Honey Cone are an almost unknown name in the UK, failing to make an impact here despite a string of hits in their native USA. The group were particularly significant as they wwere the first signing to Hot Wax records, a label set up by legendary songwriting and production team Holland-Dozier-Holland after they parted from Motown Records.
In 1970, Freda Payne's 'Band of Gold' on sister label Invictus records made No. 1 on the UK charts, so records by the team were reaching UK audiences, which makes the Honey Cone's failure in the UK all the more inexplicable. Like Payne, they were firmly in the pop-soul category, and the three girl line up instantly reminds one of The Supremes, with whom HDH had achieved many hit records.
'Want Ads' was the group's biggest hit, reaching No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B singles chart. For a song about leving your parnter and finding another, it's an impossibly perky tune, with the sound closer to the Jackson 5 than the Supremes. Lead singer Edna Wright even sounds similar to Michael Jackson, especially with the sustained vocalisation near the start of the record.
The group's image was also more up date than the Supremes (who were still going, sans Diana Ross), who, along with other Motown groups, had been carefully manipulated to be unthreatening to the white market in a deeply divided country and still bore traces of this. Honey Cone were a lot less mannered and natural - in this TV performance, the energy bursts out of the screen, and is truly irresistable, and the group, with their big grins and well carried off hot pants are delightful.
Sadly, Hot Wax records got into difficulties, folding in 1973 and ending the group's career.
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