This song haunted me for years. Not seriously, mind you; there’s no childhood trauma or bad breakup associated with it or anything. “Am I The Same Girl” haunted me in the way long-forgotten advertising jingles do. That distinctive trumpet hook is easy to remember, but for the longest time I couldn’t remember anything else—not the song’s name, not the person or group who recorded it, even what any of the lyrics were, save for a half-remembered “don’t wanna stop and think it over.” Of course, the line’s actually “Why don’t you stop / and look me over.” But at least I got the trumpet hook right.
Some basic history for you: Eugene Record wrote the song with Acklin, as he did most of the songs on Acklin’s second LP, Seven Days Of Night. At the time, Acklin was a up-and-coming soul singer from Chicago with one Billboard hit already under her belt, and “Am I The Same Girl” could’ve been her breakout hit; it reached the lower echelons of the pop and R&B charts in February of 1969. One big reason why the song never charted any higher was because of Young-Holt Unlimited, who took Acklin’s backing tracks, replaced her vocals with a piano, and recorded “Soulful Strut.” The Acklin song came first, but for whatever reason, “Soulful Strut” was released before Acklin’s vocal version. The instrumental version entered the charts in November of 1968, hit the top ten on both the R&B and pop charts, and eventually sold over two million copies.
11 Responses
Thanks! It was a treat to hear this, and I definitely recognize that horn riff. Thanks for the history behind the song as well — how dare those bastards in Y-HU get rid of Acklin’s vocals!
ion, January 16th, 2006 at 2:52 pmThanks for this. I heard a recording of this song by Swing Out Sister. It’s nice to know the story behind the song. Dusty Springfield has a version, which I haven’t heard.
J. David, January 25th, 2006 at 12:41 amHey!
Many thanks for the info you gave about the song - and of course the MP3. Can you imagine i’ve always thought it was done by Dusty Springfield? In any case, it is a classic.
Frank, January 29th, 2006 at 1:55 pmThe Dusty Springfield version came out a year or so after the Acklin take and made the UK pop charts; the arrangement is similar but Springfield has a much wispier, breezy vocal style than Acklin. Worth checking out, though I like it the least of the versions I’ve heard.
Wesley, January 29th, 2006 at 3:58 pmI have heard this song for years and never knew the name or artist. We had a beach house in Rhode Island when I was growing up, and this son brought me back there everytime I heard it. The stations would play it twice a day and NEVER identified it. The instrumental by Young Holt Unltd is great too. Yeah! I finally know all the words too!!!
Karen, April 16th, 2006 at 10:30 amThis song was haunting me too ever since I heard it on the new Martha (Stewart) talk show. I was glad to find the original and the Swing out sister version, got to find Dusty’s now. Great info. Thanks Pete.
peter twigg, June 10th, 2006 at 3:55 pmWow, for all of these years, I thought that Swing Out Sister lead the way with this song, adding vocals to the Young Hold Unlimited song…interesting! Having grown up with the Swing Out Sister version, that one’s still my favorite of the three; it’s got a much more “rich” sound to it…and Dusty Springfield is brilliant…but not on this song…Thanks for the info!!
Paul McGann, December 9th, 2006 at 2:12 pmThanks for the history. I too thought that Sing Out Sister did this as a cover of Dusty Springfield’s version. Now I know… THE REST OF THE STORY!
The writers are listed as Record/Sanders. I now know that RECORD is Eugene Record. Who is Sanders?
You should also correct the Wickipedia entry for this song and acknowledge the Barbara Acklin/Eugene Record connection. The Wiki entry has “AM I THE SAME GIRL” as a Dusty Springfield original, and this entry is repeated on several web-sites.
Ceprise, April 5th, 2007 at 1:53 pmMy understanding is that the record company that Barbara Acklin worked for got the idea for an instrumental and actually used studio musicians to do Soulful Strut. Young and Holt, who also recorded for the same label weren’t even in the building when the recording was made.
Jim McGinnis, June 30th, 2007 at 6:37 pmWould you have a good quality mp3 of this track please???
Oisin, January 10th, 2008 at 12:42 amNOW I KNOW! I’ve been trying to track down the song TITLE & original ARTIST. We can now learn it & cover it when our 10 piece band plays! Sweeeeeeeeeet!
KENT, April 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm