As a follow on from Paul Anka making a packet from his translation of "My Way" I was wondering which soul artists have found fame and fortune from just one song.

My starter is

MAURICE WILLIAMS with his song "STAY" it seems everyman and his dog have recorded this tune since Maurice first wrote it back in 1960, and must have made life quite nice for one of our soul heroes.

Johnny Bragg RIP - Just walkin in the rain.

Still not as good as TTAM.

Ed

Johnny Bragg RIP - Just walkin in the rain.

Still not as good as TTAM.

Ed

Agree, I wonder if any other song has got someone out of a life sentence?????

It's on a very different scale but one of our clients, Nolan Porter, is doing quite well from Paul Weller's cover of "If I Could Only Be Sure" which has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK - plus many more overseas.

Since then it's also been covered by Marvel, The Link Quartet and others, and I'm negotatiting a sync license to place it in a movie at the moment. Even my mam knows the song now.

And if we loook at it in ten years time, I think we'll see dozens more versions of this song - and some in different languages.

The oddest recent cover we got is "Grooving At The Go-Go" which has just been cut by Real Life featuring Horace Panter on bass. We're also trying to get that into a new movie and the band are about to sign a major record deal.

As good material is in short supply these days, the cover version is of great importance. Until recently our biggest "new income" had been from sampling.

More people are looking at classic soul as a source of material now.

Paul Mooney

It's on a very different scale but one of our clients, Nolan Porter, is doing quite well from Paul Weller's cover of "If I Could Only Be Sure" which has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK - plus many more overseas.

Since then it's also been covered by Marvel, The Link Quartet and others, and I'm negotatiting a sync license to place it in a movie at the moment. Even my mam knows the song now.

And if we loook at it in ten years time, I think we'll see dozens more versions of this song - and some in different languages.

The oddest recent cover we got is "Grooving At The Go-Go" which has just been cut by Real Life featuring Horace Panter on bass. We're also trying to get that into a new movie and the band are about to sign a major record deal.

As good material is in short supply these days, the cover version is of great importance. Until recently our biggest "new income" had been from sampling.

More people are looking at classic soul as a source of material now.

Paul Mooney

Paul, I reckon you're blessed with what you do for a living !

Now, let's get that Bert Decoteaux thread happening again ... got me thinking because I was looking at that youtube jobbie of the making of Tony Drake's Let's Play House, Bert was involved in that record and the visuals of the people in the studio had me thinking the guy at the piano had to be Bert ?

MAURICE WILLIAMS with his song "STAY" it seems everyman and his dog have recorded this tune since Maurice first wrote it back in 1960, and must have made life quite nice for one of our soul heroes.

Maurice Williams was also the lead singer with the Gladiolas, who recorded the original version of Little Darlin', which was overtaken by the white cover version by the Canadian group the Diamonds. They specialised in covers of mainly black doo wop songs. I don't know if MW wrote Little Darlin', but I suspect he did.

Anyway that's my bit of useless information for today.

Paul, I reckon you're blessed with what you do for a living !

Now, let's get that Bert Decoteaux thread happening again ... got me thinking because I was looking at that youtube jobbie of the making of Tony Drake's Let's Play House, Bert was involved in that record and the visuals of the people in the studio had me thinking the guy at the piano had to be Bert ?

Hello Sunnysoul,

To be honest, you're absolutely right. Anyone who enjoys their work is blessed and shouldn't forget that some people hate their jobs whilst other people don't have jobs. For fifteen years I was a rep for an insurance company and I although I liked my clients I didn't get much job satisfaction.

As for Bert DeCoteaux, I was told not long ago that he's still alive but wasn't well. And he is black, by the way, despite the wonderful European surname.

Best regards,

Paul Mooney