For those not in the know, former members of Ramsey Lewis’ jazz trio, drummer Eldee Young and bassist Isaac Redd Holt enlisted like-minded musicians and struck out on their own in 1966 as Young-Holt Unlimited.

They quickly established themselves as one of the best instrumental groups to mix jazz and R&B. Sophisticated yet funky, their music captured the essence of the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Young-Holt Unlimited scored a Billboard #3 hit in 1968, Soulful Strut, the highest-charting single from the eleven albums they recorded between 1967 and 1973.

Liberation Hall now reissues Young-Holt Unlimited’s Plays Super Fly, an album which originally appeared on Paula Records in 1973. The tracklist includes many hits of the era, including the Curtis Mayfield classics Superfly, Freddie’s Dead, Pusher Man, and Give Me Your Love, along with other such as The Spinners’ Could It Be I’m Falling in Love, the Carpenters’ (They Long to Be) Close to You, the Stylistics’ People Make the World Go Round, and more.

This nine-track set is a DJ and crate digger’s delight and came complete, as it does today on this reissue, with a sleeve that typifies the gritty period of Blaxploitation film and culture.

1. Freddie’s Dead
2. Give Me Your Love
3. Pusher Man
4. Superfly
5. Hey Pancho
6. Could It Be I’m Falling in Love
7. (They Long to Be) Close to You
8. People Make the World Go Round
9. Mystical Man

The final Young-Holt Unlimited album released captured their seamless transition into a new era of Chicago soul heralded by Curtis Mayfield’s landmark Superfly score.

A skilled and deeply funky interpretation of the emerging blaxploitation sound that sacrifices none of the group’s signature groove, it opens on the uber funky instrumental grooves of Freddie’s Dead and the soulful hipsway of Give Me Your Love, before leaning into a righteous Pusher Man and then a free flowing Superfly.

Next up is an on-the-trot rendition of Hey Pancho which is itself followed by, a hate to say it, but saccharine cover of Could It Be I’m Falling in Love, but make up for that with a mind-blowing, lazy hazy rendition of (They Long to Be) Close to You (showcasing Ken Chaney’s future-forward electric piano work), the album rounding out on the luscious People Make the World Go Round, closing on the smooth, melodic sailing of Mystical Man.

Along with the CD, a Mellow Yellow colored vinyl will be released June 18th, 2022.