During the 1960s, radio station KATZ in St. Louis was one of the top black music stations in the US. One of the top guys who worked for the station was Donn Brooks ......

Donny's Bio .... Donny 'Soul Finger' Brooks hit the St. Louis market in 1962, taking a short-lived job at WBBR in East St. Louis. He moved on to KATZ the following year and became a star DJ there. His young, energetic approach to his shows made him extremely popular and job offers from other markets were soon coming in. He checked some of these out but by 1968 he was back in St. Louis. He had moved up through the ranks and now held down the additional duties of music director and program director at KATZ. Donny left St. Louis again in 1973 but returned to KKSS in 1975.

So Donny Brooks was a top radio DJ who had arrived at KATZ when Jimmy Bishop was still one of the station's top DJ's. Bishop had soon moved on to work for WHAT in Philly, but he must have become friendly with Donny Brooks before his move to the East Coast. So I guess there was some logic in Bishop allowing Brooks to compile an album for release on Bishop's Arctic label ...........

Donnie Brooks -- 'Soul Finger' Presents 20 Great Oldies: Various Artists Arctic ALPS-1003 (19/08/1967)

....... TRACKS: ......... Introduction by Donnie Brooks .........

Oh No Not My Baby - Maxine Brown / I Spy - Jamo Thomas / Ain't It Baby - Kenny Gamble / A Message to My Baby - Billy Harner / Is It Me? - Barbara Mason / I Can't Stand It - Soul Sisters / The Pain Gets A Little Deeper - Darrow Fletcher / I Don't Want To Lose You - Steve Mancha / Hallelujah - Inventions / I Know (You Don't Love Me No More) - Barbara George / Do The 45 - The Sharpees / It's Been So Long - The Twinights / My Judgement Day - Darrow Fletcher / The Philly Freeze - Alvin Cash & Registers / Who Do You Love? - Sapphires / Sad Feelings - Cicero Blake / Gonna Be Strong - Intruders / Watch Your Step - Brooks O'Dell / Every Beat of My Heart - Du-Ettes / Storm Warning - Volcanoes

So the LP (no doubt with licensing of the tracks being co-ordinated by Jimmy Bishop himself) included Philly tracks from Arctic & other local labels but also tracks from St Louis / Chicago area artists plus a few out of New York & Detroit.

Bishop must have found it easy to 'license' in the outside tracks as he was an influential DJ and so record companies would be keen to help him out on a project such as this.

...... BUT ... what would the commercial logic behind such an LP be. It probably had ready markets in St Louis & Philly but I can't see it selling too many copies elsewhere across the States. After all, most record buyers from outside of St Louis would have had no idea who Donnie Brooks was.

Edited August 8, 201212 yr by Roburt

Roburt , how the f**k do you find all this info , not just this but all the other stuff also

Keep it up mate , love it !

Cheers

Swifty

I can't comment on the commercial logic of this release but, those Radio Station comp. albums were around a lot in the 60's /70's.

I've got two from WVON in Chicago and both of the liner notes say that the proceeds from the album sales were going to "distribute

Christmas baskets to Chicago's poor". .

So they might have been done as fund raisers for charities or just as a promotion for the radio stations.

Never seen a copy of the Artic Lp , anybody got one ?

Probably a vanity press. Meaning that it was done for the DJ and for use / sale at local shows / record hops / Theatre etc. in STL- maybe he'd been playing Arctic releases.

On the licensing of other product this was going on all the time in the 60s. Usually reciprocal agreements - we have one of yours, you can have on of ours etc.

My two penny worth guestimates.

Roburt , how the f**k do you find all this info , not just this but all the other stuff also

Keep it up mate , love it !

Cheers

Swifty

google..its a wonderful thing yer know

PLUS, I've obviously got too much time on my hands ....

.... well, if I keep busy on the computer, the wife finds less jobs for me to do around the house !!

Actually, I'm working on a book & I come across all sorts of stuff when I'm looking for info relevant to my project.

I'd say vanity probably has a lot to do with it ...

.... though as there are other 'Donny Brooks' albums, the vanity may mainly have been his ...

........... TRACK LISTING for this Badfinger Records LP ............

A1 Temptations, The - The Way You Do The Things You Do

A2 Kool & The Gang - Kool & The Gang

A3 Tyrone Davis - Turn Back The Hands Of Time

A4 Tommy James & The Shondells - Crystal Blue Persuasion

A5 Aretha Franklin - Respect

A6 Mary Wells - Dear Lover

A7 Gladys Knight And The Pips - Every Beat Of My Heart

A8 Dyke & The Blazers - Funky Broadway

B1 James Brown - Papa's Got A Brand New Bag

B2 Frankie & The Spindles - Count To Ten

B3 Jackie Wilson - Whispers

B4 Jerry Butler - Never Gonna Give You Up

B5 Barbara Mason - Oh How It Hurts

B6 Gene Chandler - God Bless Our Love

B7 Five Stairsteps - Ooh Child

B8 THE GREEN BERETS - Lord Send Me Somebody

C1 Fantastic Four - The Whole World Is A Stage

C2 Knight Brothers - Temptation's About To Get Me

C3 Natural Four, The - Why Should We Stop Now

C4 Manhattans - If My Heart Could Speak

C5 O'Jays, The - Look Over Your Shoulder

C6 Bobby Freeman - You Just Don't Understand Me

C7 Impressions, The - It's All Over

D1 Miracles, The - Bad Girl

D2 Delfonics, The - Somebody Loves You

D3 Luther Ingram - Ain't That Lovin' You For More Reasons Than One

D4 Sam & Dave - When Something's Wrong With My Baby

D5 Mad Lads, The - Whatever Hurts You

D6 Royalettes, The - Gonna Take A Miracle

D7 Dells, The - Stay In My Corner

Edited August 9, 201212 yr by Roburt

2007 press release ........ Six broadcasters have been elected to the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame ...... The following members of the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame were recognized for their contributions to St. Louis radio and achievements in the field of broadcasting ... ..... Donny Brooks, or "Soul Finger," best known as a DJ on KATZ, where he also served as a music director and program director in the '60s and '70s;

Edited August 9, 201212 yr by Roburt

During the 1960s, radio station KATZ in St. Louis was one of the top black music stations in the US. One of the top guys who worked for the station was Donn Brooks ......

Donny's Bio .... Donny 'Soul Finger' Brooks hit the St. Louis market in 1962, taking a short-lived job at WBBR in East St. Louis. He moved on to KATZ the following year and became a star DJ there. His young, energetic approach to his shows made him extremely popular and job offers from other markets were soon coming in. He checked some of these out but by 1968 he was back in St. Louis. He had moved up through the ranks and now held down the additional duties of music director and program director at KATZ. Donny left St. Louis again in 1973 but returned to KKSS in 1975.

So Donny Brooks was a top radio DJ who had arrived at KATZ when Jimmy Bishop was still one of the station's top DJ's. Bishop had soon moved on to work for WHAT in Philly, but he must have become friendly with Donny Brooks before his move to the East Coast. So I guess there was some logic in Bishop allowing Brooks to compile an album for release on Bishop's Arctic label ...........

Donnie Brooks -- 'Soul Finger' Presents 20 Great Oldies: Various Artists Arctic ALPS-1003 (19/08/1967)

....... TRACKS: ......... Introduction by Donnie Brooks .........

Oh No Not My Baby - Maxine Brown / I Spy - Jamo Thomas / Ain't It Baby - Kenny Gamble / A Message to My Baby - Billy Harner / Is It Me? - Barbara Mason / I Can't Stand It - Soul Sisters / The Pain Gets A Little Deeper - Darrow Fletcher / I Don't Want To Lose You - Steve Mancha / Hallelujah - Inventions / I Know (You Don't Love Me No More) - Barbara George / Do The 45 - The Sharpees / It's Been So Long - The Twinights / My Judgement Day - Darrow Fletcher / The Philly Freeze - Alvin Cash & Registers / Who Do You Love? - Sapphires / Sad Feelings - Cicero Blake / Gonna Be Strong - Intruders / Watch Your Step - Brooks O'Dell / Every Beat of My Heart - Du-Ettes / Storm Warning - Volcanoes

So the LP (no doubt with licensing of the tracks being co-ordinated by Jimmy Bishop himself) included Philly tracks from Arctic & other local labels but also tracks from St Louis / Chicago area artists plus a few out of New York & Detroit.

Bishop must have found it easy to 'license' in the outside tracks as he was an influential DJ and so record companies would be keen to help him out on a project such as this.

...... BUT ... what would the commercial logic behind such an LP be. It probably had ready markets in St Louis & Philly but I can't see it selling too many copies elsewhere across the States. After all, most record buyers from outside of St Louis would have had no idea who Donnie Brooks was.

Could well have been a vanity project but also a potential vehicle for Jimmy Bishop to top up his royalties pot. The only real interesting track is the intro by Donny Brooks which shows what a showman DJ he was. Its interesting to contrast his style with our typical 'northern' DJs some of whom don't even use the mike.

Hi, I collected Arctic in the 80s and remember Chrs King and Guy returned from the States with a weird Arctic compilation with lots off external artists. I mentioned it to a lot of people afterwards and always drew blank stares, I guess this must have been it. Regards. Ion

Donny Brooks presents... Arctic Northern Soul Lp

End price:

USD

204

End date:

2005-04-03

Start price:

USD

20

Start date:

2005-03-24

Number of bids:

8

Auctioned at:

ebay

Country:

USA

Donny Brooks presents 20 Great Oldies (Artic 1003) nice copy of the Arctic label with great intro by Soul Finger himself... Record and sleeve VG++

On June 12, 2004, Academy opened the largest used record store in NYC.

Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Academy Annex has over 25,000 Lps on display at any given time

taken from our extensive back stock of over 100,000 Lps.

Academy Annex features quality titles of virtually all genres.

this one on popsike some time ago.

ricky.

I can't comment on the commercial logic of this release but, those Radio Station comp. albums were around a lot in the 60's /70's.

I've got two from WVON in Chicago and both of the liner notes say that the proceeds from the album sales were going to "distribute

Christmas baskets to Chicago's poor". .

So they might have been done as fund raisers for charities or just as a promotion for the radio stations.

there's also the WNOV comps which look identical and are confusing if you don't know WNOV was the Milwaukee version of WVON

By February 1967, Donny Brooks had followed Jimmy Bishop to Philadelphia and he too was working as a DJ at radio stn WDAS, so it seems that the LP on Arctic (a August 67 release) may have been to cement Jimmy & Donny's friendship or it may have been 'payment in kind' in return for something that Donny had done for Jimmy.

Whatever the case was, Donny was back in St Louis in 1968 in a higher grade job.

Anyone know who owned Badfinger Records who released the 2nd Donny 'Soul Finger' Brooks LP (I'd make a guess that Donny himself was involved with the label in some sort of way).

............. A mid 60's WCHB Detroit ad .........

.... Donny Brooks was on their roster at the time .........

Hi, I collected Arctic in the 80s and remember Chrs King and Guy returned from the States with a weird Arctic compilation with lots off external artists. I mentioned it to a lot of people afterwards and always drew blank stares, I guess this must have been it. Regards. Ion

Hi Ion,

I remember Chris having it back in the late eighties. i found one about 3 months after that and still got it somewhere. Still a pretty obscure album..

This KATZ chart rundown from 1968 features a piccy of Donny (as he had returned to the St Louis stn by then).

Edited August 10, 201212 yr by Roburt