In 1968, music producer Carl Davis gathered a group of session musicians and laid out a track written by Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders called “Am I the Same Girl?” The song was accompanied by lead vocals provided by Chicago native and Brunswick Records recording artist, Barbara Acklin.

Barbara’s vocals were not to Davis’s liking, however, and he removed her vocals from the track and instead overlaid a piano solo by Floyd Morris. In November 1968, he released the new instrumental track as a single and renamed it “Soulful Strut.” The song was credited to Young-Holt Unlimited, even though the songs purported lead artists, Eldee Young and Red Holt, are not believed to have worked on the studio recording.

Young and Holt were talented musicians, with Young, the bassist, and Holt, the drummer, formerly being part of the Ramsey Lewis trio. They took up the song and made it their focus, especially given its commercial success. “Soulful Strut” peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, but would prove to be the new group’s only hit. By 1974, the Young-Holt Unlimited (really the Young-Holt Trio with pianist Ken Chaney) had disbanded and were playing backup to other smaller bands. The Brunswick Session orchestra that actually recorded the song never got any real publicity whatever. Hey, it was the 60s.

Undaunted by her producer’s liking the backing track more than her song, Barbara Acklin released her own version of “Am I the Same Girl?” in February 1969 to modest success, peaking at 79 on the Hot 100 and number 33 on Billboard’s R&B chart.

The song faded in obscurity after that, but Acklin’s career did not. Originally a secretary at Brunswick, she soon became a favorite writing partner of Eugene Record’s, penning hits such as the Chi-Lites’s “Have You Seen Her?” and “(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People” and at least 3 other Chi-Lites hits. She spent the remainder of her career mostly as a backing singer, never reaching any real success as a lead vocalist.

Dusty Springfield did the normal mid-20th-Century thing and recorded a non-brown version, on the advice of her bassist, and released it in 1969 as well. It did mediocre business, stalling at number 43 in the UK. It was almost an identical version to Acklin’s, featuring a weak, high register that seemed to be near the ends of both Springfield’s and her backing singers’ range. Neither version was as strong as the song was without vocals, but at least I have gotten all the way through Dusty’s version. I can’t in good conscience say the same for Acklin’s.

It’s likely the entire episode would have disappeared into obscurity had the song not been heard by Corinne Drewery, the lead vocalist of Swing Out Sister. While Drewery admitted that Dusty Springfield had been one of her influences, it was hearing Acklin’s version of the song that made Drewery and her Swing Out Sister partner, Andy Connell, want to record it. Perhaps it was hearing all the song needed was the right, strong vocal, or maybe they really dug the more genuinely soulful rendition. Whatever the reason, Swing Out Sister released “Am I the Same Girl?” in March 1992 on Fontana Records, giving them their highest UK chart ranking in years. It was the title single from their subsequent album, peaking at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

In my worthless opinion, it is the only vocal rendition of the song to equal the original instrumental recording. The group released 2 live versions and a new studio recording of the song in 2012. Below is the 1992 release. I grew up with “Soulful Strut,” and dug it for days, but it always felt like a backing track absent a lead vocal. Corrine Drewery fixed that. Her lower register suits the song better than Springfield’s strained soprano, and she is smoother and more polished than Acklin. The fact that I can’t tell if she is lip-synching in her live videos is due to the fact that live or in studio, lady could sing.

Check her their Official Music video below.