The Sweetest Pain

Recorded for Dexter Wansel’s 1979 album Time Is Slipping Away at Sigma Sound Studios in New York and Philadelphia. Wansel wrote, arranged, and produced the track with Cynthia Biggs, and the recorded performance featured Terri Wells on lead vocals with The Jones Girls on background vocals. Released as a Philadelphia International single from Time Is Slipping Away, it became a US R&B chart entry and stood out as one of Wansel’s late-1970s Philadelphia soul recordings. Its lush production and Terri Wells vocal helped define the album’s quiet-storm leaning material. The track has endured as a heavily sampled and frequently covered piece of Philadelphia soul, with WhoSampled listing more than 60 sampled uses and covers by Loose Ends and DJ Cam Quartet. It remains one of Dexter Wansel’s best-known songs outside his core catalog.