This Christmas. Donny Hathaway’s 1972 Christmas hit is now playing on three
Los Angeles radio stations: a local R&B station, a national, syndicated pop station and as an intro for a PBS radio talk show.
Who knew?
That a shy little Ghetto Boy from St. Louis would affect American Music in just a short, ten-year period of genius work?
I first met/shouted out to Donny as he was playing organ and directing multiple choirs at a Westside AME Church that was sponsoring a gospel concert to help him raise money to attend Howard University.
Everyone on the block had talked about “that Donny boy” and how he was putting together a gospel concert on Sunday. Softball was king during the summer of the 1960’s, especially for girls. Especially on Sundays. My sisters, cousins and I begged and pouted, until our softball coach finally let us leave our game early to attend the concert (and since we were leading 12-2).
But we were still late making the concert. There were no inside seats available, so we sat out on the grass, spellbound as Donny worked his magic. He had at least four major choirs/singing groups:
• An Acapella Choir that sang Old Gospel
• A Rock-Church (Pentecostal) Choir that was jumping
• An AME Choir that inter-weaved all the other choirs with a Donny-special arrangement of Ave Maria
• An old fashioned quintet singing group, much like The Soul Stirrers
Donny took the entire church to a special gospel heaven, along with the masses outside, and the heart and soul of a young teenage girl. I edged forward, mouth-agape, into the doorway entrance, just to get a glimpse of the animated, former gospel prodigy, little Donny Pitts. Donny seemed to become a part of the music as he orchestrated the choirs with unbridled passion.
As the years passed, I forgot about Donny Pitts, but during my sixth month of pregnancy in 1970, I was awakened by my in-vitro baby girl kicking and jumping to “The Ghetto” – a new hit song on an Underground Radio Station in Chicago (FM).
A year later, I was listening to the same station when I became totally dumb-struck during my lunch hour. Somebody was singing “Giving Up (Is so hard to do). Just then, my boss decided to approach me with a brilliant, inspirational technical idea that he wanted me to take down in shorthand for him. I gave him the “Hold on, one minute” hand signal. Then I put my head down right in front of the office radio and was saturated with the song, the music, that voice.
My boss approached my desk again, but backed away when I gave him the Evil Eye. Just as he reached the door, he called back over his shoulder, “That’s Donny Hathaway. I have extra tickets for his show tonight if you can tear yourself away from that radio and get back to work.” (How about my boss was friends with Curtis Mayfield – Donny’s boss?)
I called my best friend, we made plans. I got pen and pad and managed to beat my boss to his chair as I flopped into the seat across from him, eyes raking his desk for those Donny Hathaway tickets.
From that moment on, I was committed and addicted to Donny. That commitment and addiction has out-lasted a marriage, helped me to get over many broken relationships and aided me in being a better, single parent.
The light that was Donny Hathaway went out in 1979.
As life sometimes has it, by coincidence, my family and I were on our way to my father’s funeral when I saw a sea of humanity walking uphill to a large Baptist Church. It reminded me of another time when we walked to another church for a much happier occasion. My sister commented that she heard that Jessie Jackson, Roberta Flack and Stevie Wonder were going to attend Donny Hathaway’s funeral.
It wasn’t until that moment that I put the obvious together – Donny (of my youth) was also my music hero - Donny Hathaway.
Now as I sing to This Christmas, along with the radio Morning Crew, I am just as blown away as ever by how GOOD this song sounds. Like Donny, it is a classic.
From one shy, little ghetto child to another, Lots of Love.
We still miss you, Donny.
Carol
