Looking for info  on the appointments  .any ideas guys 

They are a real mystery

To be honest with you I’m sick and tired of Appointments there seems to be more and more f them every week, I feel like cancelling them there are far to many of them for my liking even more than the drifters LoL,

ML

4 hours ago, Chalky said:

They are a real mystery

Rumour has it they became   kool and the gang, but but that wouldn't  make sense  as they had the first release  on delite  in 67  to year prior to the appointments

Kool & The Gang had 4 previous names that i know of...but none were the Appointments.

There were no copyright filings for any of the songs.  None of the songs appear on Songview (BMI).  Gene Redd does not have any other songs written with B. Moore, who might have been a member of this group, or with J. Hightower.  No one has added a comment on any YouTube clip.  There is one mention in Record World, but otherwise the music publications did not mention this group or its releases.

The only appointments I get now is to my heart specialist or cardiologist lol

3 hours ago, jukeboxgeorge said:

There were no copyright filings for any of the songs.  None of the songs appear on Songview (BMI).  Gene Redd does not have any other songs written with B. Moore, who might have been a member of this group, or with J. Hightower.  No one has added a comment on any YouTube clip.  There is one mention in Record World, but otherwise the music publications did not mention this group or its releases.

I've reached all of those dead ends as well .. I did once get an address and number on Gene Redd but missed him by 3 months ... It's far too late to contact Sharon Redd ... Always had a suspicion she might be Stormy Wynters on Mercury .. has anybody ever touched base with Penny Ford ? 

 Andy  stormie wynters was a session singer there's two unreleased   tracks by her as well , I'll send you details , found the info  for the show I'm involved  with 

1 hour ago, Andy Rix said:

I've reached all of those dead ends as well .. I did once get an address and number on Gene Redd but missed him by 3 months ... It's far too late to contact Sharon Redd ... Always had a suspicion she might be Stormy Wynters on Mercury .. has anybody ever touched base with Penny Ford ? 

I asked Elsie Gray in case they were a "borrowed" recording from Detroit when Gene was there, but she did not know them

34 minutes ago, Blackpoolsoul said:

I asked Elsie Gray in case they were a "borrowed" recording from Detroit when Gene was there, but she did not know them

 I did wonder if they were from detroit   maybe  an unreleased  track  under a pseudonym 

On 04/11/2024 at 19:56, Andy Rix said:

I've reached all of those dead ends as well .. I did once get an address and number on Gene Redd but missed him by 3 months ... It's far too late to contact Sharon Redd ... Always had a suspicion she might be Stormy Wynters on Mercury .. has anybody ever touched base with Penny Ford ? 

Jimmy "Okera" Hightower might have been lead and Gene possibly took the recordings to New York and didn't release them as The Combinations.

I always thought they were a New York/New Jersey Metro Area group. I thought I had seen a late '60s venue advert with them on the bill. They sang "Keep Away" on Gene Redd's Redd Coach Records #732.

They also had a record out on Dart Records. Maybe B. Moore was New York's Bobby Moore, who sang that Jobete Music song, "I Carefully Checked Your Heart" on Kay-O Records, and "It Was a Lie" on Red Bird. Maybe he was one of their group members - even the lead on this record?

They also sang "Sweet Daddy" on Dart Records, which I believe Redd leased to, or at least had distributed by Chess. I think "J. Hightower" was James Hightower, the Gospel singer. Maybe HE was the other lead singer of the group. This lead sounds like him leading his Gospel group, The Gospel Specials. This lead sounds deeper and has a very different tone from that of the lead on The Redd Coach record. THAT lead sounds like he COULD possibly be New York's Bobby Moore. The lead on "Keep Away" sounds very much like Bobby Moore, the lead of The Fourmosts, and could be the "B. Moore" who co-wrote "Keep Away" with Redd.

Edited October 10Oct 10 by Robbk

The folk I've talked to about Gene Redd said he really had the gift of the gab & could talk many folk into financing one of his projects. Both in Detroit & New York, I believe he'd find a group, get some financial backing to pay for them to visit the studio, cut them & then go shopping for a deal with their tapes.

Before Chuck Corby went out as a solo singer, he led the Pittsburgh group Four Plus One. The group went to Detroit to see a guy @ Golden World. The guy wasn't there when they arrived but Chuck's group met up with Gene @ the studio. He listened to them, took a liking to their sound (Gene thought he could market them as a Righteous Brothers type outfit) & had them record for him. He then headed off with their tape to New York to try to get them a deal. They didn't wait around for him to get back to them & Chuck recut the songs in a hometown studio, so the GW cut versions of the songs never got released.

But it seems Gene had indeed managed to get someone interested in putting out the Four Plus One tracks (though it had taken a little while). So Gene seemingly was always wheeling & dealing with regard to different groups / singers and their joint on-speck recordings. Sidney Barnes worked quite a bit in the studio for Gene but stopped doing so as Gene's deals had a habit of not working out (meaning Sidney didn't always get paid). I recall asking Sidney about some of his dealings in Detroit with Gene & he didn't want to diss Gene as he liked him as a person (just decided not to continue working with him).

I don't think Sidney would know anything specifically about the Appointments recordings or who was in the group BUT ... he could well enlighten us all more on Gene's modus operandi -- if anyone can get him to talk on this subject,.

Edited October 10Oct 10 by Roburt

I keep playing Bobby Moore's Kay-O record back-to back with The Appointments' "Keep Me", and I'm convinced that Moore was the lead singer of Gene Redd's Redd Coach Appointments group. The two voices have the same familial tone, albeit The Kay-O Moore is singing at a slightly higher register in The Jobete song. Listen and compare them:

I also played Moore's Red Bird "It Was a Lie", which is sung in a closer register to "Keep Me", back to Back many times. I'm even more convinced that Moore was The lead singer of Redd's Red Coach Appointments:

Play them back to back and compare.

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Robbk

Also compare James Hightower's lead on "God's Loving Power" first recorded in the late 1960s, or re- recorded in the early '70s, to the lead on The Appointments' very Gospel-sounding "Sweet Daddy' on Dart Records in 1969:

 I have the feeling Hightower was the songwriter on The Appointments' Sweet Daddy", and maybe his Gospel group was Redd's 2nd Appointments group, or Hightower was a 2nd lead singer for Redd's group, especially when they recorded secular songs in The Gospel style.

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Robbk

Here's the flip side of the Dart record, written by B. Moore and Gene Redd, Jr.. This lead also sounds like New York's Bobby Moore - a similar voice to him on the Kay-O and Red Bird, and Redd Coach records. So, I think it's a good bet that Bobby Moore was a group member and the usual lead of The Appointments. Furthermore, BMI has no record of Redd writing these songs. I think Moore and Hightower gave up half the writer residual rights to Redd for his recording their group and songs and getting them distributed nationally by Chess Records. And, despite Redd's having his publishing company, Stephanye Music listed as the publisher on the Redd Coach record, the songs were listed under Chevis Music (Chess' publisher). So, he gave that up to get them distributed nationally.

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Robbk

Here's Bobby Moore leading The Fourmost singing "You GotTo Live For Yourself" from the late '60s on Fantasy Records.   Moore sounds VERY like the lead on The 1969 Appointments record  on Redd Coach (written by B. Moore):

It was probably the last recording he made before hooking up with Redd, Jr.

Edited Wednesday at 17:083 days by Robbk

On 04/11/2024 at 13:43, Speedlimit said:

 I did wonder if they were from detroit   maybe  an unreleased  track  under a pseudonym 

The instrumentals don't sound like Detroit recordings to me. They sound more like Redd's normal New York recordings, as far as the individual players and arrangements, and acoustics of the recording rooms. And the sound of the Redd Coach and Dart recordings (from 1969 and 1970), sound just like those years, which were after Redd left Detroit for good. I never saw any reference to him recording in Detroit after 1966. Also, in 1969 and 1970, Redd had production and distribution deals with Chess in Chicago. He did record some of his productions in Chicago (Like Tommy & Cleve). But, The Appointments cuts sound like New York to me. I believe most, if not all his Redd Coach cuts were made in New York. And weren't his De-Lite cuts made there, too?

As pointed out to me by Blackpoolsoul, R&B Historian, Marv Goldberg's discography and history of Bobby Moore and The Four Mosts mention Moore's connection with The Fiestas, produced by Gene Redd for Old Town Records. The article only goes up to 1966. And that is why The Appointments aren't in his article or discography. Marv and I were good friends from the early 1960s onward. We were both big fans of US Blues, Jazz and R&B from the mid 1930s through the beginning of the '60s, back in the day. But, isn't it obvious, now, that the B. Moore who wrote almost all The Appointments' songs (He wrote their De-Lite songs, too) and their group's main lead singer that has the same voice as New York's Bobby Moore, and The Four Mosts (Fourmost, Formost, Fourmosts)'s lead singer, and their groups long association with Gene Redd at Old Town, Redd/Red Coach, Dart, and De-Lite Records must be the Same Bobby Moore as in Gene Redd's Appointments. Those similarities are too much to be a coincidence. I am convinced that New York's and The Fiestas' and Four Mosts' Bobby Moore was the lead singer, main songwriter, and creative leader of The Appointments.

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Robbk

Moore was the main writer on The Appointments' De-Lite record, too. And it sounds like the group's lead singer on those songs is also that same person. Here is the "A" side, "I Saw You There":

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Robbk

I wonder about that "secular" Gospel cut on one side of the Dart record - whether or not that side's songwriter, and perhaps lead singer on that cut, was actually James Hightower of The Gospel Specials.  The 2 sides seem to have no connection (as if Redd just threw a recording of The Gospel Specials (wanting to try out making a secular record) on the flip because he didn't have another Appointments' cut to use there.

I also wonder if The Appointments weren't just a morphed version of The Fourmosts, containing other members of that group besides Moore?

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Robbk

Gene Redd produced / oversaw the cutting of the tracks that formed Kool & the Gang's first album (released on De-lite). These were laid down at NY's Bell Sound Studios with UK engineer Malcolm Thomas Addey (who'd started out @ EMI's Abbey Rd studios) twiddling the knobs on the desk. The initial tracks would have been cut around June 69, with no doubt others a little later after their first 45 "Kool & The Gang" became a hit in August 69. Gene obviously pressed up a few early 45's and got them out to local radio stations as WWRL were tipping the cut to become big at the beginning of that July. Redd seemed to be concentrating just on Kool & the Gang in 69, he'd championed them for a good while before this though. My guess is that he had the Appointments tracks in the can & the owners of De-Lite asked if he had anything else they could put out.

Edited October 11Oct 11 by Roburt

On 09/10/2025 at 10:44, Blackpoolsoul said:

Jimmy "Okera" Hightower might have been lead and Gene possibly took the recordings to New York and didn't release them as The Combinations.

Jimmy "Okera" Hightower was a Detroiter, who had been a member of Detroit's Combinations, who had recorded for Reverend James Hendrix's Carrie Records, and Combination, Inc. on Detroit's Stacey and Solid Rock Records, and as a solo artist, Johnnie Mae Matthews' Bon Records and Armen Boladian's Westbound Records in Detroit. But his voice sounds distinctively different from New York's Bobby Moore's voice (who seems to have been The Appointments' main lead singer, on all but one song, whose lead seems to have been a Gospel lead singer, whose voice sounds like a different J. Hightower, Gospel singer, James Hightower, whose voice sounds almost exactly the same as The Appointments' lead on the secular, Gospel-style song, "Sweet Daddy". Listen to Jimmy "Okera" 's singing on his Bon and Westbound songs back-to back with The Appointments' "Sweet Daddy". I think we can rule him out, and it appears that The Appointments were a N.Y. Metro group, featuring Bobby Moore, which may,or may not have also had James Hightower as a member, or Redd just tossed a Gospel Specials' cut on the flip of his Dart Records' Appointments release..

Edited October 12Oct 12 by Robbk