A week or so ago I posted up the latest story on 'The World's Rarest Soul Record' and suggested that there were many other records almost as rare and posted up a few rarities as examples. Well here's another.
There are only a handful of know copies of this 45 by Margaret Little in existence. It is the only record listed for the Genebro label based in Detroit. The song was written by Richard 'Popcorn' Wylie and Tony Hester and arranged and produced by Mike Terry for Bandwagon Productions so almost guaranteed Northern Soul status based on that!
Margaret Little was born in 1945 and was the daughter of a member of The Four Kings. Her father divorced her mother when she was young and didn't have much to do with her upbringing. She auditoned for Motown but was told her voice wasn't what they were looking for!
How the single got released as one off, on a one off label, remained a msytery until I came across this great article by Andy Rix who interviewed Margaret Little, it was posted in Feb 2013 but interview may have been much earlier.
A well respected contributor on Soul Source seems to recall that the label name came from the name of the person who sponsored the recording. Gene Bro...., Bro being an abbreviation of his surname but he didn't recall the full name, but it has been suggested that it may be Brooks which would connect with the writer J. Brooks on the B side. It is also speculated that this is a custom press following the 'legend' that Popcorn Wylie was being pestered by his postman to record his daughter and this is the result. In Andy's article above, Margaret seems to recall that Brooks may have been Wylie's barber.
Much of the info above was gleaned from this thread on Soul Source
'Love Finds A Way' has been played on the NS scene since around 2001 (it is claimed that the first play was at the last Albrighton all-highter on 1st Dec 2001 by Soul Sam) and is still popular today as, since there are only a few copies, it hasn't been hammered to death and is a guaranteed floor filler. I remember the first time I heard this played by Sam and doiing the 'walk of shame' to the decks to discover who it was. I guess he would have had it covered up for quite a while before it was known but I don't recall the cover up name.
Checking on Popsike, there have been 5 sales since 2004 (some may be the same record changing hands), with the price ranging between £4,610-£5,762, the last sale being 10 years ago on 6th Apr 2010. One sale was for a cracked copy which still achieved £500!
The scans aren't the best quality but as you can imagine with such a rare record they are difficult to come by.
Margaret Little [1966] - I Need Some Loving [Genebro #230 G]
The flip has another Northern dancer written by Wylie, J, Brooks & H. Stone
