Testify (The Isley Brothers song)

"Testify"
Single by The Isley Brothers
A-side	Testify (Part I)
B-side	Testify (Part II)
Released	1964
Recorded	New Jersey, 1964
Genre	Soul
Length	6:01 4:11
Label	T-Neck
Writer(s)	Ronald Isley O'Kelly Isley, Jr. Rudolph Isley
Producer	The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers singles chronology
"Who's That Lady" (1964) "Testify (Part 1)" (1964) "The Last Girl" (1964)

Testify, Parts I and II is a single released by the Isley Brothers in 1964. It is one of two singles to feature Jimi Hendrix on guitar, the other being "Move Over and Let Me Dance". Both singles failed to chart. It was the first of three singles from the Isleys' T-Neck Records, Inc. label. There are two versions of Testify with lyrics and different time lengths. Testify (4:11) with different lyrics on album. While the other version has different lyrics and popular names of artists of that time period like Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and the Beatles.

In 1983, Stevie Ray Vaughan covered the song for the album Texas Flood where it appears as the fifth track, "Testify". It starts out with a guitar riff and on the 7th bar the drums and bass enter with the beat that carries throughout the whole song. It ends with Stevie Ray Vaughan's signature string snap. Vaughan played Testify live often.

Some album editions and guitar tablature books wrongly credit "Testify" to George Clinton and D. Taylor, although they wrote the unrelated Parliament song of the same name (sometimes called "I Wanna Testify").

Credits (Isley Brothers version)

• Lead vocals by Ronald Isley
• Spoken vocals by Rudolph Isley
• Background vocals by O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Rudolph Isley
• Guitars Jimi Hendrix

External links

• Live Performance - El Mocambo, 1983.

References

1. ^http://www.discogs.com/Isley-Brothers-Testify/release/2674859

2. ^http://www.discogs.com/label/T-Neck%20Records,%20Inc.