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Monday, 10 October 2022

Mary Wells [2022] - Love Letters / Hands Off My Baby [Soul4Real #S4R24]


The second vinyl release today from Soul4Real is a pairing of mid 60s unreleased Atco recordings from Mary Wells.

Wells left Motown in 1965 unhappy with her contract and joined 20th Century Fox where she released two albums and around six singles. The albums failed and the singles didn't do particularly well (although a few have had plays on the UK rare soul scene "Use Your Head" and "Never Never Leave Me" in particular). Later that year she moved on to Atlantic subsidiary Atco where she didn't fare much better with only one single, "Dear Lover", charting which has the storming Northern Soul tune "Can't You See (You're Losing Me)" on the flip. She released only three further singles for the label before she was off again, this time to Jubilee for the remainder of the 60s and early 70s.

Ironically, she never emulated the success she had at Motown between 1960-64 where she had three R&B chart #1 hits ("You Beat Me To The Punch", "Two Lovers" and of course "My Guy").

The two sides of the Soul4Real release are "Love Letters" (written by Gerald Sims not the Ketty Lester song) and "Hands Off My Baby" written by Richard 'Popcorn' Wylie and Tony Hester and produced by Carl Davis. I believe that these first featured on a 1995 Ichiban CD compilation "Dear Lover - The Atco Sessions" which consisted of 15 tracks but there is now a digital version with 35 tracks "Dear Lover: The Atco, Jubilee & Reprise Years 1965-1974" which looks like it's streaming only (i.e. no download available).

Going by the fifteen tracks on the 1995 compilation there are at least another five unreleased Atco recordings: "Satisfaction", "Love Makes The World Go Round", "In The Midnight Hour", "My World Is Empty Without You Babe" and "Good Lovin'" which all look like covers versions.

It's the first time on vinyl for both sides which are available now from Soul4Real or your vinyl retailer.

Details
Rating: 8.5
Explicit: N
Genre/Style: Neo Soul
Format: Single
Media: Digital
Label: Soul4Real
Cat No: S4R24
Date: 10/10/2022
Key/BPM: 7B/119 / 6B/113
Price: €‎15
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