Roburt

The two posts above have a common link ............. Geraldine Hunt was signed up (managed?) by Bob Catron. Bob worked for & ran a number of labels, one of those he worked for was Witch. On Witch, he had the Versalettes recording under his supervision. After the label was shut down, they licensed a couple of later (Detroit cut) Versalettes tracks to Okeh ...... ..... but they called the group the Little Foxes for the purposes of their Okeh 45. So it seems that Bob Catron cultivated strong Chicago / Detroit links.

Going off tack a bit ..... but still acetate related .......... Back in the 50's / early 60's some disc recording lathes had 16" turntables. For use on these machines, 16" diameter acetates were made and used. These probably fell out of use just about everywhere by around 62/63. But as some folk on here are into doo-wop, blues and early R&B, I was wondering if anyone has a cut on a 16" acetate ?? Many radio stations had / used disc recording lathes in the 1950’s. These were soon replaced by tape recorders but the old lathes were still used for recording commercials. Audio stuff received from advertising agencies soon changed over to magnetic pre-recorded tapes but the radio station engineers still dubbed much of the content onto 16” transcription discs for play on the air. These transcription discs were known as 'instantaneous recording discs' (acetates). They were made from aluminium blanks that were coated with cellulose nitrate lacquer. The coating on the discs was a complicated brew of lacquer, plasticizers, dyes, lubricants, and other things but actual acetate wasn't used. They were termed 'instantaneous recording discs' at the radio stns because they would be used 'on air' immediately after the recording process had been completed. Back in the 1950's / early 60's loads of black music was cut onto such discs using these radio station based machines and the resulting tracks hawked around by the singers in order to land a 'proper' record deal. That's why many early 60's black acts had a radio DJ as their early manager, because those DJ's had made it possible for them to make a 'first record'. So a good few early 60's pre-soul tracks will have existed on such acetates. Anyone got one ? ........ Disc cutting lathes in use at a US radio station ..........

Moving on then ......... this time to Geraldine Hunt. She was born in St Louis but her family moved to a (very rough) part of Chicago when she was still young. She started singing early and was 'discovered' in the early 60's. She had 45's out on labels with Chicago connections but worked with people from Detroit (Mike Hanks, etc). She had releases on Katron (picked up by Checker), USA and Bombay, Mike Hanks being involved with cuts she had out on all those labels. Summer 66 and Bob Catron got her signed to ABC with Johnny Pate producing her for the company. She cut a duet with Charlie Hodges that charted for Calla in 1970. More 45's followed, many on Roulette. In the mid 70's, she moved to Canada and ended up having big disco hits into the 80's. So which (if any) of her early tracks count as DETROIT ?? Two fine (one 60's / one 70's) Chicago linked outings ............

The "As You Can See" cut ........... then tuvaside as well ........

Label scan of the other side of the 45 ..............

The Johnny Robinson who cut for Okeh recorded "Gone But Not Forgotten" (& "I Need Your Love So Bad") with Mike Terry producing ...... ... Guess it was a 'Detroit recording' then. His 'Memphis High' Epic album (cut in Memphis with Willie Mitchell) would be a good candidate for CD reissue in my book.

I like my vinyl as much as the next man ..... but I think I'll buy the CD version of one new release ........ Z Records have just put out a double album -- 'Overdose of the Holy Ghost'. This features a selection of great modern gospel cuts (I believe just 10 tracks spread out over 4 sides of vinyl). HOWEVER....... the double CD version features 24 tracks and is about half the price of the vinyl version. The Dan Greer track on the album ............ With the upturn in interest in old and newer gospel dancers, will we have to add NG, MG to the NS, MS tags in the near future ??

The news article says Bob B was working on tracks by Johnny Robinson back then. Johnny Robinson had a 45 out on Mercury in 1965; a 2 part song "I Gotta Kick The Habit" (I don't know who produced that). However, the teaming with Bob Bateman doesn't seem to have been successful as no Johnny Robinson 45's escaped on Mercury in 1966. There was a Johnny Robinson recording around then. That Johnny Robinson went on to have deals with Okeh & Epic but was recording (for Strike) as just Johnny R' around 1966. ..... see .......... https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/R/johnny_robinson/index.php

Real singers, real musicians, good songs sung with emotion ......... it'll never catch on !!!

You just need to go to the 'Soul Video Audio Radio' section and click onto a 'Divine Gospel Show' thread ......... Greg posts up a link to his gospel shows on there (he puts them up on Mixcloud).

Well Capitol certainly believed in them back in 1967 ......... a trade ad (full page) they put out ........

Not according to Mercury Records press briefings given at the very end of 1965 & reported by the likes of Billboard. See below ......... ........ seems Mercury were takin loads of outside guys on at that time; Curtis Mayfield, Major Lance, Chip Taylor, Shadow Morton, Dave Bartholomew, Jerry Ross, Ted Cooper, Carl Spencer, Pac 4, Major Bill Smith & Bob Bateman .............

We could do with a 'new' decent Mag Men compilation CD .......... Collectables put a CD on the group out in the US about 20 years back ..... ..... BUT we need a decent one put together by a real soul fan. Where's Ian Dewhirst or Ady when you need them ????

A short piece on Bob Bateman & his biggest song at Motown ......... https://www.alexandermagazine.com/recordingeq/weeklytip/06tip03-3b_new.asp I know Bateman was working for Mercury in 1965/66, probably in New York (or maybe Chicago) ? So how come he came to end up working in New York and no longer being a part of the Motown team ..... ....... was he 'sidelined' there & thought he could do better working 'independently' ?

Will this do instead .............. ....... OR THIS ........... ......... OR EVEN THIS ...........

An ad from back in the day ............

Guess there was no connection between these later (Chicago based?) Fabulous Playboys (with Thomas East) and the outfit above (who became the Falcons on Atlantic, LuPine, Big Wheel & Moira).

This was Detroit, even though it escaped on a New York label .......... Was it on Daco first & then picked up by Apollo for wider distribution ?

Nudaun ....... Erma Franklin .............

The Ronettes .............

The Sam Cooke (soundalike) song that was also used ...........

Dinah Washington ...........

Don't start blind buying 45's made by Dusty Williams thinking you might find a NS gem ......... The main 'Dusty Williams' who recorded (for the likes of Boney Records through the 60's) is a hillbilly C&W style singer ..... AND .......... don't buy rekids by this Geno by mistake either .........

Gino & Dusty ....... on youtube ......... An e-mail address for Dusty is up on the clip. Get in touch with him & ask him the full story.