Soul Strutter: Creations v Roy 'Cortez' Butler v The Brothers Of Soul v Pearl Jones

Friday, 2 April 2021

Creations v Roy 'Cortez' Butler v The Brothers Of Soul v Pearl Jones - A Dream

Boo was a label created by Ric Williams (who also owned Aquarius and Zodiac) which ran between 1967-69. It was intended to be an outlet for The Brothers Of Soul who were Fred Bridges, Richard Knight and Bobby Eaton who wrote a lot of the Zodiac material. They released seven of the nine releases, the other two were from Roy 'Cortez' Butler both Bridges, Knight & Eaton compositions.

Aquarius was essentially a channel for Candace (aka Amanda) Love as five of its six releases where from her.

Zodiac's main artists were Ruby Andrews (15) and Chuck Bernard (6) who accounted for 21 of the 27 known/listed releases, three of the others were by Creations (i.e. Bridges, Knight & Eaton), Bobby Eaton, Freddy & Bobby (i.e. Bridges & Eaton) .

The featured track was first released in 1967 on Zodiac as Creations who were in fact Bridges, Knight & Eaton who would later be known as The Brothers Of Soul who recorded a different take in 1971 on Shock which only released three singles, two by BoS and the other by Woman a psedonym form Candace Love.

Roy 'Cortez' Butler also released a version in 1967 on Boo.

Another, unreleased, version was discovered (by Adey Pierce) on a 10" studio acetate from 1966 with no credits on it. It was originally 'thought' to be by Barbara Mercer, but Fred Bridges stated that it definitley wasn't her, but recalled that it was The Debonaires on backing. It has subsequently been established that it is in fact Pearl Jones who was a secretary at Sidra and a member of The Embraceables who released a single on Sidra with both sides written by Jones. George McGregor (who I've featured on the blog before) was involved with Sidra, Drew and Zodiac at the time and confirmed that it was not Barbara Mercer and he should know as she is his wife.

Pearl Jones also released a solo single on W.I.G. (which I believe is a part of Sidra) in 1965 both sides were written by her. It is also claimed the she and another member on The Embraceables, Wyline Ivey, were backing singers for Aretha Franklin.

Jones' version was eventually issued in 2008 on a relaunched Joe Boy/Inferno label by Neil Rushton.

There's a great article on Bridges, Knight & Eaton on SoulfulDetroit.