Album: Be Altitude: Respect Yourself
Year: 1972
. . .
I’m not really sure why The Staple Singers don’t seem to have garnered the same lasting buzz that some of their soul compatriots from the same era have. But I’m guessing that it came down to presentation: they didn’t have the same flamboyance that peers like Sly & The Family Stone, Aretha Franklin or James Brown had. They were always low-key.
Part of it might have been that they were a family act, but that didn’t seem to stop The Jackson 5, though that’s hardly fair, given that Michael Jackson was clearly a major talent from the start.
I think that maybe part of it was that their leader was in his mid-50s, an impossibly old age for a generation that had talked about never trusting anybody over 30 — and how well did that age, anyways, Boomers? — but I think that the best Staple Singers songs definitely hold up with anything that came from that period, like today’s song, “Respect Yourself,” a low-key political anthem that features that leader, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, singing the first verse.
If you disrespect anybody
That you run in to
How in the world do you think
Anybody’s supposed to respect you?
Pops vocals, of course, perfectly compliment the lowdown slinky groove provided by the Muscle Shoals Rhythm section, and with Mavis, Cleotha & Purvis all coming in on the vocals here and there, “Respect Yourself” is continually surprising, while always nailing it on the chorus.
Respect yourself (na na na na na)
Respect yourself (de de de de de)
If you don’t respect yourself
Ain’t nobody gonna give a good cahoot, na, na, na, na
Respect yourself (na na na na)
Respect yourself (de de de de)
After the first chorus, they switch it up, letting Mavis take the lead vocals. But it ain’t so simple like that, and one of the things I love about the vocals on “Respect Yourself” is that they’re so untidy: you never know who is going to sing what where. And even if’s inevitable that the mighty Mavis is going shout the title track a few times before the track fades out, that doesn’t make it any less thrilling.
Also: it might be the only hit single using the phrase “give a good cahoot” in pop music history
“Respect Yourself” was an even bigger single than “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom-Boom),” making it to #12 on the U.S. pop charts and #2 on the Billboard R&B Charts. Which sadly, wasn’t the highest this song ever charted, as Bruce Willis took advantage of his Moonlighting fame and put a shitty 80s version of it into the top 5. Shame on you, 1986. Shame on you.
“Respect Yourself” Official Lyric Video
“Respect Yourself” Live 1972
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