Mono Mondays: Sam & Dave, I Thank You
This week’s Mono Monday release features a title track which has gone on to become known to quite a few classic-rock aficionados as a really great ZZ Top song, but if you’ve never heard the original, then get ready to thank us.
Sam Moore and Dave Prater had been a hot commodity in the world of rhythm and blues since Hold On, I’m Comin’, their 1966 debut album on Stax Records, which they took to the top of the Billboard R&B Charts, but it was their third studio effort, 1967’s Soul Men, that served as their full-fledged mainstream breakthrough, hitting #2 on the Billboard Top 200. As such, one might’ve expected I Thank You, which was the duo’s Atlantic Records debut, to build on that success, possibly even providing them Sam & Dave with their first chart-topper, but it was not to be: the album didn’t even crack the Billboard Top 200, and as it was, it only made it to #38 on the R&B chart.
But let’s get back to that title track, which was a hit, providing Sam & Dave with another top-10 success on the Billboard Hot 100 (#9) while also taking them to #3 on the R&B singles chart. And while we’ve already mentioned how ZZ Top brought the song to a whole new generation of listeners as well as into a new musical genre, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the similar success of the B-side, “Wrap It Up,” which – in addition to being on the I Thank You album as well – provided The Fabulous Thunderbirds with a minor hit (#50) in 1986.
Although Sam & Dave found less chart action with the album’s next single, “You Don’t Know What You Mean to Me,” which only hit #48 on the pop charts and #20 on the R&B charts, and “Everybody Got to Believe in Somebody” fared even worse (it hit #73 on the pop charts, and that was the sum total of its success), there’s no doubt that I Thank You has come to be viewed as a great album through and through. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, other memorable moments come courtesy of the duo’s cover of Otis Redding’s “These Arms of Mine,” further contributions from Isaac Hayes and David Porter (“If I Didn’t Have a Girl Like You,” “Talk to the Man,” “Don’t Waste That Love,” and “Love is After Me,” which the duo wrote with Steve Cropper), and, to close things out, a cover of “That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day).” Oh, and we almost forgot: although they never released their version as a single, the guys kick some serious ass on “Ain’t That a Lot of Love.”
You can’t go wrong with a Sam & Dave greatest-hits collection, but if you give I Thank You a spin, you’ll find a studio album that’s just as enduring.
