The Crusaders (Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and Stix Hooper) had a hugely successful jazz/funk/R&B crossover hit with their tune “Street Life,” featuring the vocals of Randy Crawford. Herb not only covered “Street Life” on his Rise album, but featured the maestro himself, Joe Sample, on keyboards in this performance.
Here, then, is the full album length version of “Street Life.”
Herb Alpert’s Rise featured this low-key album track on side two. Penned by singer/songwriter Bill Withers, “Love Is” appears on his album ‘Bout Love. Long out of print, it has recently been made available on CD by way of the Complete Sussex & Columbia Album Masters box set, containing mini-LP versions of all of Wither’s albums, for about the cost of two single CDs. Essential!