I found this acetate in Detroit a few years ago. I assume these are Detroit recordings, but I suppose it's possible they aren't. I also assume neither of these songs saw the light of day in any form other than what you can hear here. These are very simple guitar-and-voice demo recordings sung by someone with a great voice. Can anyone ID the singer?

 

Hope you like them as much as I do. Note that the recordings are very rough, not only because the acetate is battered but also because there's quite a bit of tape bleed on one side, with extraneous sounds intruding...which lends the thing a shiver-inducing otherworldly feel, I think.

 

Enjoy!

 

https://www12.zippyshare.com/v/35421673/file.html

https://www31.zippyshare.com/v/8625727/file.html
 

 

 

I found this acetate in Detroit a few years ago. I assume these are Detroit recordings, but I suppose it's possible they aren't. I also assume neither of these songs saw the light of day in any form other than what you can hear here. These are very simple guitar-and-voice demo recordings sung by someone with a great voice. Can anyone ID the singer?

 

Hope you like them as much as I do. Note that the recordings are very rough, not only because the acetate is battered but also because there's quite a bit of tape bleed on one side, with extraneous sounds intruding...which lends the thing a shiver-inducing otherworldly feel, I think.

 

Enjoy!

 

https://www12.zippyshare.com/v/35421673/file.html

https://www31.zippyshare.com/v/8625727/file.html

 

 

Paranormal Activity!

Nice!

Interesting note: A friend of mine reversed the backwards tape-bleed noise: https://www.divshare.com/download/24792439-0b9

 

That is Lee Jennings doing "Going and Get It" in the background (or Calvin Williams' version?), which came out on Dotty's. So this is definitely Detroit, recorded at some point later and probably in the same studio.

Thank you for sharing these two beautiful songs with us.

Sometimes, actualy most of the time, less is more!

A wise man once said "any idiot can be complicated, it takes real genius to be simple"

Yup very nice indeed. Just made my day hearing that.

Cheers

Clint

I KNOW I've heard that rich voice before!   The 2nd song, "I Wanna Thank You" is terrific  (right up my alley!) and sounds like a '64 or '65 Detroit-written song.  I wish I could place that voice.  Maybe it will come to me, could it be Joey King Fish? 

I looked up "I Wanna Thank You" on BMI.com, and found only one recognisable mid-sixties Detroit song: interestingly enough, published by Don Davis' Groovesville Music, and written by Ronnie McNeir, Herbert Houston and Walter Moore.  Joey king Fish worked for Don Davis at Thelma Records, and later with Groovesville.  The voice on these songs certainly doesn't sound one bit like Ronnie McNeir.  I don't remember hearing songs sung by a Herbert Houston.  The name Walter Moore rings a bell as a singing group member, but I don't remember which group, and it doesn't ring a bell related to Detroit.

I played the two cuts linked above next to Joey King Fish's "Did My Baby Call" and "I Won't Hurt You Anymore".  The voices sound like the same person to me. It seems odd that Joey Kingfish Stribbling would sing a song written by Ronnie McNeir in the mid '60s.  It seems a lot more likely that McNeir would sing a song written by Joey King Fish.  I wonder if "I Wanna Thank You" is a song King Fish wrote himself, and demo'd for Don Davis, and ended up later having sold his song writer credits to others (thus the 3 other names), but Don Davis never sold the publishing rights, thus Groovesville is still the publisher?

 

I'd love to hear opinions of others here on this thread after listening to the 2 cuts above, and also to some recordings by Joey King Fish.  I think that he's our man, and the fact that there is also a song with the same title published by Groovesville Music, together with at least one '60s Detroit songwriter on the credits, and that king Fish worked closely with Don Davis, convinces me that he's our man.

Edited November 20, 201311 yr by RobbK

I'm also curious to know if that's him playing guitar, as well.  He had a guitar solo release on Checkmate 1017 in 1962 as joey King.  I think he wrote his songs by playing them on the guitar, and demo'd them for Thelma's, Groovesvilles and Diamond Jim/Rileys releases.

Wow, Robb!! Interesting. To my ears, the voice on "Did My Baby Call" does sound similar, but not the one on "I Won't Hurt You Anymore." I'm running it by Mr. Kingfish shortly.

Yes, Kingfish is a guitar player. The guitar on the demos is played by someone fairly skilled.

Robb: I found the Ronnie McNeir "I Wanna Thank You" on youtube and it appears to be a different song:

The Diamond Jim/Riley's Kingfish connection would make sense given the background noise on the tape!! (See above.)

Wow, Robb!! Interesting. To my ears, the voice on "Did My Baby Call" does sound similar, but not the one on "I Won't Hurt You Anymore." I'm running it by Mr. Kingfish shortly.

Did you listen to Joey's mid '60s recording of "I Won't Hurt You Anymore" (released on Goldmine Soul  Supply Connoisseurs label GV102)?  That's the one that sounds the same to me (NOT Joey's recent re-recording of that song, with the background group behind).  His voice has changed too much over the years to try the match after a 45 year gap.  Also, it's to hard to pick out Joey's voice in his duet version of that song.  But, it sounds the same as his mid sixties version.

 

If he does tell you that the song is his demo, ask him if he sold the songwriter's rights (given the 3 other names as writers on BMI's list).  The song sounds to me like his writing style, and not at all like Ronnie McNeir's.  I have a feeling that he wrote it, himself, and this was a demo for the final artist that Don Davis was going to use, or market to. 

Edited November 20, 201311 yr by RobbK

Robb: I found the Ronnie McNeir "I Wanna Thank You" on youtube and it appears to be a different song:

No way is that "Modern Soul" song by McNeir a Groovesville Music publication.  My theory here is that BMI's record keeping made an error, and confused Joey King Fish's "I Wanna Thank You" with Ronnie McNeir's.  And they used Joey's Groovesville Music with McNeir's song, instead of whatever publishing company really published it.  And, no, I don't think Joey wrote the two songs for Diamond Jim's labels.  They had a completely different style (more funky).  "I Wanna Thank you" sounds like Thelma's sweet style.  I am sure he wrote that for Don Davis (maybe while at Thelma, but it was published by Don after he left Thelma, and so, was published by Groovesville (as was "I Won't Hurt You Anymore", and "Did My Baby Call".  I think the two songs linked above were from the same period, and were done for Don Davis, NOT Jim Riley.  I suppose it is possible that Joey wrote and demo'd those 2 songs for Jim Riley, but he didn't really release anything that sounded like that, and why then would "I Wanna Thank You" end up published by Groovesville? (unless Riley couldn't use the songs, and just gave the tape to Joey, who took it to Don Davis later, and he bought and published  "I Wanna Thank You").

Edited November 20, 201311 yr by RobbK

After we find out that it IS Joey singing on these cuts (IF we do), I hope we can get a project going to get "I Wanna Thank You" pressed up on a 45.  I definitely want to own one.  the more I hear it, the more attached to it I get.  It really grows on one.  I can't believe that Davis never put out a release on that song, or "I Won't hurt You Anymore", for that matter.  And I like Joey's version of "Did My baby Call" more than that of The Professionals, and at least as good as Steve Mancha's.

I've listened to "I Wanna Thank You" a bunch since you posted it up on facebook Matt & it is just beautiful.

Anyone know of a link you can hear this on? I can't do the zip thing Matt

Anyone know of a link you can hear this on? I can't do the zip thing Matt

 

Ady that link should just take you straight to a player, just press go

Thanks, those great big DOWNLOAD buttons scared the sugar out of me.

I've listened to "I Wanna Thank You" a bunch since you posted it up on facebook Matt & it is just beautiful.

Hi Kris, I find a lot of those early sparse demos beautiful and haunting. Check out Richard Coombs, 'I Mean You Girl' and the Tokays 'Honest I Do' on KENT CD 257 Dave Hamiltion's Detroit Dancers Vol 3. Hopefully these links will work. ady

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrBPgYn5b7g

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEqm6oAwivQ

this is amazing to listen to, thank you for posting.

 

i think this has to be a songwriter demo to shop the song around and not an artist demo. that doesn't necessarily mean that the songwriter is singing on it.

those youtubes ady posted are also new to me, beautiful, really dig the sparseness of this stuff.

Can't add to the debate about who it is, but thanks for the share, that's appreciated.......

very nice stuff

 

I have a Sound Patterns( Detroit) acetate of a completely different 'I Want to Thank You' done by a group( see my avatar)

 

I'd post up the clips but I know mp3s are a no-no on this site 

 

hate those 'share' sites though, spam pop-ups galore

Edited November 22, 201311 yr by soulhawk

very nice stuff

 

I have a Sound Patterns( Detroit) acetate of a completely different 'I Want to Thank You' done by a group( see my avatar)

 

I'd post up the clips but I know mp3s are a no-no on this site 

 

hate those 'share' sites though, spam pop-ups galore

Can't you upload it onto You-Tube, and post here a link to it?

b, you can post a divshare link