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.
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