The Music › Al Wilson
What Happened
The Snake breaks the story Northern Soul tells about itself. It reached number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and 32 R&B. America did not throw this one away. Soul City was in the best health of its life, Johnny Rivers produced the session, and Britain had the record in shops the same year and ignored it until Bell reissued it in 1975. It is not a soul song either. Oscar Brown Jr, a Chicago jazz poet and civil rights activist, wrote it in 1963 from an Aesop fable, and Rivers had already recorded it himself two years before signing Wilson. Wilson later took Show and Tell to number one in America. Britain took the fable instead.
Three Facts
- Number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in autumn 1968.
- Arranged by the jazz writer Marty Paich.
- Oscar Brown Jr. wrote it in 1963 from an Aesop fable.
The Credits
| Label | Soul City |
|---|---|
| Catalogue | 767 |
| Year | 1968 |
| Writer | Oscar Brown Jr. |
| Producer | Johnny Rivers |
| Other side | Getting Ready For Tomorrow, written by Willie Hutch |
Artwork from Northern Soul Classics.
Hear It Where
It Belongs
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