We learned yesterday of the passing of John Rhys-Eddins via a Mark
Hanson post on
Soul Source
which was relayed to him by singer Matt Lucas. Who? .. you might ask,
especially if you have no interest or affiliation with Northern Soul
and we would guess even the majority of those may still have no idea
who he was.
He is responsible, along with Dino George Fekaris (a prolific writer
who also co-wrote and co-produced "I Will Survive") and Nick Zesses,
for writing one of the true classics of the genre "Time Will Pass You
By" by Tobi Legend. The term 'classic' is overused but this is truly
a Wigan Casino anthem and one of the best ever Northern 'Soul' records
discovered full stop!
It was played as the second of the legendary 'Three Before Eight' so, 'arguably', well overplayed but even so it is still a very moving song
to this day. For those who don't already know, the 'Three Before Eight' were
the three records played at the end of every Wigan Casino All-Nighter
by Russ Winstanley.
We don't know for sure who discovered it, or when, but assume that it
must have been Casino organiser Russ Winstanley and also assume that it
must have been played before the 'Three Before Eight' was instigated.
Rhys-Eddins began writing the song in 1965 whilst working at Golden World but was incomplete until the following year when he joined Impact
and met Fekaris and Zesses who completed the second verse. It was
recorded, or at least released, in Feb 1968 on Bell imprint Mala by
Tobi/Toby Lark (born Bessie Grace Upton and recorded previously
as Bessie Watson) under the pseudonym Tobi Legend. We recall reading
that Lark was unaware of its release until much later as she believed
that she recorded it as a demo only. Only one other recording was released
under the name, "No Good To Cry" / "Heartbreaker" also on Mala in Apr '68.
Rhys-Eddins was born in Saxmundham, Suffolk, but moved to Georgia at a very
young age. He found his way to Detroit by the mid 60s and worked for
Ed Wingate's Golden World setup (Golden World, Ric-Tic, Wingate and J&W) and had a few of his songs released on Wingate in
1965. By 1966 he was working at Harry Balk's Impact Records where he
wrote and produced. He produced all five of Shades of Blue's releases for the label, the best known being, the Edwin Starr written, "Oh How
Happy" which was the label's biggest seller. He also co-wrote The
Volumes evergreen "That Same Old Feeling" for the label, and even released
one himself as John Rhys And The Lively Set with two instrumentals
"Boy Watchers Theme" / "Nothing But Love" which were sufficiently
popular/in-demand to warrant bootlegging.
As an artist he released two singles, the one above and the first, a garage/pop tune, in
1965 ("The Beginning Of The End" / "All I Ask") as Little John and Tony
(Anthony Raye aka Pete Saputo who he co-wrote "That Same Old Feeling" with)
on Golden World imprint Volkano headed up by John. The label released
just three or four singles, all with at least one side written (or
co-written with Dennis Coffey) by John in 1965. NB only three are listed but there 'appears' to be a missing number
(V-5003?)
In 2015 UKs Outta Sight label reissued Tobi Legend and on the B side
included the original demo version recorded by the three writers on
which Rhys-Eddins played piano and sang the high notes and the other
two sang the lead and background vocals. Included as the intro of the recording, Rhys-Eddins gives a commentary and states that he met Tobi Lark/Legend
at a party in Detroit in the mid 60s. He thanks 'the gentleman who dubbed Tobi's voice' on
the Mala release. The Mala single has 'Imagineered by Joey" under
the title on the label, who we assume to be Joey Pinto (aka Joey Reynolds) who was
the co-writer of the B Side ( "Heartbreaker") and a radio DJ who worked at numerous stations including WNBC. At the time of the record's release he was working at WDRC in Hartford, CT, having previously been at WXYZ, Detroit. How, and why, Tobi Lark was
renamed Tobi Legend is a mystery except perhaps to disguise her identity to avoid paying royalties? Outta Sight also reissued the "Three Before Eight" earlier this year, presumably owing to Wigan Casino's 50th
Anniversary next month.
We've always wondered why such a great song has never been covered,
except as a self-titled album track by
Kylie Minogue
in 1994 (arranged by M People). It was scheduled for release as single with
remixes but (thankfully!) never released.
We always suspected that perhaps it was because it's a particularly
difficult song to sing and that was confirmed by Ady Croasdel who flew Tobi over to perform at the Cleethorpes weekender in 2009. He says
that Tobi herself said that it was such a tough song to sing that she
recorded it in segments that were then later spliced together. She
stated that she has never sung the song in it's entirety which is why
she declined to sing it when she appeared at the weekender. However, we
found footage of her performing it several years later at Skegness
Weekender in 2017 aged 77/78 (ironically born the same year as
Rhys-Eddins)!
Like so many others before me, this one is slotted for play at my
funeral as it is most definitely one of the soundtracks of my, and so many other's, life.
Thank you John, Dino and Nick (without the latter two's contribution the
song may never have been completed) for such a beautiful and
meaningful song. Lyrics HERE.
In 2010 a UK broadsheet, The Guardian, published an article written by Laura Barton about the song.
1999 re-recorded version for Ian Levine's:
The Strange World of Northern Soul
Live Performance at
Skegness Northern Soul Weekender 2017
Original Demo Version
The Volumes - That Same Old Feeling
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