Young-Holt Unlimited : Soulful Strut

Formed in Chicago in 1965 as the Young-Holt Trio with Eldee Young on bass, Red Holt on drums and Hysear Don Walker on piano. Young and Holt both studied at Chicago’s American Conservatory Of Music. They later joined the Ramsey Lewis Trio and were featured on two of the group’s best-known singles, ‘The In Crowd’ and ‘Hang On Sloopy’ both in 1965. The bass player and drummer then broke away to pursue their own direction. In 1968 pianist Walker was replaced by Ken Chaney. Soon Chaney was out and the act was reconstituted as the Young-Holt Unlimited. Under that name, the act hit in 1968 with the million-selling ‘Soulful Strut’, a US pop Top 5 hit. This instrumental was, in fact, the backing track to a Barbara Acklin single, ‘Am I The Same Girl?’, but with Floyd Morris’ piano part replacing the vocal line. Ironically, neither Young, nor Holt, was on the record as the instrumental was by the Brunswick studio band. Despite that, Young-Holt Unlimited continued to make technically precise, but rather sterile records before the group’s two mainstays decided to rejoin Ramsey Lewis in 1983. Young-Holt Unlimited’s recordings have been extensively sampled by R&B and hip-hop artists.