In My Mind: The Temptations' 'Silent Night' - One Song, Two Versions

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DJ Sir Daniel: Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast.

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I am DJ Sir Daniel.

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And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government as Johnnie Ray

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Kornegay, the third and Sir Daniel.

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I think we're about to blow some minds

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DJ Sir Daniel: today.

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Listen, we wouldn't be Queue Points unless we dropped a little gem in your

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Christmas stockings like we always do.

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So check this out.

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The holidays are in full effect.

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And Jay Ray, we've actually uncovered this gem a while ago, a couple, and it's in one

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of our, um, Tick tocks or what is that?

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But yeah, in one of our tick tocks and one of our sizzle reels, but we thought

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it would be very interesting to bring this back as a matter of fact, when you

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get finished watching this episode, we want you to go and check out our "Carols

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and Culture" episode in the archives.

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If you're subscribed, you know how to find it.

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If you're not subscribed, do that now.

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Yes.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Ray, I want you to have the honor of informing our audience of

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this little known fact about a soulful Christmas classic by The Temptations.

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Oh, Sir Daniel.

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In Black households,

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DJ Sir Daniel: hmm.

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Yes.

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are certain songs that represent the holiday season, and And as Black

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folks, we will name a song, something that is not named and we refer, and many people

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will refer to this song as in my mind,

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DJ Sir Daniel: The In My Mind song.

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Yep.

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my mind song, that is not the title of the song.

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The song is actually "Silent Night".

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It is the temptations version of "Silent Night" and in Black

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households during the holidays.

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And on radio, you will hear this song ad nauseum, it is beautiful.

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It's the temptations.

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It represents the holiday and it represents Black culture.

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Sir Daniel, there are two versions of "Silent Night" by the temptations

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that were recorded in two completely different eras of the temptations career.

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And the one that we know the most.

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Is the second version.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Ain't that something?

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Now tell us, when was the first one recorded?

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I am so glad you asked this Sir Daniel.

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So here's how we stumbled onto this fact y'all.

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So Sir Daniel just mentioned, go listen to the carols and culture episode.

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did this episode called carols and culture because we wanted to talk about the

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impact of Black Christmas music, right?

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And so we use this article, the best Black Christmas albums of

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all time ranked, it included.

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"The Temptations Christmas Card", which for us was just like, Oh,

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"The Temptations Christmas Card".

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It has "Silent Night" on it.

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That album ranked number two.

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on that chart.

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We thought nothing of it.

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One day we decided to play "The Temptations Christmas Card" and that

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is the moment that we figured out,

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DJ Sir Daniel: Wait a minute.

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This ain't it.

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This ain't it.

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DJ Sir Daniel: What is this?

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Okay.

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Temptations had many lineups, so this is the third version.

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Um, Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and

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Otis Williams was in this version of The Temptations at the time.

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This song,

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uh, was actually done or sang live by Eddie Kendricks.

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So Eddie Kendricks sings the 1970 version of "Silent Night" from

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"The Temptations Christmas Card".

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This song was, um, produced by Barrett Strong And Clay McMurray and what

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the, what the, uh, Temptations were doing at the time is they were kind

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of infusing like a little seventies funk into some Christmas stuff

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and really became like their first kind of foray into holiday music.

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This is not the version of the song that most people know.

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of the song that most people know was recorded in 1980.

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So this is the version of the Temptations.

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This version of the Temptations.

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still Dennis Edwards, but it was Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard

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Street, Glenn Leonard, and Otis Williams.

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Otis is in every version of The Temptations.

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Um, so, but 1980 was, this was "Give Love At Christmas", and, uh, this album was

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produced by Gil Askey, uh, Gil Askey, and it was like a smooth jazz R& B, version

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of, uh, the Christmas album by the temps.

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they had this version of the little drummer boy on there, which is actually

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the version of the little drummer boy that most people know as well.

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It's kind of like a funky groove and also includes the timeless

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temptations version, which we lovingly refer to as "Silent Night".

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In my mind.

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DJ Sir Daniel: In my mind.

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No.

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You know, I've been to several Christmas parties in the past where,

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you know, after a site of, I think it was, it was, it was a cowboy.

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If I believe it was DJ cowboy with love after we've, you know, getting

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people up into a sweat would drop, um, "Silent Night" just to break it up in

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the middle of the set and it turned into this huge, huge sing along and

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you know, that moment of in my mind.

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It was like, I don't care where you go, where you put Black people.

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There's going to be a moment when we get to, we could become

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a unified choir and we are all going to sing in unison in my mind.

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And it's one of the most glorious things that you can ever witness.

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And if you're a DJ out there listening to this, try it, drop it, drop it

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in the set and see what happens.

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If you clear out the floor.

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Don't blame me, but go ahead and let us know what happens.

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Um, and also what I find very interesting about this, um, this version and what

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the temptations were very skillful at doing was marrying a falsetto

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hmm.

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Oh yeah,

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DJ Sir Daniel: And,

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Silence.

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DJ Sir Daniel: male groups to come along and give us an offering.

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Of a Christmas classic.

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And yeah, yeah.

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Cause I don't think has Jodeci ever done any Christmas classics?

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Not that I can think of.

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Not that I can think of.

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Definitely let us know, folks.

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And Sir Daniel, I'm wondering your thoughts, because you mentioned

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something that I think is really important that is missing today.

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And we also included this.

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So if you follow, um, Queue PointsMag, talk about this.

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I think theory, DJ Sir Daniel normally has the theories, but I have a Jay Ray

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DJ Sir Daniel: It's Jay Ray's time.

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Yes.

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I think that one of the reasons this song endures is because

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of the distinction of the Black male voice is very clear on this song,

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yes.

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So,

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DJ Sir Daniel: The range.

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Yes.

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Mm hmm.

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Hmm.

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which is a gravelly, you've got an Otis Williams in the, in the,

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in the bottom, you know what I mean?

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so there's this very clear range of voices, but it's all anchored

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by this distinctly deep male voice that we do not hear music and

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pop culture pretty much anymore.

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Right?

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so I'm also thinking that the reason why this song indoors, um,

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so much is it also represents, um, that connection to that sound.

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Of voices which we just don't get because one we don't even have a

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lot of vocal groups anymore The temptations were a proper vocal group

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DJ Sir Daniel: days.

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Not in groups.

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And just to, so Jodeci does not have a Christmas album.

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However, like Casey and Jojo have a few like Christmas or holiday

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offerings on their solo projects.

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And I'm pretty certain maybe a gospel project here or there, but as

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far as the male groups of concern.

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Yeah, we don't have that anymore.

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I think, and we've discussed this.

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We have a couple of episodes where we celebrate Black male voices.

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Um, I think it was a series.

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We talked about, uh, Teddy Pentagrass, um, Barry White, Isaac Hayes.

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Make sure you go back and check out those episodes because we celebrate those

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Black voices that we don't get anymore.

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Uh, we talked about Maxwell who, uh, And himself can, has been able to do both.

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Yeah.

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DJ Sir Daniel: will give you a falsetto and then he'll go down in the

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basement and give you something else.

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So there's a range and maybe it's a reflection of, Oh God, I don't want

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to sound, start sounding like one of those podcasts about, well, you know,

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Black men nowadays, or, you know, I think it might be a reflection of what

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people are attempting to be, what people feel like, um, Their performances of

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masculinity need to be these days.

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Um, and it also reflects the lack of groups, maybe reflect the fact that

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people don't, there's not a lot of unison anymore, or the idea of doing

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things together as a team might be part, you know, just, just theories.

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You know, we good for a good conspiracy theory here on Queue Points, but it

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might just be a reflection of the time.

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And that's why we're not seeing a whole lot.

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Of male groups like that anymore, you know, one year, of course, a voice to

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men, his sons have formed a super group.

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So we'll see what happens with them.

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They've been working on music for a while now, and they sound amazing.

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They definitely earned it from their dad.

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And so, um, I don't know, we'll see.

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Maybe it will change within the next couple of years.

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So Daniel, I think you said that's really important and the holidays,

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I think the reasons why songs like this endure is they also remind us of

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the importance of coming together in

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DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

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and groups like The Temptations, to your point,

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people working together, right?

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are people who do lead things in groups, right?

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But the groups themselves on each other.

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Um, SWV is an amazing group because those three women rely on each other.

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Say what you want to say.

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Miss Coco is the bomb.

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Like Sir Daniel had a theory that, yo, Coco, we talk about who are the voices of

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the nineties and you know, we name all of these people, but it might be Coco, right?

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DJ Sir Daniel: Listen, you know, I said it that y'all can come after me.

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I know we, we've deemed people, the, you know, the, the voice of the,

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of the nineties and whatnot, but I really do believe that Coco is the

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voice of the nineties, but let's, we'll save that for another episode.

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Absolutely.

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And, uh, but I think what that, what the, what we have to remember

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is, and the reason why I bring that group up is because they still,

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Coco still needs Lili and Taj.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Totally.

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a role in that group,

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DJ Sir Daniel: They absolutely do.

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There's this, this is an aside, but I think it's really important.

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There was this, uh, there's this TikTok when they were doing week

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on the Arsenio Hall show, acapella.

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Taj, Coco was singing, Coco was singing down.

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Um, Taj and Lili come in with that weak Arsenio falls out because all

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of a sudden voices now come together you are like, Oh, I completely get

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DJ Sir Daniel: Now we get why they're sisters with voices.

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The temptations.

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that.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yes.

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And I think when we hear "Silent Night", particularly

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in my mind version, the

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DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah.

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Agreed.

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Okay.

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and that's a, that's a beautiful thing.

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It's in our D it's in our DNA.

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that's why I think, um, that song indoors one, it's just a beautiful

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rendition of "Silent Night", period.

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Both versions, by the way, are really, really good.

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So you should definitely go back and listen to the Christmas card version,

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uh, with leads by Eddie Kendricks.

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Um, check it out just so you know, but both versions of

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these are unique and distinct.

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And I thought that was interesting too, where you have one group, but

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two versions of the same song that are miles apart from each other.

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The only thing connecting them is the group themselves.

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Yes.

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DJ Sir Daniel: don't understand the vocal arrangements.

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And we're done.

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We've been diving into that a lot lately here on Queue Points, um, on that aspect,

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because that's a very important aspect of creating music, creating songs so that

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you can have different versions of Of the same song that will live forever and grow

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the legs of a caterpillar and continue to, to crawl through our generations.

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But yes, the idea though, of coming together and working is what

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we're about here on Queue Points.

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Um, I couldn't do the show without Jay Ray.

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I think I like to think that he can do it without me, you know, right?

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I could not, there is no Queue Points without,

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I couldn't do it without you.

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And thank you for you not being able to do it without me.

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I think that's important.

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That's what this also I think represents is the coming together

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during this holiday season.

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DJ Sir Daniel: Absolutely.

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Well, we come together to create Queue Points, uh, content for

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you and we enjoy doing it and we want you to find out about it.

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So there's things that you need to do in order to be kept in the know.

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Jay Ray, tell him right now, take your part and tell him slowly.

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And while you do that, I'll.

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I'm narrate behind.

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No, I'm going to do the, you're going to, you're going to say your

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spiel and I'm going to narrate it in, um, in the base voice after, yeah,

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Well, well, thank you.

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Um,

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DJ Sir Daniel: go ahead.

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tickled me.

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So I don't know what he's going to do y'all, but, uh, thank

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you all so much for joining us.

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DJ Sir Daniel: We want to thank you.

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if you can hear our voices, if you can see our place, our

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faces, please subscribe wherever

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DJ Sir Daniel: on and subscribe.

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share the show with your friends, family, colleagues.

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If you love Queue Points, chances are they will love Queue Points

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DJ Sir Daniel: You know, you do

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Please visit our website at Queue Points.

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com where you can check out our newsletter.

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You can check out other episodes of the show.

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Um, also last but not least, you

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DJ Sir Daniel: not least y'all

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you can shop our store at store.

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Queue Points.

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DJ Sir Daniel: get you some merch,

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though.

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You're right.

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We thank you so much.

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DJ Sir Daniel: You know, I don't have no sense and y'all already

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know it, but what I do know is that in this life, you have a choice.

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You can either pick up the needle or you can let the record play.

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I'm DJ Sir Daniel,

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My name is Jay Ray, y'all.

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DJ Sir Daniel: and this is Queue Points podcast, dropping the

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needle on Black music history.

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We will see you on the next go round.

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Peace.

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Peace.