Sebastian

3 hours ago, Paul-s said:

I am giving the club a shout out and Helena: unfortunately, people seem to forget the young female DJ collectors who contributed to the scene.

That's so true. Big thanks for giving Helena and our club a mention.

Really glad to hear that Club Function is still on people's minds, Paul!

I (Sebastian Fonzeus) ran that club night together with my friends Jonte Lindell, Helena Strömdahl and Joppe Odhner.

The first night took place in January 2007.

The last night was our 5th anniversary which took place on Saturday the 14th of January 2012.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you need any other info.

Just noticed that Leroy Barbour even copyrighted the song as his own!

The original copyright info (and label info) miscredits Terrence "Terry" Callier as Terrance Collier.

It is also interesting to note that Leroy Barbour cut a version of "I Ain't Going Nowhere" in 1975 on the Frontiersman label, entirely omitting details of the original songwriters. Produced by Phillip Mitchell.

20 hours ago, jukeboxgeorge said:

Ruppli's Mercury discography includes two unissued songs by Jimmy Reed Jr. from the same session:

1-40318 I'm in love with you

1-40321 Only in time

I noticed that two acetates were sold in January 2020 on ebay containing crude demo versions of these four songs:

https://gripsweat.com/item/383351099875/unknown-i-am-in-love-with-you-on-acetate-soul-demo-45-vg-hear

https://gripsweat.com/item/362869417702/unknown-i-aint-going-nowhere-on-acetate-soul-demo-45-vg-hear

I have uploaded the demo versions to YouTube for posterity's sake:

17 hours ago, jukeboxgeorge said:

In addition, Jimmy Reed Jr. filed copyrights on two other songs at the same time the two songs on the Mercury 45 had copyright filings. There were:

Heartaches And Troubles

Got Nowhere To Go (co-written by Al Smith; different from the Johnson / Collier song)

Must be these two, which were included on his fathers' "The New Jimmy Reed Album" from 1967:

Don't they all have "A Declon Recording" printed on the label? Declon was the licensing arm of London Records in the US (which released UK Decca recordings in the US).

On 31/05/2025 at 13:58, David Meikle said:

This one is bit of an enigma for me. Trying to find out if it was released or not is difficult. Perhaps it was a foreign release. Any info would be appreciated.

https://youtu.be/XOaj4Z82e-8?si=uPfMddoiyVlttG7r

The only 7" release I know of is this japanese EP:

https://www.discogs.com/release/27114270-The-Fifth-Dimension-Individually-Collectively

Really liking this one at the moment, came out about 6 months ago but I didn't hear it until recently:

KSR & Konny Kon - Part Of The Plan

6 hours ago, Pomona Soul said:

Trying to find out if it was ever printed. And what it goes for now days.

What does it say on the test pressing? Any writing on the labels? What's in the deadwax?

Isn't the version of "I Gotta Stand For Something" credited to Apple And The Three Oranges on the Now-Again label compilation the exact same versions that were released as by both Barney Williams and Professor And The Efficiency Experts on STANSON cat# 123?

Original.

8 hours ago, Robbk said:

I'm sure I saw a scan Monarch's official pressing totals from their start through the 1970s, and it had a split between vinyl and styrene. I've also read that they had vinyl pressing capability, and that they pressed those on special projects. Chalky must have seen some of the source material I have, or he wouldn't have made the statement above. Unfortunately, I can't remember the source. I don't keep track of such information because I don't write articles for a living. But that data was on a website that had a lot of other US pressing plant data. I seem to remember also reading that Shelley, in Long Island, New York, which pressed mostly on styrene, also had vinyl capability, and pressed some records on vinyl. I guess that there were always some clients that insisted upon getting their recordings pressed on vinyl, and pressing plants wanted to please certain large clients, so despite the cost savings of pressing on styrene, plant owners that wanted to take advantage of that in large volumes, still wanted to have capability for both.

Also related to L.A. pressing plants.......

AnoraksCorner.com lists Allied Record Co. as having a pressing plant in Los Angeles. I assume that that plant sometimes got confused with AlCo (Allied Steel Co.), also in L.A. And, I wonder if ARDCO (Allied Record Distributing Co.) - (secondary level L.A. record distributor) had a connection to Allied Record Co. Can anyone here answer that?

That sounds reasonable.

Found this site a moment ago (that I had no idea existed), it has got some good info:

https://www.monarchrecorddatabase.com/monarch-history

1 hour ago, Robbk said:

But, I don't think ALL the vinyl records that were pressed by AlCo (Allied Steel) were stamped with the Alco stamp. I have several small L.A.(Hollywood-based) label records, which I think were pressed at AlCo, that don't have the stamp.

I think you're absolutely right.

But are you 100% sure that Monarch actually pressed vinyl? I've read elsewhere that they only had styrene presses and vinyl records that carry a delta number were pressed at Alco and not Monarch.

Many of the records pressed on vinyl that bears a "monarch" delta number were actually pressed by Alco. Monarch and Alco shared the same delta numbering system. The records pressed on vinyl that used the monarch delta numbering system should have a (sometimes very faint) Alco stamp in addition to the delta number in the run-out groove.

Yes.

Both sides on that No Na Mee's 45 are fantastic.

Robb is 100% right. Very few of the tracks posted in this thread would be considered garage by people who actually like and collect that "genre" of music.

Strings, horns and harmony vocals are by-and-large big no-no's. Unison (but not harmony) group vocals are more tolerated. Horns are OK when it comes to frat-inflicted stuff like The Sonics etc.

Snotty/snarling/screaming vocals, pummeling beat, distorted guitars, fuzz guitar or heavily distorted guitar break are crucial unless the song is a moody mid-tempo lament or of the more jingle-jangle Byrds-ian variant.

Heavy Kinks/Animals/Them/Pretty Things influence. Often heavy r&b or bo-beat influence, but seldom soul influence.

A few examples:

I've got the previously undocumented Normar issue of...

Larry Darnell's "Too Many Heartaches" / "Cheating On Me"

...on ebay right now.

Barely known to exist as a withdrawn Resist label release, but the Normar issue seems to be a unicorn!

Here it is:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/376289468539

Plenty of other stuff up right now as well:
https://www.ebay.com/str/pushkings?_sop=1

The flipside on that Columbia 45 is fabulous:

5 hours ago, Wiggyflat said:

I know The Levert Sisters version but not this.....I wonder if it is The Forum 

Wow, have to admit that the recording of "A Place For Me" on the acetate is so different from the Leverett Sisters version that I didn't even recognise that they were versions of the same song!

The version of "The River Is Wide" on the acetate sounds like it is modelled after the 1969 Grassroots version, not the 1966 version by the Forum and the vocal stylings of The Forum are totally different than the vocals on the acetate so it's probably an unrelated group/artist.

Both sides on the acetate can be heard here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/356778676048

That vocal sounds like an uncanny mix of Box Tops-era Alex Chilton and "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette"-era Frankie Valli. It's neither of them, but this sure is a full fledged production that it wouldn't surprise me if it has been released in some form. The flipside on the acetate, "The River Is Wide", is a cover of The Grassroots / The Forum. Two fabulous studio/sunshine pop sides. 👍

Side One
1. TEARS AT THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
2. THINK IT OVER (BEFORE YOU BREAK MY HEART) - Brenda Holloway
3. HE WHO PICKS A ROSE - Jimmy Ruffin
4. IF YOU EVER GET YOUR HANDS ON LOVE - Gladys Knight And The Pips
5. SUSPICION - The Originals
6. BABY A GO-GO - Barbara McNair
7. (TELL ME) AIN'T IT THE TRUTH - J.J. Barnes
8. TELL ME IT'S JUST A RUMOUR BABY - The Funk Brothers

Side Two
1. THIS LOVE STARVED HEART OF MINE (IT'S KILLING ME) - Marvin Gaye
2. CRYING IN THE NIGHT - The Monitors
3. YOU HIT ME WHERE IT HURT ME - Kim Weston
4. KEEP STEPPING (NEVER LOOK BACK) - Carolyn Crawford
5. BABY HIT AND RUN (ALTERNATE VOCAL) - The Contours
6. I GOTTA FIND A WAY TO GET YOU BACK - Tammi Terrell
7. MEMORIES OF HER LOVE KEEP HAUNTING ME - The Spinners
8. COME ON AND SEE ME - Chris Clark

2 hours ago, Chalky said:

I’ve not listened that closely on a decent system. There could be more than one take on the tapes as well. If it was re-recorded then they must have had some faith in the group to take them from Miami to Nashville. 

Just because it was released on a Nashville label doesn't mean that it was recorded there. It could've been re-cut in Miami and then they just had the tapes sent to A-Bet/Nashboro. Or as you write, there might've been multiple vocal takes on the original master tape that they could've used for the A-Bet release. In any case, the bongos and backing vocals are not present on the Demon Hot release.

22 hours ago, Chalky said:

so either the group went with Ernie to Abet and re-recorded the track or the tapes did and they were remixed?

The lead vocal phrasing is ever-so-slightly different on Demon Hot vs. A-Bet, so at least parts of it must've been re-recorded and not just remixed.

The other side of the Happy Cats 45 on Grapevine, "These Boots Are Made For Walking", was released on a US 45 in 1966 on the Omack label. The other side is called "My Tune" (penned by Riley Hampton and published by Ollie McLaughlin), I'm guessing it's not "Destroy That Boy", but I haven't heard it.

More info here:
https://boogaloobag.com/2014/07/23/destroy-that-boogaloo/

12 hours ago, Eddie Hubbard said:

It might be rare ,but the mix on

the Ko Ko ‘45 isn’t half as good as the Japanese CD or the Grapevine 2000 / Kent singles .Im my opinion of course ….

It's not just the mix; the vocal take and guitar parts on the KoKo 45 are different takes than the modern day CD/7" "reissues". The original 45 is also missing parts of the horn arrangement and is more heavy on the guitar doing fills. There's a guitar solo between 1:47 to 2:02 that is entirely absent from the "reissued" version where that part is played by a saxophone instead.

Regardless of version, it's an absolutely sublime recording!