Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club
Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club is the debut album by soul singer Billy Paul. The album was produced by Billy Paul and released by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Gamble Records in 1968. The Toots Thielemans song "Bluesette" was released as a single but failed to chart as did the album. The LP was re-released with new cover art in 1973 on Philadelphia International Records but again failed to chart. Big Break Records remastered the album for re-release on CD in 2014 with new liner notes and an interview with  Billy Paul. Release and critical reaction. Despite its title, the album is not a live recording but a studio creation based on Paul's live act, which he regularly performed at Philadelphia's Cadillac and other clubs. Paul recalled: "[The Cadillac] was a famous, famous club. Aretha Franklin worked there. Me and George Benson used to work there all the time." Located at 3738 Germantown Ave. in North Philadelphia, the Cadillac opened in 1965 and was run by Benjamin and Ruth Bynum before becoming the Impulse Discothèque in 1977. Benjamin booked the entertainers, Ruth handled the finances, and their two  young sons Robert and Benjamin Jr. worked at the club. Benjamin Jr., who with his brother followed in their parents' footsteps and ran their own jazz club Zanzibar Blue from 1990-2007 and collaborated with Gamble & Huff on The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP) nightclub and restaurant, recalled how as a young boy he met entertainers like Gladys Knight & the Pips who regularly visited the family's house when they were in town to play at the Cadillac: "Most times I was in bed. Mostly I look at pictures and remember stories about how my mother pierced Aretha Franklin's ears  for the evening. But I don't honestly even remember how old I was when that happened." Paul had been somewhat of a child prodigy singing in jazz clubs and cutting a handful of singles in the 1950s. Toward the end of the 1960s, Paul and his wife and manager Blanche Williams had invested $365 of their own money toward recording a Billy Paul album. One night in 1967 at Philadelphia's Sahara club on 15th and South Streets, Kenny Gamble caught Paul's show. Gamble recalled: "I got talking to Billy about coming to Gamble Records. Billy had  gone and recorded a few things on himself and he wanted three more sides to make an album. So we went in the studios and cut three things and we put them on the album "Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club". Paul recalled their meeting: "I was singing in a jazz club called the Sahara. He had a record shop on South St & Philly - right round the corner and I was singing with a trio at the Sahara club on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He came over and said 'I am starting a record company and I would like to  sign you.' and behold I took all the material I sung every weekend and I did an album in three and a half hours – a whole album. I had this album, and I produced it – me and my wife. And we gave him this album called "Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club" to help start the record company and that was the album that helped start it up." The finished work was the second album on Gamble & Huff's new label (the first was The Intruders debut LP). The LP's original liner notes were an early attempt to market  Paul as more than simply a one-dimensional jazz vocalist: In its February 10, 1968 issue, "Billboard" listed the album as one of its "New Action LP's". Yet neither the album, nor its single "Bluesette" / "Somewhere" (Gamble G-232), drew much attention. Author John A. Jackson suggested that the problem was less with the music than with the inherent difficulty independent labels faced in promoting their artists: "Gamble and Huff fared no better marketing Billy Paul's light jazz vocals than they did with their underachieving soul artists. His debut album went virtually unnoticed." As they did with "Ebony Woman  Gamble & Huff decided to reissue this album after the success of Me and Mrs. Jones" and the "360 Degrees of Billy Paul" album. The LP's new liner notes were written by music journalist Jean-Charles Costa: Allmusic's Ron Wynn gave the album three out of five stars and said: "Paul might have been successful in jazz; if he emerged in the '80s or '90s doing this kind of supper-club/cabaret fare, he would immediately be routed into the adult contemporary and Quiet Storm market and probably be a huge hit. On the album's 2014 reissue, Joe  Marchese of "The Second Disc" noted: "Though it’s far from a typical 'soul' album, one listen reveals just how much soul always resided within Billy Paul." Track listing. Side 1 Side 2