BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1978

DISCO FRIDAY!

Linda Clifford (born June 14, 1948, New York) is an American R&B, disco and house music singer and actress, who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably “If My Friends Could See Me Now”, “Bridge over Troubled Water”, “Runaway Love” and “Red Light”.

“If My Friends Could See Me Now”, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, is a number from the 1966 Broadway musical Sweet Charity. In the musical, the character of Charity, played in original New York cast by Gwen Verdon, reflects on her charmed life as she spends time with Vittorio. In the 1969 film adaptation of Sweet Charity, “If My Friends Could See Me Now” is performed by Shirley MacLaine.

In 1978 Linda Clifford released an album entitled If My Friends Could See Me Now featuring a disco version of the Sweet Charity number of that name. Clifford – who had been an extra in the filmation of Sweet Charity – originally responded negatively to the suggestion – made by a secretary at Curtom Records – that she record a dance version of “If My Friends Could See Me Now” “because I thought it would be sacrilegious. I’ve always been a theatre buff, so this [would be] a no-no….Then they recorded [the backing track] anyway and brought it to me, and I said, ‘Ooh, I like that.’ Once I heard the music I was like, ‘It’s different but it’s the same.'” Clifford would recall how subsequent to her success with “If My Friends Could See Me Now” Cy Coleman would “[call] in to a radio station that I was being interviewed on and thanked me over the air for doing his song and bringing it to the masses.”

“If My Friends Could See Me Now” in tandem with two other album tracks: “Gypsy Lady” and “Runaway Love”, hit #1 on the Billboard disco chart dated April 29, 1978 remaining at #1 for a total of five weeks. Released as a 7″ single in August 1978 – “Runaway Love” having been the lead 7″ single from the If My Friends… album – “If My Friends Could See Me Now” reached #56 on the Billboard Hot 100 with an R&B chart peak of #68. In the UK “If My Friends Could See Me Now” was issued as the A-side of a 7″ single – with “Runaway Love” as the B-side – in May 1978 failing to become a major UK hit with a peak of #50 on the UK chart dated June 24, 1978.

SIDE A:
If My Friends Could See Me Now 10:12
Written-By – C. Coleman*, D. Fields*

SIDE B:
Gypsy Lady 9:58
Engineer – R. Anfinsen*
Producer – Curtis Mayfield
Remix – J. Simpson*
Written-By – C. Mayfield*, G. Askey*

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint (generic)

CHARTS:

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Curtom ‎– DISCO PRO-A-709
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1978
Genre: Funk / Soul
Style: Disco
Credits: Producer, Arranged By – Gil Askey

NOTES:
Special Disco versions taken from the LP,
“If My Friends Could See Me Now”

Find The 12″ On DISCOGS

EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner

SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi