Ain't No Stoppin Us Now !
We're on the move !
Ain't No Stoppin Us Now !
We've got the groove !

John Cavadus Whitehead

(07/02/1948 – 05/11/2004)

We come to you with this tribute to one of the most famous songwriting/production team of the Philadelphia Sound sound era – the ones of the "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" classic released in 1979 – McFadden & Whitehead, the latest of which, 55, has been shot dead Tuesday, May 11 whilst working on a car in the West Oak Lane Area. Our deeply thoughts go to his family and friends. John will be sadly missed…

(Gene) McFadden & (John) Whitehead are definitely names which speak for themselves to all of those who were connected to the R&B/soul scene during the 70's. Both born in 1948 in Philadelphia, Penn. McFadden & Whitehead were former members, as teenagers, of the Epsilons, a group managed by Otis Redding until his untimely death in 1967. The twosome would then have a short liaison with Stax Records (where they had a minor hit in 1970 with a song called 'The Echo'), prior changing their name to Talk Of The Town and start working with Philadelphia International Records pair Gamble & Huff. As a production team, they would become responsible for certain areas of the label's sound (the epicenter of what would become the so called Philly Sound), meanwhile as songwriters, they've signed a whole bunch of classics, the first of them being "Backstabbers" for the O'Jays in 1972, a song that would become #1 across the board within a week ! The heat was then definitely on seing them delivering hit after hit like "For The Love Of Money", "I Will Always Love You Mama", "The More I Want, The More I Get" amongst others. Meanwhile, the list of their "customers" would include artists like The Intruders, Archie Bell & The Drells, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Lou Rawls and Teddy Pendergrass for the PIR label. Not to mention outside projects for Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Jacksons, James Brown, Melba Moore, Gloria Gaynor then Freddie Jackson and Beau Williams to name but a few.

The duo cut their eponym  album in 1979 which would feature their biggest hit ever, "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" which sold over 8,000,000 copies and was nominated for A Grammy Award and got a hip hop cover version by Jocko on the same label.

Their later releases, however, were less successful and, after serving time in prison for tax evasion, John embarked briefly on a solo career with the release of I Need Money Bad on Polygram Records in 1988.

Ain't no stoppin' us now for the love we have for you…     (DJ) MFSB