Ba-duh-ba-duh-duh, ba-da-ba, ba-duh-ba-duh-duh, ba-da-ba...

January 12, 2006 11:03 PM

Name that song! Half-remembered music sample and...

As mentioned earlier in the Song Tapper thread on the blue, I'm looking for a very elusive song. Details: it sounds like Motown/60s to me, but I can't find it on any of the Motown collections I've listened to via Amazon. Big, bright song with a loud trumpet/brass sound to it, with a main female vocalist and a backing group of singers.

This is the melody I remember from the chorus (53kb MP3). That part's actually played by the mass of trumpets, not a piano. You may have to transpose to a different key in your head; I think I've heard it in two different keys myself.

Solve this and you will have solved a mystery that has lasted for many years.

posted by chrominance to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Am I The Same Girl?, linked here to iTunes and the Swing Out Sister recording, but done first by Dusty Springfield.

It's the theme to Martha Stewart's daily show, Martha, so you may have heard it on commercials lately without even realizing it.
posted by mdeatherage at 11:18 PM on January 12, 2006

mdeatherage, that's it in the background there, but man - I'm going crazy myself because I swear it's in another song as well.
posted by aberrant at 11:21 PM on January 12, 2006

Gee, didn't Chuck Magione (or Herp Albet) do something like this? Ba da, ba da dat, ba da da daDat, ba da Dat, ba da da DaDat!...

I definitly know the tune. I will roll it in my head awhile.
posted by Goofyy at 11:43 PM on January 12, 2006

Maybe you need more than an iTunes snippet, but the trumpet part you're thinking of is very prominent just before the chorus of Am I The Same Girl?, with no lyrics sung while it plays.

I stand by my guess. :-)
posted by mdeatherage at 11:49 PM on January 12, 2006

mdeatherage got it. Good one!
posted by horsewithnoname at 12:01 AM on January 13, 2006

I've never heard the one with lyrics - pretty cool........the tune I"m familiar with, and I wonder if the poster is thinking, is "Soulful Strut" by Young Holt Unlimited.
posted by Iamtherealme at 12:07 AM on January 13, 2006

This might be what you're looking for: done as an instrumental, and several vocal versions.
posted by davidmsc at 12:07 AM on January 13, 2006

Jinx - Davidmsc, I just realized I didn't add in that link - it says that there was a Barbara Acklin that sang with that, among others. I missed the "female vocalist" mention in the question.....the earworm distracted me.
posted by Iamtherealme at 12:10 AM on January 13, 2006

Soulful Strut is the one I'm hearing in my head. Magione must have done it at some point, as it is definitly flugel horn in my head.
posted by Goofyy at 12:14 AM on January 13, 2006

That Swing Out Sister version is some wonderful kind of cheese, ain't it?

"Am I The Same Girl" is totally it. I can't figure out if Springfield was indeed the first person to do it or if it was Barbara Acklin, though. Seems they both recorded the song around the same time but Acklin's AMG bio is the only one to mention it. The instrumental version is indeed called "Soulful Strut," and it turns out it used the same backing tracks as the Acklin song but was released first—and eventually was the more successful chart single of the two.

I'm a bit ashamed that the song I've been trying to track down is now the theme song to Martha Stewart's talk show, but whatever. AskMe comes through again!
posted by chrominance at 12:15 AM on January 13, 2006