Maybe the first time you heard this song was in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino film “Jackie Brown.”
QT used The Delfonics not just as background music but to illustrate the budding romance between bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) and stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam Grier). After hearing the song “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” on a vinyl record at Jackie’s apartment, Max goes to a record store (remember those?) and picks up The Delfonics on cassette.
Tarantino does something most movies would never even consider next: He lets the song play out and the next one start up. It’s “La-La (Means I Love You),” also by The Delfonics, and also another downright classic.
Listening to The Delfonics while he’s driving makes Max think of Jackie–and that feels good. Tarantino is one of the rare filmmakers around today who has the patience to show how pop songs affect people emotionally.
“Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” is nothing if not emotional. The song was from The Delfonics fourth record (which was self-titled) and was released as a single on the Philadelphia-based Bell (Philly Groove) label run by super producer Thom Bell. It was a big hit, charting at number-three on the Billboard R&B singles chart and number 10 on the Billboard pop chart in 1970.
Co-written by Bell and Delfonics singer William Hart, “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” features all the signatures of the Philly soul sound: layered horns, lush string arrangements, heartfelt vocals, and a sublime melody. The production is perfect; even with all that instrumentation going on, it never overpowers the Hart’s lovely falsetto. (Click here to hear/read about another Philly classic profiled on an earlier post of The Great Songs.)
I wish music still sounded this rich and warm. The embed above is from the mono mix on vinyl. Below I’ve embedded the scene from “Jackie Brown.” Enjoy!
The song is also the inspiration for the 20-volume Rhino soul music compilation Soul Hits of the 70s: Didn’t It Blow Your Mind, which is a MUST HAVE if you love the 70s soul sound as much as I do (even if it does get a little too disco by the end of the decade).
The Great Songs series so far:
The Great Songs: Big Star – Thirteen
The Great Songs: The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset
The Great Songs: The Jayhawks – Blue
The Great Songs: Pavement – Summer Babe
The Great Songs: The Zombies – Care of Cell 44
The Great Songs: The O’Jays – Back Stabbers
The Great Songs: Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure
The Great Songs: George Jones – He Stopped Loving Her Today
The Great Songs: Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Great Songs: The Flying Burrito Brothers – Hot Burrito #1
The Great Songs: The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize??
The Great Songs: Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine
The Great Songs: The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up
The Great Songs: Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get it On
The Great Songs: Slayer – Angel of Death
The Great Songs: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Beyond Belief
The Great Songs: The Replacements – Unsatisfied
The Great Songs: Cheap Trick – Surrender
The Great Songs: Guided by Voices – Motor Away
The Great Songs: The Louvin Brothers – Knoxville Girl
The Great Songs: Badfinger – Baby Blue
The Great Songs: Ray Charles – That Lucky Old Sun
The Great Songs: Television – Marquee Moon
The Great Songs: Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Cortez the Killer
The Great Songs: David Bowie – Life On Mars?
The Great Songs: Thin Lizzy – The Cowboy Song
Eric is the Editor-in-Chief of Scene-Stealers.com and writes the Screen Stealers column for The Pitch. He’s President of the KCFCC, and drummer for The Dead Girls and Ultimate Fakebook. He is also Air Guitar World Champion Mean Melin. Eric goes to 11. Follow him at:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Fantastic choice! Indeed, this is the place where I first heard this song. Like Tarantino had given me a gift that I should have already had.
Glad you dug it, Reed. I’ll tell ya what: I mentioned Tarantino taking the time to show characters enjoying music in other movies in this article, but have since come up with more (besides “Death Proof”):
– Ear scene in “Reservoir Dogs;” he turns up the music (Stealers Wheel) and dances to it
Mia Wallace puts on “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon” in “Pulp Fiction”
Any more?