An all-time classic from The Cartairs. Arguably the record which split
the Northern Soul scene when this was first played around 1974/75 by Ian Levine at Blackpool Mecca's Highland Room. The traditionalist hated it
as it started a move towards 'modern' tunes.
I loved it then and still love it to this day and to me is one of the most soulful NS records ever, listen to the pain in Cleveland Horne's vocals, he is living that song! The flip side 'The Story Of Our Love' is a sweet soul ballad which has become a lowrider classic. Another song by them has surfaced over the years, 'Girl Have Pity' which I posted some time ago and for some reason is getting lots of views this week which is what has prompted me to do this post.
I had the privilege of
seeing them perform the song (probably for the very first time?) on 28th Nov
1998 at The Blackpool Mecca reunion in The Highland Room. They
performed three songs, 'It Really Hurts Me Girl', a version of The
Salvadors 'Stick My Me Baby', and 'He Who Picks A Rose' which was the
only other record they released, in 1969 on OKeh (the flip was a version of Lennon & McCartney's 'Yesterday'). Sadly only two years after the performance all three members (Cleveland
Horne and Ray A. Evans (who co-wrote the song) and Ervin Langley) had died.
Cleveland Horne performed vocals on the flip side ('Crime') to The
Innocent Bystanders 'Frantic Escape' instrumental in 1968. In the mid
70s he became a member of The Fantastic Four when they were signed to
Westbound where he also did some session work for other artists on the
label (e.g. King Errison, Mike Theodore Orch. and Dennis Coffey
Band) and wrote/co-wrote many songs released by the label. It is claimed
that he was also a member of The Exceptionals who released a solitary 45
on Red Coach in 1975 (Gotta Let Some Sunshine Into My Life / What Is Living). He died of a heart attack barely a week after his
58th birthday in April 2000.
Legend has it that Ian Levine first heard the record played on radio
station whilst on holiday in Miami in 1973 and contacted the station to find out
what it was. The radio station only had a promo copy and told Levine to
contact the label (Red Coach). The label had just lost their distributor
(Chess) so decided to shelve the release, meaning that only copies
already sent out as promos existed. It was another year before Levine
got his hand on a copy from John Anderson's Soul Bowl who had received a
shipment of 100,000 promos from US radio stations. Apparently three
copies were found in this haul (I assume Andy Hanley and Bernie Golding who were with him got the
other two). Ian 'Frank' Dewhirst was the next to obtain a copy
which he states is his favourite record of all time and built his career as by having the record his bookings
increased dramatically.
The original is a white label promo on vinyl with a machine-stamped
STERLING stamp in the runout. It was legally reissued by Gene Redd on
his Red Coach label (pink label) in late 1974/early 1975. These copies
were styrene not vinyl. All subsequent copies are bootegs or reissues.
Neil Rushton's Inferno label reissued a Tom Moulton remix in 1979 on 7"
and 12".
I don't know how many original copies there are claimed to be but,
surprisingly, an original is not that expensive in the scheme of things
as the seem to consitently sell between £150-£250, although somebody, who
obviously hadn't done any reasearch before buying, paid £600 for one on Discogs!
Below I have posted the original version and three other versions that have since surfaced, two different Tom Moulton mixes released by Inferno in 1979 and a later (2012) previously unreleased version.
The Carstairs [1979] It Really Hurts Me Girl (Re-mix 1) [Inferno #HEAT 7A]
The Carstairs [1979] It Really Hurts Me Girl (Re-mix 2) [Inferno #HEAT 7B]
The Carstairs [2012] It Really Hurts Me Girl (Previously Unreleased Mix) [Inferno #HEAT 1001 A]
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