One of my all time favorite artist is the cool-Major Lance, whom I believe had a big following on the Northern Soul scene, his last recording on the[Okeh] lable was his best, the mellow and too cool[Without A Doubt-1967]a serious love sonnet from the Major and the b-side is a killer-Forever-a double sided treat from a great soulman.

The Major made many great records, especially in the 60's. Back then, coz of his earlier successes (hit 45's), he was hooked up with the cream of the Chicago soul world (Curtis Mayfield, Carl Davis etc) .... so he couldn't really go wrong back then. As time passed, his releases didn't sell as well, the guys he worked with got real busy coz their careers were advancing and Major was shunted off onto  the 'slow track'. A great pity coz he had a great voice. Major suffered when Carl Davis jumped ship from Okeh & went with Dakar. The Major went too, but Carl had bigger hits with newer artists on Dakar.

Unfortunately, in the US, you were only as good as your last commercial hit. Go cold, selling wise, & the gigs started to dry up & less people returned your calls. I think Carl took his eye off the ball with regard to the Major.

Here in the UK we're a bit more loyal to our 'musical legends' but then we hardly ever had the power to influence their career paths. 

.Love the major too. Many many great sides, I particularly liked his volt output but my favourite was the contempo remake of" Dark and lonely"which is odd for me because 9 times out of 10 I prefer the original.

I must add that his album that came out on soul was in my opinion very poor. Id be interested if anyone knows how this came out on Soul? as no one on motown seems to have been involved.

Edited March 11, 20169 yr by tobytyke
correction

Was it his Contempo cut "How Can I Say Goodbye" that never escaped anywhere else (though it was a Chicago recording).

May be getting this UK only release mixed up with another Chicago / Contempo 45 cut though.

I love the remake of " Without a doubt " that gained release on UK Warners during the 70's also ,best Eddie

Just now, Eddie Hubbard said:

I love the remake of " Without a doubt " that gained release on UK Warners during the 70's also ,best Eddie

Ditto, beat me to the punch Eddie

Kev

Cheers Kev ....

You know when you get a great original and a later version is its equal but not better.For

example Ty Karim Lighten up.

Well the Major did it twice with Dark and lonely and Without a doubt.

 

Tricky

On 3/11/2016 at 21:03, TRICKY said:

You know when you get a great original and a later version is its equal but not better.For

example Ty Karim Lighten up.

Well the Major did it twice with Dark and lonely and Without a doubt.

 

Tricky

His 70's remake of 'Sweeter' on WB is also very nice too..

On 3/11/2016 at 16:50, Roburt said:

Was it his Contempo cut "How Can I Say Goodbye" that never escaped anywhere else (though it was a Chicago recording).

May be getting this UK only release mixed up with another Chicago / Contempo 45 cut though.

was his 'Don't You Know I Love You' on Contempo UK only?  Same backing track as Jackie Wilson's version on his Beautiful Day LP I believe.

5 minutes ago, Mike Lofthouse said:

was his 'Don't You Know I Love You' on Contempo UK only?  Same backing track as Jackie Wilson's version on his Beautiful Day LP I believe.

I'm sure it didn't escape on Playboy, Osiris or Columbia (his US labels from 74 to 78) ......

..... AND I SHOULD KNOW WHAT HE WAS UP TO, after all I was his producer & arranger ........

 

Major's "How Can I Say Goodbye" obviously escaped somewhere in Europe as well .... BUT ... it didn't escape in the US (as he had a current label there at the time -- June 74) ...

It seems that it escaped in Belgium twice, once on the above Contempo 45 and also on a reissue label .........

Edited March 15, 20169 yr by Roburt

It seems that the Major's take on the above song escaped BEFORE the version that everyone calls 'the original' -- Sidney Joe Qualls Dakar version ........

Edited March 15, 20169 yr by Roburt

Sidney's version of the song has different writers to the Majors ......... MOST STRANGE !!

take  a listen to  majors version of come what may awesome and on 7 inch