The Monitors - Grazing In The Grass

This is the title track of our album by The Monitors, released in 1990. This song is one of my own personal favourite songs of all time, and I cut it twice, first on The Monitors, and later on Paul Young. It originally came out as a jazz instrumental by Hugh Masekela, and then the utterly timeless fabulous vocal version by The Friends Of Distinction, on RCA, a soul record that's also synonymous with the whole late 1960s flower power movement. I just had to cut it on The Monitors. To my mind, it seemed the perfect song to showcase the amazing harmony abilities of this wonderful Motown group. The original line up of the Monitors at Motown consisted of Richard Street as lead singer, with Warren Harris, Maurice Fagin, Sandra Fagin, and Hershel Hunter. When we got them reformed for Motorcity, Richard Street was with The Temptations, and Sandra Fagin had passed away, but we succeeded in getting the other three back together. They brought in Smokey Robinson's nephew, Darryl Littlejohn, as lead singer and added a girl singer called Cathy, who was a Detroit policewoman. One of my treasured memories was getting Wanda Rogers of The Marvelettes back to performing live, at the Pontchartrain concert in Detroit, with the Monitors backing her up, all dressed in sharp white tuxedos. Warren Harris, who has now passed away, was the comedian of the Motorcity Project, and had us all in stitches constantly... "Heyyyyyyyyyy - Come into my office" Treasured memories of a wonderful vocal group with the best harmonies ever, as they show on this breathtaking classic.