If you live in the heart of a big city, you might know your street buskers by name – or at least by instrument or genre.

And while some folks are startled when they come across street performers while traveling, it really is a treat to see people performing live, especially when they’re as good as The Connections.

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A post shared by The Connections (@theconnectionsnyc) on Jan 3, 2019 at 11:08am PST

If you don’t know them, then you must not have spent much time in NYC’s iconic Washington Square Park – so you’re missing out on TWO great things.

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A post shared by The Connections (@theconnectionsnyc) on Nov 1, 2018 at 11:16am PDT

Lucky for us, YouTube basically exists to let us bear witness to stuff we missed when it actually happened – like this “impromptu” duet with the vocalist from The Connections, Carl Foye, and local chanteuse Abbe Rivers.

Back in the day, The Connections consisted of Foye (vocals) and Tyrone Barnett (guitar, percussion, and sometimes vocals). But if you see them now (or you’ve seen them in the last 2 years), you’ve no doubt gotten a chance to hear them as a trio with their newest member Jeremiah Harris (on bass).

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Welcome a new member to the family! Jeremiah is a monster bassist and we’ve been having a blast.

A post shared by The Connections (@theconnectionsnyc) on Jul 14, 2018 at 4:56pm PDT

But this video is all about Foye and Rivers. And we’re not buying the whole “Woman Randomly Walks Off the Street to Join Street Musicians” act one bit.

And it’s not that we don’t believe someone with a great voice might join them from the audience,. It’s just that we need only catch the first 10 seconds of chemistry between the two veteran performers to suspect they’ve done some singing together before.

If not, then we humbly apologize for not realizing that such soul can be readily shared by a passerby.

Their duet is nothing short of masterful, and even if Rivers was just walking around with her backpack, she was ready to do some vocal jousting – and she was ready for this particular song.

The song of choice is “Ooh Baby Baby,” which you may not recognize by the title but you’ve certainly heard before. It was originally recorded by The Miracles, more often remembered as Smokey Robinson and The Miracles.

It’s not exactly a feel-good tune. A man has cheated on his lover and is feeling pretty bad about it (easy for him to say NOW).

It’s a lot better as a duet with the whole begging for forgiveness thing – and Abbe Rivers’ vocals are the only thing that can hold up to Foye’s voice AND his cheatin’.

The video of the legends riffing in the park has been viewed over 4 million times over the years and has educated a whole bunch of music lovers about the sound of soul music.

It even got a comment from Rivers herself!

“Thanks luv – I’ve been performing in and around NYC for years – Used sing & Play guitar under that arch to make money when I was in college! Can’t help but join in sometimes!”

We’re glad she did!

And Rivers never stopped singing. She even has 2 CD’s available – and you can check her out on Spotify here (or search for her on your music app of choice).

She even has a new single “First on My List,” a duet with Ross Sandler.

As for The Connections, everything you need to know – and the songs you want to hear – are available on their website.

Be sure to scroll down below for their epic 2014 performance.

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Source: NYC STREET MUSIC via YouTube, NJ.com, The Connections