8th Day

by Andrew Hamilton Many of the groups Lamont Dozier and Eddie and Brian Holland (HDH) signed to their family of labels (Invictus, Hot Wax, Music Merchant) in the late '60s were supergrouped or piecemealed together. When the labels went under, the groups followed suit, and understandably so; they had no ties, and often weren't even friends. The songs published by Gold Forever Music aren't often performed live because the entities ceased to exist a day after the company folded; hits like "Want Ads," "Give Me Just a Little More Time," "Somebody's Been Sleeping in My Bed," "Westbound #9," and many more, including "She's Not Just Another Woman" by 8th Day, or was it by them?   The fall of 1970 found 100 Proof assailing the charts with "Somebody's Been Sleeping in My Bed," led by Steve Mancha (née Clyde Wilson). It was their second release; they debuted with "Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup," an R&B hit, but "Somebody's Been Sleeping" climbed to number eight pop and sold a million copies. Hotwax released an LP to roll with the single. Everybody knew "She's Not Just Another Woman" was a hit, some jocks were already playing it off the album. Not wanting to interrupt the flow of 100 Proof's hit, HDH decided to release the R&B jump, led by Mancha, under the name 8th Day on Invictus.   As expected, it ascended the charts and became a major hit, but there was no 8th Day. Not yet. As the next 8th Day single, "You Got to Crawl Before You Walk," climbed the charts, HDH assembled a group with Melvin Davis (a solo artist on Invictus), Antonio "Tony" Newsome, Lyman Woodard, Larry Hutchison, Ron Bykowski, and three females. Their other singles never equaled the first, which they didn't sing anyway.   Davis disliked the sterile atmosphere at Invictus/Hotwax; "There was no place to jam or exchange ideas." He also wanted to create more, and disliked the assembly-line approach of HDH. Davis remains in Detroit. A prolific songwriter, Davis wrote "I Don't Wanna Lose You" (Johnny Taylor) and "Love Bug Got a Bear Hug." Bykowski later gigged and recorded with Parliament/Funkadelic.