The Intruders
will probably be best known for their 60s hits on Gamble ("Cowboys To Girls" and "(Love Is) A Baseball Game" from 1968) and their 70s hits on Gamble & Huff's PIR label
especially for their 1973 hit "I'll Always Love My Mama" in particular first released on Gamble a month earlier.
The group was formed in 1959, originally as a quintet but reformed as
the long-standing quartet of Sam 'Little Sonny' Brown, Eugene 'Bird'
Daughtry, Phillip 'Phil' Terry and Robert 'Big Sonny' Edwards. Big Sonny
Edwards left the group to be replaced by Bobby Starr returning to the
group around 1973 in time for their third biggest hit.
The story Soul Direction owner, Alan Kitchener, relays in his write up
is that Big and Little Sonny worked in a barber shop in north Philly and
sang over the phone for Gowen label owner Barry Golder to get his
attention. Golder then sent his 19 year old son down to the shop to
audition them and signed them to the label where they released two
singles in 1961 and 1962 (the latter as Four Intruders), neither of which dented the R&B charts.
They next released a single on Lost Nite in 1963 and one on Music Voice,
which was also released by Musicor, in 1964 followed by another on Excel
in 1966. None made any impact on the charts.
Another single was released on King Tut as 4 Intruders, date unknown but is believed to have been from a 70s discovery (the preceding cat. no. is dated 1979) of an unreleased acetate of one of their very early recordings as it's a doo-wop song and a cover of a song recorded by The Plurals (from Newark) in May 1959, as was their first Gowen single "I'm Sold".
In July 1963, after they left Gowen, they recorded two songs for
Benn-X/B&L productions "Dance Boy" / "Let's Try It Again" produced by Frank Bendinelli and Leroy Lovett which never saw a
release. Then started their relationship with Gamble & Huff singing
to the Gamble label in 1966. Their first single for the label was their
first charting single "(We'll Be) United" / "Up And Down The Ladder" which reached #14 R&B and #78 hot 100. The majority of their
Gamble singles charted on both R&B and Hot 100 with one or two
exceptions. They stayed with the label until switching to Philadelphia
International re-releasing "I'll Always Be Your Mama" (which was originally on Gamble) achieving their third (and last) Hot 100 Top 40 entry.
The two sides presented on the latest Soul Direction 7" release, "You're My One & Only Baby" / "I've Got Love For You" were written by B&L staff pianist Leon Huff and recorded late
1964/early 1965 for a possible released Mercury. The group were not
offered a contract with Mercury so they departed company with B&L
productions when their contract expired in Jul 1965 and the recording
has been left in the can until now.
The songs have been licensed from Frank Bendinelli of Ben-Lee Music and
re-mastered from original studio master tapes and released for the first
time and are available to pre-order from today (27 Jan 2023) from Soul Direction for release in mid Feb.
Both songs feature on a very limited edition CD compilation "The Intruders The Ben-Lee Recordings 1963-65" released in May 2021 by Funkadelphia Records.
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