Melvin Bliss
| Melvin Bliss | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Melvin McClelland |
| Born | June 1, 1945 |
| Origin | Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | July 7, 2010 (aged 65) |
| Genres | Soul |
| Years active | 1973–2010 |
| Labels | Sunburst Records |
| Associated acts | Herb Rooney, Bernard Purdie |
Melvin McClelland (June 1, 1945-July 26, 2010) was a rhythm and blues singer known for his 1973 song "Reward/Synthetic Substitution", the B-Side of which was heavily sampled in at least 94 hip hop songs such as "Real Niggaz Don't Die" and Alwayz into Somethin' by N.W.A, O.G. Original Gangster by Ice-T, O.P.P. by Naughty by Nature and more recently "My Life" by 50 Cent, Eminem and Adam Levine.
Born in 1945 in Chicago as Melvin McClelland, his career didn't begin with music; rather, in the Armed Forces. After spending a few years singing in Naval bands, he departed the Navy in the mid-1950s. From there, he went from stage to stage until the early 1970s, when in an attempt to boost his career prospects he visited a Queensbridge concert hall intending to use it for self-promotion. Whilst awaiting a meeting with the hall's owner, he encountered the mother of Herb Rooney and it emerged that he wanted a singer to record one of his compositions. After an informal discussion with Rooney himself, Bliss hit the studio to record it; the result was Reward. That song's B-Side, "Synthetic Substitution", became one of the most sampled songs of all time. Unfortunately, Bliss' label, Sunburst Records, was a sister company of Opal Productions, and in 1974 it went bankrupt, taking Sunburst Records with it; in doing so rendering Bliss a one-hit wonder.
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