The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
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UNDISPUTED TRUTH
“SMILING FACES SOMETIMES”
(Norman Whitfield, BARRETT STRONG)
Gordy 7108
No. 3 September 4, 1971
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Joe Harris, the only constant member of this ever evolving group, was born and raised in Detroit. “I came
out of the Brewster Projects, along with Martha & The Vandellas, Diana Ross, and Mary Wilson,” Harris
told Blues & Sours Denise Hall and Tony Cummings. “In high school, I was involved with Little Joe & The
Moroccos. We had been competing against the Spinners in a series of talent shows and finally we were the
ones to win.”
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A 1957 release entitled “Bubblegum” on the Bumblebee label bombed, and the group disbanded. After
some college, Harris and Richard Street (later a mem ber of the Monitors and the Temptations) formed the
Peps and had a series of unsuccessful disks issued on Thelma and D-Town. Joe left for the Ohio Players
and was their lead vocalist for a year in the late ’60s. “I co wrote and produced most of their first album
for Capitol, but found myself hooked up with a bogus production deal.” After a short stay in Canada with
the Stone Soul Children, Harris returned to Detroit and met Norman Whitfield, a top-flight producer-
writer for Motown and later, head of Whitfield Records.
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Whitfield (then on a hot streak with million-selling productions on Marvin Gaye, Edwin Starr, and the
Temptations) wanted to put together a new act to feature his abilities. Undisputed Truth was Joe Harris
plus the Delicates-=Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce Evans, who had been singing back-up sessions for
the Four Tops and the Supremes.
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“Smiling Faces Sometimes” was a sure hit. To the dismay of the Temptations, Whitfield pulled it off the
Temps’ The Sky’s the Limit LP and gave it to the Undisputed Truth for their second single. While a cover of
“Papa Was a Rolling Stone” (#63, 1972) and several other increasingly funkified Undisputed Truth 45s
cracked the pop and R & B listings,”Faces” proved to be the group’s only Top 40 showing.
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After the marginal success of “Law of the Land” (R&B: #40, 1973) from the LP of the same name, Billie
and Brenda left the group. The Magictones (Tyrone Berkley, Tyrone Douglas, Virginia McDonald, and
Calvin Stevens), a Motor City bar band, was brought in to back Harris as the “new, higher-than-high,
cosmic ‘Truth.’ This reworked group’s sound was more rock-oriented, and obviously influenced by ]IMI
HENDRIX and Sly Stone. Truth also took on an overtly theatrical image: silver faces, flashing sequins,
and towering white afros.
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Before the temporary demise of Truth in the late ’70s, Harris and Whitfield fired the entire line-up and
shelved the freaky fashions. Among the members of the last incarnation were Melvin Stuart, Marcy
Thomas, Hershel “Happiness” Kennedy, and Chaka Khan’s sister and former member of the Glass Family,
Taka Boom (a.k.a.Yvonne Stevens), who has had a couple of R & B hits during the late ’70s/early ’80s;
notably “Night Dancin'” (R&B: #20, 1979).
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In the late ’80s, Harris and another line-up of Undisputed Truths reassembled for some recordings for the
U.K.-based Motorcity label. Billie Calvin, an original Truth and songsmith on the Rose Royce hit “Wishing
on a Star,” likewise has been recording for Motorcity.
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On reflection, Whitfield, Truth’s producer/creator told Sharon Davis, author of Motown–The History:
“The Truth represented a challenge to me. People were saying Motown had become stagnant so I set about
making a new group with completely new ideas. But my efforts for the Truth were all in vain because the
company simply was never into what the group meant. As a company, they developed a lack of respect for
what people were doing for them, and they lost their sense of direction.”