Great World Of Sound -- Atlanta & Miami

[Roburt]

Is much known about this record company & it's modus operandi ........ it operated out of two bases and seemed to license in some of it's releases, while other stuff appeared to be in-house production efforts. Linked to Bill Staith and Opus VII out of Ohio ... so it spread it's influence across a fair bit of the US ....

The soul & funk it put out (which is of most interest to us) seemed to be a small part of it's remit; loads of pop, rock & country too (so may have also had contacts in Nashville).   

[Blackpoolsoul]

14 minutes ago, Roburt said:

Is much known about this record company & it's modus operandi ........ it operated out of two bases and seemed to license in some of it's releases, while other stuff appeared to be in-house production efforts. Linked to Bill Staith and Opus VII out of Ohio ... so it spread it's influence across a fair bit of the US ....

The soul & funk it put out (which is of most interest to us) seemed to be a small part of it's remit; loads of pop, rock & country too (so may have also had contacts in Nashville).   

Not much yet but I found this link

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yygEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=GWS,+Recording+Corp.+Of+America.++miami&source=bl&ots=oyaA5DqSv1&sig=rbjWe8RTap2vwj7_C8EUpssEQDA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizhOjHnLbfAhWLVBUIHVw0A4oQ6AEwB3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=GWS%2C Recording Corp. Of America. miami&f=false

Edited December 23, 2018 by Blackpoolsoul

[Roburt]

Thanks for that (copy of ad attached) .... guess they were morphing from Miami based Twin Record Productions into Great World of Sound in 1972 and this was their national pitch for material. Didn't realise they'd had an office on the Florida gulf coast too back then, though the ad does confirm their connection to Miami, Ohio & Nashville. I guess the Atlanta side of their operation came later ... 

Talking of the Atlanta end of things; Calvin Arnold (out of Atlanta) also got involved with GWS via the Pendulum Swingers & Case Band 45 "Never Should Have Loved You Baby" which initially escaped on the Atlanta night club's Pendulum label (where I guess the Case Band were the resident musicians). That link would most likely just have been via a licensing deal though.

Seems they were making claims that their actual skills didn't ever achieve; no gold discs, not even any hits and no cuts placed with major labels (that I am aware of) either. Their claim to provide the US's best indie promotion & distribution service also rings hollow as just about all the 45's on the label seem to be in short supply (even the rubbish stuff).

 

Edited December 23, 2018 by Roburt

[Roburt]

Seems I did them a disservice ... they did place some country artists with majors -- Decca & the like ...  

Edited December 23, 2018 by Roburt

[Chalky]

First local label release

[Blackpoolsoul]

I found this, a little more about Bill on buckeye beats website

The Corvairs

Ft. Thomas, KY, 1961-7

The Corvairs were one of Cincinnati's most popular bands of the early 1960s. The band included two sets of twins, (Bill Stith and Al Stith, and two named Langdon). The Stiths were from Ft. Thomas, KY and the Langdons from Cincinatti. Al was the lead singer and played guitar and Bill played guitar and bass.

In June of 1962, just after their first record "Black Diamonds" was recorded, Al was diagnosed with cancer and had his left leg amputated. That didn't stop him, as they recorded two more 45s, one more on Twin (covers of the R&B songs "Talk to Me and "Hard Times") and for Shad O'Shea's Official label. They also recorded a few songs for the obscure Show Time LP. The band personnel at the time of the Show Time LP included Billy Hinds (future member of the Marc IV, East Orange Express, and Pure Prairie League), Bill Reeder (mispelled Reder on the LP, later in the Vibrations), and Ben Bechtloff.

In November of 1964, Al succumbed to the cancer that he had fought for more than two years. The band continued with new lead singer named Little Joe Williams, who was barely a teenager when he started. Little Joe had already been peforming with the band and was also part of the Show Time LP roster (along with the Casinos). 

The band continued, led by Bill and Little Joe, and recorded two more 45s for Twin. The second one, "I'm Gonna Mary You" was picked up by Hickory for national distribution with a different flip side. The two post-Al 45s had the band firmly in the rock/R&B hybrid of the Cincinnati sound, covering R&B songs ("Gee Whiz" by Carla Thomas and "I Need You So" by Tommy McClain). 

By the time the group disbanded in 1967, Bill had started a new career as a school teacher. He moved to the more economically vibrant area of Miami, Florida. Once established, he bought into the struggling Great World of Sound/Trip Universal operation and used Twin as one of the GWS label names. In 1971 he scored a huge hit with the record "Welfare Cadillac". 

Around 1973 he left Trip Universal and moved back to Cincinnati. The TU operation had some element of the 'pay to play' process, where an artist puts up a pile of ,money to cover a recording, and TU or a subsidiary would use it's promotion network to get the record on the radio an into stores. Back in Cincy, he took the pay to play model all over the Great Lakes and midwest area, releasing up to if not more than 100 records on the AMG/Pilot Master labels. He supposedly left that business in 1976 to become a minister or some other religious leader, while Carl Edmondson and some others continued AMG until about 1978. 

Discography
Black Diamonds / Slipped Disc (Twin 45-4), June 1962
Talk To Me / Hard Times - Twin no # (Rite 9775/6) 1963
Fisherman's Wharf / Hey Pedro - Official 1002, 1964
Gee Whiz / It's Aw'Rite - Twin 1001, 1965
I Need You So / I'm Gonna Marry You - Twin 19671, 1967
I'm Gonna Marry You / Lonely Boy, Lone;y Girl - Hickory 1459, May 1967

[Blackpoolsoul]

Pastor Bill Stith (Immanuel Baptist Church) during the funeral service for Jenny Iles. Stith is also the chaplain for the Covington Police Dept.

Mike will tell me off if I post photo, so please follow link

https://facesandplaces.kentonlibrary.org/viewimage.php?i=di94427

[Agent45]

On 23/12/2018 at 09:11, Roburt said:

 

Talking of the Atlanta end of things; Calvin Arnold (out of Atlanta) also got involved with GWS via the Pendulum Swingers & Case Band 45 "Never Should Have Loved You Baby" which initially escaped on the Atlanta night club's Pendulum label (where I guess the Case Band were the resident musicians). That link would most likely just have been via a licensing deal though.

 

Calvin's involvement with that record very likely begins and ends with him recording/producing the songs at the studio he owned with Herb Lance. The money behind it was probably from the owner of the Pendulum Club (Calvin did perform there) but I don't believe that this is a record he put out (like the Scream / Church Door etc labels). 

Unrelated to GWS but for anyone interested, The Case Band was led by guitarist Harry Case and the Pendulum Club was a short lived spot which shone brightly during it's run for local Atlanta artists in its day. At a musical showcase put on to raise money for Barbara Hall's funeral some years back, Harry gave me a CD of live recordings from the Pendulum Club. Some fun stuff on there.