CLEANING OLD RECORD PHOTOS OUT OF MY PHONE BINGE: Now THIS is a great song. You’ve heard it at CVS or in a supermarket, and it was a hit when it came out in the early ‘90s, but everyone thinks it is from the late 1960s because it evokes that classic Motown/Stax vibe so well. An instant classic, Charles & Eddie’s sole hit, “Would I Lie To You,” may pay homage to the Temptations, Otis Redding and other male R&B acts of the Sixties, but it has so much energy and conviction that it doesn’t feel like a throwback or a pastiche; more like a 5-star track uncovered 25 years later in a tape vault. Everything in this works—the arrangement is exploding with confidence, while the lyrics are exactly what you want from this kind of track, simple but not simplistic. And the vocals? Stellar. When they ad lib that massive “Whooo” just before the final chorus, it is the sound of singers caught up in the moment, joyous, rapturous, enthralled with life itself.
