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Can Anybody Tell Me Who This Is?


Denbo

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When it started I thought it was the batman theme choon ..but then the crooner spoilt it :(

I quite like it myself but the problem is, I've no idea who it is? But, I think it might be either Don Gardner or Charles Bradford.

The reason I say that is because it's on Fire but as a mispress, as the labels indicate that it should be;

Mary Ann Fisher - Only Yesterday / Wild As You Can Be - Fire 1010

By the way, the flip side to the Mp3 I posted is a pretty good instrumental (not of the vocal I posted).

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I don't have either of the 45's, but it's most likely Jesse Powell Orchestra "Let's Talk It Over, Baby" on FLING.

The following two 45's were both released in 1960 and were pressed at the same plant:

Mary Ann Fisher - Only Yesterday / Wild As You Can Be - FIRE 1010
Jesse Powell Orchestra - Kingfish Rock / Let's Talk It Over, Baby - FLING 715

Mary Ann Fisher has got mastering numbers FM 119 and FM 120.
Jesse Powell has got mastering numbers FL 119 and (probably, I haven't been able to check) FL 120.

So seems like a mix-up at the pressing plant
I might be totally wrong, but it seems like too much of a coincidence.

Edited by Sebastian
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I don't have either of the 45's, but it's most likely Jesse Powell Orchestra "Let's Talk It Over, Baby" on FLING.

The following two 45's were both released in 1960 and were pressed at the same plant:

Mary Ann Fisher - Only Yesterday / Wild As You Can Be - FIRE 1010

Jesse Powell Orchestra - Kingfish Rock / Let's Talk It Over, Baby - FLING 715

Mary Ann Fisher has got mastering numbers FM 119 and FM 120.

Jesse Powell has got mastering numbers FL 119 and (probably, I haven't been able to check) FL 120.

So seems like a mix-up at the pressing plant

I might be totally wrong, but it seems like too much of a coincidence.

That's EFFING brilliant Sebastian, thanks VERY MUCH. :thumbsup:

How do you know all this stuff?

I've been meaning to ask this for ages but do you have all these records you so neatly post up for us on SS? Or are you more into the researching and cataloging of these records for posterity and self interest?

Dennis.

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As mentioned in the post above I don't have these two records in particular. I do like researching stuff like this, so I did one quick search yesterday and came up with the Jesse Powell 45 immediately based on the lyrics, but I didn't want to post it up on here because I wasn't sure. But when you wrote that it was a mis-pressed Fire label 45 you had, I did a couple of more searches and came up with the mastering numbers being similar and it kind of "sealed the deal". As I wrote, it was too much of a coincidence.

 

I don't have a huge collection like many people on here, but I do collect records heavily and have got somewhere between 8.000-10.000 soul/r&b/funk 45's in my personal collection. I also run a tiny record store so I'm surrounded by records at all times. :)  

 

Enjoying, researching, cataloging and documenting music has always been very close to my heart and luckily I have the privilege to work full-time with handling vinyl records. I'm really, really happy about that being a reality and not something I take for granted. :thumbsup:

Well thanks again Sebastian. Well done.

PS - Now take a look at my post about Nappy Brown and see if you agree? :thumbsup:

PPS - Where is your record store?

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Hi ALL... I CAN REMEMBER A CHEF FROM MILLWAL SINGING THIS AT BUTLINS CLACTON ON SEA, 1977, FOR A ENCORE HE WOULD SING "MULE TRAIN", WERE A WHIP WAS USED HE USED A BEER TRAY SMASHING IT ON HIS HEAD, HONEST INJUN THIS IS A TRUE STORY.............................I THINK?

DAVE K

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Hi ALL... I CAN REMEMBER A CHEF FROM MILLWAL SINGING THIS AT BUTLINS CLACTON ON SEA, 1977, FOR A ENCORE HE WOULD SING "MULE TRAIN", WERE A WHIP WAS USED HE USED A BEER TRAY SMASHING IT ON HIS HEAD, HONEST INJUN THIS IS A TRUE STORY.............................I THINK?

DAVE K

Dave, what has 'Mule Train' got to do with this posting?

Edited by denbo
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Hi ALL... I CAN REMEMBER A CHEF FROM MILLWAL SINGING THIS AT BUTLINS CLACTON ON SEA, 1977, FOR A ENCORE HE WOULD SING "MULE TRAIN", WERE A WHIP WAS USED HE USED A BEER TRAY SMASHING IT ON HIS HEAD, HONEST INJUN THIS IS A TRUE STORY.............................I THINK?

DAVE K

 

the guy was probably Bob Blackman Dave, famous for singing Mule Train while hitting himself on the head with a tray - was even on Tiswas!

 

https://youtu.be/qpu-9bwsVhw

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Sebastian, Have you got a scan of the B-side on Fling? Because I'm wondering who the vocalist is, as Jesse Powell was the Orchestra behind the vocal. And Kingfish Rock was an instrumental.

 

This tiny scan is unfortunately the only one I've found of the b-side, but as far as I can make out it doesn't look like the vocalist is mentioned on the label.

 

post-1392-0-92259900-1397557591.jpg

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It sounds very early in style.  There wasn't much like that being recorded as late as 1960.  The vocalist has the style of Joe Williams.  But the voice isn't quite "rich" enough.  I've forgotten who Jesse Powell's male vocalist was at that time.  But, I'll bet I will recognise the name once we find out.

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It sounds very early in style.  There wasn't much like that being recorded as late as 1960.  The vocalist has the style of Joe Williams.  But the voice isn't quite "rich" enough.  I've forgotten who Jesse Powell's male vocalist was at that time.  But, I'll bet I will recognise the name once we find out.

I was hoping you'd know Robb. :(:yes:

Let's hope the thread lasts long enough for more people to see it and perhaps let us know who that vocalist is with the Jesse Powell Orchestra. :thumbsup:

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Jesse Powell was one  of the major R & B band leaders, arrangers and tenor sax players operating out of New York during the 1950s.  I have LOTS of R&B group records and records with Jesse Powell and His Orchestra as the featured artists on Atlantic, ATCO, Cat, East-West, Jubilee, Josie, King, Federal, DeLuxe,  Fury, Fire, Rama, Savoy, and many other NY and East coast labels, as well as Chess and other labels that leased product.  He had several vocalists with his orchestra over the years.  Fluffy Hunter was with him early, along with Dan Taylor.  He had a few different male singers,  I'll try to find out who was with him around 1960.

Edited by RobbK
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Jesse Powell was one  of the major R & B band leaders operating out of New york during the 1950s.  I have LOTS of R&B group records and records with Jesse Powell and His Orchestra as the featured artists on Atlantic, ATCO, Cat, East-West, Jubilee, Josie, Old Town, King, Federal, DeLuxe, RCA, Vik, Fury, Fire, Rama, Savoy, and many other NY and East coast labels, as well as Chess and other labels that leased product.  He had several vocalists with his orchestra over the years.  Fluffy Hunter was with him the longest.  He had a few different male singers,  I'll try to find out who was with him around 1960.

Cool. Thanks Robb. :thumbsup:

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I found this website with a review of a few albums of Powell's.      https://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

 

Apparently, he sang a lot of his own vocals, despite also being the featured instrumentalist on tenor sax.  That was fairly unusual for band/orchestra leaders in the 1950s.  

 

I'm secretly wondering if he didn't really have another male vocalist do uncredited singing, as Ray Pollard did for Hector Rivera and all The Big Bands did ((a la Joe Williams with Count Basie, etc.), and that these new reviews have come so long after the recordings were made that no one is around to remember that the vocalist WAS, indeed, some young kid, and NOT saxaphonist/bandleader Jesse Powell?  Often times, the vocalist was not listed, and the orchestra/band leader and his orchestra got the artist credit.  Years later, researchers see specific listings for vocalists on some recordings, and the name of the band leader on others, and assume that the band leader sang the vocals on those.  It may not necessarily be so.

 

I KNOW that the singer, although sounding like Joe Williams, was NOT the latter, as he had been with Count Basie for many years, and finally went solo, and was with gangster affiliated Roulette Records in 1960, and so, not likely to have been "moonlighting" with Jesse Powell's Orchestra.  Furthermore, there were already vocals by a man with this same voice on Powell's records on Jubilee and Josie Records in the mid to late 195os, and on their Port Records subsidiary (by The Goofers) in the early '60s.  So, I suspect that this vocalist could well be Jesse Powell, himself. 

 

I really can't decide which is more likely to be true.  But, until we have any evidence that it was another singer, I guess we should assume that the singer on this song, and many of his orchestra's male vocals from 1955 through 1960 was Jesse, himself.

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I found this website with a review of a few albums of Powell's.      https://bebopwinorip.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

 

Apparently, he sang a lot of his own vocals, despite also being the featured instrumentalist on tenor sax.  That was fairly unusual for band/orchestra leaders in the 1950s.  

 

I'm secretly wondering if he didn't really have another male vocalist do uncredited singing, as Ray Pollard did for Hector Rivera and all The Big Bands did ((a la Joe Williams with Count Basie, etc.), and that these new reviews have come so long after the recordings were made that no one is around to remember that the vocalist WAS, indeed, some young kid, and NOT saxaphonist/bandleader Jesse Powell?  Often times, the vocalist was not listed, and the orchestra/band leader and his orchestra got the artist credit.  Years later, researchers see specific listings for vocalists on some recordings, and the name of the band leader on others, and assume that the band leader sang the vocals on those.  It may not necessarily be so.

 

I KNOW that the singer, although sounding like Joe Williams, was NOT the latter, as he had been with Count Basie for many years, and finally went solo, and was with gangster affiliated Roulette Records in 1960, and so, not likely to have been "moonlighting" with Jesse Powell's Orchestra.  Furthermore, there were already vocals by a man with this same voice on Powell's records on Jubilee and Josie Records in the mid to late 195os, and on their Port Records subsidiary (by The Goofers) in the early '60s.  So, I suspect that this vocalist could well be Jesse Powell, himself. 

 

I really can't decide which is more likely to be true.  But, until we have any evidence that it was another singer, I guess we should assume that the singer on this song, and many of his orchestra's male vocals from 1955 through 1960 was Jesse, himself.

I'll go with that Robb, well thought out and backed with research :thumbsup:

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