Fathers Children were a Washington D.C. band probably best
known for their rare groove single "Hollywood Dreaming" taken
from their only released, self-titled, album on Mercury in 1979. It was
co-written and produced by ex-Crusader Wayne Henderson.
They formed in the late 60s as a group of three high school friends Nick
Smith, Billy Sumler and Ted 'Skeet' Carpenter who sang doo-wop on the street
corners and under the streetlamps. They didn't have a name even though they
were gigging and it wasn't until a fourth member, Jackie Peoples, joined and
they got a gig supporting Frankie Karl that they became
The Dreams.
They cut a few singles on D.C. Sound. The first as Frankie Karl & The
Dreams "Don't Be Afraid (Do As I Do)" / "I'm So Glad" (Oct 1968), followed by two as The Dreams "Do What You Wanna" (Apr 1969) and "(They Call Me) Jessie James" (Jul 1969).
The first and last have been well known in UK rare soul circles for decades
and no doubt both sides of the first and the second on the lowrider scene. In fact "(They Call Me)
Jessie James" got a UK issue on Jay Boy in 1971. Both sides of the
first two singles were written by William (Billy) Jackson who was later involved with a few groups including producer of Soirée and The Tymes.
Through a community programme founded by Norman Hylton the quartet was
extended with Michael Rogers (bass) and Donald Radcliff (drums) (later
replaced by Zachary Long) and later Steve 'Tai' Woods (guitar).
Hylton had converted to Islam and influenced several of the band members to
do so and they later changed their name to Father's Children. In 1972 Hylton
(now known as Saleem) was introduced to Robert Hosea Williams who owned
several small studios and worked with Gil Scott Heron and Van McCoy. Hylton
handed the band over to Fly Enterprises. They already had the the two tracks
on this release "Everybody's Got a Problem" and added "In Shallah" and cut
some other tracks. Fly Enterprises went bust in 1976 with no funds to pay for the master tapes
of the bands recordings so Robert Hosea Williams held on to the masters as
he hadn't got paid and filed them in his garage.
The band was left hanging and some members perused personal projects that
didn't come to anything. However, a chance meeting led to them being signed
by Mercury where they released a self-titled album in 1979 which spawned the
single "Hollywood Dreaming" which didn't sell and thus ended their contract with Mercury.
They reformed in 2005 and released a self-funded album "Sky’s The
Limit".
In 2011 Numero Group got hold of the master tapes from their early sessions
which Robert Hosea Williams had preserved and released an album titled "Who's Gonna Save The World" on CD and vinyl.
Soul Direction have, with permission, lifted two tracks from the album,
"Everybody’s Got a Problem", which is a powerful message about political conflict surrounding the
Nixon administration, and "In Shallah" (translates to Allah Wills" / "God Willing" in Arabic) for their next
7" vinyl release which is due on 11 Jul.
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