I'm Your Mechanical Man

Recorded in Chicago for Jerry Butler's 1974 Mercury album Sweet Sixteen, with Richard Evans arranging the album and Calvin Carter producing. The session personnel included Marvin Yancy on keyboards, Richard Evans and Thomas Palmer on bass, Bryan Grice on drums, Philip Upchurch, Wayne Bennett, Billy Butler, and Byron Gregory on guitar, and backing vocals from Leroy Hutson, Fred Cash, and the Kitty Haywood Singers. Released by Mercury in 1974 on Sweet Sixteen, I'm Your Mechanical Man showed Butler working with a younger Chicago soul circle and a heavier rhythm-section sound. The track became one of the album's deepest funk-oriented cuts rather than a primary chart single. The recording later became a crate-digger favourite because of its breakbeat and midsection groove. Its use as a sampling source by later hip-hop producers helped keep Sweet Sixteen in circulation among soul and funk collectors.