Tobi Legend - Time Will Pass You By

This is it - the grand diva herself performing what has been acclaimed as the greatest Northern Soul song of all time in the history of the genre. I recently posted a much newer version I did of the same song by girl twins, Ham and Reem. Ham and Reem were brought to me in the year 2000, by Nick Raymonde, from RCA records. They were, then, a pair of identical seventeen year old black girl twins from Birmingham, and Nick and I had been talking about finding a fresh faced, new, young act to do some Northern Soul, and Nick chose some classic songs, one of which was this timeless wondrous song, originally recorded by Tobi Legend, who was really the famous Detroit soul singer, Tobi Lark, (also well known for "Happiness Is Here"), on the Mala label, and acclaimed by many as one of the greatest Northern Soul songs of all time, and one of the famous "three before eight" at the legendary Wigan Casino. So massive was the popularity of this song, that Pete Waterman even covered it on Kylie Minogue in the 1980s. Anyway, after watching the video of them a few times, I realised I had to dig out our magnificent video of the original singer. We had filmed her and re-recorded her in early 1999, a few months before launching "The Strange World Of Northern Soul" at Blackburn in front of 1300 people. And of course it was this particular performance that brought the house down, and got a standing ovation. I tried to get Tobi to come over in person to appear, but she didn't want to know. It seems that this one time that we filmed her, by those glorious huge fountains, on the border of Detroit and Canada, was the only time we got to see this true legend. Dressed to kill, and performing for posterity, I marvel that we were able to achieve what Wigan Casino spent nearly ten years unsuccessfully trying to do - to locate the mysterious and enigmatic Tobi Legend herself, and getting her, just one time and one time only, to perform this true classic.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Northern-Soul
• Motorcity
• Detroit
• Sixties-Soul
• Wigan-Casino
• Disco
• Diva
• Girl-Groups
• Soul
• Classic

[congoz2]

any idea where this was recorded?, great song never heard of the lady before but she is a great singer!thanks for sharing

[IanLevine]

Our version was done in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The original version was cut in New York when Tobi Lark was on tour with King Curtis and she never knew they called her Tobi Legend, till Pat Lewis tracked her down for me in 1999, and we filmed her for The Strange World Of Northern Soul.

[johneddins]

I am so thrilled to finally have the opportunity to see Tobi actually sing my song. Thank you to all the folks who love this song. You made my day. John Rhys

[IanLevine]

Simply one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and I was the very first DJ in England to ever play it. It was not easy to track her down to film this awesome performance. We also all loved your instrumental of "Nothing But Love".

[Bowie99]

goosebumps

[OrgashWoW]

Not seen this before. Priceless! KTF Alec

[moonstomp70]

She sung this song 30 odd years ago, the song still matters, and so does she!! Her vocals still hit me, Tobi, a legend

[steveluigi01]

Well! What can you say? Simply the best eve!

[450ratpack]

great sound the memories come flooding back,

[rogercasino]

sums the casino up i think

[Deepdaler]

Pure Genius. Never tire of hearing this

Nice to put a face to the voice at log last.

Keep the faith

[redcoach]

I was there through to the third anniversary, 76 and for a few months beyond. And I remember leaving before the end a I was bored of hearing the same 3 songs. So I guess you're right with 76/77. Still love the song now though.

[TooDarnSoulful]

I always loved this brilliant sound - so sad but beautiful. I can still remember my smart brogues I would wear lol - we had a ball :)) ktf

[donnysoulboy1959]

the days/nights might have gone but the memories will live with me forever hearing tracks like this is timeless it,s as if it was yesterday