Cliff Nobles’ “The Horse” is a 1968 Soul Bboy smash with brass played by the Funky brothers and sisters of MFSB:
An ironic hit for Cliff Nobles himself, the most popular version of the song “Love Is Alright”, which is the B-side instrumental version, named (The Horse), doesn’t even feature Nobles’ voice or instrument-playing. The whole phenomenon was apparently based on a misunderstanding among the DJs, explained further down in this post.
But right now, have a listen to Kold Sweat Hip-Hopper Dynametrix’s 1991 MC marathon from beyond the pond, which made great use of a small clip of “The Horse” (this is quite RARE):
Some interesting backgroiund on Cliff Nobles and “The Horse” from Allmusic:
[Nobles’] first release bombed. The second featured “Love Is All Right,” backed with “The Horse.” “The Horse” became a huge hit and established Nobles as a legit one-hit wonder. Ironically, “The Horse” was simply “Love Is All Right” without Nobles‘ vocal — Nobles isn’t even featured on “The Horse.” He neither sings nor plays an instrument on the track; the brass playing on the song would become famous years later as MFSB. The whole incident was an accident, the side with the vocal was supposed to be the side that was plugged, but DJs kept playing the non-vocal version. The record would have gone to number one, but another instrumental, “Grazin’ in the Grass” by Hugh Masekela, was even more popular and occupied the top spot for two weeks. The week of July 29, 1968, had to be the first time in modern pop music history that two instrumentals were ranked at numbers one and two, respectively, on the charts. Shamelessly, Phil La of Soul released two more instrumentals — “Horse Fever” and “Switch It On,” — and credited them as being by Cliff Nobles, though Nobles didn’t play an instrument.
Check out the vocal version of “The Horse” aka “Love Is Alright”:
