Andre Williams @ Uni

[Roburt]

Andre Williams had a bit of a bad reputation in the late 60's with record company owners.

He had worked for labels such as Motown, M-Pac, Blue Rock, Mar-V-Lus in the early to mid 60's as a producer and A&R guy. After his post with Blue Rock ended, he moved on to work for the likes of Toddlin' Town and Chess (he even cut for Chess as Jomo). He had, briefly, been tasked with running the Bamboo label out of St Louis in late 1968 but that relationship soon broke down. 

Then in May 1970, a big announcement was made in Billboard mag that Uni had signed up Andre Williams and a string of artists associated to him as part of their push into the soul market. This announcement seemed a bit late as Andre had produced the Green Berets 45 ("Lord Send Me Somebody / We Must Make Things Right" Uni # 55186) which had escaped in December 1969. But after the big announcement a 45 from the Passionettes (June 70) & two more from the Green Berets did actually escape on Uni.

However, I can find no trace of singles being released by Uni on the likes of Carl (Karl) Tarlton, Charles Williams and Shirley Carroll. Did anything ever get released (on any label) by them ?

The Passionettes some changed their name to the Fuzz (probably as they were still contractually tied to Williams or Uni as the Passionettes) and had signed with Calla before the end of the year. The Green Berets also soon changed their name and moved on. Karl Tarlton was a well known song writer who had been associated with Andre for some years but (apart from the odd demo version) I don't recall him ever recording himself.

 

I guess Uni's relationship with Williams soon went sour and that few of his intended projects for the label reached fruition but I would still like to know what became of those artists that he was listed as signing to deals with Uni. I wonder if unissued cuts by those people went into the Uni tape vaults ?

Edited November 1, 2013 by Roburt

[Roburt]

Russ Regan, who signed Andre Williams to the deal with Uni, had earlier worked for Motown and had headed up 20th Century Records. He was involved with Mary Wells work for 20th Century and Andre Williams also worked on some of those tracks.

It seems highly likely then that Regan and Williams already knew each other before the Uni deal was set up.

I'd guess that Regan was LA based by the late 60's and as Williams was Chicago based by then, I wonder how the deal with the DC based Passionettes came about ?  

[Diggin' Dave]

A single by Karl Tarleton was released on the UNI label in 1970, with 'Along came you' and 'Stay with me as the two cuts that made it on the disc. Release number is 55227. I'm not 100% sure but think it was only released on a demo.

[boba]

the passionettes on uni are NOT the fuzz, as incorrectly documented in some places. they are likely the kavettes, who were andre's girl group at the time and who he changed the names of as he switched labels (he confirmed to me that the tears on smash are the kavettes, didn't ask him about the passionettes at the time). andre did similar things to his main male group (the green berets became the velvet hammer when he switched them to polydor / soozi).

 

the wasters on uni were also an andre/karl production. they used the pseudonyms hammer and nail as writers in the writing credits.

[Roburt]

Thanx for the info.

The Wasters 45 seems to have been the 1st 45 that Williams placed with Uni (#55148) back in summer 69. Wonder why they didn't manage a 2nd Uni outing. 

So did Charles Williams and Shirley Carroll stay with Williams and have releases on other labels ??

[boba]

i don't know but shirley carrol is probably shirley karol who was on dakar

[Roburt]

Bob, you have to right as no doubt the name was phoned in to Billboard and their typesetter just went with the first way of spelling her name that occurred to him ........

PLUS ........... her 2nd Dakar 45 (issued in 69) was produced by Williams .......... guess she never got her flagged Uni release though.

https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/K/shirley_karol/index.php

Edited November 2, 2013 by Roburt