Leverts Keep Act in the Family With ‘Father and Son’ : Pop music: The O’Jays’ Eddie Levert and son Gerald team up for a surprise-hit album of stormy soul songs.

Like baseball with its generations of Griffeys, Bonds and Boones, pop music has produced its share of footstep-following offspring, from Jeff Buckley to Sean and Julian Lennon, Ziggy Marley to Bonnie Raitt, Whitney Houston to Jakob Dylan.

But with the notable exception of the Judds, parent-child collaborations remain a rarity--maybe an occasional single, like Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid” or Natalie Cole’s studio-stitched duet with her late father Nat King Cole on “Unforgettable.” More recently, Brian Wilson has recorded songs with his daughters Wendy and Carnie.

Now Eddie Levert, a founding member of the classic R&B; group the O’Jays, and his son Gerald have raised the familial stakes with an entire album, “Father and Son,” on the EastWest label. The single “I Got Your Back” is in the Top 10 on the R&B; chart, helping make the collection of stormy soul music one of the surprise successes of the season.

And according to Gerald Levert, 29, the reason is in the relationship.

“I think we made it more touching for families . . . especially fathers and sons,” says the singer-writer-producer, who has also recorded two solo albums and is the leader of the trio LeVert, with his brother Sean and Marc Gordon.

“We couldn’t just write songs about ‘Baby, I love you and I want to kiss you all over’ and all that,” he says. “It wouldn’t have been effective for us as a father and son. We wanted to express some of our feelings for each other.”

For the senior Levert, 53, that mission had a special urgency.

“I never talked much to my dad,” says the Cleveland-based singer, recalling his steelworker father. “My dad was always working or he was coming home tired. . . .

“Don’t get me wrong--he took care of the family. But that’s why I made it a point to have the kind of relationship that I have with my sons. I made it a point that I would know them and I would let them know me a lot more than I knew my father.”

Eddie and Gerald had harbored the idea of working extensively together ever since Eddie “horned in” and did a guest vocal on “Baby Hold on to Me,” a song from Gerald’s 1991 album “Private Line.” Their separate record deals made it contractually difficult to arrange, and they credit Sylvia Rhone, chair of Elektra Entertainment, with getting “Father and Son” off the ground.

The album’s one departure from its modernized brand of gospel-rooted R&B; is “I Got You,” a hip-hop track in which rappers Dave Spencer and Perry (P Funk) Gibson describe the way a young man’s life can unravel without the presence of a father. The Levert clan is keenly aware of that issue’s relevance in the African American community.

“I think they made a positive move when they did the ‘Million Man March,’ ” Eddie says, “but they got to take this now and take it back in the house and give it to the kids. That will take care of the streets. If you’re able to make it happen in the house, then the kids will no longer want to go to the street.

“The family is the key, and the home. That’s where it has to start.”