HOMER BANKS – I´VE GOT A FEELING (WE´LL BE SEEING EACH OTHER AGAIN) / EITHER YOU LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (S4R61)

Homer Banks was a quiet hitmaker. Though occasionally a recording artist for Minit and other labels, he was mostly known for songwriting, and Stax Records was his longtime home base. As a co-writer on “Who’s Making Love”, Banks helped push soul into the modern era of songwriting.

His demos reveal him to be a masterful producer and arranger, the hit versions of his songs often replicating the originals note for note (or pretty close). That’s evident on Luther Ingram’s cover of his “If Loving You Is Wrong” and The Staple Singers’ “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)”, among many others.

You’ll hear Al Wilson’s hit version of “I’ve Got a Feeling (We’ll Be Seeing Each Other Again)” when you listen to Homer’s as Wilson’s strongly resembles what Banks did. And the popular renditions of ”Either You Love Me Or Leave Me”—done by Bettye Swann and Baby Washington—also draw heavily from Banks’s concept. Homer Banks’s name is less recognizable than many of Stax’s stars, but his songs stand up with the best of them.

ROBERT GORDON