There are unconfirmed reports (from a reliable source) that Northern
Soul heroine Rose Batiste (Rose Battiste) has died.
She released a handful of singles between 1964-1967 on independent
Detroit labels Thelma, Ric-Tic, Golden World and two on Revilot which
included her big Northern Soul double-sider "I Miss My Baby" / "Hit
& Run". Outside of the Northern Soul world she is probably
unknown.
Batiste was cousins with Darrow Fletcher and Freddie Gorman (The
Originals) and made her recording debut aged 15 at the Continental
studio and recorded a Don Mancha produced song called "I'm Yours For A
Lifetime" for local musical entrepreneur Sam Motley (who owned a
couple of labels) but the song was never released.
She auditioned for, and was signed to, Thelma Records in 1964, when
just 16. Thelma was owned by Hazel Coleman and named after her
daughter Thelma who was Berry Gordy's first wife. She recorded "I
Can't Leave You" / "Someday" in Nov 1964, both early Detroit
dancers.
When Thelma closed its doors in 1965 she followed Don Davis to
Ric-Tic and released her second single, "That's What He Told Me" /
"Holding Hands," in Sep 1965.
"That's What He Told Me" was also released as the flip to her next
single "Sweetheart Darling" on Ric-Tic parent Golden World in Jan
1966. Golden World / Ric-Tic was acquired by Motown which left artists
looking for a new home, some being retained by Motown and others let
go. Once again she followed Don Davis to Solid Hitbound whose labels
were Revilot, Groovesville and Solid Hit.
There she released for her next two, and final releases, "I Miss My
Baby" / "Hit And Run" Oct 1966 followed by "I Still Wait For You" /
"Come Back In A Hurry" in May 1967 (possibly her least known
recording).
The backing track of "I Miss My Baby" was released in 1967 by Doni
Burdick as "Bari Track" with a cover of Edwin Starr's "I Have
Faith In You" as the flip on Sound Impressions. It's a particularly
hard one to find and fetches four figures as it was a huge NS
instrumental back in the day.
There is perhaps a little known anomaly as her first Revilot single
was mispressed on a 1966 A&M label credited to Chris Montez, "Time After Time" plays "Hit and Run" whilst the flipside "Keep Talkin'" plays "I
Miss My Baby".
Gwen Owens
also recorded "Hit And Run" which was first released on a 1994
compilation "The Solid Hitbound Story" by Goldmine Soul Supply, another version by
Pat Lewis
on Goldmine Sevens in 1997 and yet another demo version credited
to Martha Reeves (released on Goldmine's "Thelma's Detroit Collective"). There is speculation that the Rose Batiste version on Revilot is
actually The Debonaires and not Rose Batiste's version owing to a tape
mix up!
Rose's career seems to have consisted of being at the right place at
the wrong time as several of her releases weren't commercially
successful as they competed for promotion with more successful
records. At Ric-Tic she was up against "Hungry For Love" (San Remo
Golden Strings) and Edwin Starr's "Agent Double-O-Soul" and at Revilot
her first single competed for attention with Steve Mancha's regional hit "Don't Make Me A Storyteller" on sister
label Groovesville and Darrell Banks' "Open The Door To Your Heart" / "Our Love (Is In The
Pocket)". Ian Levine, who is credited with discovering her first
Revilot recording, recorded her singing the latter for his ;The
Strange World of Northern Soul' (c1998) video included below.
With little commercial success, Rose left recording and started
working as a receptionist for Solid Hitbound, later moving to the
advertising department at General Motors.
In 1970 she began working as a typist for Motown Records who had
bought out Golden World and Ric-Tic a few years earlier. She recorded
a few songs, one a remake of Jimmy Ruffin's "Our Favorite Melody", but
again she was in the right place at the wrong time as Motown was in
the process of relocating to L.A. and none were released.
A couple of previously unreleased songs have been released on UK
labels in recent years. The first is an alternate, first version, of
"I Miss My Baby" titled "This Heart Is Lonely" found on a Pied Piper
tape and released by Ace/Kent on a Pied Piper logo in 2015. The plot
thickens as
BMI
lists the singer as Telma Hopkins who was one of The Debonaires and
later part of Tony Orlando's Dawn before becoming an actress in the
late 70s. She also recorded a single "Baby, Don't Leave Me" as Telma Laverne, one of only four listed singles on Johnnie Mae
Matthews Northern De-La label in 1964.
The other, "It's Not What You Say (But How You Say It)", is a
unreleased Golden World recording from around 1966 released by Hayley in 2020.
A long time friend, and all-nighter DJ partner from way back, Irv
Milne sent us this photo with Rose at Detroit A Go-Go Oct 2019 which
was named
Motown A Go Go
to celebrate Motown's 60th anniversary.
Included below are a few videos of her performing Levine
re-recordings, not the original versions, of her best known songs at
the Blackpool Mecca Reunion in Nov 1998 and an obscure video
performance of her last single.
Gilly pointed us to a YouTube clip for an acetate he acquired from
the engineer in 1990, which was originally thought to be Rose Batiste,
but turned out to be Gwen Owens' version as he played it to Rose who
told him that it wasn't her singing. (Sound quality is not brilliant
as it hasn't been recorded directly but a bit of history!)
Thanks to Yves Lambert who pointed out an unreleased version on Jimmy
Gilford's "Nobody Love Me Like My Baby" (Thelma T 501 1964) which we
found a 'live' video for recorded at the same time as the video for "I
Still Wait For You"
Discography
A couple more pieces of memorabilia:
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