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Robbk 4 posts
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Roburt, you have come to the right place to get your questions answered. In spring of 1958, Chess Records made a production deal with Detroit producer, Robert West, hoping to put out records on
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I don't know why Chess picked up "This Heart Of Mine" in May of 1958 and waited over a year to release it. It might have been to cash in on the Falcon's success on UNART with "You're So Fine" an
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To current ears, BOTH versions sound ancient. But, remember that I was around at the time, listening to the Chicago and Detroit R&B radio stations, and buying records. I had heard the Kudo recor
Anyone here know the story behind the 45's featuring tracks from the Falcons on Kudo, Chess & Anna (RobbK perhaps)??
I know the story began in spring 1958 when the Falcons (Joe Stubbs, Eddie Floyd, Mack Rice, Willie Schofield and Lance Finnie) cut tracks for Detroit label Kudo Records (owned by Robert West ?). A 45 escaped, the 1st on the label with "This Heart Of Mine" being the top side. Almost immediately, Chess picked up the group's cuts and paid Kudo a decent sum. The group (who'd originally come together in 55 and had cut for Mercury & Silhouette ahead of Kudo) moved on and no actual 45 by them escaped on Chess. The group's next outing emerged on Flick ("You're So Fine") and was soon enjoying lots of action. UnArt picked it up for national distribution and it went Top 10 R&B / Top 20 pop on the US charts in summer 59. A follow up was put out by Unart but a 45 on Chess also emerged in November 59. This featured their song that had come out on Kudu coupled with a Berry Gordy penned item ("Just For Your Love"). The old Kudo number though was assigned a different length (time-wise) this time around and had an extra writer credited. Then in February 1960, the same two tracks came out on an Anna 45.
I know that the Chess deal would have come about via Berry Gordy as Miracles tracks also appeared shortly afterwards on Chess.
MY QUESTION ... did Chess use the Kudo tracks they'd bought for $9000 or were both sides of the Falcons Chess 45 sourced from BG ... . . . . Kudo Records was for a while based out of United Artists building in Detroit so why didn't Unart pick up the Falcons disc for natonal distribution (as they did stuff made by Marv Johnson who had a Kudo 45 released at the same time as the Falcons Kudo 45 -- this & later Marv J outings having BG connections) ..... If Chess did utilise the Kudo cut track on Chess #1743, how did they land the BG track they coupled it with ? ... AND ... why after this pairing had come out on Chess, did it reappear on Anna just a few months later ??