The latest single from Dave Welding's Soul Junction is a particularly rare record by The Petersons originally released on Mel Omega in 1973. None have ever sold on Discogs and we found only three listed on Popsike, all selling for four figures with one selling for just under £3k in 2016. The other two were only listed as 'good' condition.
The Petersons were a vocal trio from Waycross, GA, named after their founder founder, lead vocalist and drummer Kenneth Peterson with the other two members being Salem Chatman (keys) and Johnny Members (vocals/bass). They regularly performed shows along the east coast, and working in Philadelphia in early 1973 answered an advert in Billboard Magazine from Omega Sound Productions which was a fledgling independent recording company formed by Frank Fioravanti who was a budding songwriter who later formed Sound Gems and was behind William DeVaughn's evergreen "Be Thankful For What You've Got" as well as Crystal Motion's "Your My Main Squeeze" amongst others.
The trio were booked into Frank Virtue's recording studio to record two Fioravanti and the late Alan Felder penned songs, the up-tempo "What’s It Gonna Be" and "Just What I’ve Been Looking For" and released on Mel Omega.
The single failed to make any impact and the group returned to their native Georgia where they continuing to perform and record but under the name of "Toll Darkness". They took the remaining copies of the single with them and pasted stickers with the name Toll Darkness over the artist name on the label to sell at their gigs.
Dave tells us that copies were found circa 2000 by John Anderson and UK soul guru Steve Guarnori acquired a copy and broke "Just What I've Been Looking For" at Soul Essence initially.
The up-tempo arrangement of "What's It Gonna Be" by Frank Virtue has been reused on a plethora of other Philly artists recordings, i.e. Fred Mark, Liza Mae, Michael Christian, Cody Michaels etc over different record labels, Melomega, Concept, Fox Century Plaza and Merben.
Released on 24 Apr '23 so available now from Soul Junction.
Credit to Dave Welding for background info.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
| Rating: | 8.4 |
| Explicit: | N |
| Genre/Style: | Modern Soul |
| Format: | Single |
| Media: | 7" Vinyl |
| Label: | Soul Junction |
| Cat No: | SJ550 |
| Date: | 24/04/2023 |
| Key/BPM: | N/A |
| Price: | £13 |
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