b/w Whole Lotta Soul
Format: 45
Label: Pee Vee
CatNo: 1000
Year: 1965
Value: $350 - $500 J.Manship £300
A blue-eyed soul group from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, originally formed as The Seven Dwarfs (who recorded 'Stop Girl'). They became the Ambassadors in 1964.
The " Too Much of a Good Thing " session was recorded in Philadelphia (for Pee Vee owned by Pancho Villa) with the following personnel:
Bill Parmer (bass), Bobby Bitts. (drummer), Bob Weaver and Mike Sultzbach (sax), Tony Purcell (trumpet), Don Hodgen & Rick Reardon (vocals), Burton (piano), Eric Spitzer (guitar).
For full story from Burton the keyboard player visit http://www.northernsoulmusic.co.uk/ambassadors.html.
Found another posting @ SoulSource (visit site for full story) from the sax player:
"The group started as the Seven Dwarves. In 1964, they added two horns—a trumpet and a sax, very unusual for the time—and became the Ambassadors. Our first gig was at the Silver Springs Fire Hall, near Lancaster. In 1965, we cut our first record, Too Young for Me (flip side: Pork Chops, an instrumental) on the Fleet label. We cut a second disk, I Want a Love (flip side: Those Things Called Girls), which was never marketed. Only one copy of that record exists: a metal and acetate dub. Our third record was Too Much of a Good Thing, on the Pee Vee label (flip side: Whole Lotta Soul). The group had several drummers and bass players over the years, and we lost one singer, who was no longer with the group at the time of Too Much. The Ambassadors continued playing through December, 1966, then disbanded.
In 1984, most of the original members reunited, with a couple of new guys, to play a reunion concert. It went so well that we kept going, playing with various personnel until 1992. We continued with the same music: the sweet soul sound of the sixties. Since 1992, we have reunited several times for one-time concerts, the most recent being in October, 2004.
We played behind a number of acts in the ‘60’s, including Lee Andrew and the Hearts. But we never played behind the Trannells—also from Lancaster, by the way. They were their own band. Our only connection to them was that our bassist on Too Much once played with them.
Our records are occasionally available on e-bay. A brand new copy of Too Much of a Good Thing—never played, still in original sleeve—recently brought $370.
By the way, the Ambassadors from Philadelphia, referred to on this site as the Uptown/Atlantic/Arctic group, was a different group."
7 Dwarfs [196?] - Stop Girl
6 comments:
don't think the link is working on this one
Great fun!!
My name is Tonya Hall. I am the youngest daughter of one of the original singers of the Ambassadors, Lenny clawges who was the lead singer of too young for me. I am so sad to see his name is not listed anywhere as a group member.
My name is Tonya Hall. I am the daughter of one of the original members of the Ambassadors, Lenny Clawges, who was the lead singer and if not mistaken, writer of too young for me. I'm so sad to see his name is not listed anywhere as a member of the group.
Hi Tonya and thanks for leaving your comment. If you can provide some more information on your father and the group then I would be happy to update the post. The information on group members was taken from Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/1790636-The-Ambassadors-4) which doesn't mention your father so is obviously not accurate.
Checking the label for "Too Young For Me", the writer credits are given to Spitzer/Hill ... would your father have used Hill as his writer credits?
However, I did note that Lenny Clawges IS credited on "I Want A Love" (https://www.discogs.com/release/13923832-The-Ambassadors-Those-Things-Called-Girls-I-Want-A-Love)
Lenny Clawges is in the photo above...the middle red-shirted guy on the left...and he sang lead on our first record, "Too Young for Me",
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