Gerald Alston & Winfred "Blue" Lovett of the Manhattans

Interview with the Legendary Gerald Alston and Winfred "Blue" Lovett of The Manhattans

With Gerald Alston's smooth lead vocals, solid songwriting talent within the group and the always wonderful work of Philly producer/arrranger Bobby Martin, the Manhattans began to score on the  R&B charts, putting out a string of fairly traditional ballads that became Soul hits.  Then in 1976, the quintet released Lovett's composition "Kiss and Say Goodbye," the song that would become their signature tune.  "Kiss" rocketed to the top of the R&B and Pop charts, and moved the group to the upper tier of R&B acts.  And the companion self-titled LP became the first of several top notch albums that the group released in the 70s and 80s.  With such great singles as "It Feels So Good to be Loved So Bad," "I Kinda Miss You," "We Never Danced To A Love Song" and "Am I Losing You," the Manhattans' late 70s albums It Feels So Good, There's No Me Without You and Love Talk, were among the decade's best (though they are generally unavailable in CD form).  Love Talk was perhaps the Manhattans' greatest disc - though not their most popular - a near-perfect adult Soul album that sounds as great today as it did 25 years ago.

After "Kiss and Say Goodbye," the Manhattans spent the remainder of the decade scoring almost exclusively on the R&B charts.