Lord Have Mercy - The Jordan Singers / Rock Steady - Aretha Franklin

[motown01]

Just hearing this song for the first time and can't help but notice a striking resemblance to Rock Steady.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dwUtC9aDGE

[splanky]

It's obviously a rip to me. Aretha's came out in 72 and The Jordan Singers in 73. The
weird thing to me is that I can't find any mention of it anywhere especially considering
the fact that Rock became such a iconic hit everybody and their Mama would have heard
it. It's not near as escape-able as the New Birth-Paul Revere thing I mentioned in the Motown section....Weird...not a peep....Could it be possible Aretha found out about it and
purposely let it go because they were a gospel group?...

[lockhartgary]

It's obviously a rip to me. Aretha's came out in 72 and The Jordan Singers in 73. The
weird thing to me is that I can't find any mention of it anywhere especially considering
the fact that Rock became such a iconic hit everybody and their Mama would have heard
it. It's not near as escape-able as the New Birth-Paul Revere thing I mentioned in the Motown section....Weird...not a peep....Could it be possible Aretha found out about it and
purposely let it go because they were a gospel group?...


Yes...the similarity is very obvious.

Like you, I found very little information regarding this track, and it only seems to have been released on a compilation not long ago. I'm thinking that it was unreleased. There is no mention of it on discogs.

[nathanj06]

Just for the record, Aretha's Rock Steady was released in Oct. 1971. I never heard of this gospel version but totally a rip off as Aretha wrote it.