Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Diamond/Emerald/Jade/Pearl/Ruby/Sapphire.”
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Performed by Sonny Charles and The Checkmates, Black Pearl was a 1969 hit; #8 on the R&B chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Written by Phil Spector, Toni Wine, and Irwin Levine, the song is described as “one of the great Phil Spector productions, a phenomenal song with his extraordinary sound.” Black Pearl was arranged by composer Perry Botkin, Jr. who would win a Grammy Award nearly a decade later for Nadia’s Theme, the theme song from daytime soap opera, The Young and the Restless.
The single ranked #66 on Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1969.
FUN FACT:
- From Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Checkmates began as Checkmates, Ltd. They were discovered by Nancy Wilson and included both black and white members.
- The group broke up in 1970, but reunited in 1974 for a few more years. They performed on the same billing as Frank Sinatra and Herb Alpert, and sang the National anthem for the Thrilla in Manila–the final boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier–in 1975.
- Sonny Charles joined and toured with the Steve Miller Band from 2008 until 2012.
- On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Checkmates, Ltd. among hundreds of artists who lost material in the 2008 Universal fire.
Enjoy!
See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!
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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.
Black Pearl
Hey, hey, my-my-my-my
Black pearl, precious little girl
Let me put you up where you belong
Black pearl, pretty little girl
You’ve been in the background much too long
Tending other peoples houses, raising up their children too
Hey, how bout something for me and you?
Here in my arms you’re gonna reign supreme
No more serving, baby, they’re gonna serve my queen
It’s our turn for happiness and our day has come
Living for each other and answering to no one
Let me put you up where you belong because I love you
Black pearl, pretty little girl
You’ve been in the background much too long
Together we’ll stand so straight and so tall
Created by love to love one and all, hey
Heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul
No other one could ever take your place
My world is built around the very smile that’s on your face
You’ll never win a beauty show, no, they won’t pick you
But you’re my Miss America and I love you
Let me put you up where you belong, I will lead you
Black pearl, pretty little girl
You’ve been in the background much too long
You know I need you, you know I want you, want you for myself
I don’t want nobody else, oh babe I love you, you know I need you
You know I got to-got to-got to have you
Come on baby, come on, come on and be my baby
You know I love you, ooh-ooh
Be mine, nobody else have you, come on baby love
Ah, I love you, and I need you and I want you, want you for myself
Come on baby, I love you, hey-hey-hey
I really need you baby love and I want you
Felicia Denise, Author 
Another brilliant choice. I went old this week too.
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Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
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This is really a lovely song and thanks for contributing all of your prompts Felicia.
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Thanks, Jim, and you’re welcome! I have other ideas to send you but will wait a bit and give more of the SLS crew time to share theirs. Happy Easter! 🐣
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I hope that you enjoy your Easter as well. I have 4 or 5 prompts ready to go, but this April A to Z is really taking up a lot of mt time.
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I can relate! Doing CampNaNoWriMo and getting three books ready to publish over the summer keeps me frazzled! 😄
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Beautiful song, first time hearing it. It does have that Wall of Sound that makes it so lush.
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Glad you enjoyed it! It’s a great song and Phil definitely had the magic!
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🙂
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I love ‘Black Pearl’ and tried to find a copy, but it is out of print. Thanks for sharing.
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Wouldn’t it be great if we could get old music classics on-demand the way we do books? I’d stay broke! 😄
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Another excellent choice! I love SLS so much! Sharing songs is so much fun! 🙂
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I have to admit, my initial participation was supposed to be temporary… and now I’m in year three! LOL! I’m hooked and enjoy sharing music too. And I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of good people… like you! 🙂
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Thank you Felicia! I feel the same way. It certainly makes the large world we live in a lot smaller. 😊
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For some reason this sounds really familiar. Maybe it’s just the sound of it as a lot of songs back then had the same. This is a lovely song. 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it! ☺
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