"
O-o-h Child" is a 1970 single recorded by
Chicago soul family group the
Five Stairsteps and released on the
Buddah label. Previously, the Five Stairsteps had had peripheral success recording in Chicago with
Curtis Mayfield: when Mayfield's workload precluded his continuing to work with the group they were reassigned to
Stan Vincent, an in-house producer for Buddah Records, who had recently scored a Top Ten hit with the
Lou Christie single "I'm Gonna Make You Mine". Vincent wrote the song for his son, Chuck. The Five Stairsteps' debut collaboration with Vincent was originally formatted with the group's rendition of "
Dear Prudence" as the
A-side with Vincent's original composition "O-o-h Child" as
B-side. However, "O-o-h Child" broke out in the key markets of Philadelphia and Detroit to rise as high as #8 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1970. The track's
R&B chart impact was more muted with a #14 peak, although "O-o-h Child" is now regarded as a "soft soul" classic.
Billboard ranked the record as the
No. 21 song of 1970.