Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin - Discography

The Chicago soul legend Gene Chandler (Eugene Dixon) and underrated Barbara Acklin recorded 3 45s together in 1968-69 on Brunswick.

Gene Chandler hit pay dirt in 1962 with #1 hit Duke Of Earl, but he never again troubled the Billboard 100 top 10.  His closest attempts were Groovy Situation 1970 #12, Nothing Can Stop Me 1965 #18 and Just Be True 1964 #19.  However, his recordings have been much revered on UK NS scene with such classics as There Was A Time, I Can Take Care Of Myself, Mr. Big Shot, Without You Here, Let Me Make Love To You and many, many others.

Barbara Ackin recorded 6 albums between 1968-75 (5 of them at Brunswick and 1 at Capitol) and around 20 singles only 5 of which charted, her biggest hit being 'Love Makes A Woman in 1968. Surprisingly, probably her best known recording, Am I The Same Man (vocal version of Young-Holt Unlimited's Soulful Strut) only got to #79.  She also has many records played on the NS scene such as Just Ain't No Love, Raindrops, Come And See Me Baby.  Much of here recordings slot neatly into what is termed crossover.

Discography

1968 - Show Me The Way To Go / Love Won't Start [Brunswick 55366]

1968 - From A Teacher To A Preacher / Anywhere But Nowhere [Brunswick 55387]

1969 - Little Green Apples / Will I Find Love [Brunswick 55405]

Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin [1968] - Show Me The Way To Go [Brunswick 55366]

Crossover

Proof that you don't have to shell out a fortune for good records as this can be picked up for £10-£15 for TWO quality sides.  The A side is a mellow crossover tune written by Eugene Record, Barbara Acklin & Carl Davis, produced by Carl Davis, arranged by Sonny Sanders and directed by Gerald Sims whilst the flip is driving Northern Soul credited to Keni Lewis & Eugene Dikon (misspelling of Dixon which of course is Gene Chandler), produced, arranged and directed by same as A side.  The 'thinking' DJ without ego could drop either side in a set rather than a played out 'trophy' oldie or obscure rarity.

Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin [1968] - Love Won't Start [Brunswick 55366]

Northern Soul

Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin [1968] - From A Teacher To A Preacher [Brunswick 55387]

Northern Soul

Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin [1968] - Anywhere But Nowhere [Brunswick 55387]

Crossover

Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin [1969] - Little Green Apples [Brunswick 55405]

Crossover version of O.C. Smith's original and much covered MOR tune.  Give it a chance to pick up after 1 minute.

Gene Chandler & Barbara Acklin [1969] - Will I Find Love [Brunswick 55405]

Northern Soul - great skip-a-long Chicago soul.

Title is Will I Find Love but they sing Will WE Find Love!

Florida Spiritualaires, The [1976] - I Remember When [Ernie's Record Parade E-4002]

Best know to secular listeners for their 'I Remember When' which to my ears sounds like a cross between Groovin' (Young Rascals) and Cowboys To Girls (The Intruders) but also a nice track from the same album is 'If I Had One Life To Live'.  I've added as many other of their recordings that I can find, which is all of their 70s recording but nether of their 2 60s (1966) recordings on Fuller 2682 - Good News / The Bible Tells Me or 2682 Marching To Zion / God's Love Is Amazing.

Rev. Fleming Tarver & The Original Florida Spiritualaires are still performing in 2015, here's 65 minutes of footage of them live in 2015.

Florida Spiritualaires, The [1976] - I Remember When [Ernie's Record Parade E-4002]

Smooth sweet soul harmony / crossover which reminds me of Groovin'/ Cowboys To Girls.

Florida Spiritualaires, The [1976] - Watching Mother Go Home [Ernie's Record Parade E-4002]

Deep Soul / Gospel

Florida Spiritualaires, The [1976] - If I Had One Life To Live [Ernie's Record Parade 2007]

Mid-tempo sweet soul/gospel group harmony 

Album track only from 'Give God The Glory' on Ernie's from 1976 which also contained both sides above.

Sound clip is not the best quality - sounds like it has been processed many times and has 'digital artefacts' but it is the best of only 3 available.

Florida Spiritualaires, The [197?] - Where Have The Missionaries Gone? (Pt. 1 & Pt. 2)  [HSE 450]

Deep soul/gospel

HSE (Hoyt Sullivan Enterprises) is a 70s gospel label from Greenwood, South Carolina. No release date available but I would guess this was released before The Ernie's 45 in 1976 sometime between 1972 and 1975.

Florida Spiritualaires, The [197?] - Bye And Bye When The Morning Comes  [HSE 424]

Country soul/gospel

Florida Spiritualaires, The [197?] - God The Creator  [HSE 424]

Gospel stomper

Florida Spiritualaires, The [197?] - All Of These Years [HSE 441]

Deep gospel/soul

Florida Spiritualaires, The [197?] - If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again  [HSE 441]

Deep gospel/soul

All of the above can be listened to on the full album here:

A1  Bye And Bye When The Morning Comes 00:00

A2  Ready I'm On My Way 02:13 

A3  Let God Hold You 04:19

A4  God The Creator 06:11

A5  Let's Build An Eternal House 08:51 

A6  My Confession To God 11:02 

B1  Look What They Are Doing To Our World 15:26 

B2  Hold My Hand Lord 17:33 

B3  All Of These Years 19:58 

B4  If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again 22:32 

B5  Lord Don't Let My Religion Die 25:54  

B6  My Testimony 28:44

Florida Spiritualaires, The [1972] - Faith, Hope & Charity [Lewis 2814]

Poor quality sound clip sample 1:17 only

This one states it's Faith, Hope & Charity but sounds like a different song

Florida Spiritualaires, The [1972] - God's Love [Lewis 2814]

Poor quality sound sample (60 secs only)

R.I.P. - Little Richard - The Soul Years

The death of the legendary Little Richard Wayne Penniman was announced yesterday (9 May 2020) aged 87.  The cause given was bone cancer but he had also suffered a stroke and heart attack in recent years and hadn't been in good health for several years.  It is always sad when a legend dies but his music has lived for 65 years and paved the way for popular music as we know it and his legacy will live on and be immortal ... long live Little Richard.

Little Richard is obviously best know for his flamboyant flare and his rock & roll years in late 50s. He was most definitely a pioneer of rock & roll and popular music who was an inspiration to many artists who later became world famous i.e Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Elton John to name a few. Many of his contemporaries covered his songs e.g. Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.

He started recording in 1951 with RCA but his first, and all major hits, started in 1955 on Art Rupe's Specialty label with Tutti Frutti (#21) followed by a string of hits up to 1958 such as Long Tall Sally #13, Slippin' And Slidin' #33, Rip It Up #27, Ready Teddy #44,  The Girl Can't Help It #49, Lucille #27, Send Me Some Lovin' #54, Jenny Jenny #10, Knock-A-Knockin' #8, Good Golly Miss Molly #10, Ooh My Soul #35 and Baby Face #41.  He didn't reach the top 40 again but came close in 1970 with Freedom Blues #47 and 1986 with God Gosh A'mighty from Down And Out In Beverly Hills soundtrack #42.  

His chart positions fared better in UK with 5 top 10 hits Long Tall Sally #3, The Girl Can't Help It #9, Lucile #10, Good Golly Miss Molly #8 and Baby Face #2 and a further 4 Top 20 hits She's Got It #15, jenny Jenny #11, By The Light Of The Silvery Moon #17 and Bama Lama Bama Loo #20 whilst Rip It Up, Tutti Frutti, Keep A Knockin', Ooh! My Soul and Kansas City all made UK top 30.

To give a flavour of his hit period here's a post put up yesterday by Classic Mood Experience of 45 minutes of hits from the 50s.

NOTE Unfortunately this clip has now been removed from YouTube but I'll leave up the playlist to give you a flavour.

00:00 - Baby face (1958)
02:27 - Tutti Frutti (1957)
04:48 - Kansas City (1957)
07:02 - Slippin' and Slidin' (Peepin' and Hidin') (1957)
09:35 - True Fine Mama (1957)
12:11 - The Girl Can't Help It (1958)
14:39 - All Around the World (1958)
17:02 - Long Tall Sally (1957)
19:09 - Rip It Up (1957)
21:28 - Send Me Some Lovin' (1958)
23:49 - Keep a Knockin' (1958)
26:04 - Hey Hey Hey Hey (1958)
28:08 - Good Golly Miss Molly (1958)
30:13 - Jenny, Jenny (1957)
32:13 - Ooh! My Soul
34:20 - She's got it (1957)
36:24 - I'll Never Let You Go (Boo Hoo Hoo Hoo) (1958)
38:46 - Ready Teddy (1957)
40:51 - Lucille (1958)
43:10 - Miss Ann (1957)


In this post I will cover the period from 1965 to 1969 and focus on his soul recordings, all but 2 of which never charted (not even US R&B) so a lot of these may be relatively unknown to many. Click on links to open YouTube sound clip.

His best known 45s on NS scene must surely be I Don't Want To Discuss It, Poor Dog and A Little Bit Of Something on Okeh.  He was probably overlooked as he was a mainstream artist, but his output from 1965, only 2 of which actually charted ( I Don't Know What You've Got Bit It's Got Me #92 BB 100 #12 R&B and Poor Dog #121 BB 100 #41 R&B), holds many 'undiscovered' gems.

Material prior to 1964/65 was rock & roll

1964

Cherry Red  [Vee Jay VJ 625] (Deep Soul)

1965

Cross Over [Vee Jay VJ 652] (Northern Soul)

It Ain't Whatcha Do (It's the Way How You Do It) [Vee Jay VJ 652] (Northern Soul)

Dance What You Wanna [Vee Jay VJ 665]

I Don't Know What You've Got But It's Got Me (Pt  1 & Pt 2) [Vee Jay VJ 698] (Deep Soul)

1966

Holy Mackeral [Modern 1018] (Northern Soul)

Baby, Don't You Want a Man Like Me [Modern 1018] (Northern Soul)

Do You Feel It (Pt 1 & Pt 2) [Modern 1019] (Northern Soul)

Poor Dog (Who Can't Wag His Own Tail) [Okeh 4-7251] (Northern Soul)

Well [Okeh 4-7251] (Northern Soul bordering on Rock N Roll!)

Directly From My Heart [Modern 1022] (Deep Soul)

I'm Back [Modern 1022] (Another Northern Soul bordering on Rock n Roll)

I Need Love [Okeh 4-7262] (Storming Northern Soul - you can hear the Larry Williams (composer) influence on this track)

The Commandments Of Love [Okeh 4-7262] (Deep Soul)

1967

I Don't Want To Discuss It [Okeh 4-7271] (Northern Soul Classic)

Hurry Sundown [Okeh 4-7271] (Deep Soul with a Gospel feel first recorded by folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary - the 2 versions are incomparable - a better deep soul record and performance you'd be hard pressed to find)

Get Down With It [CBS UK 8116] (Northern Soul with more than a hint of Rock N Roll  - covered as their first hit by Slade in 1971)

Rosemary [CBS UK 8116] (Rocker)

Don't Deceive Me (Please Don't Go) [Okeh 4-7278] (Bluesy Deep Soul)

Never Gonna Let You Go  [Okeh 4-7278] (Deep Soul)

A Little Bit of Something (Beats A Whole Lot Of Nothing) [Okeh 4-7286] (Northern Soul)

Money  [Okeh 4-7286] (Northern Soul - great version of Barrett Strong classic co-written by Berry Gordy Jr. and Janie Bradford)

Bring It Back Home To Me [Modern 1030] [Deep Soul version of Sam Cooke classic Bring It On Home To Me with a subtle title change)

Slippin' And Slidin' [Modern 1030] - reissue of his rock n roll hit from 1956

Baby What You Want Me to Do Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 [Modern 1043] (Rock/Blues)

Try Some Of Mine [Brunswick 55362] (60s Soul/ R&B)

She's Together [Brunswick 55362] (60s Soul/ R&B a bit of a stomper but too fast (and rocking) to be termed Northern Soul)

1968

Baby, Don't You Tear My Clothes [Brunswick 55377] (Rock)

Stingy Jenny [Brunswick 55377] (Rock)

Soul Train [Brunswick 55386] (Funk)

Can I Count On You [Brunswick 55386] (Funky Soul)

1969

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On / Lucille [Okeh 4-7325] Live version of previous hits

His output from 1970 onwards tended to be reissues or rock / rock n roll related and not much soul to speak of.  I've listed a handful of sides that may be of interest.

1971

Somebody Saw You [Reprise 1005] (A rock edged, raw, driving dancer)

1971

Green Power [Reprise 1043] (Funky Soul) 

1973

Don't You Know I [Kent 4568] (Deep Soul)

1975

Try To Help Your Brother [Mainstream 5572] (Starts off as Deep Soul and then after about 60 seconds turns into a funky Northern Soul dancer - this is 45 only)

Funk Proof [Mainstream 5572] (Funk sax led instrumental written by Keith Winslow - not sure how much involvement little Richard had on this recording although he did play alto saxophone so perhaps it is him on sax?)

Album ONLY Tracks

1965 - The Wild & Frantic Little Richard [Modern MST 103]
Do The Jerk

1967 - The Explosive Little Richard [Okeh OKS 14117]
Land Of A Thousand Dances
Function At The Junction

COVID-19 10th May 2020

Summary

Russia continues to have in excess of 10,000 new cases per day and their cases have now doubled in 10 days from 99,399 29 Apr to 209,668 and look likely to exceed UK and IT in the next few days.

Brazil is in a similar position with their cases increasing from 79,361 on 29 Apr to 156,061

	New Cases	Change	Deaths	Change	Rec'ry Rate	Death Rate
IT	1,083	81.61%	194	79.8%	77.22%	22.78%	Inc.
ES	2,666	81.73%	249	156.6%	86.74%	13.26%	Inc.
DE	736	63.56%	39	33.1%	95.00%	5.00%	Inc.
FR	579	44.95%	80	32.9%	68.05%	31.95%	Inc.
UK	3,896	83.80%	346	55.3%	1.08%	98.92%	Red.
US	25,254	86.60%	1,422	84.3%	74.85%	25.15%	Inc.

Commentary

IT - new cases -244 (81.61%), deaths -49 (79.84%), active cases -3,119 (78.37% of peak)

Italy's active cases has been reducing slowly since 19 Apr and has begun to reduce more quickly in the last week by over 15% from 100,179 to 84,842

ES - new cases -596 (81.73%), deaths +90 (156.6%), active cases -2,262 (63.46% of peak)

FR - new cases -709 (44.95%), deaths -63 (32.92%), active cases +243 (98.99% of peak)

DE - new cases -422 (63.56%) , deaths -79 (33.05%), active cases -903 (28.1% of peak)

US - new cases -2,908 (86.6%) , deaths -265 (84.29%), active cases +9,457

UK - new cases -753 (86.6%), deaths -280 (55.27%), active cases + 3,550

Lowest no. of new cases since 7 Apr and only second occasion where new cases have been below 4,000 since then.

Note that deaths are lower but interestingly if you look at the deaths chart the figure has been consistently lower each weekend only to rise again, so must be a reporting delay.

UK Testing May 2020

	Daily		Cumulative
	No. Tests	People  Tested	No. Tests	People  Tested	% No. People Tested
01-May	105,937	63,667	1,129,907	825,946	60.10%
02-May	76,496	56,397	1,206,405	882,343	73.73%
03-May	85,186	62,956	1,291,591	945,299	73.90%
04-May	84,806	69,839	1,383,842	1,015,138	82.35%
05-May	69,463	57,006	1,448,010	1,072,144	82.07%
06-May	86,583	85,092	1,534,533	1,139,626	98.28%
07-May	97,029	67,443	1,631,561	1,207,069	69.51%
08-May	96,878	63,339	1,728,443	1,270,408	65.38%

Listening this morning to Andrew Marr show with Sir David Spiegelhalter and a worrying statistical claim that less than 5% of UK population has so far been infected by virus.  This is based on 'assumption' that the 'real' death rate is 1% i.e. 31,587 deaths equates to 3,158,700 infections which is 4.65% UK population.  So don't believe the hype that we are anywhere near reaching 'herd immunity'!
Of course it is believed that the death rate is actually much higher than the reported figure and average death rate is higher than expected death rate including all reported COVID deaths.  This indicates 2 possibilities: some are unreported COVID deaths and others are COVID-related due to not seeking medical attention or delays in treatment due to COVID.

There is a clip of interview on BBCPolitics Twitter feed

Latest stats from Worldometers

Latest v previous day - Recovery rate v Death Rate

	Total	Active	Conc.	Recvd.	Deaths	Recvd%	Death%
IT	218,268	84,842	133,426	103,031	30,395	77.22%	22.78%
ES	262,783	63,148	199,635	173,157	26,478	86.74%	13.26%
DE	171,324	20,475	150,849	143,300	7,549	95.00%	5.00%
FR	176,658	94,310	82,348	56,038	26,310	68.05%	31.95%
UK	215,260	183,329	31,931	344	31,587	1.08%	98.92%
US	1,347,309	1,029,024	318,285	238,248	80,037	74.85%	25.15%

Latest v previous day - increase / decrease

Country	New Cases 9 May	New Cases 8 May	New Case Increase	Deaths 9 May	Deaths 8 May	Death Increase
IT	1,083	1,327	-244	194	243	-49
ES	2,666	3,262	-596	249	159	90
DE	736	1,158	-422	39	118	-79
FR	579	1,288	-709	80	243	-163
UK	3,896	4,649	-753	346	626	-280
US	25,254	29,162	-3,908	1,422	1,687	-265

Latest v previous day - actuals

Day	09-May				08-May
Ctry	New Cases	Total Cases	No. Deaths	Death Rate%	Total Cases	No. Deaths	Death Rate%
IT	1,083	218,268	30,395	13.9%	217,185	30,201	13.9%
ES	2,666	262,783	26,478	10.1%	260,117	26,229	10.1%
DE	736	171,324	7,549	4.4%	170,588	7,510	4.4%
FR	579	176,658	26,310	14.9%	176,079	26,230	14.9%
UK	3,896	215,260	31,587	14.7%	211,364	31,241	14.8%
US	25,254	1,347,309	80,037	5.9%	1,321,785	78,615	5.9%

Latest v one week ago - actuals

Week	09-May				02-May
Ctry	New Cases	Total Cases	No. Deaths	Death Rate%	Total Cases	No. Deaths	Death Rate%
IT	1,083	218,268	30,395	13.9%	209,328	28,710	13.7%
ES	2,666	262,783	26,478	10.1%	245,589	25,100	10.2%
DE	736	171,324	7,549	4.4%	164,967	6,812	4.1%
FR	579	176,658	26,310	14.9%	168,396	24,760	14.7%
UK	3,896	215,260	31,587	14.7%	182,260	28,131	15.4%
US	25,254	1,347,309	80,037	5.9%	1,160,774	67,444	5.8%

Latest v one week ago - percentage rate increase

	Daily		Weekly
Country	Total Cases Increase Factor	Death Rate  Increase Factor	Total Cases Increase Factor	Death Rate  Increase Factor
IT	100.5%	100.1%	104.3%	101.5%
ES	101.0%	99.9%	107.0%	98.6%
DE	100.4%	100.1%	103.9%	106.7%
FR	100.3%	100.0%	104.9%	101.3%
UK	101.8%	99.3%	118.1%	95.1%
US	101.9%	99.9%	116.1%	102.2%