William DeVaughn is alive and doing very well. He is my next door neighbor and I see him everyday. His song "Be Thankful for What You've Got" Give William his due credit, he wrote and organized the lyrics of this song. People, "Curtis Mayfield did not make this song". He is still making music, I know he gives me original copies of his new music. He is a very kind, loving, compassionate and a caring person. I am a senior/widow and he helps me out a lot around my house and property. He help all our neighbors in our neighborhood. "I am Thankful for what I got", because of William DeVaughn ❤❤❤❤ love you William.😊😊 February 26, 2024.
I read somewhere that he never sold his publishing, I PRAY that’s true I ALWAYS KNEW WHO SUNG IT AND MUCAS I LOVE CURTIS, I hated William DeVaugh didn’t get the CRITICAL ACCLAIM he so very much deserved. All the more reason I HOPE he still getting residuals for a VERY IMPORTANT CLASSIC!🙏🏾❤️
The fact the ACTUAL song, not only was a major platinum hit but also featured MSFB but STILL was credited to a whole other person is wild. Didn't know that.🤯
@diggingthegreats You and everyone are simulated zombies in the dragon's (satan's), "don't make any long term plans, because this zombie earth is getting sent real soon"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve always blamed p2p like Napster & Limewire for stuff like this. I swear a whole generation is still convinced that “Red Red Wine” and “Smoke 2 Joints” are Bob Marley songs.
Btw. The diamond in the back is in reference to the Cadillac model which had a small diamond shaped rear window. That feature was considered high class when I was a little black kid growing up in Detroit.
I'm betting the majority of the people who've heard the song since it was released, and the younger folks who hear it for the first time, haven't a clue. I was a little white kid who grew up between two projects in San Francisco, and remember those Caddys back then.
Ok. I thought it was a Cadillac because the song says "though you may not have a great big Cadillac...". However I'm not into car brands, never was. Even though I'm Motown born and raised. Ha!!!
@@RC51Legendcorrect; the effect was mostly assiciated with the Brougham line (mid 70s) there is one in the movie superfly (original) which incidently has a Curtis Mayfield soundtrack and I suppose this lends to the mix up with artists years later, cause I think when people invision the Pimped out Cadi image in that Devaugn anthem, it would be priests eldorado with the gangster whitewalls from that same movie.
Exactly 💯..I was thinking the same thing..I figured if you were born in the early 70s and before folks would know this already...lol..our fathers, uncles, grandfathers, etc played this in their cars when we were coming up..plus I have the original album in the house from my parents collection...im sorry but I don't like this new generation..lol
Someone posted "Be Thankful for What You've Got" on YT with a misleading album cover that identified it as a Curtis Mayfield song. Since YT, Google, etc., reinforce confirmation bias, the erroneous post became the top search result. I've had many arguments about this over the years. Thank you for making this vid so I don't have to explain it anymore.
LMAOOOOO as soon as the song started playing, I was like, “This ain’t Curtis.” 🤔😆 Growing up in Memphis, “Be Thankful…” was one of those songs that was in heavy rotation - I heard it everywhere, all the time. I had no idea people thought it was Curtis.
I also grew up in Memphis also (tho later) and recall hearing about a song that was a staple in the clubs when I was very little called Triggerman and they would start fights and tear the place up off the strength of that song. Became an even BIGGER hit in New Orleans. Later on, Triggerman was ACTUALLY called Drag Rap and done by a couple guys from NY
It got popular from Ludacris and mixtapes sampling Ludas song in the mid 2000s. When the original got uploaded on to UA-cam, people uploading it mistook it for Curtis Mayfield and those incorrect uploads happen to get more popular than the actual correct uploads with William Devaughn, which were also uploaded at the same times by different users. That's it. The people who uploaded the incorrect names, probably uploaded from files they had downloaded through various sites like Kazaa, Lime wire, etc...that might've been named incorrectly or correctly. The correct uploads on youtube are mostly from people who had the vinyl/CD and uploaded themselves.
Right Everybody's parents had this record and never thought it was Curtis Mayfield. But I'll be fair and assume that later generations who only know Curtis Mayfield's music because of Superfly may have thought this was him based on the vibe and falsetto, Like some people thought Jamaica Funk was by Chaka Khan.
I knew the exact song you were gonna talk about when I saw Curtis in the thumbnail! A similar thing has happened to Bobby McFerrin, where a video of his song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is credited to Bob Marley. It has 170 million views now!
FINALLY!!! Someone who post a video with some sense!! I’ve used to argue with ALOT of people, including my grandmother for almost 20 YEARS that this was not a Curtis Mayfield record…and people whom I’ve deeply argued with DID NOT do thorough research like I did…and you as well. THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!!!
You have to admit that his voice and falsetto was similar sounding to Curtis. The fact that his voice sounded close to Curtis was probably a reason that helped it like Michael Jackson and the weeknd
WoW, this is crazy. I use to work with Mr. William "Bill" DeVaughn in the 1980's at Blue Plains Water Treatment as a Drafters Assistant and he gave me a history of him traveling to Philly to record, "Cadillacs don't come easy." He would talk about his experience a real cool guy and I asked him why were "they" giving Curtis Mayfield blind credit for your song? Lazy researching? WoW, all of my friends didn't believe that I worked with him as a summer job. He told me to go to college and I did. And I ended up working in the entertainment field and my coilege girlfriend was from Philly which took me to Philly often and to Philly International. You brought back some great memories! I worked a concert that Curtis Mayfield was apart of but I never got to ask him about the songs. There is a DC singer, Raheem DeVaughn and I always wondered if that was Mr. D's son or relative? I am 59 years old and you literally took me back 40 years! Thank you I am now a subscriber!!! 🎼🎵🎶🎤
hahaha dude this is bonkers. that very album on spotify popped up on my shuffle a couple months back and I was like "oh curtis joint, diamond in the back" only to look at my phone and see the cover and the name. I thought "oh might be a remix or something". crazy, top tier work as always brother.
Funny you dropped this video right now. I had the luck to find "Be thankful for what you got" on a CD in the municipal library like two weeks ago. I even looked Willian DeVaughn up figuring he is in his 70s now. I plan to play this song as much as possible in coming DJ sets. Maybe that can educate people about this beautiful song. I really hope you would get the chance to interview him.
UA-cam is a little irritating! Even though I’m subscribed to you, this is the first video they have shown me of yours in months. But I’m so glad they did! The 70s is my absolute favorite of music! Maybe it’s because I was born in 73 and all of my favorite TV shows had the dopest soundtracks, full of live musicians! (Chips, Charlie’s Angels, and so many more!) That sound is that lush blend of orchestral arrangements with bad ass bongo playing, deep funky bass lines, and wah-wah guitars shall never be duplicated. You just gave me a rundown of music and musiciansI I need to check into because that is the sound that I crave listening to over and over again. I love your passion for the music and dedication to the truth about its roots. Thank you for being you and doing you!
William Devaughn left the music business to become a Draftsman with the DC Water and Sewer Authority. (DC WASA) He wrote a song to celebrate the creation of the agency in 1996. He was occasionally performing in the DMV with other Oldie acts but not much. As you have witnessed, he is a low key guy and keeps to himself. I also worked with his Brother Karl, who did personal security for the Cohen family who owned Giant Food Stores in the DMV. Good luck with your search and keep up the good work. 🎼🎙️🎧
Excellent. I knew immediately upon seeing the thumbnail and title, and even said aloud "Lemme guess, William DeVaughn's 'Be Thankful For What You Got'". As a DJ, this is a song which I absorbed mis-labelled into my library long ago, no doubt inherited in the form of a low-bitrate file from another DJ's hard drive, which he, in turn, likely downloaded from limewire. I don't remember how the mis-attribution came to my attention, but I only learned the truth about a decade ago. Definitely an all-time fave, as I actually do drive a great big Cadillac (a far finer car than I deserve, left to me by my great-grandmother upon her passing), but - since I am currently living in it - I really do have to remember to be thankful. The caddy and the Rane One in its trunk are just about all I got.
Gotta mention Massive Attack‘s cover of this song from 1991, which is _PHENOMENAL_ - I first heard of DeVaughn‘s original in the early 2000s, from the internet, but _gasp!_ it was correctly labeled, on one of those amazing Blogspot pages from that time that used to post mp3s of rare soul music. Thanks for the video!
I think I mentioned this before but a great old western called “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” dealt with this idea waaaay before it was called the Mandela Effect. In the movie, it is believed that Jimmy Stewart is a hero who shot the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance. Stewart’s character has lived the life of the hero because of this and now finds himself dealing with a journalist who wants to write about his life story and heroic actions. But the catch is Stewart isn’t actually the man who shot Valance, and Stewart tells the truth to the journalist, who confronted with the reality that the man he is researching and writing about didn’t actually do the only thing he’s famous for, responds by saying “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In other words, when most people believe something (the legend becomes fact) there’s no point in trying to correct it, because everyone already believes the legend, even if it isn’t what happened. This phenomena is much more common than we like to believe- a good example is how we are taught in schools that Columbus proved the world is round. Nevermind that the ancient Greeks figured that out around 1800 years before Columbus, and that educated people in 1492 (which probably included Columbus and definitely includes Queen Isabella and Ferdinand, who funded Columbus’s exhibitions) knew about how the Ancient Greeks proved the world was round, and that the globe itself was first invented in 1492 so everyone could look at a more realistic depiction of the earth than a flat map would provide. The idea that Columbus discovered the world was round is pure fiction, and specifically is tied to the book “A History of the Life and Times of Christopher Columbus”, which was a work of fiction imagining the journeys written in the 1820s by Washington Irving. Because Irving was the most popular author of his time and place, his version of Columbus’s legend became so widespread that they eventually started teaching it to kids in school blissfully unaware of how fictional it was, including the idea that people in the 1490s didn’t know the world was round and that Columbus was the first to prove it was. In any case, it definitely strikes me as a concept we’d do better to call the Liberty Valance effect when it comes to something like this where the legend has become fact- the Mandela effect usually is better reserved for mysteries that can be easily unraveled with a Google search (such as when Mandela died, or the Monopoly man wearing a monocle.) When the true story is this involved and virtually impossible to find with an easy Google search, that’s more than Mandela.
I've always known it was William Devaughn. That Curtis Mayfield thing is new to me. Check out The Five Stairsteps. A band that Mr Mayfield produced. You'll recognize some songs but obscure gems and a bomb ass sound.
I never realized how deep this rabbit hole goes until I saw this video. I distinctly remember seeing one of these UA-cam videos many years ago mislabeling William's song and it immediately rubbed me the wrong way. I figured at the time just one person didn't do their research. And to be fair, William does sound like Curtis a bit and "diamond in the back" is the easiest line to remember in the song. But never would I have thought the misinformation would go THIS far. I hope William does get back to eventually. Keep up the good work. 💯💯💯
That and the human mind is just fallible asl and to cope with that fact it also instills a false confidence that it ain't. False memories that either the brain put back together wrong or was influenced by somebody else, forgetting things, blocking things out, blending memories, mixing up events, just a long list of things it does foul. Our brains evolved on the plains of the Africa to evade predators, scavenge food, and procreate by 25 or so when we'd die. So it's not unreasonable that our brains ain't all that given how much the world has changed in the last 150k years or so 😂
@4.14 That and also let's be real! Social Media MADE most of the world's population even more retarded than the previous decades/generations so there's that 🤣🥲
@4.14 I would like to say that the ONLY reason that humans survived these last 150k years without going fully extinct is because of the technological, cultural and historical advancements of Black/African people. We're the only group of human beings who were at least smart enough to transcend beyond the primitive mindset that early humans had and use that newfound intellect to push the world forward in the beginning as well as both directly and indirectly influence other groups to do the same down the road. Unfortunately, one of our biggest flaws was just we allowed our humanity and intellect to be used against us which lead to the mass pillaging, colonization of Africa, and the enslavement of Black/African people. Once again, if it wasn't FOR our ancestors (Black people) then mankind would have died out 150k years ago! So it wasn't all for nothing despite the centuries-long opposition and vitriol towards Black people and our history I guess. Also, thanks a lot for acknowledging that humanity started in Africa though. You still have a lot of people who think that humans came out of caves in Europe or some bs like that... 😂🤣
My mind is blown. Ever since looking up this sample that I heard in Ludacris - Diamond in the back I have loved this song. I always wondered why it was left off the 'Curtis' album. This is insane. You have a new subscriber 100%
The moment you said the song "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield was actually the song "Be Thankful for What You Got" by William DeVaughn, my mind immediately went to peer-to-peer file sharing clients. I'm a 1990s and early-mid 2000s kid, and I used LimeWire to download so much music back in the day. LimeWire and other P2P file sharing clients like it were notorious for people spreading songs labeled with the either the wrong title, the wrong artist or both, even spelling artists names wrong because they didn't know and didn't bother to do any research. "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield is most likely a holdover from the P2P file sharing days. With the rise in popularity of UA-cam, these songs with incorrect titles and artists started being spread on here. It's kind of funny to see, but at the same time, it's sad that some people don't know the correct titles and artists for these songs, and that the artists aren't getting the proper credit. As for that Rob Squad Reactions channel, that's a channel I'm actually subscribed to. I enjoy their reactions, and I think they're a cute couple. I don't blame them for not knowing the correct artist and title. They'd likely never heard the song before, and a lot of their song reaction videos are based on viewer suggestions in the comments section and in e-mails. Someone likely suggested "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield, and they just assumed that was the title and artist. Another song and artist they got wrong was "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray. They incorrectly labeled it as "Give Me the Beat Boy" by the Doobie Brothers, likely another holdover from the P2P file sharing days. I wish they'd do just a little bit of research before they make their reaction videos, so at least, they're getting the song titles and artists correct.
I remember when that video with that Curtis album cover was posted. People kept telling the uploader they put the wrong artist and they would t make edits to the title of the video. And then they eventually turned off the comments. This is almost the same thing that happened with that video for “Remember the Rain” that was erroneously labeled as a song by The Sylvers instead of 21st Century. That person never changed the title of the video either. 🤷🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
I remembered the song from the 70's, when I was a kid. I liked it but didn't know who did it. I must have searched for "Diamond in the Back" on UA-cam, and with De Vaughn's voice sounding enough like Curtis, I was fooled. Or maybe I should say "misinformed". I can remember seeing pimped out Caddys just like in the song, with the TV antenna and the vinyl top extended over the back window to make a diamond. Wide whites, too.
Man, as a record collector and enjoyer of countless hip-hop mixtapes, I can say this, that you are right about the internet not being a friendly place when it comes to finding good information about music, albums, and musicians. I'm currently doing some research for a project I am working on in tribute to a DJ from the west coast, and trying to pull together information for this project has been some serious work and thinking outside the box to fill in gaps in the collective knowledge. Often, the practice of leaving track lists for mixtapes off of the finished product, or worse, inventing artist and song titles for compilations like the Ultimate Breaks And Beats catalog for example, were practiced by producers and DJs who were, like most people working in the music industry, struggling to make ends meet and fearful that a lawsuit would come down on them, putting a quick end to their ability to make a litle bit of money from their hard work and vision. Sometimes, it had nothing to do with money, and was more about the principle of sweat equity. It was the artist saying "There are no shortcuts to this knowledge that I am drawing from to present my work to you, and because I had to put the work in decoding this, you can either be happy passively enjoying it, or put your own work in to seek the knowledge as well."
Another example of something similar is Baby Come Back by Player being called a Hall & Oates song (because it borrows a lot of elements from She's Gone), and literally any song parody sung by a male being identified as a Weird AL song. The list goes on with these mix ups/mistaken artists on similar sounding or themed or dare i say ripoff songs. When i was younger i was convinced Move Your Body by Nina Sky was a Rihanna song. Anyway i can't believe lack of finding the correct artists name is still happening in the internet age though lol
And this is why its great to OWN actual RECORDS. Then you know who you are listening, what year it is from, who wrote it, who played on it etc. Great video once again!
I remembered this song correctly…. Probably because I thought it was Curtis Mayfield when it came out. I remember the DJ on WOKN in North Carolina saying this is not Curtis Mayfield but William DeVaughn. People were confused even back then. Awesome video. I really enjoyed this one. I wonder if Mr DeVaughn will watch this video. I will be looking for him in the comments.😊😊
So , i just watched your video and had to watch the entirety as i actually met William in the bronx circa 2004 / 2005 . A brief conversation but i met him through a mutual friend . He introduced himself and mentioned that he had a song and he sung the song's chorus for me and i tied it to ludacris . He mentioned that he sang the original . Your video was a nice explanation though , thanks much . Brought back some memories .
Immediately I was reminded of how so many people think "Nobody Knows" by The Tony Rich Project is a Baby Face song. I mean, they do sound similar, so I can get how some might mix the two singers up... But not knowing "Be Thankful" is wild!
This is just like "Rescue me" by Fontella Bass. People swore that was Aretha Franklin, but she never sang it. I believed that Aretha sang it until I did some research. The voices sound quite similar, though.
Me! Im from the EU and i got into funk and rnb more than 10 years ago while browsing youtube and listening to the classics. i am actually shocked because it sounds like it could be a mayfield song imho. when you explore a genre from afar ( time wise and/or distance wise) you get what the internet tells you. now i HAVE to check William DeVaughns music. love the video, sunbed to the channel as well :)
Love this channel. That said, blown away that people didn't know it was William DeVaughn. Grew up on the song. This is one of many reasons why the internet sucks.
This came out when I was teenager. There was no internet. The song played on the radio and you waited for artist name William Devaughn, it was never Curtis. Still grooving to this on my oldies playlist-true words to live by.
Dyana Williams is the mother of Kenny Gamble’s child Idia Gamble. She is a legendary Philadelphia DJ and journalist. MFSB (Philadelphia International) who worked with William Devaughn in 1974 on “Just Be Thankful For What You’ve Got,” as you stated. The song was recorded a few years before her relationship with Kenny Gamble but she mingled with all the Philly affiliated artists at one time. She knows more than she is letting on. 😊
As a Philadelphia old head who remembers Philadelphia radio royalty like Georgie Woods, Jerry Wells, Mimi Brown, Louise Williams on WDAS AM as well as Dyana Williams I feel like Dyana Williams probably met and knows him BUT is running the smokescreen simply because William DeVaughn just wants to ride into the sunset. After Sound of Philadelphia burned up in a fire a few years ago(now a condo spot on Broad St real shame) it seems difficult to track down and get anything on even their top selling artist much less their 2nd line artist.
Love your channel! The only problem is that whenever I watch your channel, I wind up spending up to hours looking through my music collection to see if I have it. Which is great! Because I at times I forget some of what I have. I've been collecting music for my collection since the late 60s. Albums started warping, cassettes started sticking. Eventually, I just took the time and digitized my collections.
Reading the comments makes me wonder if people even watch the actual video before bitching or saying “we already knew that” People under 40 didn’t know what you 60 years olds knew. I knew because Curtis is one of my favorite artist and I know his work but millions don’t.
Thank you for making this video! I’ve been trying to tell folks for years what this song really is, that’s not called Diamond In The Back and that was sung by William DeVaughn and not Curtis. It’s a beautiful song, one of my favorites of all time. Thank you!
It's funny how younger people don't realize that there was a whole world already in existence before they came to be. I have never met anyone who thought that song was anyone other than William DeVaughn. It's a classic. Been on the radio since the 70's. Been covered countless times (soul versions, reggae versions, etc).
The 'down' beat on "Move On Up" starts on what is audibly beat #3 (after the 2nd snare). When the horns and the rest of the elements come in. Those snare hits at the beginning are lead in notes and don't take up an entire measure..
Another example of this is NWA's Straight Outta Compton album being incorrectly listed as releasing on Monday 8-8-88 (albums didn't release on Monday). Eazy-E's album came first, and wasn't released until the early Fall of 1988. Eazy's catalog # is SL57100, and NWA is SL57102. This means that NWA's album either dropped in late November or early 1989. Journalist Dart Adams has posted about this numerous times. The incorrect date was cemented when, during 2015 movie appearance interview, Ice Cube casually agreed with the interviewer about the album getting released on 8-8-88. Now, the wrong date is flooded over the internet.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I have been a musician for over 50 years. This has bothered me ever since I saw the first UA-cam video of this song. You have answered all of my questions about this mystery, and I never thought that it was this deep! I have just subscribed and liked! 👍
Thank you! I'm glad somebody is finally setting that straight. I've known this song ever since my dad bought William DeVaughn's album when it came out. And I love that you excerpted Jay and Amber's reaction video, but they're young, maybe 30. They didn't know.
I knew this was what it was. I knew it was just a mistaken title from the Napster days. I remember an alternative vocal from the radio in the 90s and assumed that was the version I was pirating, not the original from the black barbershop I grew up on. Nice video, dude. If you can find that alternative vocal version I'll be your best friend.
This reminds me of something that used to happen with bootlegs (and probably still happens to this day). They'd find a song that sounds close enough to the style and sound of the featured band, alter it a bit so as it's harder to tell who is actually singing and include it on an album with a bunch of real outtakes, rare songs and unreleased material. A perfect example would be The Beatles and The Rolling Stones working together on a song called Shades Of Orange. According to the bootleggers, it features George Harrison on lead vocals and various members of both The Beatles and The Stones playing other instruments. It's actually partly true. The song was produced by Bill Wyman and it does feature Charlie Watts on percussion so it does have a connection to The Rolling Stones...just not to The Beatles. It's actually by a band called The End and you can now find really high quality versions of it online, but back in the day, we were going off of what sounded like a 5th generation tape copy that was played slightly too fast. Under those circumstances, it's believable enough. That's just 1 example of what some collector's call "outfakes". I'd say a lot of people on early file sharing systems would have intentionally mislabeled files so as to make it look like they had something really rare, when they actually only had the same stuff that everyone else had. I think the best mislabeling I ever saw was "Nirvana - Mrs Robinson (Beatles Cover)". Not only did they get the name of the band performing the song wrong as it was The Lemonheads, but they also got the name of the original artist wrong too.
I never knew anyone that thought that "Be Thankful for what you got" was a Curtis Mayfield song. Now for years I never knew who the artist was, but never thought it was Mayfield.
Sounds like you came across a post on UA-cam. Years ago I came across a post that had the same name and had Curtis Mayfield’s name on it and the post had thousands of views. I responded only to find out years later it had not been removed or corrected. My feelings were exactly like yours. That was over fifteen years ago
Oh my goodness! I’m so happy that I clicked this video because I was thinking it was Curtis Mayfield. When I tried finding it on Apple Music, it wouldn’t come up. Thank you for this information. I have the original from William DeVaughn & MFSB is one of my favourite groups and yes! I can hear MFSB’s touch in there and it makes so much sense now ❤😊
Thank you for this deep dive. I’m a 58 year old former DJ and lifelong music lover so it’s been William DeVaughn Be Thankful For What You Got, full stop, for the last 50 years. I’ve been blaming UA-cam for this Curtis Mayfield travesty for quite some time and I’m glad you broke down how Google and AI can be terrible by spreading misinformation. Also, I think William DeVaughn is just an old guy and old people don’t understand the importance of your channel. Let it have been 60 Minutes reaching out, he would’ve “Got it”
The phrase "diamond in the back, sunroof down" is old-school street slang & comes from the hood. Not even sure if "Be Thankful" is the first song to use the phrase in its lyrics, but the phrase also shows up in the lyrics of "Shame Shame Shame" by Shirley & Co from 1975
Man, you juste don't know how MUCH I have enjoyed listening to you. Listening to your comment and research was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Very entertaining to the point I really didn't care who did what when and how. YOU is the Real McCoy bro. I give you 10/10. Heck, I make it 15/10. Keep it up bro.
I heard the song in the movie “blood in blood out” and I went searching and I found it under Curtis mayfield’s name but there were two versions. An upbeat disco version that was different from the one i had heard in the movie. So, I figured mayfield must have covered the song and I kept searching for the original artist and track. I found the original version under a different name and later realized that both versions belonged to William Devaugn. I found it on iTunes and I’ve been jamming to both versions ever since. This was almost twenty years ago. A lot of music from that era is floating around without the proper credits. You find them in compilations, soundtracks and lots of other weird places. Another good one is George Clinton’s “swing down to cherry stop and let me ride”or (swing down sweet chariot and let me ride) I don’t know which one. I know that’s not the title and I don’t know if it’s a song or an excerpt from a live performance. I can’t find it anywhere but snoop sampled it and put the credits under the title on his album so I’m thinking there must be a track somewhere.
@@jamesoblivion yes, but I couldn’t find a studio version. Only the live version of mothership connection where they break it down and do a little medley.
Curtis Mayfield made some of the smoothest, slickest songs ever. For soul music, theres Keep on Keeping On, Move on Up, Darker Than Blue, Hell Below, Back to the World. As the 70s progressed he got into funk, and for that we have: Doo Doo Wop Strong In Here, the Superfly album. And for the perfect love song, theres "Youre So Good To Me". Mayfield's high pitched voice is so iconic. These 70s songs have not aged, they are perfection. The 70s soul and funk fusion is the king of slick coolness. It cannot be topped!
I always wondered about this song.. i was called out by a buddy when i mentioned this song being by William DeVaughn and when people looked it up on their phones, I ended up feeling like the idot standing on his own hill as google brought back Curtis as the original artist... Thank you so much for doing this video.. not so much for the "I told you so" but really for the points you make about missinformation and how it can stack on itself.. how the facts get lost to time. Either way, this song is a gift and i hope it lives on. Cheers to you for doing your research and for digging into the greats. Keep up the great work Easy subscription from me.
@ 8:05 - Bro, you gotta start listing the music you play in the background. It's always some cool shit that I need to track down... and I'm tired of using Shazam!!! 🤣🤣🤣
I never knew that people thought it was called "Diamond in the Back, or that it was made by Curtis Mayfield. I've only known it to be by William DeVaughn and titled "Be Thankful for What You Got", released in 1974 on the Roxbury Records label. I have it on my channel. I would post the link but, not without permission. You can search by artist name or song title (on my channel) if you'd like to hear the complete song.
You probably can solve my mystery. I knew of "Be Thankful" but never thought of it belonging to Curtis Mayfield. However, there was a song done in the style of "Be Thankful", and the "Diamond in the back" part was instead, "Down in Jamaica the sun is hot...". Can't seem to find it, and who sang it.
On May 12, 2017, a two-song medley, "What Does It Take (to Win Your Love for Me)" and "I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying" was released on Sound Gems Records.
William Devaughn made that song. But I still remember finding the Curtis Mayfield title on limewire with William's song. It would later be shared on UA-cam as a Curtis Mayfield track. It was before the Mandela Effect stuff.
I've always known this was William Devaughn and was called Be Thankful for What You Got. I had a gut feeling that the wrong song title and wrong artist started with a p2p site like Limewire, where people constantly uploaded and downloaded songs with the wrong titles and wrong artist names of the files. That's one thing I've always strongly disliked about the Internet. How gross inaccuracies and flat out lies become what everyone believes
Uncles use to play this in their Deuce and a Quarter. TV Antenna in the back, crushed light blue velvet interior, with the blue paint job, chrome with the curb catchers / feelers.... MIss them days....
Thanks for the support! The royalties to the falsely listed songs are likely ending up in the right place, as UA-cam tags the song correctly, it's just most people don't dig that far so they'd have no idea
9:25 THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS. These are not search suggestions based on what other people searched, that is a misunderstanding. Those auto-complete suggestions are based on what content is already online. So they represent the mislabelling that was already taking place, and do not at all represent what people were searching for. I see this misunderstanding perpetuated again and again and I needed to correct it. The auto-complete search text represents what text is online, not what text is being searched for.
I met William DeVaughn when I moved in the neighborhood in Oakland. CA. We Graduated from Castlemont High School in 1964. His family was musically enclined.
This video was made because the poster of the song to UA-cam was negligent and erroneous in naming and crediting the song and hundreds of thousands of people either knew it was wrong or were misinformed. Imagine the social awkwardness of saying this is your favorite Curtis Mayfield song and you're apparently ignorant, secretly misinformed. For a while I had no clue it wasn't Curtis Mayfield even though I'd heard other songs. I just didn't know William DeVaughan at all and was willing to believe it was Curtis Mayfield.
The version of this song that I heard first was the one by Massive Attack from their 1991 debut album "Blue Lines". That's probably the case for many Europeans my age. I can still remember that the release of this album was postponed several times. I read the first announcement for the album in the fall of 1990 in the column of Michael Reinboth (German DJ and later founder of the Munich label Compost). He had obviously heard some of the album's songs six months before the release and wrote, among other things, about a cover version of DeVaughn's "Be Thankful" which Massive Attack had renamed "Diamond In The Back". (On the finally released version of the album, however, the song was listed under its real name again) I don't know exactly why the release of "Blue Lines" was delayed for so long. I always assumed that it was due to the clearance of some samples. But who knows, maybe it was also because they asked Curtis Mayfield for permission for their "Diamond In The Back" cover and didn't get an answer. 🤷♂️
I’m glad you are correcting this. I know William DeVaughn personally and had the pleasure of singing in a DoWoop group with him called 4 miles out of DC. I also heard the song when it was a demo. I knew it would be a hit.
That actually really sucks you never got an interview with him! He seems pretty indifferent to this Mandela effect n cultural impact this song has had. Literally every Sunday we had backyard BBQs n this was a staple in the oldie’s rotation. Always knew it was him tho! Y’all should listen to another song by him called “Love in Every Language” it’s a banger lol great video as always bro
Here I thought I was having a fake memory. I searched and found this song and was shocked to discover it was Mayfield. I was a child back then and had no memory of it being Mayfield. I kept saying it was someone else. I remembered a picture of a band and Mayfield wasn’t in it. After a while, I came to accept it was Mayfield and I hadn’t known. Thanks for clearing this up.
Solid video. 💯 Between owning records, and being old enough to have caught the tail-end of the radio era, I knew who it was, but never knew why people thought it was Curtis Mayfield. A note for those of you who own vinyl-the fact that it wasn't on his debut, "Curtis" (which is usually the album it's credited to, if only visually,) should have tipped you off. 😉
@robsquadreactions It's so awesome to see your channel get glimpsed on here. Love @diggingthegreats , aka The Professor (at least that's what I call him) . 🙏🏽 Love both your channels! This so made my Monday. ❤
I was not expecting this song when I opened the video. I thought everyone knew William DeVaughn made “Be thankful”
About half the Internet thinks it’s Curtis - including, as you’ll see, some well respected music institutions
Me, too.🤷♂
the whole album is actually pretty good.
Doesn’t even sound like Curtis!
Same thought.
His intro made me second guess my mp3 collection that i hace on my sd card on my phone. Lol.
William DeVaughn is alive and doing very well. He is my next door neighbor and I see him everyday. His song "Be Thankful for What You've Got" Give William his due credit, he wrote and organized the lyrics of this song. People, "Curtis Mayfield did not make this song". He is still making music, I know he gives me original copies of his new music. He is a very kind, loving, compassionate and a caring person. I am a senior/widow and he helps me out a lot around my house and property. He help all our neighbors in our neighborhood. "I am Thankful for what I got", because of William DeVaughn ❤❤❤❤ love you William.😊😊 February 26, 2024.
I read somewhere that he never sold his publishing, I PRAY that’s true
I ALWAYS KNEW WHO SUNG IT AND MUCAS I LOVE CURTIS, I hated William DeVaugh didn’t get the CRITICAL ACCLAIM he so very much deserved. All the more reason I HOPE he still getting residuals for a VERY IMPORTANT CLASSIC!🙏🏾❤️
I covered His song (I played all the parts though) ua-cam.com/video/mutsvquE7BQ/v-deo.html
Are y’all in Philadelphia? What neighborhood?
Maybe you should get to know your neighbor MORE since you spelled the title of the song wrong.
@@starchildarryl that was rude and uncalled for.
The fact the ACTUAL song, not only was a major platinum hit but also featured MSFB but STILL was credited to a whole other person is wild. Didn't know that.🤯
Crazy! And so many people (and legit institutions) get it wrong constantly 🤯
Same here. Never knew ppl credited this to Curtis Mayfield.
It's MFSB, for Mother, Father, Sister, Brother. You don't want to birth a new wave of artist confusion in the DTG comments. xD
@diggingthegreats You and everyone are simulated zombies in the dragon's (satan's), "don't make any long term plans, because this zombie earth is getting sent real soon"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve always blamed p2p like Napster & Limewire for stuff like this. I swear a whole generation is still convinced that “Red Red Wine” and “Smoke 2 Joints” are Bob Marley songs.
Btw. The diamond in the back is in reference to the Cadillac model which had a small diamond shaped rear window. That feature was considered high class when I was a little black kid growing up in Detroit.
I'm betting the majority of the people who've heard the song since it was released, and the younger folks who hear it for the first time, haven't a clue. I was a little white kid who grew up between two projects in San Francisco, and remember those Caddys back then.
It was not a Cadillac model. Closest thing would be a Brougham, which was a Fleetwood model trim.
Ok. I thought it was a Cadillac because the song says "though you may not have a great big Cadillac...". However I'm not into car brands, never was. Even though I'm Motown born and raised. Ha!!!
The diamond was a customized feature, Ive had to explain the "tva in the back" to lots of young people, "television antenna"
@@RC51Legendcorrect; the effect was mostly assiciated with the Brougham line (mid 70s) there is one in the movie superfly (original) which incidently has a Curtis Mayfield soundtrack and I suppose this lends to the mix up with artists years later, cause I think when people invision the Pimped out Cadi image in that Devaugn anthem, it would be priests eldorado with the gangster whitewalls from that same movie.
For someone who knows the original song, and never thought that it was recorded by Mayfield, the premise of this video is too mind breaking to watch.
Exactly and their voices are bit diffrent
There's no way because Mr Devaugnt performed on soul train and people bought the record reason it hit number 1 smh
No true soul music fan EVER confused the two.
Exactly 💯..I was thinking the same thing..I figured if you were born in the early 70s and before folks would know this already...lol..our fathers, uncles, grandfathers, etc played this in their cars when we were coming up..plus I have the original album in the house from my parents collection...im sorry but I don't like this new generation..lol
lol, I feel you. Lucky for me, my parents had this on vinyl(it was part of some soul greatest hits collection.@@LOGICAL-JAY
Someone posted "Be Thankful for What You've Got" on YT with a misleading album cover that identified it as a Curtis Mayfield song. Since YT, Google, etc., reinforce confirmation bias, the erroneous post became the top search result. I've had many arguments about this over the years. Thank you for making this vid so I don't have to explain it anymore.
LMAOOOOO as soon as the song started playing, I was like, “This ain’t Curtis.” 🤔😆 Growing up in Memphis, “Be Thankful…” was one of those songs that was in heavy rotation - I heard it everywhere, all the time. I had no idea people thought it was Curtis.
I also noticed you didn’t touch on “Shazam/Kazaam” in the Mandela Effect section. 🤣🤣🤣 I don’t blame you tho!
@jayfinger. Correct. Its a west coast classic and I have never heard anyone think it's Curtis mayfield. It might be the tiktok crowd.
White people thought it was
I also grew up in Memphis also (tho later) and recall hearing about a song that was a staple in the clubs when I was very little called Triggerman and they would start fights and tear the place up off the strength of that song. Became an even BIGGER hit in New Orleans. Later on, Triggerman was ACTUALLY called Drag Rap and done by a couple guys from NY
It got popular from Ludacris and mixtapes sampling Ludas song in the mid 2000s.
When the original got uploaded on to UA-cam, people uploading it mistook it for Curtis Mayfield and those incorrect uploads happen to get more popular than the actual correct uploads with William Devaughn, which were also uploaded at the same times by different users.
That's it.
The people who uploaded the incorrect names, probably uploaded from files they had downloaded through various sites like Kazaa, Lime wire, etc...that might've been named incorrectly or correctly.
The correct uploads on youtube are mostly from people who had the vinyl/CD and uploaded themselves.
Everyone in the hood never thought this was Curtis Mayfield. William DeVaughn recorded this song.
Right especially if your parents had the album it doesn’t even sound like Curtis Mayfield….
Right Everybody's parents had this record and never thought it was Curtis Mayfield. But I'll be fair and assume that later generations who only know Curtis Mayfield's music because of Superfly may have thought this was him based on the vibe and falsetto, Like some people thought Jamaica Funk was by Chaka Khan.
Mandela Effect is a thing white ppl use when they swore they were right about something.
@@tpcorleonesfunkzone2859even if they tried to search it now they wouldnt find it under Curtis Mayfield
Back then we knew it wasn't Chaka Kahn singing.
I knew the exact song you were gonna talk about when I saw Curtis in the thumbnail! A similar thing has happened to Bobby McFerrin, where a video of his song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is credited to Bob Marley. It has 170 million views now!
NOOOO
Bob Marley get brought up in a lot of reggae songs like this. Red Wine is one of them.
This was the first thing that I thought of... "Don't Worry Be happy" used to be all over Napster & limewire being attributed to Bob Marley...
La la la song/sweat is also mistakenly credited to Marley
Fun fact...Red Wine was actaully written by a pop songwriter as a country song his name is Neil Diamond.@@labbaby189
FINALLY!!! Someone who post a video with some sense!! I’ve used to argue with ALOT of people, including my grandmother for almost 20 YEARS that this was not a Curtis Mayfield record…and people whom I’ve deeply argued with DID NOT do thorough research like I did…and you as well. THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!!!
You have to admit that his voice and falsetto was similar sounding to Curtis. The fact that his voice sounded close to Curtis was probably a reason that helped it like Michael Jackson and the weeknd
WoW, this is crazy. I use to work with Mr. William "Bill" DeVaughn in the 1980's at Blue Plains Water Treatment as a Drafters Assistant and he gave me a history of him traveling to Philly to record, "Cadillacs don't come easy." He would talk about his experience a real cool guy and I asked him why were "they" giving Curtis Mayfield blind credit for your song? Lazy researching? WoW, all of my friends didn't believe that I worked with him as a summer job. He told me to go to college and I did. And I ended up working in the entertainment field and my coilege girlfriend was from Philly which took me to Philly often and to Philly International. You brought back some great memories! I worked a concert that Curtis Mayfield was apart of but I never got to ask him about the songs. There is a DC singer, Raheem DeVaughn and I always wondered if that was Mr. D's son or relative? I am 59 years old and you literally took me back 40 years! Thank you I am now a subscriber!!! 🎼🎵🎶🎤
Blue Plains in DC? That is so cool!
I have wondered about Raheem, too. He is a good artist, but I feel he's been slept on.
Abdul Wadud aka Ronald Devaughn is Raheem's pops. I've always assumed they all had some form of relation somehow.
hahaha dude this is bonkers. that very album on spotify popped up on my shuffle a couple months back and I was like "oh curtis joint, diamond in the back" only to look at my phone and see the cover and the name. I thought "oh might be a remix or something". crazy, top tier work as always brother.
Funny you dropped this video right now. I had the luck to find "Be thankful for what you got" on a CD in the municipal library like two weeks ago. I even looked Willian DeVaughn up figuring he is in his 70s now. I plan to play this song as much as possible in coming DJ sets. Maybe that can educate people about this beautiful song.
I really hope you would get the chance to interview him.
I just recently bought a CD with the song on it.
UA-cam is a little irritating! Even though I’m subscribed to you, this is the first video they have shown me of yours in months. But I’m so glad they did! The 70s is my absolute favorite of music! Maybe it’s because I was born in 73 and all of my favorite TV shows had the dopest soundtracks, full of live musicians! (Chips, Charlie’s Angels, and so many more!) That sound is that lush blend of orchestral arrangements with bad ass bongo playing, deep funky bass lines, and wah-wah guitars shall never be duplicated. You just gave me a rundown of music and musiciansI I need to check into because that is the sound that I crave listening to over and over again. I love your passion for the music and dedication to the truth about its roots. Thank you for being you and doing you!
William Devaughn left the music business to become a Draftsman with the DC Water and Sewer Authority. (DC WASA) He wrote a song to celebrate the creation of the agency in 1996.
He was occasionally performing in the DMV with other Oldie acts but not much. As you have witnessed, he is a low key guy and keeps to himself.
I also worked with his Brother Karl, who did personal security for the Cohen family who owned Giant Food Stores in the DMV.
Good luck with your search and keep up the good work. 🎼🎙️🎧
Is he alive or nah?
@@DJGary0910 yes to my knowledge.
Yes!!!!
My dad was asking about William DeVaughn oddly enough. He’s trying to contact him. Do you know his whereabouts?
@@VideogeekinMDis he kin to Raheem DeVaughn
Excellent. I knew immediately upon seeing the thumbnail and title, and even said aloud "Lemme guess, William DeVaughn's 'Be Thankful For What You Got'". As a DJ, this is a song which I absorbed mis-labelled into my library long ago, no doubt inherited in the form of a low-bitrate file from another DJ's hard drive, which he, in turn, likely downloaded from limewire. I don't remember how the mis-attribution came to my attention, but I only learned the truth about a decade ago. Definitely an all-time fave, as I actually do drive a great big Cadillac (a far finer car than I deserve, left to me by my great-grandmother upon her passing), but - since I am currently living in it - I really do have to remember to be thankful. The caddy and the Rane One in its trunk are just about all I got.
Gotta mention Massive Attack‘s cover of this song from 1991, which is _PHENOMENAL_ - I first heard of DeVaughn‘s original in the early 2000s, from the internet, but _gasp!_ it was correctly labeled, on one of those amazing Blogspot pages from that time that used to post mp3s of rare soul music. Thanks for the video!
Came on here to say the same thing!
My second fav cover version after Hendrix’s All Along The Watch Tower.
Massive attack is amazing
😂 I depended so much on those blogspots for so damn long
They had to change their name to Massive for their debut album in 1991 due to the Gulf War.
Massive Attack fan here too!
Yeah, when I found the MP3 of this song years ago, it was correctly credited, both title and artist. Guess I was lucky.
I think I mentioned this before but a great old western called “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” dealt with this idea waaaay before it was called the Mandela Effect.
In the movie, it is believed that Jimmy Stewart is a hero who shot the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance. Stewart’s character has lived the life of the hero because of this and now finds himself dealing with a journalist who wants to write about his life story and heroic actions. But the catch is Stewart isn’t actually the man who shot Valance, and Stewart tells the truth to the journalist, who confronted with the reality that the man he is researching and writing about didn’t actually do the only thing he’s famous for, responds by saying “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In other words, when most people believe something (the legend becomes fact) there’s no point in trying to correct it, because everyone already believes the legend, even if it isn’t what happened.
This phenomena is much more common than we like to believe- a good example is how we are taught in schools that Columbus proved the world is round. Nevermind that the ancient Greeks figured that out around 1800 years before Columbus, and that educated people in 1492 (which probably included Columbus and definitely includes Queen Isabella and Ferdinand, who funded Columbus’s exhibitions) knew about how the Ancient Greeks proved the world was round, and that the globe itself was first invented in 1492 so everyone could look at a more realistic depiction of the earth than a flat map would provide. The idea that Columbus discovered the world was round is pure fiction, and specifically is tied to the book “A History of the Life and Times of Christopher Columbus”, which was a work of fiction imagining the journeys written in the 1820s by Washington Irving. Because Irving was the most popular author of his time and place, his version of Columbus’s legend became so widespread that they eventually started teaching it to kids in school blissfully unaware of how fictional it was, including the idea that people in the 1490s didn’t know the world was round and that Columbus was the first to prove it was.
In any case, it definitely strikes me as a concept we’d do better to call the Liberty Valance effect when it comes to something like this where the legend has become fact- the Mandela effect usually is better reserved for mysteries that can be easily unraveled with a Google search (such as when Mandela died, or the Monopoly man wearing a monocle.) When the true story is this involved and virtually impossible to find with an easy Google search, that’s more than Mandela.
"Everyone knows this song."
Oh, I do! My parents had the original DeVaughn vinyl record 😂
I've always known it was William Devaughn. That Curtis Mayfield thing is new to me. Check out The Five Stairsteps. A band that Mr Mayfield produced. You'll recognize some songs but obscure gems and a bomb ass sound.
I never realized how deep this rabbit hole goes until I saw this video. I distinctly remember seeing one of these UA-cam videos many years ago mislabeling William's song and it immediately rubbed me the wrong way. I figured at the time just one person didn't do their research. And to be fair, William does sound like Curtis a bit and "diamond in the back" is the easiest line to remember in the song. But never would I have thought the misinformation would go THIS far.
I hope William does get back to eventually. Keep up the good work. 💯💯💯
This is like when people say Bob Marley made red wine and don’t worry, be happy yet he never did.
Perfect Example Plus It Leads Us Back To The Mandela Effect 🙃🤯💥
Most of the “Mandela effect” phenomena can be ascribed to “people are stupid”.
That and the human mind is just fallible asl and to cope with that fact it also instills a false confidence that it ain't.
False memories that either the brain put back together wrong or was influenced by somebody else, forgetting things, blocking things out, blending memories, mixing up events, just a long list of things it does foul.
Our brains evolved on the plains of the Africa to evade predators, scavenge food, and procreate by 25 or so when we'd die. So it's not unreasonable that our brains ain't all that given how much the world has changed in the last 150k years or so 😂
@4.14 That and also let's be real! Social Media MADE most of the world's population even more retarded than the previous decades/generations so there's that 🤣🥲
@MrOtistetrax Welcome to Clown World 😂🤡
@4.14 I would like to say that the ONLY reason that humans survived these last 150k years without going fully extinct is because of the technological, cultural and historical advancements of Black/African people.
We're the only group of human beings who were at least smart enough to transcend beyond the primitive mindset that early humans had and use that newfound intellect to push the world forward in the beginning as well as both directly and indirectly influence other groups to do the same down the road.
Unfortunately, one of our biggest flaws was just we allowed our humanity and intellect to be used against us which lead to the mass pillaging, colonization of Africa, and the enslavement of Black/African people.
Once again, if it wasn't FOR our ancestors (Black people) then mankind would have died out 150k years ago! So it wasn't all for nothing despite the centuries-long opposition and vitriol towards Black people and our history I guess.
Also, thanks a lot for acknowledging that humanity started in Africa though. You still have a lot of people who think that humans came out of caves in Europe or some bs like that... 😂🤣
Not true. There are two timelines. I have proof of it being " berenstein" bears...also a prince song lyric was changed ...." magically".
The brothers knew this was not a Curtis Mayfield song
Nano nano. Ai.
Fosho
My mind is blown. Ever since looking up this sample that I heard in Ludacris - Diamond in the back I have loved this song. I always wondered why it was left off the 'Curtis' album. This is insane. You have a new subscriber 100%
The moment you said the song "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield was actually the song "Be Thankful for What You Got" by William DeVaughn, my mind immediately went to peer-to-peer file sharing clients. I'm a 1990s and early-mid 2000s kid, and I used LimeWire to download so much music back in the day. LimeWire and other P2P file sharing clients like it were notorious for people spreading songs labeled with the either the wrong title, the wrong artist or both, even spelling artists names wrong because they didn't know and didn't bother to do any research. "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield is most likely a holdover from the P2P file sharing days. With the rise in popularity of UA-cam, these songs with incorrect titles and artists started being spread on here. It's kind of funny to see, but at the same time, it's sad that some people don't know the correct titles and artists for these songs, and that the artists aren't getting the proper credit.
As for that Rob Squad Reactions channel, that's a channel I'm actually subscribed to. I enjoy their reactions, and I think they're a cute couple. I don't blame them for not knowing the correct artist and title. They'd likely never heard the song before, and a lot of their song reaction videos are based on viewer suggestions in the comments section and in e-mails. Someone likely suggested "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield, and they just assumed that was the title and artist. Another song and artist they got wrong was "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray. They incorrectly labeled it as "Give Me the Beat Boy" by the Doobie Brothers, likely another holdover from the P2P file sharing days. I wish they'd do just a little bit of research before they make their reaction videos, so at least, they're getting the song titles and artists correct.
I had no idea that people thought this was a Curtis Mayfield song.
You also did not know that it was not Curtis Mayfield
@@ShelbyJohnson44lol, your projection is quite cold.
Thanks to the innernets, many folks do
@kuahmelallah not cold I speak truth he know damn well he thought that was Curtis just like millions of us did
@JohnsonAnn65 nah, I've known for decades. Never even heard it suggested it was Curtis.
I remember when that video with that Curtis album cover was posted. People kept telling the uploader they put the wrong artist and they would t make edits to the title of the video. And then they eventually turned off the comments. This is almost the same thing that happened with that video for “Remember the Rain” that was erroneously labeled as a song by The Sylvers instead of 21st Century. That person never changed the title of the video either. 🤷🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
I'm gonna admit, I fell for this. I found the song through UA-cam and never thought to question it
I remembered the song from the 70's, when I was a kid. I liked it but didn't know who did it. I must have searched for "Diamond in the Back" on UA-cam, and with De Vaughn's voice sounding enough like Curtis, I was fooled. Or maybe I should say "misinformed". I can remember seeing pimped out Caddys just like in the song, with the TV antenna and the vinyl top extended over the back window to make a diamond. Wide whites, too.
Man, as a record collector and enjoyer of countless hip-hop mixtapes, I can say this, that you are right about the internet not being a friendly place when it comes to finding good information about music, albums, and musicians. I'm currently doing some research for a project I am working on in tribute to a DJ from the west coast, and trying to pull together information for this project has been some serious work and thinking outside the box to fill in gaps in the collective knowledge. Often, the practice of leaving track lists for mixtapes off of the finished product, or worse, inventing artist and song titles for compilations like the Ultimate Breaks And Beats catalog for example, were practiced by producers and DJs who were, like most people working in the music industry, struggling to make ends meet and fearful that a lawsuit would come down on them, putting a quick end to their ability to make a litle bit of money from their hard work and vision. Sometimes, it had nothing to do with money, and was more about the principle of sweat equity. It was the artist saying "There are no shortcuts to this knowledge that I am drawing from to present my work to you, and because I had to put the work in decoding this, you can either be happy passively enjoying it, or put your own work in to seek the knowledge as well."
Already knew which song you were talking about when I saw the thumbnail 🔥
Same
Same
Same
William DeVaughn actually shows up on Apple Music as the artist of this song. He also has a short bio and pictures and the original album cover
Another example of something similar is Baby Come Back by Player being called a Hall & Oates song (because it borrows a lot of elements from She's Gone), and literally any song parody sung by a male being identified as a Weird AL song. The list goes on with these mix ups/mistaken artists on similar sounding or themed or dare i say ripoff songs. When i was younger i was convinced Move Your Body by Nina Sky was a Rihanna song. Anyway i can't believe lack of finding the correct artists name is still happening in the internet age though lol
I would agree with the song by Player being confused more than "Be Thankful"
Norman Connor - You Are My Starship was sung by his bass player Michael Henderson.
And this is why its great to OWN actual RECORDS. Then you know who you are listening, what year it is from, who wrote it, who played on it etc. Great video once again!
I learned this more than 2 decades ago! I recently clarified this point to another well seasoned musician. Thank you for spreading the truth. ❤
Very informative video man, I always thought that was Curtis Mayfield song too 💯💯
This was a fun rabbit hole to journey down, DTG. Hope we see more musical mysteries like these in the future.
My favourite Mandela effect is the Disney one, where Tinkerbell "draws" the arch over the castle. I refuse to believe that don't exist.
I remembered this song correctly…. Probably because I thought it was Curtis Mayfield when it came out. I remember the DJ on WOKN in North Carolina saying this is not Curtis Mayfield but William DeVaughn. People were confused even back then. Awesome video. I really enjoyed this one. I wonder if Mr DeVaughn will watch this video. I will be looking for him in the comments.😊😊
What was make me even madder is all those rappers who sample this stuff and then act like some new rapper is some kind of genius. So stupid.
This is some legit investigative journalism. I'm jamming out to Mr. Devaughn right now because of you
The original album and the one on Spotify (which is actually figures can’t calculate) are GREAT
So , i just watched your video and had to watch the entirety as i actually met William in the bronx circa 2004 / 2005 . A brief conversation but i met him through a mutual friend . He introduced himself and mentioned that he had a song and he sung the song's chorus for me and i tied it to ludacris . He mentioned that he sang the original . Your video was a nice explanation though , thanks much . Brought back some memories .
Immediately I was reminded of how so many people think "Nobody Knows" by The Tony Rich Project is a Baby Face song. I mean, they do sound similar, so I can get how some might mix the two singers up... But not knowing "Be Thankful" is wild!
Super wild!
Babyface was all over it though.
Why would that be crazy If it was a one hit wonder artist?
This is just like "Rescue me" by Fontella Bass. People swore that was Aretha Franklin, but she never sang it. I believed that Aretha sang it until I did some research. The voices sound quite similar, though.
Who didn’t know this was William DeVaughn’s song?
About half of the Internet 🤯
Me! Im from the EU and i got into funk and rnb more than 10 years ago while browsing youtube and listening to the classics. i am actually shocked because it sounds like it could be a mayfield song imho. when you explore a genre from afar ( time wise and/or distance wise) you get what the internet tells you. now i HAVE to check William DeVaughns music. love the video, sunbed to the channel as well :)
Me! 🤯
@@diggingthegreats this is crazy. But then again I grew up listening to this song, as well as other “Oldies” as we call them.
@@MrZ1TA Here in California this song was played all the time when I was growing up. I never knew people thought this was a Curtis Mayfield song 🤷🏻♂️
Love this channel.
That said, blown away that people didn't know it was William DeVaughn. Grew up on the song. This is one of many reasons why the internet sucks.
One day people will say " Future" released " Panda" 😆
Now that you mention it, that’s definitely already started
This came out when I was teenager. There was no internet. The song played on the radio and you waited for artist name William Devaughn, it was never Curtis. Still grooving to this on my oldies playlist-true words to live by.
Dyana Williams is the mother of Kenny Gamble’s child Idia Gamble. She is a legendary Philadelphia DJ and journalist. MFSB (Philadelphia International) who worked with William Devaughn in 1974 on “Just Be Thankful For What You’ve Got,” as you stated. The song was recorded a few years before her relationship with Kenny Gamble but she mingled with all the Philly affiliated artists at one time. She knows more than she is letting on. 😊
Somebody is collecting publishing cheques on his behalf and he's dead something dodgy is going on
@@fromafricaicame5909 Very strange indeed.
As a Philadelphia old head who remembers Philadelphia radio royalty like Georgie Woods, Jerry Wells, Mimi Brown, Louise Williams on WDAS AM as well as Dyana Williams I feel like Dyana Williams probably met and knows him BUT is running the smokescreen simply because William DeVaughn just wants to ride into the sunset. After Sound of Philadelphia burned up in a fire a few years ago(now a condo spot on Broad St real shame) it seems difficult to track down and get anything on even their top selling artist much less their 2nd line artist.
@@jordylu1007 Exactly!
Love your channel! The only problem is that whenever I watch your channel, I wind up spending up to hours looking through my music collection to see if I have it. Which is great! Because I at times I forget some of what I have. I've been collecting music for my collection since the late 60s. Albums started warping, cassettes started sticking. Eventually, I just took the time and digitized my collections.
Love the wrong limewire titles. So many still think Jimmy Buffett wrote the Pina Colada Song, which I feel suits Rupert Holmes just fine 😂
Reminds me of the Napster practice of labeling every vaguely humorous song 'Weird Al.'
Reading the comments makes me wonder if people even watch the actual video before bitching or saying “we already knew that” People under 40 didn’t know what you 60 years olds knew. I knew because Curtis is one of my favorite artist and I know his work but millions don’t.
IT. DOESN'T. EVEN. SOUND. LIKE. CURTIS MAYFIELD!!!! At all!!!!
Why does it sound exactly like Curtis and not Williams voice. You can hear the difference in both songs ?
Thank you for making this video! I’ve been trying to tell folks for years what this song really is, that’s not called Diamond In The Back and that was sung by William DeVaughn and not Curtis. It’s a beautiful song, one of my favorites of all time. Thank you!
I thought Curtis made "I'm Yo Pusha Man". I had no idea who did Diamond in the Back, but I learned something new today.
It's funny how younger people don't realize that there was a whole world already in existence before they came to be. I have never met anyone who thought that song was anyone other than William DeVaughn. It's a classic. Been on the radio since the 70's. Been covered countless times (soul versions, reggae versions, etc).
The 'down' beat on "Move On Up" starts on what is audibly beat #3 (after the 2nd snare). When the horns and the rest of the elements come in. Those snare hits at the beginning are lead in notes and don't take up an entire measure..
Hey digging the greats, I didn't get your actual name name but thanks for setting the record straight, no pun intended
Another example of this is NWA's Straight Outta Compton album being incorrectly listed as releasing on Monday 8-8-88 (albums didn't release on Monday). Eazy-E's album came first, and wasn't released until the early Fall of 1988. Eazy's catalog # is SL57100, and NWA is SL57102. This means that NWA's album either dropped in late November or early 1989. Journalist Dart Adams has posted about this numerous times. The incorrect date was cemented when, during 2015 movie appearance interview, Ice Cube casually agreed with the interviewer about the album getting released on 8-8-88. Now, the wrong date is flooded over the internet.
When I saw the album art I thought you were gonna say "Move On Up" doesn't exist. I was ready to fight for a second there.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I have been a musician for over 50 years. This has bothered me ever since I saw the first UA-cam video of this song. You have answered all of my questions about this mystery, and I never thought that it was this deep! I have just subscribed and liked! 👍
Thank you! I'm glad somebody is finally setting that straight. I've known this song ever since my dad bought William DeVaughn's album when it came out. And I love that you excerpted Jay and Amber's reaction video, but they're young, maybe 30. They didn't know.
I knew this was what it was. I knew it was just a mistaken title from the Napster days. I remember an alternative vocal from the radio in the 90s and assumed that was the version I was pirating, not the original from the black barbershop I grew up on. Nice video, dude. If you can find that alternative vocal version I'll be your best friend.
This reminds me of something that used to happen with bootlegs (and probably still happens to this day). They'd find a song that sounds close enough to the style and sound of the featured band, alter it a bit so as it's harder to tell who is actually singing and include it on an album with a bunch of real outtakes, rare songs and unreleased material. A perfect example would be The Beatles and The Rolling Stones working together on a song called Shades Of Orange. According to the bootleggers, it features George Harrison on lead vocals and various members of both The Beatles and The Stones playing other instruments. It's actually partly true. The song was produced by Bill Wyman and it does feature Charlie Watts on percussion so it does have a connection to The Rolling Stones...just not to The Beatles. It's actually by a band called The End and you can now find really high quality versions of it online, but back in the day, we were going off of what sounded like a 5th generation tape copy that was played slightly too fast. Under those circumstances, it's believable enough. That's just 1 example of what some collector's call "outfakes". I'd say a lot of people on early file sharing systems would have intentionally mislabeled files so as to make it look like they had something really rare, when they actually only had the same stuff that everyone else had. I think the best mislabeling I ever saw was "Nirvana - Mrs Robinson (Beatles Cover)". Not only did they get the name of the band performing the song wrong as it was The Lemonheads, but they also got the name of the original artist wrong too.
Thanks for all the work and research you did on this
I never knew anyone that thought that "Be Thankful for what you got" was a Curtis Mayfield song.
Now for years I never knew who the artist was, but never thought it was Mayfield.
Sounds like you came across a post on UA-cam. Years ago I came across a post that had the same name and had Curtis Mayfield’s name on it and the post had thousands of views. I responded only to find out years later it had not been removed or corrected. My feelings were exactly like yours. That was over fifteen years ago
Oh my goodness! I’m so happy that I clicked this video because I was thinking it was Curtis Mayfield.
When I tried finding it on Apple Music, it wouldn’t come up.
Thank you for this information. I have the original from William DeVaughn & MFSB is one of my favourite groups and yes! I can hear MFSB’s touch in there and it makes so much sense now ❤😊
Whenever someone says they remember something "vividly" "clearly" or "distinctly" means they do NOT remember correctly.
Thank you for this deep dive. I’m a 58 year old former DJ and lifelong music lover so it’s been William DeVaughn Be Thankful For What You Got, full stop, for the last 50 years. I’ve been blaming UA-cam for this Curtis Mayfield travesty for quite some time and I’m glad you broke down how Google and AI can be terrible by spreading misinformation.
Also, I think William DeVaughn is just an old guy and old people don’t understand the importance of your channel. Let it have been 60 Minutes reaching out, he would’ve “Got it”
My mp3 of "Be Thankful" is correctly credited and i downloaded it from Limewire after hearing the Massive Attack cover.
The phrase "diamond in the back, sunroof down" is old-school street slang & comes from the hood. Not even sure if "Be Thankful" is the first song to use the phrase in its lyrics, but the phrase also shows up in the lyrics of "Shame Shame Shame" by Shirley & Co from 1975
Man, you juste don't know how MUCH I have enjoyed listening to you.
Listening to your comment and research was OUT OF THIS WORLD.
Very entertaining to the point I really didn't care who did what when and how.
YOU is the Real McCoy bro.
I give you 10/10.
Heck, I make it 15/10.
Keep it up bro.
I heard the song in the movie “blood in blood out” and I went searching and I found it under Curtis mayfield’s name but there were two versions. An upbeat disco version that was different from the one i had heard in the movie. So, I figured mayfield must have covered the song and I kept searching for the original artist and track. I found the original version under a different name and later realized that both versions belonged to William Devaugn. I found it on iTunes and I’ve been jamming to both versions ever since. This was almost twenty years ago. A lot of music from that era is floating around without the proper credits. You find them in compilations, soundtracks and lots of other weird places. Another good one is George Clinton’s “swing down to cherry stop and let me ride”or (swing down sweet chariot and let me ride) I don’t know which one. I know that’s not the title and I don’t know if it’s a song or an excerpt from a live performance. I can’t find it anywhere but snoop sampled it and put the credits under the title on his album so I’m thinking there must be a track somewhere.
The sample on Dre's Let Me Ride ("swing down, sweet chariot, stop, and let me ride") is from Mothership Connection (Star Child) by Parliament.
@@jamesoblivion yes, but I couldn’t find a studio version. Only the live version of mothership connection where they break it down and do a little medley.
@@Shoulderutube3its in the studio version. Second song on the album. I’m listening to it right now
@@randomquentin I found it👍
Awesome video!! I didn't realize so many people thought it was Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield made some of the smoothest, slickest songs ever. For soul music, theres Keep on Keeping On, Move on Up, Darker Than Blue, Hell Below, Back to the World. As the 70s progressed he got into funk, and for that we have: Doo Doo Wop Strong In Here, the Superfly album. And for the perfect love song, theres "Youre So Good To Me". Mayfield's high pitched voice is so iconic. These 70s songs have not aged, they are perfection. The 70s soul and funk fusion is the king of slick coolness. It cannot be topped!
I always wondered about this song.. i was called out by a buddy when i mentioned this song being by William DeVaughn and when people looked it up on their phones, I ended up feeling like the idot standing on his own hill as google brought back Curtis as the original artist...
Thank you so much for doing this video.. not so much for the "I told you so" but really for the points you make about missinformation and how it can stack on itself.. how the facts get lost to time.
Either way, this song is a gift and i hope it lives on.
Cheers to you for doing your research and for digging into the greats. Keep up the great work
Easy subscription from me.
@ 8:05 - Bro, you gotta start listing the music you play in the background. It's always some cool shit that I need to track down... and I'm tired of using Shazam!!! 🤣🤣🤣
I never knew that people thought it was called "Diamond in the Back, or that it was made by Curtis Mayfield. I've only known it to be by William DeVaughn and titled "Be Thankful for What You Got", released in 1974 on the Roxbury Records label. I have it on my channel. I would post the link but, not without permission. You can search by artist name or song title (on my channel) if you'd like to hear the complete song.
You probably can solve my mystery. I knew of "Be Thankful" but never thought of it belonging to Curtis Mayfield. However, there was a song done in the style of "Be Thankful", and the "Diamond in the back" part was instead, "Down in Jamaica the sun is hot...". Can't seem to find it, and who sang it.
On May 12, 2017, a two-song medley, "What Does It Take (to Win Your Love for Me)" and "I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying" was released on Sound Gems Records.
William Devaughn made that song. But I still remember finding the Curtis Mayfield title on limewire with William's song. It would later be shared on UA-cam as a Curtis Mayfield track. It was before the Mandela Effect stuff.
I've always known this was William Devaughn and was called Be Thankful for What You Got.
I had a gut feeling that the wrong song title and wrong artist started with a p2p site like Limewire, where people constantly uploaded and downloaded songs with the wrong titles and wrong artist names of the files.
That's one thing I've always strongly disliked about the Internet. How gross inaccuracies and flat out lies become what everyone believes
Blew my mind, already subscribed 👍
At 5:00 why are they showing the wrong album cover for s song that never existed in it. Where did they play the song from?
Uncles use to play this in their Deuce and a Quarter. TV Antenna in the back, crushed light blue velvet interior, with the blue paint job, chrome with the curb catchers / feelers....
MIss them days....
Where are the royalties going?
Thanks for the support! The royalties to the falsely listed songs are likely ending up in the right place, as UA-cam tags the song correctly, it's just most people don't dig that far so they'd have no idea
9:25 THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS. These are not search suggestions based on what other people searched, that is a misunderstanding. Those auto-complete suggestions are based on what content is already online. So they represent the mislabelling that was already taking place, and do not at all represent what people were searching for.
I see this misunderstanding perpetuated again and again and I needed to correct it.
The auto-complete search text represents what text is online, not what text is being searched for.
I met William DeVaughn when I moved in the neighborhood in Oakland. CA. We Graduated from Castlemont High School in 1964. His family was musically enclined.
No mention of Gabor Szabo's song "Keep Smilin'" from the 1976 album "Nightflight"?
This video was made because the poster of the song to UA-cam was negligent and erroneous in naming and crediting the song and hundreds of thousands of people either knew it was wrong or were misinformed. Imagine the social awkwardness of saying this is your favorite Curtis Mayfield song and you're apparently ignorant, secretly misinformed. For a while I had no clue it wasn't Curtis Mayfield even though I'd heard other songs. I just didn't know William DeVaughan at all and was willing to believe it was Curtis Mayfield.
The version of this song that I heard first was the one by Massive Attack from their 1991 debut album "Blue Lines". That's probably the case for many Europeans my age.
I can still remember that the release of this album was postponed several times. I read the first announcement for the album in the fall of 1990 in the column of Michael Reinboth (German DJ and later founder of the Munich label Compost). He had obviously heard some of the album's songs six months before the release and wrote, among other things, about a cover version of DeVaughn's "Be Thankful" which Massive Attack had renamed "Diamond In The Back". (On the finally released version of the album, however, the song was listed under its real name again)
I don't know exactly why the release of "Blue Lines" was delayed for so long. I always assumed that it was due to the clearance of some samples. But who knows, maybe it was also because they asked Curtis Mayfield for permission for their "Diamond In The Back" cover and didn't get an answer. 🤷♂️
I’m glad you are correcting this. I know William DeVaughn personally and had the pleasure of singing in a DoWoop group with him called 4 miles out of DC. I also heard the song when it was a demo. I knew it would be a hit.
That actually really sucks you never got an interview with him! He seems pretty indifferent to this Mandela effect n cultural impact this song has had. Literally every Sunday we had backyard BBQs n this was a staple in the oldie’s rotation. Always knew it was him tho! Y’all should listen to another song by him called “Love in Every Language” it’s a banger lol great video as always bro
Here I thought I was having a fake memory. I searched and found this song and was shocked to discover it was Mayfield. I was a child back then and had no memory of it being Mayfield. I kept saying it was someone else. I remembered a picture of a band and Mayfield wasn’t in it. After a while, I came to accept it was Mayfield and I hadn’t known. Thanks for clearing this up.
You have a great platform Bro, TY. Always interesting 🙏🏽
Solid video. 💯
Between owning records, and being old enough to have caught the tail-end of the radio era, I knew who it was, but never knew why people thought it was Curtis Mayfield.
A note for those of you who own vinyl-the fact that it wasn't on his debut, "Curtis" (which is usually the album it's credited to, if only visually,) should have tipped you off. 😉
Great video! Dude this was awesome!
@robsquadreactions It's so awesome to see your channel get glimpsed on here. Love @diggingthegreats , aka The Professor (at least that's what I call him) . 🙏🏽 Love both your channels! This so made my Monday. ❤
Love your videos always good stuff