Norman Harris (October 14, 1947 – March 20, 1987) was an American guitarist, producer, arranger and songwriter, closely associated with Philly soul. He was a founding member of MFSB, the Philadelphia studio band, and one of the Baker-Harris-Young record production trio. (More from Wikipedia)
Mikki Farrow co-wrote one of the songs on The Ice Man Cometh, “(Strange) I Still Love You” with Jerry Butler and Norman Harris; she had previously participated in a songwriters’ workshop hosted by Jerry Butler in Chicago. According to the book A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul by John A. Jackson, the uncredited female vocals on the two Jerry Butler albums, The Ice Man Cometh and Ice on Ice were by Mikki Farrow, Jean Thomas and Tina Thomas. “(Strange) I Still Love You” was later included on Margie Joseph’s 1974 album, Sweet Surrender.
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Apparently the only album made by Mikki Farrow is simply called Mikki; it has a brightly colored front cover and not much else. There are no songwriter, producer, arranger, or musician credits (only music publishing companies are given); the credits say only that the Dub Mix of “Itching for Love” was remixed by Sergio Munzibai and John Morales. (The 12-inch single shows the songwriters of “Itching for Love” as being Mikki Farrow, Norman Harris, and Eugene “Lambchops” Curry). Zak Master Funk, writing on a French-language blog (zakmasterfunk.blogspot.com) says that this “superb” album was produced by Mikki Farrow and Norman Harris (“The Harris Machine” is how he puts it), who also plays guitar; Jimmy Williams is the bassist.
The blog dustygroove.com has a rave review of Mikki: “Late Philly soul – a batch of smooth modern numbers sung by Mikki and featuring production and arrangements by Norman Harris! The centerpiece of the album is the club track ‘Itching for Love’, which is presented here in both a long vocal and dub version – but there’s actually some great mellow tracks on the record that we like even more – nice tunes that hit a midtempo or slower groove, done with a confident female vocal style that sounds a bit like later Jean Carn. Titles include ‘Itching for Love’, ‘He Is’, ‘Never Enough Time’, ‘Look Before You Leap’, and ‘Right In The Middle’.”
“My Lord, Sweet Lord” is a lovely gospel number that starts Side 2; Mikki ended her music career in gospel music. The full name of the most ambitious song on the album (and one of my favorites) is “He Is (What Every Woman Should Know About Her Man)”.
(July 2014)
