The truly great vocalists in soul music possess a special ability to “sell” the song, to personalize it, to make you feel that they lived it. The late Luther Ingram decidedly had that gift.
In 1972, three Stax Records songwriters gave Ingram their song “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right” for use on the Koko label where Ingram was signed and which Stax marketed; the track was career-defining for Ingram, who stepped into the song like a familiar, favorite pair of shoes, taking ownership as if it had been written by him. The track spent four weeks atop the Billboard R&B chart and rose to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
But outpacing even Ingram’s studio recording of the song was his live rendition at Wattstax, a benefit concert held in August 1972 for the community of Watts, Los Angeles. Luckily for us, Ingram’s performance is preserved in the documentary film of the concert released the following year, and the video clip below shows an artist utterly in the moment, seemingly channeling his profound, forbidden love in his vocal. Watch the eyes of the women in the audience, they tell the whole story. Enjoy.
By Robb Patryk
