Coming Together

Coming Together is the third album by the Louisville, Kentucky group New Birth. Released in 1972 on RCA Records, it was produced by mentor Harvey Fuqua, whose style of building a whole song around a simple phrase is represented by "The Unh Song" and the bass-laden "Oh Baby I Love The Way", and his uncredited assistant, Vernon Bullock . It contained two tracks ("Don't Knock My Love" and "I Don't Want To Do Wrong") by its subgroup, Love, Peace & Happiness, which featured Ann Bogan. formerly of the Marvelettes. Leslie Wilson, who would later lead the group on I Can Understand It and Wildflower, and his brother Melvin, which also appear on their "Here 'Tis" album. The song "African Cry" was an Afrocentric version of the Paul Revere & The Raiders song "Indian Reservation". It was this album that brought the various elements of New Birth (which also included the instrumental group The Nite-Liters and vocalists Londee Loren, Alan Frye and Bobby Downs) together and set the direction they would go in the future. On this album, their trademark cover is represented by Frank Sinatra's "All The Way" (which. along with The Unh Song" was actually taken from their first album) and their funk jams are "Come Back It My Life" and "Oh Baby I Love The Way." It was their previous single "It's Impossible" as well as their next single "I Can Understand It" and their next album, "Birthday" that would put them on the map. This album also inspired the name for the hip hop collective Native Tongues.