The two young songwriters and musicians had put the group name “Independents” on the hub label for “Just As Long As You Need Me,” so now they needed to actually assemble a band. In spring 1972, it hit the top ten on the R&B chart. Soaked in gorgeous string arrangements, with a softly spoken intro and bulletproof vocal harmonies, the song exemplified the Chicago sweet soul sound (with a touch of that smooth Philly vibe a la Gamble & Huff). Former Impressions manager Eddie Thomas, impressed by their demo “Just As Long As You Need Me,” pitched it to Scepter Records subsidiary Wand in New York.

They ended up writing eight together, and though the Aretha plan didn’t pan out, the duo did decide to form a new group. Yancy and Chuck Jackson began working on songs to potentially pitch to Aretha Franklin. The first Independents song, “Just As Long As You Need Me,” was also the group’s first hit. The writers who networked there generated material for Butler and many other artists-including dozens of charting singles-before it dissolved in 1976. Butler had launched the workshop in 1970 because he’d lost the services of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff at Mercury, and he needed songs to fulfill his recording contract. When he heard from a friend about a songwriting workshop sponsored by soul singer Jerry “Iceman” Butler, he quit that Playboy job to join it. Music still had a powerful hold on Jackson, though. After Jackson left school in 1964, he joined an R&B band, and in 1968 he moved to Chicago to work as an art director for Playboy. Yancy attended the Moody Bible Institute, and Jackson studied commercial art and music at Furman University in South Carolina. Yancy was born in Chicago on May 31, 1950, the son of a Baptist minister, and he began playing in his dad’s church at age 13. His mother sang in church, and Jackson learned gospel fundamentals in school and church choirs. Jackson was born March 22, 1945, in Greenville, North Carolina.

The Independents were formed by the songwriting pair of singer Chuck Jackson and pianist Marvin Yancy ( covered by the Secret History of Chicago Music a couple years ago). Righteous Chicago soul group the Independents didn’t catalyze a musical revolution of their own, but they still prove the point: they formed in part as a consequence of key developments during the last years of the civil rights movement. Often the artists themselves respond by creating new aesthetics or philosophies. Since 2005 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.Īll forms of art speak of their time, and during events of historical significance, art reliably reflects those changes, whether overtly or subtly. The Independents Credit: Steve Krakow for Chicago Reader Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation.

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