#3: Get Down by Curtis Mayfield

City: Red Deer, AB
Radio Station: CKRD
Peak Month: December 1971
Peak Position in Red Deer ~ #7
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #69
YouTube: “Get Down”
Lyrics: “Get Down”

Curtis Mayfield was born in Chicago in 1942. Mayfield received his first guitar when he was ten, later recalling that he loved his guitar so much he used to sleep with it. At the age of 14 in 1956, he joined his high school friend Jerry Butler’s group The Roosters with brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks. He wrote and composed songs for this group who would become The Impressions two years later. Mayfield was with the Impressions when they backed Jerry Butler on the Top Ten hit in 1958 titled “For Your Precious Love”. At the age of 17 in 1960, Mayfield co-wrote “He Will Break Your Heart”. The song became a number-one R&B hit for Jerry Butler, and a #7 crossover pop hit on the Billboard Hot 100 which also reached #5 in Montreal.

In 1961, Mayfield and Jerry Butler co-wrote “Find Another Girl” which reached #10 in the R&B charts in the USA and #13 in Toronto. The songwriting duo co-wrote “I’m A Telling You” which also became a Top Ten R&B hit for Jerry Butler in 1961. He penned another hit for Butler in 1964 titled “Need To Belong” which reached #2 on the R&B charts.

In 1962, Curtis Mayfield penned “Mama Didn’t Lie” for Jan Bradley, which cracked the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart in 1963. As well, Major Lance had a #2 R&B hit written by Mayfield titled “Monkey Time”. The follow-up, “Hey Little Girl”, was a #12 R&B hit which reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Lance had a third R&B hit penned by Mayfield titled “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um” – a number-one R&B hit in 1964.

In 1963, the Impressions recording of the gospel tune, “Amen”, appeared in the Sidney Poitier film Lillies of the Field. In 1964 Mayfield wrote “Keep On Pushing” for the Impressions which became a #10 pop hit and reached #1 on the R&B chart. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best R&B Performance category. It lost out to “How Glad I Am” by Nancy Wilson. The following year, “People Get Ready” climbed to #3 on the R&B chart and #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The No. 1 sing-along on the Freedom Rides was “Keep on Pushing,” the Curtis Mayfield composition inspired and fired up the Civil Rights campaign crowd. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often used Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” with its all-inclusive lyrics, as the music to move his marchers and named it the Movement’s unofficial anthem, precisely because of its motivational and inspirational effect. Mayfield wrote the song a year after the historic March on Washington that resulted in Dr. King’s monumental “I Have a Dream” oration. But now it came to symbolize that occasion, the hope, spirit and struggle.

Curtis Mayfield also wrote a string of Top Ten R&B hits for Gene Chandler. These include “Just Be True” and “Bless Our Love” (both #4 R&B in 1964), and in 1965 “Rainbow ’65 (Part I)” (#2 R&B), and “Nothing Can Stop Me” (#3 R&B).

In 1967-68, Mayfield’s “We’re A Winner” recorded by the Impressions reached number-one on the R&B chart and #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. And in 1969, “Choice Of Colors” was another number-one R&B hit for the Impressions. In 1970, Brian Hyland covered the Impressions hit written by Curtis Mayfield titled “Gypsy Woman”. The rendition reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1970 was the year Curtis Mayfield released his debut album, Curtis. The album topped the R&B chart in America. His debut single was “(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go”. The followup single was titled “Move On Up” reached #12 in the UK.

His next album was Curtis/Live which reached #3 on the Black album chart and #9 on the Billboard Jazz albums chart. In October 1971, Mayfield released his album Roots. It reached #6 on the Soul album chart. The lead single from the album was “Get Down”.

Curtis Mayfield wrote “Get Down”. The song contends we all need to “get down to the funky, funky groove.” The lyrics tell “we’re all children of the world: A man in search of a hungry girl.” Mayfield later reflects, “One can never point out the actual path, of the mysterious need in a female’s heart. Man can only follow not knowing how.” In addition to primal desire, Mayfield offers a sobering view of humanity: “We’re all cannibal, the most wasted and two-faced of all animals.” In the face of all adversity, it is good to just get down.

“Get Down” climbed to #7 in Red Deer (AB), and #25 in Lansing (MI), and #27 in Enfield (CT). It peaked at #13 on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles chart. “Get Down” reached #3 on the R&B charts in Jackson (MS), and #4 in Oakland (CA).

And in 1972, “Give Me Your Love” by Barbara Mason anticipated the sultry sexy vocalizations that made Donna Summer famous in “Love To Love You Baby” and other disco hits. Mason’s naughty single climbed to #9 on the R&B charts in 1972. Additionally, Curtis Mayfield released the soundtrack album to the film Superfly. 

The album topped the Billboard pop album chart and the Soul Album chart. “Freddie’s Dead” was released from the album and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Soul chart, and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It peaked at #1 on CKLW in Windsor (ON). The recording earned Curtis Mayfield his second Grammy Award nomination. This time in the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance category. But he lost out to Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones”. He received a second Grammy Award nomination for “Freddie’s Dead” in the Best R&B Song category. However, that winner was The Temptations for “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”.

The title track for Superfly, “Superfly”, subsequently climbed to #5 on the Soul Singles chart, #8 on the Hot 100, and #3 in Calgary. In Superfly, Curtis Mayfield appeared as himself as the frontman for The Mayfield Experience.

Curtis Mayfield singing “Pusherman” in Superfly

From Superfly, “Junkie’s Chase” was nominated for a third Grammy Award at the 1973 ceremonies in the Best R&B Instrumental Performance category. It lost out to The Temptations instrumental version of “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”. For the soundtrack Superfly, the album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Score written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.  The winner for that year’s nominees went to Nino Rota for The Godfather. 

In 1973, Mayfield released the album Back to the World. It topped the Soul Album chart in the USA. A track from the album, “Future Shock”, made the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #11 on the Soul singles chart. That year, Mayfield appeared in the documentary Save the Children It chronicled the performers who appeared at the Chicago Operation PUSH exposition in September 1972.

From the 1974 album, Sweet Exorcist, came the single “Kung Fu”. It reached #3 on the Billboard Soul Singles chart, and #4 in Windsor (ON), but stalled at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Several years later Curtis Mayfield’s “On and On” became a #2 R&B hit and Top 5 hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips. The song was from the film Claudine. The soundtrack album topped the Soul Album chart. The Staple Singers had a number-one hit in 1975 written by Curtis Mayfield titled “Let’s Do It Again’. The soundtrack album Let’s Do It Again also topped the Soul Album chart. While Tony Orlando had a number-one hit with a cover of the Jerry Butler-Curtis Mayfield song “He Will Break Your Heart” retitled by Orlando as “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)”. In 1976, Mayfield wrote “Something He Can Feel” which was a number-one R&B hit for Aretha Franklin. The song was a track from the soundtrack album Sparkle, which topped the Soul Album chart in July 1976.

In 1977, Curtis Mayfield appeared in the prison drama Short Eyes. The following year, he appeared as a special guest in the film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In 1981, Curtis Mayfield’s last Top 20 R&B hit that he recorded was “She Don’t Let Nobody (But Me)” which reached #15 on the Hot Soul Singles chart in the USA. In 1984, Bob Marley’s medley of “One Love” and “People Get Ready” reached #5 on the UK Singles chart.

On August 13, 1990, Mayfield became paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment fell on him while he was being introduced at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. Although he was unable to play the guitar, he continued to compose and sing, which he found he could do by lying down and letting gravity pull down on his chest and lungs.

In 1992, En Vogue released a cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Something He Can Feel” titled “Giving Him Something He Can Feel”. The single topped the Hot R&B Singles chart and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

His 1996 album New World Order – his seventeenth studio album – was recorded in this way, with vocals sometimes recorded in single lines at a time. The album earned Curtis Mayfield a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. He lost out to Luther Vandross’ “Your Secret Love”. He was nominated in the same category the following year for “Back To Living Again”, but lost out to R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”.

Mayfield received the Grammy Legend Award in 1994, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In February 1998, he had to have his right leg amputated due to diabetes. That year “People Get Ready” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, as was the soundtrack album Superfly. Mayfield  was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999.

Curtis Mayfield released four live albums and six soundtrack albums in addition to his 17 studio albums. Curtis Mayfield died from complications related to diabetes in December 1999. In 2021, Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

December 22, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Soul icon Curtis Mayfield dies,” BBC, December 27, 1999.
Michael Gonzales, “Curtis Mayfield injected his own cultural commentary into the Super Fly legacy,” Wax Poetics, June 3, 2013.
“Civil Rights: The Man Who Moved The Movement,” Curtismayfield.com.
Afi-Odelia Scruggs, “In 1968, Curtis Mayfield was the voice of victory for civil rights,” USA Today, February 22, 2018.

Top 40, CKRD-700 AM, Red Deer (AB), December 31, 1971.