The UK's love affair with Frankie Beverly goes way back to his 60s
Philadelphia recordings as the lead man of Frankie Beverly & The
Butlers and one elusive recording in particular revered on the
Northern Soul scene, "If That's What You Wanted".
Beverly announced his retirement this year with a farewell tour
(which commenced at the end of March) but the members of Maze continue
under the name TMF The Music Forever who, in case you somehow missed it, have just released their debut album "The Music Forever, Vol. 1".
Soul4Real has paired two tracks from their last two albums for release
on 7" vinyl for their Jai Alai imprint. "Somebody Else's Arms" from "Silky Soul" (1989) along with the "Love is" from the "Back To Basics" (1993).
Another Shaun G(allagher) 'mash-up' this time using a
tune from a Maze B side, "Twilight", that crossed over into the UK club scene in the mid 80s and was
huge. The spoken parts are from Orange Muse's "Keep The Funk Alive" (2003), presumably CB's Spoken Mix.
It was the flip side to "Too Many Games" in 1985 and not really what you'd typically expect from Frankie Beverly's
crew but it took off, possibly influenced by Harold Faltermeyer's synth
instrumental Axel F ... as that what it reminds me of.
It was the group's only UK Top 40 single reaching #38 credited as "Too Many
Games" but I'm sure many bought it for the flip side.
The last studio album recorded by the legendary
Maze featuring Frankie Beverly was "Back To Basics" in 1993. They released ten albums in total with two of them being
live recordings "Live in New Orleans" (1981) and "Live in L.A." (1986).
Maze were big favourites in the UK in the 80s for soul weekender goers
with many of their tunes becoming weekender anthems "While I'm
Alone", "Silky Soul", "Somebody Else's Arms", "Golden Time Of The
Day", "Before I Let Go", "Joy & Pain" etc., so many great tunes, "Back In Stride",
"We Are One", "Too Many Games", and I've still probably missed
several!
GVB played "Love Is" from "Back To Basics" on his radio show today and listening to it it's
hard to believe that it's almost 30 years old now as it still sounds fresh!
Hearing it again prompted me to revisit the album and rather than just
posting the single track the whole album is well worthy of another
listen.
Other highlights on the album include "The Morning After", "What Goes Up", "In Time" and "Don't Wanna Lose Your Love". It also includes one of their 'surprise' club hits from 1985,
"Twilight", which was played in clubs from the B side of "Too Many
Games".
As an added bonus I've managed to find a full concert from the Hammersmith
Odeon, London in 1995 which last 97 mins and features the following
(including three tracks from "Back To Basics"):
I think I'm right in saying that the music of Frankie Beverly & Maze seemed to be more popular in the UK in the 80s than US. They seemed to be 'adopted' by the UK Soul Weekender scene 'back in the day' where many of their tunes became weekender anthems.
Consequently they had 7 singles which entered the UK Chart. The track that probably comes to most people's mind is their classic Joy And Pain, which was never actually released as an A side in US!
Before I go into the band, Frankie Beverly was active before this in the 60s. Born Howard Beverly in 1946 in Philadelphia. He changed his name after his early influence from Frankie Lymon. He recorded with Philly group The Silhouettes (who had a hit with 'Get A Job' in 1957) at the age of 12. Still a teenager he formed The Blenders, I don't think that any material was recorded by them.
In 1963 he formed The Butlers. The group consisted of Frankie Beverly, Jack 'Sonny' Nicholson, Joe Collins, John Fitch, and Talmadge Conway. They recorded several 45s for a number of different labels between 1964-69, Liberty Bell - 'She Tried To Kiss Me (All I Could Do Is Run)' (a frantic NS dancer) / 'The Sun's Message' (Doo-wop ballad) and Phila - 'Butlers Theme' (NS instrumental) / 'Laugh, Laugh, Laugh' (a nice NS dancer which I have to confess not hearing before) as The Butlers and then changing their name to Frank Beverly & The Butlers for a release on Sassy for his classic Northern soul favourite 'If That's What You Wanted' and the wonderful 'Love (Your Pain Grows Deep)', although one of the issues had 'This Is Just A 'B' Side' as the flip. This is a sought after item as it was withheld from release as the record was picked up by Gamble for release, however, the producer (Billy Jackson) released them in the 70s. The Gamble 45 commands a higher price tag, perhaps because of the Sassy 45's availability in 70s. This record has been bootlegged several times on O.O.T.P. (Out Of The Past) a renowned label for bootlegs in 70s and Liberty Bell in 1973, and got an official UK release on Neil Rushton's Inferno label in 1979.
Two more release came out on Fairmount with the name changed again to Frankie Beverly & The Butlers, She Kissed Me / Don't Cry Little Sad Boy and 'Because Of My Heart' another NS favourite, along with 'I Want To Feel I'm Wanted' which is a great mid-tempo tune that ought to get plays these days, but probably won't as the crazy thing is in 2013 this record sold for £24 but the last one to sell on Discogs sold for £1,800! Because My Heart / I Want To Feel I'm Wanted was also released on Rouser (with the same cat no as Fairmount) as The Butlers With Frankie Beverly. Rouser was a Washington D.C. based label owned by Tommy Rouse with only 3 releases listed. I would 'guess' that this is a reissue. None have ever sold on Discogs so it must be pretty rare - apparently one sold on ebay in 2012 for $4,173! There is a topic on Soul Source about it, apparently it is a slightly different, edited, mix.
A final release came out as The Butlers on Gamble She's Gone (Crossover/Ballad) / Love Is Good (Northern/Crossover) in 1969.
Beverly then formed a band in Philadelphia in 1970 under the name Raw Soul (I don't think it's the same band which had a funky instrumental track played on NS scene mid 70s called 'The Gig' on DPG (a label owned by Lenis Guess) who were from Norfolk, VA and were Lenis Guess's house band who also went under the name The 35th Street Gang).
Their first single was The "Raw Soul" With Frankie Beverly - You Left Me / Open Up, Your Heart recorded on the tiny Eldorado label in Philadelphia in 1969 and released 1970, co-written by Beverly, Charles Earland and Leon Fisher and co-produced by Beverly and Earland. Only one other 45 is listed for the label by Charles Earland's Erector Set an instrumental of Stevie Wonder's My Cheri Amour c/w Yes-Suh!.
They followed this up with 3 singles as Frankie Beverly's Raw Soul on Gre-Gar, an RCA subsidiary which ran from 1967-72 and released an eclectic mix of artists of which theses are the only soul related ones I can see.
People In The Know is a hard funk number written by Beverly and Understanding (poor quality sound clip) is another funky track, co-written by Beverly and Leon Fisher
This is the raw original of While I'm Alone written by Beverly, the others side is a track written by Taj Mahal.
The line up was Franke Beverly, Kenny Young, Paul Lermen, McKinley 'Bug' Williams, Teddy White, Jerry Cohen, Roame Lowery, and Walter 'Sleepy' Watts.
Raw Soul moved to San Francisco and met Marvin Gaye and toured with him in 1976 as his opening act. On Gaye's advice they changed their name to Maze.
I found some live footage of Raw Soul performing an unrecorded track (at the time but it was later released on Golden Time Of Day album in 1978) at Winterland in San Francisco in Feb 1975 called 'I Need You'. The video and audio quality is excellent.
... and here's another clip of Color Blind live
.. and another 'Song For My Mother'
To date, between 1977 and 1993, they have released 8 studio albums and 2 live albums 'Live in New in Orleans' 1981 and 'Live in LA' 1986.
Album Discography
1977 - Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly
1978 - Golden Time Of Day
1979 - Inspiration
1980 - Joy And Pain
1981 - Live In New Orleans
1983 - We Are One
1985 - Can't Stop The Love
1986 - Live In Los Angeles
1989 - Silky Soul
1993 - Back To Basics
From a chart perspective their biggest hits were Back In Stride and Can't Get Over You both of which topped the US R&B chart in 1985 and 1989 respectively. Popwise in US they only had 4 entries in the Billboard Hot 100 Feel That Your Feelin' #67,Love Is The Key #80, Back In Stride c/w Joy And Pain #88, While I'm Alone #89. As stated earlier they fared better in UK with 7 entries but only one reached top 40:
I'm surprised that While I'm Alone isn't in the UK list, but I guess it's because it was one of their earlier recordings before they became better known in UK and was their first entry into US R&B chart in 1977.
It may seem perverse to some, but soul aficionados in UK (and elsewhere) are more interested in the records that didn't chart, B sides and album only tracks as these often contain undiscovered gems. So let's explore some of those.
Before I Let Go - another UK weekender anthem that failed to chart except US R&B #13. This had Joy & Pain on B side. Joy And Pain was only released as an A side in UK with Happy Feelin's taken from their first album on B side in 1981. Before I Let Go was issued in UK with Golden Time Of Day on the B Side.
