Sublime

“Back Stabbers” and “Love Train” for the O’Jays, and “Me and Mrs. Jones” for Billy Paul—all from 1972—and followed by “You Make Me Feel Brand New” (1973) for the Stylistics and “The Love I Lost” (1973) for Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, there was no stopping Gamble and Huff until “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” (1979)

One of Hill’s favorite stories involved how, as he approached age eighteen in 1856, he decided to leave the nest. An itinerant trader from Saint Paul, Minnesota, took a liking to the lad after he had voluntarily watered the man’s horse. Handing him a tattered copy of a New York newspaper captioned “Splendid Chances for Young Men in the West,” the t

everyone around the Saint Paul levees came to know “Jim” Hill, his name usually rendered as one word, “Jimhill,” a man who always seemed up on anything and everything that went on.