Cuba Gooding Sr.

All I Can Give You Is Love

Cuba Gooding - The 1st Album - Motown STML 12083 (UK)

Mind Pleaser; All I Can Give You Is Love; Where Would I Be Without You; Hold On To What You Got; Fool Of The Year; We're In Love; Ain't Nothin' To It; Someone To Go Home With; As Long As There's You

Produced by: Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter

Well it's bloody cold here and it's starting to rain and i'm bored stiff so I reach for my Cuba Gooding album for musical background. I've just typed into my data-base 10 cd's worth of Stax/Volt singles from the 1994 US box set and I need some background music.

Today's stepper is All I Need Is Love from Gooding's first solo album, having just left The Main Ingredient in 1977 for 12 months and has now with Motown in 1978. The other stepper is Were in love written by Patti Austin and later a hit for herself.

New York, USA-based trio, Main Ingredient: Donald McPherson (Born 9 July 1941, d. 4 July 1971), Luther Simmons Jnr. (Born 9 September 1942) and Tony Sylvester (Born 7 October 1941, Panama) made their recording debut in 1965. One of several groups using the name "the Poets", they decided to become the Main Ingredient and signed with producer Bert DeCoteaux, whose lush arrangements provided the requisite foil for their excellent harmonies.

This skill was particularly apparent on such early releases as "I'm So Proud" (1970), "Spinning Around (I Must Be Falling In Love)" and "Black Seeds Keep On Growing" (both 1971). McPherson died from leukaemia in 1971 and, ironically, it was his replacement, Cuba Gooding, who sang on the group's million-seller "Everybody Plays The Fool".

Although the Ingredient went on to enjoy further commercial success, their work grew increasingly bland and lacked the purpose of those early releases. Gooding embarked on a solo career with Motown Records in 1977, but reunited with Sylvester and Simmons in 1979, continuing to record under the Main Ingredient name into the 80s. Simmons was replaced by Jerome Jackson in the late 80s, following which the group moved to Polydor Records.

Following Cuba's departure from the Motown imprint in 1983, Cuba launched Happiness Is Just Around The Bend for Streetwise Records. A remake of an earlier Main Ingredient tune taken from the 1974 album Euphrates River, the album was extremely well-liked on the United Kingdom soul music scene.

He resumed his career with the Main Ingredient up until the early 1990s. Returning to his solo career, Cuba released Meant To Be In Love in 1993 for the label Triune Records. It featured guest performance from Vaneese Thomas. Later in early 2000, he toured with David Peaston and Shirley Murdoch on the gospel play Id'Be Careful What You Pray For, and in 2002, he joined U.S. Irie Records to produce his next recording, Cuba Gooding: Solo. The collaboration continued with Begin With The Family in 2004.

In addition to singing career, Cuba also sporadically appeared as an actor on television and film. He was featured as a reporter in the Schoolbreak Special: No Means No (1988), portrayed southern gentlemen in writer/director John Benitz’s short movie Children of the Struggle (1999), was cast as Pawn Shop owner in the crime/drama movie Gedo (2001) and starred as Mr. Manus in the musical Destination Fame (2004). Still in 2004, he had a feature role in the comedy film Roscoe’s House of Chicken n Waffles, which went to a direct-to-video-release.

Most collectible album at the moment is I Only Have Eyes For You, fetching around £20-30 pounds.

Main ingredient - everybody plays the fool Uploaded by mickeynold I thought I'd show you my video footage of the group. Taken from the film Save The Children, but only lasts for a couple of minutes, so I edited the sound from the Sountrack of the film over some other shots from the original film to fill it out. Came out quite good considering the video tape was 30 years old.