Tuesday the 20th of February 1973 to Tuesday the 19th of February 1974
Limmie and Family Cookin’
You Can Do Magic
Charting in the year of 1973, on the 15th of July, is Limmie and Family Cookin’ with the single “You Can Do Magic”.
My sister owns this…
…so that’s where this earworm has come from.
To me it sounds much older, like it belongs in the mid-sixties.
Limmie was Limme Frank Snell Jr. The Family Cookin’ were his sisters Martha and Jimmie.
Although based in Ohio, United States, the group had much better success in the U.K.
Before he teamed up with his two siblings, he previously had some success a decade before when, aged only 11, he began a sporadic recording career with Columbia with the name Limmie B. Goode (obviously a play on Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” which had released a few years previously)
Several years passed before he first teamed up with his sisters and initially called themselves the Sugar Cakes.
Once the group had changed their name again and signed to AVCO, the same home as the up-and-coming Stylistics, they had some success, mainly in the U.K. So much so that Limmie visited the U.K. and never really went home again, becoming part of the later disco scene in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s.
This single enters the chart…
in the middle of July at No.46. Two weeks later it will break the Top 20, two weeks after that it will break the Top 10, another two weeks along, near the end of the summer on the 26th of August, it will hit it’s top position of No.3.
It will stay in the Top 10 until the middle of September before it starts making its way back down the chart, finally leaving after the 13th of October with a total of 13 weeks on chart.
Another couple of singles will follow after this one, but “You Can Do Magic” would end up becoming their biggest hit here in the U.K.
Unfortunately, Limmie died quite early in life, aged only 38. But he left us with this song which still lives on.
The “A” Side
The “B” Side
Many thanks go to the following YouTube Channels for providing the chance to hear these songs once again.
Please show your appreciation by visiting their channels:
The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart Playlist for the week of my 1st Birthday:
The Top 50 U.K. Singles Chart Playlist for the day I was born:
Grab Your Binoculars, Come Follow Me
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