Jesse James - (The Girl In) Clinton Park / Just As Long As We're In Love [Soul Junction #SJ543]

Due for release on 25 Jan 2021 is a previously unissued recording by Jesse James. He recorded the track, written by Stanley Lippitt (aka Little Stanley),  along with a few others, in 1971 after his spell at 20th Century-Fox ended. A couple of the other tracks ('At Last' & 'I Know I'll Find Another') got released on Zay but 'Clinton Park' didn't get a release. 

Jesse James has had a couple of 45s and an album already released on Soul Junction and recalled recording this unreleased track but was unable to locate it, but during the current pandemic has managed to find the master tape and provided it to Dave Welding at Soul Junction to release.

Read the background story at Soul Junction and while you're there pre-order a copy. as I'm pretty sure these will sell out quickly.

On the B side is a cover of Terry Callier's 'Just As Long As We're In Love' (released on 'What Color Is Love', Cadet 1972, also recorded by The Dells on a Cadet 45 in 1972) which was previously released on his Soul Junction album 'Let Me Show You'.

Here's a Soul Junction promo of both sides.

Masterplan [1974] - (The Girl In) Clinton Park [Fos-Glo #005/006]

Bay Area group Masterplan released a version in 1974 on Fos-Glo and De-Lite. It has been claimed that the Fos-Glo release was a 1978 reissue and that the De-Lite pressing is the original. I think this is based on this article about the writer Stanley Lippitt aka Little Stanley which states:

"In 1974 The Master Plan released on De-Lite Records with success two of Stanley's recordings "Clinton Park (a song written about Marvin Holmes young daughter) and "Frying Pan". These were also later released on Warren Foster and Ronnie Bell's Fos-Glo label who Stanley was an A & R man for."

As well a co-owning the label, Ron Bell was also member of Masterplan. I guess Lippit should know as he was involved with the label but other evidence suggests that he 'may' be mistaken. Fos-Glo 001/002 and 003/004 were released in 1974 with the same label colour and design as 005/006 whilst most of the other releases are either a different colour and/or label design. In 1976 the label was yellow and by 1978 the label design changed and by 1980 the label was grey.  Another argument is, why would they wait 4 years to issue it? I am inclined to believe what Dave Welding states, that the Fos-Glo was a west coast release in Nov 1974 (dated on 45Cat) whilst De-Lite was an east coast release a month later Dec 1974 (dated on 45Cat).

Another curiosity is that the Masterplan release on Fos-Glo 007, dated 1983, has the same label design as the first 3 releases, but not the others, so I wonder if the date on that is incorrect and it is actually the fourth release following the series numbers (closer to 1974). I've given it a listen and it's difficult to tell it 'could' be a 1983 release but equally could be earlier.

Something I've never quite understood about US 45 releases is that only rarely is the release date printed on the label yet almost always the track time is recorded. In the UK it is usually the other way around i.e. date normally there but timings aren't.

To confuse the issue further, 45Cat has conflated two groups with the same name, but The Masterplan on A&M is a different group, although they were also from California (L.A.). The A&M group contained Jerry Marcellino and Mel Larson who were blue-eyed singers, writers and producers and were in several other earlier groups together: The Naturals, The Three Honeydrops and Jerry & Mel. They also cut a 45 together on A&M in 1969 as Marcellino & Larson - Dweller / Bittersweet.  The pair went on to produce many Motown artists including Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Four Tops, Jackson 5 and Lionel Richie as well as Al Jarreau.

Source Doo-Wop Blogg