on Sonny Bivins’ Manhattans, go to themanhattans.com. To find out more about The Trammps featuring Earl Young, navigate to thetrammps.net. For information about upcoming concerts at STNJ — including the Rock and Roll Doo Woo Spectacular starring Chubby Checker, The Doo Woo Project, The Duprees, and Vinnie Medugno on October 14, 2023 — please go to stnj.org.
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