Doris Jones - He's So Irreplaceable

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I was only a mere twenty two years old when I wrote and produced this timeless classic. It was done at The House Of Music studios, in West Orange, New Jersey. The male lead member of the Exciters, Herb Rooney, was supposed to find me three new artists to co-produce with him. He failed spectacularly, after weakly presenting a talentless bunch of no hopers, and so a huge argument ensued, and my father wanted his money back, so Herb very very reluctantly took me to the apartment of Doris Jones, lead singer of his group The Electric Ladies. I fell in love on the spot, and for her audition she sang her version of Esther Phillips "I Never Loved A Man". We then wrote two glorious songs, HE'S SO IRREPLACEABLE and STRANDED IN THE WILDERNESS, in a December winter that was so cold that if you walked outside your eyeballs froze. The Ellington Sisters sang the backing vocals and I remember when their car got snowed in. That entire horrendously problematic recording session, including The Exciters, Tyrone Ashley, and Carol Woods, was my baptism of fire. I flew in Paul David Wilson from Chicago to do the string arrangements. Patrick Adams played the piano and the vibes. Stan Lucas was on guitar. A studio of the most amazing and renowned session musicians. Forty seven years later, Doris's Motownesque vocal still gives me utter goosebumps. We signed her to Brian Epstein's label NEMS, but apart from some Northern Soul plays, the records became consigned to memory as overlooked and underrated.