Throwback: The Moments/Ray, Goodman & Brown-Sexy Mama

[youtube id=”MLO4weH60hc”] The Moments started as a quartet in Washington, DC during the ’60s with Mark Greene, John Morgan, Richard Gross and Eric Olfus Sr. They moved to New Jersey and signed with Sylvia Robinson’s Stang Records and had a hit song with “Not On The Outside” in 1968. The group became a trio in 1969 after Gross, Olfus and Greene left Stang Records and were replaced by Al Goodman and Billy Brown. Morgan was soon replaced by Johnny Moore who was with the group for one album before he was fired for missing a show. Harry Ray became the third member after their first album in 1970 and this became the famous lineup. “Sexy Mama” featured Harry Ray’s underrated falsetto and it was co-written by Ray, Sylvia Robinson and Al Goodman. The song upped their status as R&B sex symbols of the ’70’s and endured as a soul classic and hip-hop sample. They had 27 commercially successful songs as The Moments before they left Stang records for Polydor in the late ’70’s and started recording as Ray, Goodman & Brown. In the ’80’s, they had hit songs with “Special Lady” “Inside Of You” and “Take It To The Limit.” Harry Ray died of a fatal stroke in 1992 and Al Goodman passed in 2010. Billy Brown assembled a new lineup of the group including Harold Brown and Kevin Owens and they re-recorded The Moments Greatest Hits-Volume 1 in 2014.