This Curtis Mayfield Song DOESN'T ACTUALLY EXIST 

I was not expecting this song when I opened the video. I thought everyone knew William DeVaughn made “Be thankful”

William DeVaughn is alive and doing very well. He is my next door neighbor and I see him everyday. His song "Be Thankful for What You've Got" Give William his due credit, he wrote and organized the lyrics of this song. People, "Curtis Mayfield did not make this song". He is still making music, I know he gives me original copies of his new music. He is a very kind, loving, compassionate and a caring person. I am a senior/widow and he helps me out a lot around my house and property. He help all our neighbors in our neighborhood. "I am Thankful for what I got", because of William DeVaughn ❤❤❤❤ love you William.😊😊 February 26, 2024.

Btw. The diamond in the back is in reference to the Cadillac model which had a small diamond shaped rear window. That feature was considered high class when I was a little black kid growing up in Detroit.

I had no idea that people thought this was a Curtis Mayfield song.

The fact the ACTUAL song, not only was a major platinum hit but also featured MSFB but STILL was credited to a whole other person is wild. Didn't know that.🤯

LMAOOOOO as soon as the song started playing, I was like, “This ain’t Curtis.” 🤔😆 Growing up in Memphis, “Be Thankful…” was one of those songs that was in heavy rotation - I heard it everywhere, all the time. I had no idea people thought it was Curtis.

WoW, this is crazy. I use to work with Mr. William "Bill" DeVaughn in the 1980's at Blue Plains Water Treatment as a Drafters Assistant and he gave me a history of him traveling to Philly to record, "Cadillacs don't come easy." He would talk about his experience a real cool guy and I asked him why were "they" giving Curtis Mayfield blind credit for your song? Lazy researching? WoW, all of my friends didn't believe that I worked with him as a summer job. He told me to go to college and I did. And I ended up working in the entertainment field and my coilege girlfriend was from Philly which took me to Philly often and to Philly International. You brought back some great memories! I worked a concert that Curtis Mayfield was apart of but I never got to ask him about the songs. There is a DC singer, Raheem DeVaughn and I always wondered if that was Mr. D's son or relative? I am 59 years old and you literally took me back 40 years! Thank you I am now a subscriber!!! 🎼🎵🎶🎤

Everyone in the hood never thought this was Curtis Mayfield. William DeVaughn recorded this song.

For someone who knows the original song, and never thought that it was recorded by Mayfield, the premise of this video is too mind breaking to watch.

I knew the exact song you were gonna talk about when I saw Curtis in the thumbnail! A similar thing has happened to Bobby McFerrin, where a video of his song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" is credited to Bob Marley. It has 170 million views now!

Most of the “Mandela effect” phenomena can be ascribed to “people are stupid”.

FINALLY!!! Someone who post a video with some sense!! I’ve used to argue with ALOT of people, including my grandmother for almost 20 YEARS that this was not a Curtis Mayfield record…and people whom I’ve deeply argued with DID NOT do thorough research like I did…and you as well. THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!!!

William Devaughn left the music business to become a Draftsman with the DC Water and Sewer Authority. (DC WASA) He wrote a song to celebrate the creation of the agency in 1996. He was occasionally performing in the DMV with other Oldie acts but not much. As you have witnessed, he is a low key guy and keeps to himself. I also worked with his Brother Karl, who did personal security for the Cohen family who owned Giant Food Stores in the DMV. Good luck with your search and keep up the good work. 🎼🎙️🎧

"Everyone knows this song." Oh, I do! My parents had the original DeVaughn vinyl record 😂

I'm gonna admit, I fell for this. I found the song through RU-vid and never thought to question it

One of my favorite versions... Go Go joint by DC's own Suttle Thoughts!!! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rrWB-tFxsP4.html LIVE VERSION: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TQHborOKsms.html

Gotta mention Massive Attack‘s cover of this song from 1991, which is _PHENOMENAL_ - I first heard of DeVaughn‘s original in the early 2000s, from the internet, but _gasp!_ it was correctly labeled, on one of those amazing Blogspot pages from that time that used to post mp3s of rare soul music. Thanks for the video!

Funny you dropped this video right now. I had the luck to find "Be thankful for what you got" on a CD in the municipal library like two weeks ago. I even looked Willian DeVaughn up figuring he is in his 70s now. I plan to play this song as much as possible in coming DJ sets. Maybe that can educate people about this beautiful song. I really hope you would get the chance to interview him.

hahaha dude this is bonkers. that very album on spotify popped up on my shuffle a couple months back and I was like "oh curtis joint, diamond in the back" only to look at my phone and see the cover and the name. I thought "oh might be a remix or something". crazy, top tier work as always brother.

My mind is blown. Ever since looking up this sample that I heard in Ludacris - Diamond in the back I have loved this song. I always wondered why it was left off the 'Curtis' album. This is insane. You have a new subscriber 100%

I never realized how deep this rabbit hole goes until I saw this video. I distinctly remember seeing one of these RU-vid videos many years ago mislabeling William's song and it immediately rubbed me the wrong way. I figured at the time just one person didn't do their research. And to be fair, William does sound like Curtis a bit and "diamond in the back" is the easiest line to remember in the song. But never would I have thought the misinformation would go THIS far. I hope William does get back to eventually. Keep up the good work. 💯💯💯

Another example of something similar is Baby Come Back by Player being called a Hall & Oates song (because it borrows a lot of elements from She's Gone), and literally any song parody sung by a male being identified as a Weird AL song. The list goes on with these mix ups/mistaken artists on similar sounding or themed or dare i say ripoff songs. When i was younger i was convinced Move Your Body by Nina Sky was a Rihanna song. Anyway i can't believe lack of finding the correct artists name is still happening in the internet age though lol

RU-vid is a little irritating! Even though I’m subscribed to you, this is the first video they have shown me of yours in months. But I’m so glad they did! The 70s is my absolute favorite of music! Maybe it’s because I was born in 73 and all of my favorite TV shows had the dopest soundtracks, full of live musicians! (Chips, Charlie’s Angels, and so many more!) That sound is that lush blend of orchestral arrangements with bad ass bongo playing, deep funky bass lines, and wah-wah guitars shall never be duplicated. You just gave me a rundown of music and musiciansI I need to check into because that is the sound that I crave listening to over and over again. I love your passion for the music and dedication to the truth about its roots. Thank you for being you and doing you!

This was a fun rabbit hole to journey down, DTG. Hope we see more musical mysteries like these in the future.

I learned this more than 2 decades ago! I recently clarified this point to another well seasoned musician. Thank you for spreading the truth. ❤

Love your channel! The only problem is that whenever I watch your channel, I wind up spending up to hours looking through my music collection to see if I have it. Which is great! Because I at times I forget some of what I have. I've been collecting music for my collection since the late 60s. Albums started warping, cassettes started sticking. Eventually, I just took the time and digitized my collections.

Man, as a record collector and enjoyer of countless hip-hop mixtapes, I can say this, that you are right about the internet not being a friendly place when it comes to finding good information about music, albums, and musicians. I'm currently doing some research for a project I am working on in tribute to a DJ from the west coast, and trying to pull together information for this project has been some serious work and thinking outside the box to fill in gaps in the collective knowledge. Often, the practice of leaving track lists for mixtapes off of the finished product, or worse, inventing artist and song titles for compilations like the Ultimate Breaks And Beats catalog for example, were practiced by producers and DJs who were, like most people working in the music industry, struggling to make ends meet and fearful that a lawsuit would come down on them, putting a quick end to their ability to make a litle bit of money from their hard work and vision. Sometimes, it had nothing to do with money, and was more about the principle of sweat equity. It was the artist saying "There are no shortcuts to this knowledge that I am drawing from to present my work to you, and because I had to put the work in decoding this, you can either be happy passively enjoying it, or put your own work in to seek the knowledge as well."

I think I mentioned this before but a great old western called “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” dealt with this idea waaaay before it was called the Mandela Effect. In the movie, it is believed that Jimmy Stewart is a hero who shot the notorious outlaw Liberty Valance. Stewart’s character has lived the life of the hero because of this and now finds himself dealing with a journalist who wants to write about his life story and heroic actions. But the catch is Stewart isn’t actually the man who shot Valance, and Stewart tells the truth to the journalist, who confronted with the reality that the man he is researching and writing about didn’t actually do the only thing he’s famous for, responds by saying “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” In other words, when most people believe something (the legend becomes fact) there’s no point in trying to correct it, because everyone already believes the legend, even if it isn’t what happened. This phenomena is much more common than we like to believe- a good example is how we are taught in schools that Columbus proved the world is round. Nevermind that the ancient Greeks figured that out around 1800 years before Columbus, and that educated people in 1492 (which probably included Columbus and definitely includes Queen Isabella and Ferdinand, who funded Columbus’s exhibitions) knew about how the Ancient Greeks proved the world was round, and that the globe itself was first invented in 1492 so everyone could look at a more realistic depiction of the earth than a flat map would provide. The idea that Columbus discovered the world was round is pure fiction, and specifically is tied to the book “A History of the Life and Times of Christopher Columbus”, which was a work of fiction imagining the journeys written in the 1820s by Washington Irving. Because Irving was the most popular author of his time and place, his version of Columbus’s legend became so widespread that they eventually started teaching it to kids in school blissfully unaware of how fictional it was, including the idea that people in the 1490s didn’t know the world was round and that Columbus was the first to prove it was. In any case, it definitely strikes me as a concept we’d do better to call the Liberty Valance effect when it comes to something like this where the legend has become fact- the Mandela effect usually is better reserved for mysteries that can be easily unraveled with a Google search (such as when Mandela died, or the Monopoly man wearing a monocle.) When the true story is this involved and virtually impossible to find with an easy Google search, that’s more than Mandela.

This is like when people say Bob Marley made red wine and don’t worry, be happy yet he never did.

Love your videos always good stuff

Excellent. I knew immediately upon seeing the thumbnail and title, and even said aloud "Lemme guess, William DeVaughn's 'Be Thankful For What You Got'". As a DJ, this is a song which I absorbed mis-labelled into my library long ago, no doubt inherited in the form of a low-bitrate file from another DJ's hard drive, which he, in turn, likely downloaded from limewire. I don't remember how the mis-attribution came to my attention, but I only learned the truth about a decade ago. Definitely an all-time fave, as I actually do drive a great big Cadillac (a far finer car than I deserve, left to me by my great-grandmother upon her passing), but - since I am currently living in it - I really do have to remember to be thankful. The caddy and the Rane One in its trunk are just about all I got.

If you where black you'd know that William Devhaughn was a big hit in our day..

The brothers knew this was not a Curtis Mayfield song

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I have been a musician for over 50 years. This has bothered me ever since I saw the first RU-vid video of this song. You have answered all of my questions about this mystery, and I never thought that it was this deep! I have just subscribed and liked! 👍

Thank you! I'm glad somebody is finally setting that straight. I've known this song ever since my dad bought William DeVaughn's album when it came out. And I love that you excerpted Jay and Amber's reaction video, but they're young, maybe 30. They didn't know.

IT. DOESN'T. EVEN. SOUND. LIKE. CURTIS MAYFIELD!!!! At all!!!!

You have a great platform Bro, TY. Always interesting 🙏🏽

Great stuff. I love your channel. Would love a video digging into the band Zapp.

So , i just watched your video and had to watch the entirety as i actually met William in the bronx circa 2004 / 2005 . A brief conversation but i met him through a mutual friend . He introduced himself and mentioned that he had a song and he sung the song's chorus for me and i tied it to ludacris . He mentioned that he sang the original . Your video was a nice explanation though , thanks much . Brought back some memories .

Thanks for all the work and research you did on this

I remembered this song correctly…. Probably because I thought it was Curtis Mayfield when it came out. I remember the DJ on WOKN in North Carolina saying this is not Curtis Mayfield but William DeVaughn. People were confused even back then. Awesome video. I really enjoyed this one. I wonder if Mr DeVaughn will watch this video. I will be looking for him in the comments.😊😊

Great video! Dude this was awesome!

This came out when I was teenager. There was no internet. The song played on the radio and you waited for artist name William Devaughn, it was never Curtis. Still grooving to this on my oldies playlist-true words to live by.

Blew my mind, already subscribed 👍

Very informative video man, I always thought that was Curtis Mayfield song too 💯💯

Bro, love ur channel!

Man, you juste don't know how MUCH I have enjoyed listening to you. Listening to your comment and research was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Very entertaining to the point I really didn't care who did what when and how. YOU is the Real McCoy bro. I give you 10/10. Heck, I make it 15/10. Keep it up bro.

Thank you for making this video! I’ve been trying to tell folks for years what this song really is, that’s not called Diamond In The Back and that was sung by William DeVaughn and not Curtis. It’s a beautiful song, one of my favorites of all time. Thank you!

Immediately I was reminded of how so many people think "Nobody Knows" by The Tony Rich Project is a Baby Face song. I mean, they do sound similar, so I can get how some might mix the two singers up... But not knowing "Be Thankful" is wild!

What a crazy rabbit hole dude! I have been hearing 'Be Thankful for What You Got' by William DeVaughn for several years, correctly labeled on the Amazon Music app BTW and i had this same problem in my mind when i noticed the release year of the track. I was like "Why is RU-vid calling it a Mayfield track? Was it a cover maybe? Like Massive Attacks version?" But nope, i searched my dads vinyl and found no such track on his old Mayfield records 😮 I am so glad Digging the Greats covered this! You can never truly trust Google and the whole World Wide Web (What a tangled web we weave) 😂 I recently was renaming a host of mp3 files, mostly old R&B and Oldies, on an old hard drive that grossly had the wrong artists associated as a result of them coming from Napster and no one fact checking. Byt the first time i heard the line "Diamond in The Back" was Eazy-E but it felt like everything was partially from somewhere else in the days of sampling, however even as a kid i knew there had to be an original or a influence from somewhere else. Take "Got to Get You into My Life" by 'Earth Wind and Fire' haha 😅 but for real if you search for the track, at least the first one that comes up for me, is not the 'Beatles' original (although i feel like they wrote it for EW&F as theirs has more feel. Thanks for that deep dive too by the way!) 😊 Mandela Effect all over the place! When i was a kid i thought Boz Scaggs 'Lido Shuffle' was called 'One More For the Road' 😂 Maybe a little different but along the lines. Together we can all fix this, maybe.🤔

Great Video bro , New subscriber, amazing breakdown of this ....anomaly lol

Talk about perfect timing. I legit was looking to put this song on my 70s soul and funk playlist amd COULD NOT FIND IT on spotify like a week ago.

Someone posted "Be Thankful for What You've Got" on YT with a misleading album cover that identified it as a Curtis Mayfield song. Since YT, Google, etc., reinforce confirmation bias, the erroneous post became the top search result. I've had many arguments about this over the years. Thank you for making this vid so I don't have to explain it anymore.

This is why, when I transfer music in my collection, I like discogs because more often than not, I can look at pictures of the original album, CD, etc and get the information I need. But then again, I've seen mistakes printed too

I always wondered about this song.. i was called out by a buddy when i mentioned this song being by William DeVaughn and when people looked it up on their phones, I ended up feeling like the idot standing on his own hill as google brought back Curtis as the original artist... Thank you so much for doing this video.. not so much for the "I told you so" but really for the points you make about missinformation and how it can stack on itself.. how the facts get lost to time. Either way, this song is a gift and i hope it lives on. Cheers to you for doing your research and for digging into the greats. Keep up the great work Easy subscription from me.

Love this channel. That said, blown away that people didn't know it was William DeVaughn. Grew up on the song. This is one of many reasons why the internet sucks.

On our Pod we talked about it…! It’s a great video…thanks for breaking it down.

Keep teaching brother, the people need to respect the knowledge!!!

@robsquadreactions It's so awesome to see your channel get glimpsed on here. Love @diggingthegreats , aka The Professor (at least that's what I call him) . 🙏🏽 Love both your channels! This so made my Monday. ❤

I just looked the song up and the original album (with the right cover and credited to William DeVaughn) is on Deezer, an equivalent (and in my opinion, much better) app to Spotify here in France, the full 7 minute version ! Didn't know it before the video and it's brilliant ! Thanks DGT

I’m legitimately mind blown over here!! Wow bro! Fantastic video

Just blew me away!!! Very good research I’m Fifty plus and felt a connection to all your Mandela effect examples. ❤

And this is why its great to OWN actual RECORDS. Then you know who you are listening, what year it is from, who wrote it, who played on it etc. Great video once again!

Awesome video!! I didn't realize so many people thought it was Curtis Mayfield

Hey, great video as always. Just wanted to share that the full 7 minute long version of the song is available on Spotify for me, along with the rest of the original 1974 album. Probably a regional difference.

Love your vids

Thanks for elucidating this topic. I am so weary of the surprised looks on people's faces when I correct them on the artist who performed this song. One point I would add. While the fantastic musicians involved in the studio production of Be Thankful for what you got might have been local to Philadelphia, PA William Devaughn is an artist from Washington, DC

This is so cool! I learned so much! ✨🙏🏾

Hey digging the greats, I didn't get your actual name name but thanks for setting the record straight, no pun intended

Great video! I was thinking about Mr. DeVaughn's behavior with kinda skirting you...and part of me wonders if he may be suffering from dementia?

Thank you for this one! I would have bet everything I owned that this was Curtis!!! lol. Keep up the great work!

Google misinformation damage that generates traffic and with this, the Mandela effect. Very interesting content delivery. Thank you for your dedication!

Uncles use to play this in their Deuce and a Quarter. TV Antenna in the back, crushed light blue velvet interior, with the blue paint job, chrome with the curb catchers / feelers.... MIss them days....

On May 12, 2017, a two-song medley, "What Does It Take (to Win Your Love for Me)" and "I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying" was released on Sound Gems Records.

You’re amazing Diggz!! If that’s even your real name.

Sounds like you came across a post on RU-vid. Years ago I came across a post that had the same name and had Curtis Mayfield’s name on it and the post had thousands of views. I responded only to find out years later it had not been removed or corrected. My feelings were exactly like yours. That was over fifteen years ago

The 'down' beat on "Move On Up" starts on what is audibly beat #3 (after the 2nd snare). When the horns and the rest of the elements come in. Those snare hits at the beginning are lead in notes and don't take up an entire measure..

Best you tube channel for breaking down music 🎵 can’t believe I only just found this out

This reminds me of something that used to happen with bootlegs (and probably still happens to this day). They'd find a song that sounds close enough to the style and sound of the featured band, alter it a bit so as it's harder to tell who is actually singing and include it on an album with a bunch of real outtakes, rare songs and unreleased material. A perfect example would be The Beatles and The Rolling Stones working together on a song called Shades Of Orange. According to the bootleggers, it features George Harrison on lead vocals and various members of both The Beatles and The Stones playing other instruments. It's actually partly true. The song was produced by Bill Wyman and it does feature Charlie Watts on percussion so it does have a connection to The Rolling Stones...just not to The Beatles. It's actually by a band called The End and you can now find really high quality versions of it online, but back in the day, we were going off of what sounded like a 5th generation tape copy that was played slightly too fast. Under those circumstances, it's believable enough. That's just 1 example of what some collector's call "outfakes". I'd say a lot of people on early file sharing systems would have intentionally mislabeled files so as to make it look like they had something really rare, when they actually only had the same stuff that everyone else had. I think the best mislabeling I ever saw was "Nirvana - Mrs Robinson (Beatles Cover)". Not only did they get the name of the band performing the song wrong as it was The Lemonheads, but they also got the name of the original artist wrong too.

My fav channel man lessgooooo!

My guy, in the early to mid 00s there were THOUSANDS of people who thought there was a song called "Half The Man I Used To Be" recorded by Nirvana or Kurt Cobain (solo), and it was mostly due to a mislabeled/misnamed file shared on Napster and LimeWire. The song, of course, was 1993's "Creep" by Stone Temple Pilots and the line "I'm half the man I used to be" is the beginning of the chorus. It wasn't some obscure deep cut... It reached #2 on the mainstream rock chart! And we're not talking about a song that was a quarter of a century old like DeVaughns, but less than 10 years old when the mix-up/pseudo-Mandela effect happened. I'm pretty sure there are still RU-vid videos where the song is credited to Nirvana and accompanied by a Nirvana logo...

Another example of this is NWA's Straight Outta Compton album being incorrectly listed as releasing on Monday 8-8-88 (albums didn't release on Monday). Eazy-E's album came first, and wasn't released until the early Fall of 1988. Eazy's catalog # is SL57100, and NWA is SL57102. This means that NWA's album either dropped in late November or early 1989. Journalist Dart Adams has posted about this numerous times. The incorrect date was cemented when, during 2015 movie appearance interview, Ice Cube casually agreed with the interviewer about the album getting released on 8-8-88. Now, the wrong date is flooded over the internet.

I’m glad you are correcting this. I know William DeVaughn personally and had the pleasure of singing in a DoWoop group with him called 4 miles out of DC. I also heard the song when it was a demo. I knew it would be a hit.

That actually really sucks you never got an interview with him! He seems pretty indifferent to this Mandela effect n cultural impact this song has had. Literally every Sunday we had backyard BBQs n this was a staple in the oldie’s rotation. Always knew it was him tho! Y’all should listen to another song by him called “Love in Every Language” it’s a banger lol great video as always bro

When u mentioned the name, Willian Devaughn, I remembered a song he recorded titled “Crème De Crème” released in 1982, the year I graduated HS. I liked it & thought it was a pretty catchy tune. 😎

Whenever someone says they remember something "vividly" "clearly" or "distinctly" means they do NOT remember correctly.

Solid video. 💯 Between owning records, and being old enough to have caught the tail-end of the radio era, I knew who it was, but never knew why people thought it was Curtis Mayfield. A note for those of you who own vinyl-the fact that it wasn't on his debut, "Curtis" (which is usually the album it's credited to, if only visually,) should have tipped you off. 😉

What is that song playing in the background at 2:18??

This video is beautifully done, kudos.

@ 8:05 - Bro, you gotta start listing the music you play in the background. It's always some cool shit that I need to track down... and I'm tired of using Shazam!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Thank you SO MUCH for digging. You are truly amazing 💪👍👏

This reminds me (though a less extreme version) of a song called Drag Rap by the Showboys that came out in 1986. It was, itself, inspired by the success of The Show by fellow Profile label mates, Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh. Done in the vein of 40s/50s radio and TV show, Dragnet, the song tells the story of 2 competing underworld bosses with a driving baseline and xylophone effects becoming a staple of New Orleans bounce during the later parts of the 80s and early 90s. There's never been any story of how it went from never gaining traction in NY but a foundation in southern Hip Hop. It even lost its original 'Drag Rap' title to become the now legendary 'Triggerman'. Couple years ago, the MCs were interviewed and were able to tell their story

Thank you Digging the Greats for making this video. I listened to 98.7 Kiss Fm and they never credited this song to Curtis

The moment you said the song "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield was actually the song "Be Thankful for What You Got" by William DeVaughn, my mind immediately went to peer-to-peer file sharing clients. I'm a 1990s and early-mid 2000s kid, and I used LimeWire to download so much music back in the day. LimeWire and other P2P file sharing clients like it were notorious for people spreading songs labeled with the either the wrong title, the wrong artist or both, even spelling artists names wrong because they didn't know and didn't bother to do any research. "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield is most likely a holdover from the P2P file sharing days. With the rise in popularity of RU-vid, these songs with incorrect titles and artists started being spread on here. It's kind of funny to see, but at the same time, it's sad that some people don't know the correct titles and artists for these songs, and that the artists aren't getting the proper credit. As for that Rob Squad Reactions channel, that's a channel I'm actually subscribed to. I enjoy their reactions, and I think they're a cute couple. I don't blame them for not knowing the correct artist and title. They'd likely never heard the song before, and a lot of their song reaction videos are based on viewer suggestions in the comments section and in e-mails. Someone likely suggested "Diamond in the Back" by Curtis Mayfield, and they just assumed that was the title and artist. Another song and artist they got wrong was "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray. They incorrectly labeled it as "Give Me the Beat Boy" by the Doobie Brothers, likely another holdover from the P2P file sharing days. I wish they'd do just a little bit of research before they make their reaction videos, so at least, they're getting the song titles and artists correct.

I never knew anyone that thought that "Be Thankful for what you got" was a Curtis Mayfield song. Now for years I never knew who the artist was, but never thought it was Mayfield.

Dyana Williams is the mother of Kenny Gamble’s child Idia Gamble. She is a legendary Philadelphia DJ and journalist. MFSB (Philadelphia International) who worked with William Devaughn in 1974 on “Just Be Thankful For What You’ve Got,” as you stated. The song was recorded a few years before her relationship with Kenny Gamble but she mingled with all the Philly affiliated artists at one time. She knows more than she is letting on. 😊

My mp3 of "Be Thankful" is correctly credited and i downloaded it from Limewire after hearing the Massive Attack cover.

The version of this song that I heard first was the one by Massive Attack from their 1991 debut album "Blue Lines". That's probably the case for many Europeans my age. I can still remember that the release of this album was postponed several times. I read the first announcement for the album in the fall of 1990 in the column of Michael Reinboth (German DJ and later founder of the Munich label Compost). He had obviously heard some of the album's songs six months before the release and wrote, among other things, about a cover version of DeVaughn's "Be Thankful" which Massive Attack had renamed "Diamond In The Back". (On the finally released version of the album, however, the song was listed under its real name again) I don't know exactly why the release of "Blue Lines" was delayed for so long. I always assumed that it was due to the clearance of some samples. But who knows, maybe it was also because they asked Curtis Mayfield for permission for their "Diamond In The Back" cover and didn't get an answer. 🤷‍♂️

thank you for the knowledge, dope shit. keep this up.

The orig. alb is on Spotify with the orig. cover and all, i discovered this gem on Massive Attack first alb. a dope cover version. And it`s credited to William DeVaughn, i really enjoyed this video, but i actually haven`t heard about this wrong credit/misunderstanding? Maybe do more of th same topic kinda? Really love and repect what you are doing😉