The Impressions – Keep On Pushing album art
Released on ABC-Paramount in 1964, Keep On Pushing is the biggest hit album by The Impressions, which at that point time consisted of Sam Gooden, Curtis Mayfield, and Fred Cash.
The album opens with the first of Mayfield’s Black pride anthem compositions, the titular “Keep on Pushing”, which became a top 10 hit on both the Billboard Pop and R&B chart. The cover interprets the title in the stupidest way: Don Bronstein’s photograph shows the group pushing Mayfield’s Jaguar E-Type. As if the song was about moving a broken-down luxury car, and not about the civil rights movement.
Now maybe some day / I’ll reach that higher goal
I know I can make it / With just a little bit of soul
’Cause I’ve got my strength
[…]
A great big stone wall / Stands there ahead of me
But I’ve got my pride / And I’ll move on aside
And keep on pushing
Forty years later, the song was used as the theme to the Democratic National Convention keynote address by then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama.
Front cover of the UK release on Kent Records
Back cover of the UK release on Kent Records
