Music from my youth: Love is still the message

These are the records that I own from the record label known as Philadephia International (PI). Soul and disco stuff from the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia.

I don't know what made me pick up a copy of MSFB's Love Is The Message but I've never regretted it. Fabulous songs on this album which included the signature track as well as Back Stabbers and TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia). The other records followed naturally from this one. I just couldn't get enough of the PI sound, including The Three Degrees' self-titled first album. The Best Of MSFB, though, is a compact disc, not vinyl record. A friend brought this back for me from Australia many years ago. I still don't see it around the music shops in Malaysia. That's how bad the music scene can be over here.

BTW, in case you don't already know, MFSB was PI's in-house studio musicians. MFSB backed many of PI's top artistes like Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes, The O'Jays, Billy Paul and of course, The Three Degrees. Unlike Motown Records, PI allowed MFSB the chance to shine on their own merits, as these albums clearly showed. Love Is The Message was probably their greatest groove.

I have a confession to make. When I first bought The Three Degrees' first album, the music was secondary. Of course, I grew to like the songs later but the main reason I bought it was because of the album's artwork. Look at the centre-fold. It was one of the most daring photographs that made it past our local censors.

Talking about The Three Degrees, I have been searching high and low without success for the Japanese version of their hit, When Will I See You Again. It was only last week that I finally found it...on YouTube. However, it wasn't the original but a live performance in Japan. I know that there is a vinyl record somewhere but it still eludes me.