What a Man Will Do (When He Loves a Woman)
1967 · Chess 1995 · USA
- Artist
- James Dudley & the Dee Jay's
- Title
- What a Man Will Do (When He Loves a Woman)
- Release
- What a Man Will Do (When He Loves a Woman) / Have Faith
- Year
- 1967
- Label
- Chess # 1995
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- James Dudley
- Genre
- Soul, Gospel & Funk · Soul
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
The song "What a Man Will Do (When He Loves a Woman)" (Chess Records # 1995) was about the feelings of a man who had just "received a letter from Uncle Sam", sending "him to Vietnam", and how memories of his wife, and faith in the bible, will keep him going. The soldier then recalled his old hobbies - walking in the park, listening to records with his wife.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Lyrics
English: When I was lonely you stood by me / A friend of mine received a letter from Uncle Sam / He knew within his heart he had to get himself together / They're gonna send him to Vietnam / He looked at his wife, and he said / 'I have no fear, the lord will take of me... / I have a love that is strong'... / Then he said 'darling...write me postcard... / While I'm over there it gets real lonely / But I'll keep a bible close by... / I'll keep...a little old picture to remember / The good things we used to do / When we used to take a walk in the park / The lonely hours listening to the records / That we loved to spin by our favourite DJ
Notes
Chess 1995 (15533), blue "D J Copy" label, manufactured by Chess Producing Corp., Chicago, Illinois; "What a Man Will Do (When He Loves a Woman)" (James Dudley), 2:59, Chevis Music Inc., BMI. [From the record sleeve and labels]
About the artist
James Dudley (born 1935 in Fayetteville, North Carolina) was an American soul singer who also recorded as Jimmy Dee and James Dee, cutting sides for Hear Me, Shurfine, V-Tone, Palm, Enrica and Sound Rite through the 1960s and early 1970s, among them the 1964 album 'A Memorial Salute to Sam Cooke'. Educated at E. E. Smith Senior High School in Fayetteville, he moved to Savannah, Georgia to work as a soloist, and in the summer of 1964 organised the Mighty Dee-Jays, a band that built a reputation for showmanship across the theatre, night-club and service-club circuits of the south-east and…