This Curtis Mayfield Song DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST
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- Опубліковано 22 лют 2024
- Everybody knows the song "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield. You know the one that goes "Diamond in the back, sun roof top, diggin' the scene with the gangsta lean..."?
Well, I'm here to tell you that this song DOES NOT EXIST and Curtis Mayfield NEVER recorded it.
Today, we're going down a rabbit hole. How did this happen? If this isn't Curtis Mayfield, who is it and why does everyone think it's him? And as we find answers, we just might find more questions.
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SOURCES
The Kennedy Center Performance: • Next Step performs "Be...
The Reaction Video: • SMOOTH!| FIRST TIME HE...
The OLDEST Curtis Mayfield Miscrediting: • Curtis Mayfield- Diamo...
The BIGGEST Curtis Mayfield Miscrediting: • Curtis Mayfield - Diam...
The Trash Article: www.coronetdiamonds.com/the-o...
The Washington Post Interview: www.washingtonpost.com/archiv...
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Topics Covered
Curtis Mayfield
Superfly
William Devaughn
Be Thankful For What You Got
Diamond in the Back
Diamonds in the Back
Actual Song
Fake Song
Miscredit
Wrong
Controversy
Kennedy Center
TSOP
MFSB
Soul Train
Soul Music
Ludacris
#curtismayfield #soul #mystery #musichistory
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.
Tell him there's young people that appreciate him and his work
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.
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.
I had no idea that people thought this was a Curtis Mayfield song.
You also did not know that it was not Curtis Mayfield
@@JohnsonAnn65lol, 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.
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.
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.
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!!! 🎼🎵🎶🎤
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.
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
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
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... 😂🤣
@@davidmitchell3997 ua-cam.com/play/PLBfbaQ1cxXTFo1tctaR4JCruiP0P2RnM-.html&si=Qj-1n0aUENEIXuKI
I'm gonna admit, I fell for this. I found the song through UA-cam and never thought to question it
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
"Everyone knows this song."
Oh, I do! My parents had the original DeVaughn vinyl record 😂
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!!!
This is like when people say Bob Marley made red wine and don’t worry, be happy yet he never did.
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 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. 💯💯💯
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.
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.
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.
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.
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%
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 was a fun rabbit hole to journey down, DTG. Hope we see more musical mysteries like these in the future.
I learned this more than 2 decades ago! I recently clarified this point to another well seasoned musician. Thank you for spreading the truth. ❤
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.
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!
If you where black you'd know that William Devhaughn was a big hit in our day..
It was a huge hit, but I think he sounded so much like Curtis Mayfield, and due to music up loads, being uploaded unedited.
The brothers knew this was not a Curtis Mayfield song
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.
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.
IT. DOESN'T. EVEN. SOUND. LIKE. CURTIS MAYFIELD!!!! At all!!!!
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."
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.
You have a great platform Bro, TY. Always interesting 🙏🏽
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.
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.
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 .
This is why, when I transfer music in my collection, I like discogs because more often than not, I can look at pictures of the original album, CD, etc and get the information I need. But then again, I've seen mistakes printed too
Discogs is often garbage. They banned me from editing my own bands page for correcting incorrect information saying that I was vandalizing the page by removing text
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!
Google misinformation damage that generates traffic and with this, the Mandela effect. Very interesting content delivery. Thank you for your dedication!
Very informative video man, I always thought that was Curtis Mayfield song too 💯💯
What a crazy rabbit hole dude! I have been hearing 'Be Thankful for What You Got' by William DeVaughn for several years, correctly labeled on the Amazon Music app BTW and i had this same problem in my mind when i noticed the release year of the track. I was like "Why is UA-cam calling it a Mayfield track? Was it a cover maybe? Like Massive Attacks version?" But nope, i searched my dads vinyl and found no such track on his old Mayfield records 😮 I am so glad Digging the Greats covered this! You can never truly trust Google and the whole World Wide Web (What a tangled web we weave) 😂 I recently was renaming a host of mp3 files, mostly old R&B and Oldies, on an old hard drive that grossly had the wrong artists associated as a result of them coming from Napster and no one fact checking. Byt the first time i heard the line "Diamond in The Back" was Eazy-E but it felt like everything was partially from somewhere else in the days of sampling, however even as a kid i knew there had to be an original or a influence from somewhere else. Take "Got to Get You into My Life" by 'Earth Wind and Fire' haha 😅 but for real if you search for the track, at least the first one that comes up for me, is not the 'Beatles' original (although i feel like they wrote it for EW&F as theirs has more feel. Thanks for that deep dive too by the way!) 😊 Mandela Effect all over the place! When i was a kid i thought Boz Scaggs 'Lido Shuffle' was called 'One More For the Road' 😂 Maybe a little different but along the lines. Together we can all fix this, maybe.🤔
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.
Talk about perfect timing. I legit was looking to put this song on my 70s soul and funk playlist amd COULD NOT FIND IT on spotify like a week ago.
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.
Love your videos always good stuff
Great stuff. I love your channel. Would love a video digging into the band Zapp.
Great video! Dude this was awesome!
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!
On our Pod we talked about it…! It’s a great video…thanks for breaking it down.
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.
Thanks for all the work and research you did on this
Hey digging the greats, I didn't get your actual name name but thanks for setting the record straight, no pun intended
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 just looked the song up and the original album (with the right cover and credited to William DeVaughn) is on Deezer, an equivalent (and in my opinion, much better) app to Spotify here in France, the full 7 minute version ! Didn't know it before the video and it's brilliant ! Thanks DGT
Bro, love ur channel!
Just blew me away!!! Very good research I’m Fifty plus and felt a connection to all your Mandela effect examples. ❤
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.
Awesome video!! I didn't realize so many people thought it was Curtis Mayfield
Thanks for elucidating this topic. I am so weary of the surprised looks on people's faces when I correct them on the artist who performed this song.
One point I would add.
While the fantastic musicians involved in the studio production of Be Thankful for what you got might have been local to Philadelphia, PA
William Devaughn is an artist from Washington, DC
Whenever someone says they remember something "vividly" "clearly" or "distinctly" means they do NOT remember correctly.
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.
Blew my mind, already subscribed 👍
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.
Hey, great video as always.
Just wanted to share that the full 7 minute long version of the song is available on Spotify for me, along with the rest of the original 1974 album.
Probably a regional difference.
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....
Best you tube channel for breaking down music 🎵 can’t believe I only just found this out
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.
Thank you for this one! I would have bet everything I owned that this was Curtis!!! lol. Keep up the great work!
When u mentioned the name, Willian Devaughn, I remembered a song he recorded titled “Crème De Crème” released in 1982, the year I graduated HS.
I liked it & thought it was a pretty catchy tune. 😎
This was during my senior year in high school so it's as fresh to me now as it was then. And no way would anyone of us who grew up in Chi-Town would think this was Curtis Mayfield. Now, let's do Robert Winter (Magic Man).
Great Video bro , New subscriber, amazing breakdown of this ....anomaly lol
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
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..
Great video! I was thinking about Mr. DeVaughn's behavior with kinda skirting you...and part of me wonders if he may be suffering from dementia?
My favourite Mandela effect is the Disney one, where Tinkerbell "draws" the arch over the castle. I refuse to believe that don't exist.
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
I’m legitimately mind blown over here!! Wow bro! Fantastic video
4:12 - This reminds me of what used to happen ALL THE TIME on Napster in the 90s/early aughts. You'd go on there and it would be like "Brown Sugar -- Tony Rich" or "Kick Push -- N.E.R.D." 😭 used to drive me INSANE
Never thought this was Curtis. Didn’t know people thought this…..ever.
@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. ❤
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”
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
Keep teaching brother, the people need to respect the knowledge!!!
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!
My guy, in the early to mid 00s there were THOUSANDS of people who thought there was a song called "Half The Man I Used To Be" recorded by Nirvana or Kurt Cobain (solo), and it was mostly due to a mislabeled/misnamed file shared on Napster and LimeWire.
The song, of course, was 1993's "Creep" by Stone Temple Pilots and the line "I'm half the man I used to be" is the beginning of the chorus. It wasn't some obscure deep cut... It reached #2 on the mainstream rock chart! And we're not talking about a song that was a quarter of a century old like DeVaughns, but less than 10 years old when the mix-up/pseudo-Mandela effect happened.
I'm pretty sure there are still UA-cam videos where the song is credited to Nirvana and accompanied by a Nirvana logo...
As a 90's grunge-listener I find this appalling, especially since Scott Weiland (RIP) was very much alive at that time.
@@NOCDIB I agree 100%
It also didn't help that there were at least 3 different songs in '93-'94 with the title "Creep" (STP, Radiohead, TLC).
@@elsongs Actually, Radiohead's Creep came out in 1992, but point well made. 👍
As much I first felt “Aw man ,WHY did he feel like he HAD to make this video!?” I now appreciate why you did.
And while I hope that some version of “AI 0.1” wrote that horrendous and inaccurate “article” it was likely another know it all /know nothing much human.
Williams voice isn’t even falsetto.
Folks that listen with their eyes will consistently miss this.
Thanks for making this video , hopefully the provocative album cover thumbnail
will help their EYES to finally HEAR.
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.
This is so cool! I learned so much! ✨🙏🏾
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. 😉
Thank you. I have had to correct so many people over the years. I graduated HS in 1974 and played this song on my record player and 8-track player in my parents car all the time. It was a summertime anthem.
Thank you Digging the Greats for making this video. I listened to 98.7 Kiss Fm and they never credited this song to Curtis
You’re amazing Diggz!! If that’s even your real name.
My fav channel man lessgooooo!
Wow. This is crazy, such a great track and a great album. The Massive Attack cover made it a must have album if you were a DJ in the 90s. A lot of folks thought that Massive Attack had wrote the track so you'd get people coming up to the decks trying to have a sneaky peak if you dropped the original. I''m dumbfounded that so many people must think it Curtis.
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.
My mp3 of "Be Thankful" is correctly credited and i downloaded it from Limewire after hearing the Massive Attack cover.