Dance Soul
The song “Expressway to Your Heart” by The Soul Survivors was their biggest nationally charting hit. The song was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who produced the track as well. Gamble often took the Schuylkill Expressway to go from his home in New Jersey to Philadelphia, and the idea for the lyrics came when he was going to see a girlfriend but was stuck in traffic. The track starts with car horn sounds. The Soul Survivors had a hit with the song in 1967, releasing it as a single backed with “Hey Gyp” and on their 1967 album When the Whistle Blows Anything Goes. On the national charts, the song went to #3 on the R&B Chart and #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1967. On the regional charts, it was #1 in Philadelphia and New York. It sold more than one million copies and was the first hit for Gamble and Huff, who became famous as Philadelphia soul record producers (e.g., producing The O’Jays, Dusty Springfield, Billy Paul, Lou Rawls, The Jacksons, Teddy Pendergrass, among many others).
The Soul Survivors were from New York, who became a Philadelphia-based R&B group. They were known as a Sixties blue-eyed soul group. They formed in New York and members included Kenny Jeremiah, Charlie Ingui and Richie Ingui, Joe Forgione, Paul Venturini, and Chuck Trois. The Soul Survivors had another top 40 hit with “Explosion (In My Soul).”
