I thought last week was bad for new releases until there was a deluge of them last Fri/Sat. I've been waiting in vain so far this week for some good new material to post. So, rather than bringing you inferior new product, I'll continue to post some vintage gems until there are some good new releases to post.
A big thanks to Brian Pinches who posts some of the best quality rare soul on YouTube who has given his blessing to link to his posts. Check out his YouTube channel if you haven't already.
The same song with different titles written by Gene Redd, Rose Marie McCoy
and Jimmy Crosby gets a credit on The Inspirations version.
It came out first in 1996 by Shirley J. Scott as 'Goose Pimples' on
Gene Redd's short-lived Detroit label Stephanye label named after his
daughter. It is believed to be the Funk Brothers moonlighting on the backing
track.
The label only had three official releases although one record (Roy
Handy) got bootlegged on a counterfeit label and three other bootlegs,
totally unreleated to the label, appeared with the Stephanye imprint
(i.e. Golden World Strings bootleg of Checkerboard Squares 'Double
Cookin' (twice) and Richard Temple bootleg of Willie Hutch 'The
Duck'.
It was then released in 1967 by The Inspirations as 'Touch Me, Kiss Me, Hold
Me' on Shelby Singleton's Black Pearl label based in New York which he
set up after leaving Mercury. It was released twice on cat. no.
100 with different B sides and then as 102 and then again on 711 which I
suspect is a 70s repress.
Shirley J. Scott [1966] - Goose Pimples [Stephanye #STP 333]
The Inspirations [1967] - Touch Me, Hold Me, Kiss Me [Black Pearl
#711]
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.
Creations [1967] - A Dream [Zodiac #Z1005]
Roy 'Cortez' Butler [1967] - A Dream [Boo #1002]
The Brothers Of Soul [1971] - Dream [Shock #S-1313]
Pearl Jones [2008] - A Dream [Joe Boy Inferno #S-9014]
The last of three singles he released on Lee Lavergne's Lanor label based in Church Point, LA, in 1968-69. Prior to that he released a single on a local Tifton, GA, label Jim Bar in 1966 aged 15, the A side of which 'I'll Be Your Jim' was re-recorded for the flip of this release (a bit of a popcorn tune). That song, as with this one, was also written and produced by James Theus who owned Jim Bar.
This tune sounds like a mid 60s Chicago skip-a-long. On his other recordings he sounds quite like Sam Cooke.
He also recorded two singles as a duo with Barbara Davis (his wife) in the 70s, on T.K. in 1973 and Clarence Reid's Reid's World label in 1977.
A firm favourite on NS dancefloors for decades. Both sides were written by Betty Lloyd. It was a very in-demand and hard record to find until some were discoverd in the 90s. These have now dried up and a copy sold for £1010 at auction a few years ago (2017).
It is one of only three known/listed releases on the Detroit BSC label and two
of them are from Betty Lloyd. The other release by her has been featured
previously and was a Christmas tune '6 Days Til Xmas' that also came out on Thomas as 'Snowflakes'. The other single is by Beverly Wheeler With
The Cameros - 'Don't Shake My Tree' / inst version which has in recent years been getting spins on NS
scene.
Researching records posted on this blog generally throws up previously
'unrealised' links. Here's another, as I posted a record by The Light
Drivers the other day who had a link to James (Jimmy) Conwell and Godoy
Colbert who were also in The Exits. Several of their songs were written
by Len Jewel who owned Teri-De which also released records by another
group that Conwell was a member of Smoked Sugar Co.
Here we have Sonny
Craver on Teri-De with a song written by Len Jewell and Godoy Colbert
and also recorded by Colbert himself in 1969 on Revue.
The song was also released on Stanson, a label owned by Craver, in 1971
(according to Discogs). It credits a Charles Hutchinson in addition
to Jewell and Colbert, who is also credited on Colbert's version, and
Discogs links Hutchinson to Willie Hutch which I don't think is
accurate.
Godoy Colbert [1969] - I Wanna Thank- You [Revue #R-11037]
Sonny Craver [1970/1971] - I Wanna Thank You [Stanson #510/Teri-De #007]
A superb tune from 1974 which defies categorisation as some would call it
Northern, others crossover and others modern. It sounds earlier than 1974.
It is his second of only two listed singles, both on Music-GO-Round
which released only four singles between 1973-75.
All songs released on the label were written by Willie J. Randolph so I would guess that he possibly owned the label which had a strap line 'The Sound Of The South' and this tune was recorded in Charlotte, NC. The flip side is an instrumental version.
Another big in-demander
on the label is Paul Burton (The Stinger) 'So Very Hard To Make It
(Without You)' which I'll post separately.
The second of four releases on Merry-GO-Round and the rarest on the label with only
ten copies appearing on Popsike in the last 15 years. One sold in 2005 for £60
and the latest to sell went for almost £1,000 (£934). It seems to be his
only release. The flip side is part 2 which is a shorther instrumental
version (i.e. 2:43 v 3.54.) by The Rhythm Express.
As with all four releases on the label, it was written by Willie J. Randolph who possibly owned the label which I believe was based in Charlotte N.C.
Chicago's Johnny Moore was a much overlooked artist, not to be confused with the singer of the same name who was lead singer of The Drifters. He wrote this song with Jack Daniels who set up the 4 Brothers label in Chicago. The high point of his career was writing 'Turn Back The Hands Of Time' which was made a hit by Tyrone Davis.
Many of his recordings are held in esteem on the UK rare soul scene. This is probably one of his lesser known ones which was on the flip side to 'There Will Never Be Another You' and released on Mercury in 1969. From what I can tell none of his records had any success even on the US R&B chart.
A few weeks ago I
posted two versions
of this track by Johnny Moore (the co-writer with Jack Daniels) and
Garland Green. I forgot about this terrific, more uptempo, crossover version, by
Tyrone Davis released in 1971 on Dakar as the flip to 'Could I Forget You'. It's dirt cheap - you should
be able to find one for less than a fiver for two good crossover tunes!
An album only track from Willie Hutch's 1970 sophomore album 'Season For
Love' on RCA. He seems to be well respected as a
composer/arranger/producer, especially on 70s Blaxploitation soundtracks, but probably underrated as a vocalist. I
think a discography on his work is well overdue, so keep an watch for
it!
Have a listen to the Full Album here and see how he interprets some, basically, MOR material into wonderfully soulful tunes. The album was reissued on vinyl by Be With records in 2016 (unfortunately now sold out).
