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"I Found Love On A Lonely Highway" Jeff Floyd (21st Century) Composed by Jeff Floyd
Note: Jeff Floyd also appears on Daddy B. Nice's original Top 100 Southern Soul Artists (90's-00's). The "21st Century" after Jeff Floyd's name in the headline is to distinguish his artist-guide entries on this page from his artist-guide page on Daddy B. Nice's original chart.
March 23, 2013:
"I Found Love On A Lonely Highway," Jeff Floyd's romantic and melodic masterpiece of Southern Soul, sounded great when it was released in 2000, and it sounds just as great thirteen years later. The swinging anthem quickly became Jeff Floyd's signature single and it remains so to this day.
The Jacksonville, Florida native's husky tenor belts out the lyrics over one of the most accomplished rhythm tracks and full-blown arrangements in the history of contemporary Southern Soul. At seven-plus minutes, the song is the genre's "MacArthur Park," full of extremes of coloration, tempo, scope and emotion.
If fellow-Floridian Latimore's early-seventies' super-anthem "Let's Straighten It Out" can be said to be the template for all the voice-overs and emotionally-direct approaches to love southern soul-style since, then Jeff Floyd's "I Found Love On A Lonely Highway" can be said to have created the template for emotional directness in a romantic vehicle.
Jeff Floyd's "I Found Love On A Lonely Highway" started out at #25 on Daddy B. Nice's first Top 100 Southern Soul Songs (90's-00's) chart, and over the years inched up to the #21 position. With the demise of many of the chart's top stars (Johnnie Taylor, Marvin Sease, Tyrone Davis, Little Milton, etc.) and the song's longevity and popularity in the intervening years, "I Found Love" now occupies the #14 spot on Daddy B. Nice's Top 200 Songs (00's-10's).
Jeff's subsequent career has been exemplary if not spectacular, marked by solid CD's and a few, incandescent singles ("Someone's Gonna Lose A Good Woman Tonight," "I Got My Woman Upset," "Let's Git It On," "Loving Someone On The Outside," "Lock My Door" and "Using Me," released sparingly over (usual) four-year intervals.
To read more about Jeff Floyd's "I Found Love (On A Lonely Highway)," go to Daddy B. Nice's Original Artist Guide to Jeff Floyd.
--Daddy B. Nice
About Jeff Floyd (21st Century)
Jeff Floyd was born in 1965 in Jacksonville, Florida. He sang gospel as a child and became a multi-instrumentalist in demand in the Jacksonville-Daytona area as he grew older. His band, Jazz Jeff Floyd & The Sweat Band, played regularly at the Contemporary Jazz Lounge in Jacksonville in addition to opening for touring R&B acts that came through in the nineties.
Floyd produced a CD titled Changing Times on a private label (Jeff Floyd Music) that was reissued in Japan (P-Vine 1993). Both are now out of print, but Amazon is currently selliing a new mp3 of the title tune only, "Changing Times.")
Powerhouse, Jeff Floyd's breakthrough disc, with "I Found Love (On A Lonely Highway)" as the opening and, at seven minutes, the centerpiece track, appeared on Wilbe Records in 2000.
Wilbe was (and still is) owned by former Stax singer/songwriter William Bell, who became Floyd's mentor, perennial studio background vocalist and occasional co-singer. Wilbe's resident technical producer, Reginald "Wizard" Jones, also began working with Floyd as his guitarist, keyboardist and arranger/producer in a collaboration that has spanned Floyd's career.
"When Southern Soul deejays are in a romantic mood, it's usually Ollie Nightingale's 'She's In A Midnight Mood' or Jeff Floyd's 'I Found Love On A Lonely Highway' that they queue up," Daddy B. Nice wrote in 2005 about the success and longevity of what had already become Jeff Floyd's signature song. Nightingale has since faded from the scene, but Jeff Floyd's "I Found Love On A Lonely Highway" still gets "classic" spins.
The release of The Power Is Still On (Wilbe, 2004) heartened fans who wanted to hear more from Floyd. In addition to the chitlin' circuit hit, "I Got My Woman Upset," the album featured a mellow, guitar-hook-driven duet with William Bell, "Somebody's Gonna Lose A Good Woman Tonight," which also became a romantic staple of Southern Soul stations.
Eventually, The Power Is Still On also introduced durable radio singles in "You Had It All," "King Size Bed" and "Lovin' Someone On The Outside."
After another three to four year hiatus from recording, Jeff Floyd returned with his third Wilbe release. Keepin' It Real showcased a new, extended song in the mode of "I Found Love On A Lonely Highway." In a generally dismissive review of the single in 2008, Daddy B. Nice nevertheless admitted that "It's possible "Lock My Door" sounds as good to the new generation as 'I Found Love (On A Lonely Highway)' sounded to us."
"Lock My Door" went on to become a staple of Floyd's concerts. Other notable singles from Keepin' It Real: "Shake Somethin' Loose," "A Woman's Worth" (featuring William Bell) and "Last Call (For Alcohol)."
After his accustomed four-year interval, Floyd published his fourth Wilbe offering, Watch Me Work (2012), highlighted by the pounding, uptempo "Using Me" and the usual Jeff Floyd/Reginald "Wizard" Jones "live" rhythm section and guitars/keyboards.
"Party Time," a second single from this tightly-controlled, sparingly-heard album, was released just as this biography was being posted in March of 2013.
Song's Transcendent Moment
"I gave up a long, long time ago.
I didn't want it.
I didn't need it.
Love and I don't get along no more.
But she said, "Pull over,
I want to talk to you."
You all know sometimes
Your heart gets in the way
Of what your mind's trying to tell you."
Tidbits
1.
March 17, 2013: YouTube Videos for Jeff Floyd
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Let's Git It On" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "I Got My Woman Upset" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Lovin' Someone On The Outside" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Lock My Door" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd and William Bell singing "Somebody's Gonna Lose A Good Woman Tonight" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "I Found Love On A Lonely Highway on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "I Found Love On A Lovely Highway" Live Onstage on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "I'm Giving You My Private Number" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "King Size Bed" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Shake Something Loose" Live Onstage on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "9 To 5" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Lock My Door" Live Onstage at Spring Fling in Mobile, Alabama on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "I Found Love On A Lonely Highway" Live Onstage in Lafayette, Louisiana on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "You Had It All" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Changing Times" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Hand On It" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd and William Bell singing "Somebody's Gonna Lose A Good Woman Tonight" with celebrity photos by Big K-9 on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Let's Git It On" and other tunes at Mobile, Alabama's Spring Fling on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing live onstage at his 2010 Birthday Party on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Face Down" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "That Body" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "You Had It All" Live Onstage at White Hall, Alabama on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "All I Need" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Miss You" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd doing an interview with Doctor Love on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd singing "Party All Night" on YouTube.
Listen to Jeff Floyd's post-concert interview in Lafayette, Louisiana on YouTube.
If You Liked. . . You'll Love
If you liked Jimmy Ruffin's "What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted," you'll love Jeff Floyd's "I Found Love (On A Lonely Highway)."
Honorary "B" Side
"Someone's Gonna Lose A Good Woman Tonight "
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I Found Love On A Lonely Highway
CD: Powerhouse
Label: Wilbe
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Someone's Gonna Lose A Good Woman Tonight
CD: The Power Is Still On
Label: Wilbe
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I Got My Woman Upset
CD: The Power Is Still On
Label: Wilbe
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Let's Git It On (I'm Going To Make It Right)
CD: Powerhouse
Label: Wilbe
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Lock My Door
CD: Keepin' It Real
Label: Wilbe
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You Had It All
CD: The Power Is Still On
Label: Wilbe
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A Woman's Worth
CD: Keepin' It Real
Label: Wilbe
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King Size Bed
CD: The Power Is Still On
Label: Wilbe
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Lovin' Someone On The Outside
CD: The Power Is Still On
Label: Wilbe
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Using Me
CD: Watch Me Work
Label: Wilbe
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Sample or Buy
Watch Me Work |
Last Call (For Alcohol)
CD: Keepin' It Real
Label: Wilbe
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Shake Something Loose
CD: Keepin' It Real
Label: Wilbe
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That Body
CD: Keepin' It Real
Label: Wilbe
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