Frankie Nieves v The Appreciations v Johnny Watson - It's Better To Cry

A song written by David Blake and Frankie Nieves recorded in 1968 by Frankie Nieves and also The Appreciations. I 'assume' that Nieves, being the writer, was first, but that is not necessarily always the case. 45Cat lists The Appreciations as Feb 1968, so that doesn't leave much of a window for Nieves' version to be first!  Quite how a band from North Carolina, who released it on a Detroit label (Sport) got hold of a song written in New York before the writer recorded it would be interesting to discover - find out below.    

The song was also released on Valise in 1993 by Johnny Watson, but believed to have been recorded earlier (late 60s/early 70s) but not released at the time. Blake also co-wrote another well known Valise Northern Soul record with Frank Dell 'He Broke Your Game Wide Open'.

Both Valise and Speed were New York labels and Blake & Neives collaborated on other songs that were released on Valise, believed to be owned by Blake and Phil Medley.

Both Nieves & The Appreciations are rare. I only found one for Nieves listed on Popsike but it sold for only £137 but it was only 'G' condition. The Appreciations sells consitently for over £1k, the last one in 2019 sold for £1,625. Johnny Watsons sells for much less, the last one selling for £80.

Frankie Nieves [1968] - It's Better To Cry [Speed #SP 1006]

I'm not able to find a label scan of 'It's Better To Cry' only the B side 'Mondongo', which hints at it's scarcity, it's not even listed on 45Cat and, as stated above, only one has been listed on Popsike.

The sound clip is also the longer album version, suggesting that there are very few 45s around!

Nieves also released another 45 on Speed which was a latin vocal reworking of Young-Holt Unlimited's Soulful Strut called 'True Love' (English version on A and Spanish on B). It was later released in 1975 on Disco International as a 12" version which was a merger of the English & Spanish version.

Appreciations, The [1968] - It's Better To Cry [Sport #111]

You can read more about The Appreciations from Mark E. Windle who has posted a excerpt from a book he wrote in 2016 'It's Better To Cry'.

They were from North Carolina and released four single between 1966-68 on Aware, Jubilee and the last two on Detroit's Sport label. This record was their last release.

In the book referred to above it states that The Appreciations actually recorded this in 1967 in Charlotte, NC and it was released on Sport before Frankie Nieves released his version in 1968, and that David Blake was unaware that The Appreciations had recorded the song until the 90s. 

It goes on to say that the scarcity of the record may be due to the fact that it was released on the same cat. no. (111) as another Sport record by The Four Sonics ('The Greatest Love Of All' / 'Easier Said Than Done'), so may have been withdrawn.

Johnny Watson [1993] - It's Better To Cry [Valise #6913]

This is not Johhny 'Guitar' Watson. He has two releases credited to him, both released on Valise in the 90s by David Blake (probably owing to the discovery of the demand for the song by Nieves & The Appreciations), long after they were recorded, which was probably in late 60s/early 70s.

I think of the three version this is my favourite as, to me, it is the most soulful.