It’s another song of Arkansas: Harvey Scales
December 17-23, 2018
by Stephen Koch
“Arkansongs”
Arkansawyer Harvey Scales was born 1941 in Osceola in Mississippi County and had his greatest musical success as a songwriter rather than performer. Scales grew up in Milwaukee, and is often misidentified as a Wisconsin native. But his adopted Midwestern hometown has embraced Scales as a local hero, where he is still known as “Twistin’ Harvey,” which was his musical moniker in the early 1960s.
Around this same time, Scales and his bass-playing friend Al Vance formed the band Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds. The group released several singles on the local Cuca record label, but its biggest hit was on the Magic Touch label – “Love-Itis,” which cracked the R&B top 40 in 1967, with the song “Get Down” on the flipside.
In 1970, Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds had another dance-oriented hit, “The Funky Yolk” on Chess Records of Chicago, Illinois, but soon Harvey Scales dropped the Seven Sounds band name and came into his own as a songwriter and performer. Scales signed with Stax Records of Memphis, Tennessee, which distributed Magic Touch, and was headed by fellow Arkansawyer Al Bell, who was born in Brinkley in Monroe County and grew up in North Little Rock. Scales was soon writing songs for Stax artists such as the Dramatics, as well as appearing on his own Stax singles, such as March 1972’s “What’s Good For You (Don’t Have to be Good To You).”
Stax Records folded in the mid-1970s, but Harvey Scales landed on his feet, especially as a writer. His “Disco Lady” was one of the biggest hits of the mid-1970s and the biggest song of fellow Arkansawyer Johnnie Taylor of Crawfordsville’s career. The 1976 smash was the first song to be certified platinum, indicated by sales of one million or more.
The next year, Johnnie Taylor had a follow-up number three hit with another Harvey Scales song, “Love is Better In the A.M.” And other groups like the Dells, the O’Jays, the Sonics, Instant Funk and the J. Geils Band were cutting Harvey Scales songs.
Harvey Scales was at his hottest, and he got a solo deal with Casablanca Records, an eclectic label that was home to Donna Summer, the Village People, George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic, Cher and KISS. Scales recorded two albums for the label, 1978’s Confidential Affair and 1979’s Hot Foot: A Funky Disco Opera.
The Mississippi County native had a minor UK hit in the mid-1980s with “Spend the Night Forever,” but like many American R&B and blues performers in the 1980s and into the 1990s, the marketplace back home was less welcoming. Scales continued recording, albeit more sporadically.
Meanwhile, DJs, rappers and hip-hop producers were discovering the sounds of Harvey Scales in record shops and sampling them. “Golden age of hip-hop”-era artists including the Beastie Boys, Pete Rock, Soul II Soul and Biz Markee are among the many hip-hop artists and rappers who have sampled beats from Harvey Scales songs.
Scales continues to perform in southeast Wisconsin; meanwhile, Scales’s son, Harvey Scales Junior, is a Milwaukee-based rapper who goes by the name of “Scalez” with a Z, continuing on the Scales family musical tradition.
LISTENING:
“Spend the Night Forever”
“Love-Itis”
“What’s Good For You (Don’t Have to be Good To You)”
“Broadway Freeze”
Arkansawyer Stephen Koch is a musician, award-winning reporter and editor, and author of Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B (History Press). He’s spoken and performed in places ranging from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to festivals in the UK. Koch’s weekly “Arkansongs” program is syndicated on National Public Radio affiliates across the state.
