Hill District [2022] - You're Scared Of Falling In Love / Richie Merrett - You’ll Always Have Yesterday Standing By [Soul Junction #SJ1018]

Dave Welding's Soul Junction will be releasing the next vinyl 7" on 11 Apr 2022. It contains two sides written by James Richard Calloway aka Rich Calloway and released on his C- Way records out of Uniontown, PA, in the early 70s.

The A side is Hill District "You're Scared Of Falling In Love" which isn't even listed on Discogs nor 45Cat and only three copies have been listed on Popsike, so it's pretty scarce and their only recording which had an instrumental version on the flip. Dave informs that the original mastering of the song left much to be desired which resulted in local DJs refusing to play it and hence it sunk without trace. The mastering has been rectified for the Soul Junction release. The group, who got their name from a group of African-American neighbourhoods in Pittsburgh known as The Hill, disbanded after this single failed to register.

I pre-empted the B side two weeks ago by posting "You’ll Always Have Yesterday Standing By" originally recorded by Richie Merrett (Richard Andrew Merritt)  in 1973 and covered admirably by These Gents who released two different versions on two different labels Western World and then reissued on subsidiary Soulvation Army (without Calloway's knowledge). There were only two releases on Soulvation Army, both sides of the other release on the label (dated Aug 1974), "Dancing On A Daydream", got plays on the Northern Soul circuit, the instrumental (part 1) by Soulvation Army Band and vocal (part 2) by Flora Wilson.

These Gents were formed in 1964 by LeRoy Grammer, Wayne Walker (who had been members of ElRoy & The Excitements and then The Enchantments) along with two members of 50s/early 60s doo wop group The Altairs, Bill Herndon and Richard Harris. The name could well have been derived from 'Dee's Gents' who were Dinah Washington's backing group which Herndon and Harris were also members of along with Chuck Barksdale and Johnny Carter of The Dells and Cornell Gunter of The Coasters.

Richie Merritt was spotted by Calloway whilst performing with Pittsburgh blue-eyed soul group The Electrons who had a hit in 1967 with two covers "It Ain't No Big Thing" (The Radiants 1965) / "In The Midnight Hour" (Wilson Pickett 1965). In 1968 Merritt replaced previous lead singer Steve Sopko who had previously been with The Fi-Dels (who were a group in the US Marine Corps and took their name from the Corps's Latin Motto "Semper Fidelis" (Always Faithful)) and only released three singles between 1966-69 all of which are in-demand Northern Soul tunes). Merritt was the lead on The Electrons only other single, another pair of covers, Bobby Bland's "Turn On Your Love Light" and the Leiber/Stoller interpretation of an Italian song "I Who Have Nothing".  Merrett performed with several groups including The Crests, The Drifters, The Clovers and The Marcels.

His next single appeared on Deltron in 1978, which consisted of two self-written songs, but it wasn't until 1990 that he recorded again, this time on his own label R.A.M.(his initials) with his modern soul favourite "Where Did I Go Wrong" followed by "You Got Problems" in 1991.  In 1998 he released a collection of his singles on a CD only album "Then And Now" and in 2005 "Now" was a compilation of 50s/60s standards but also included "You’ll Always Have Yesterday Standing By".

Details

Rating:	8.5
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Sweet Soul / Lowrider
Format:	Single / Reissue
Media:	7"
Label:	Soul Junction
Cat No:	SJ1018
Date:	11/04/2022
Key/BPM:	N/A
Value:	£13