Forgive me Dee (Clark), but when I first heard this song I was expecting a female artist! What a voice! Born in Arkansas in 1938, Delectus Clark, a.k.a Dee Clark, was an American soul singer best known for a string of R&B pop hits in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
Raised with music as a staple companion, his mother, Delecta, was a gospel singer and always encouraged her son to pursue his love of music. Clark made his first recording in 1952 as a member of the Hambone Kids, a band who scored a R&B hit with the hit song Hambone.
In 1953, he joined an R&B group called the Goldentones, who later became The Kool Gents. This band got discovered by Chicago radio disc jockey Herb Kent upon winning a talent competition and soon after Kent got the Kool Gents signed to Vee Jay Records label, subsidiary Falcon/Abner. The group changed its name once again, to The Delegates and recorded for Falcon/Abner in 1956.
Clark embarked on a solo career in 1957 and over the next four years issued several moderate hits, two of which (Just Keep It Up and the Bo Diddley-esque Hey Little Girl) reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was 1959 that he released Blues Get Off My Shoulder, a track which differs quite a lot from his other material – in that it was a lot darker by nature. Issued on Abner Records, this was the B-side to the very contrasting How About That. Never could two songs be more different! Blues Get Off My Shoulder is a slow, smouldering haunted ballad, defined by Clark’s tormented vocals. Stirring and intense, each line is a plea for this relentless heartache to be alleviated and you feel every word. The slow shuffling beat gives each line a weighty feel which, coupled with the haunting backing vocals, really makes you feel every pang of Clark’s anguish and suffering. Check it out above.
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