"Want Ads" was a million-selling Number 1 pop and R&B hit recorded by female group, Honey Cone for their third album Sweet Replies and also appears on their fourth album Soulful Tapestry. The song on the Detroit-based Hot Wax label was written by Greg Perry, General Norman Johnson and Barney Perkins. It was produced by staff producer, Greg Perry, and features a young Ray Parker, Jr. ("Ghostbusters") on rhythm guitar.

"Want Ads" was released as the first single from Soulful Tapestry in the United States in the spring of 1971 (see 1971 in music). It reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for one week and topped the R&B singles chart for three weeks in the United States, becoming the group's most successful single and their only number one placement on the pop charts.

Initially, Perry and Johnson had written a song for a female singer called "Stick Up", but the two decided that the song was not substantial enough so they re-wrote it with a change in chord progressions and new lyrics. With the catchy opening line of "Wanted, young man, single and free," "Want Ads" was born.

The idea for the song started when studio engineer Barney Perkins, while looking through the classified section of a newspaper, suggested that someone write a song about want ads. Perry, as producer and songwriter for the project, felt that the idea might work. The duo brought in Johnson, leader of Chairmen of the Board, to contribute to the writing, after co-writing "Somebody's Been Sleeping (In My Bed)" (a number 8 hit) with Perry for the Hot Wax group, 100 Proof (Aged in Soul).

The song was first recorded by another Hot Wax/Invictus act, Glass House (the group responsible for the top 10 R&B single, "Crumbs Off the Table") led by Freda Payne's younger sister, Scherrie Payne. Payne did not like the song and with Perry being equally unsatisfied with that version, she and Freda recorded the song themselves. Still unsatisfied, Payne later suggested that Honey Cone lead singer Edna Wright record it after she had passed through the studio. The initial version of the song, titled "Stick Up," would eventually be recorded and released as the group's follow up to "Want Ads." It would peak at #11 on the pop charts in August and #1 on the R&B charts in September.

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