Roburt

Lets get back on track ..... Is there anything much on the net (even C&W related) about Jim Stanton and his Nashville Champ Sound Studios. Seems strange that there is loads about his early years cutting in radio stn studios, but not much about his work in his own studio (apart from details of many of the gospel tracks he produced / engineered).

By the 80's, Oliver no longer had a copy of any of the Gaslight 45's. I'd taken along my spare copy of one of them to get it signed. Needless to say, when we left Scotland, it remained with him.

Loads of recordings sample Oliver's "Get Down Saturday Night" plus of course Room 5 took it to the top of the charts with their 'remake'. He got to be on TV performing with them a lot at the time. When that track was in the charts, a cheap label UK CD was released that featured a lot of cover tracks (of old soul songs) that Oliver had recorded around the 1990's. I saw the CD cheap in a supermarket & turned my nose up at it. Later I wished I'd bought it as it contained some good songs which no doubt he had done decent versions of. Back in the mid 80's, the wife & I got to hang out with him for a day -- in his hotel room & at a club sound check / performance in Kirckaldy. One of the songs he was toying with the idea of recording at that time was "That's How Hearbreaks Are Made". He was singing the verse & playing along on his guitar and the wife & I came in on backing vocals on the chorus -- he was most impressed that we knew the song. I have copies of all his Move & Champion 45's around here somewhere; he cut some decent stuff that they put out in the 80's.

Oliver also sang on the tracks released by Mad Dog & the Pups (neither the kids or the dog that supposedly made up that group could sing a note). He was on Breakfast TV many years back as a guest & they asked for questions for him ..... so I rang in & got them to ask about it and he confirmed that he sang lead vocals on their sessions (can't remember exactly when it was but it was the morning of the day when John Benson had his 50th birthday party coz Johnny Vaughan chatted to me live 'on air' & asked me what I was doing later that day. He seemed very interested that I was going to a soul related birthday do). Got photos of Oliver from the mid 80's on an old computer, this is the only one I copied across from that night in Scotland ..............

Anything soulful happen down Bezier way ? My mates place down there is now finished & ready for occupation; so should be heading that way for a break (or two) next year. .... ALSO .... when are the Perpignan weekenders held ?

............... . I only know of a couple of copies, Guy's and Shane from London. Ultra rare ................ ............. I actually have two copies with different label variations ............. You can't tell people that Bob !! You've just devalued that 45 by about 1000% !!!!! Guess that turns it from rare soul to just ordinary soul, many NSers will have no interest in it anymore now. The strange world of NS .... who found the 1st copy, who played it 1st & at which youth club ............. WHO CARES; well not me at least.

Well, as Zoot Money was doing the song in the mid 60's, it was a 'mod' tune back then. Mind you, I was a mod then as well.... AND ..... I never knew of the Earl Grant version. Don't forget that back in the mid 60's, we were still busy chasing UK 45's & US imports were quite exotic items (unless you were from Liverpool or a similar port).

New thread on Pete Terrace on 'Look At Your Box' There's also a thread on the New York (RCA) / Swedish King George.

See thread on 'All About The Soul'

MORE on Jim 'Hobie' Stanton -- the engineer (& probably producer) of many of the United Records soul tracks .............. In the 1940s, Hobe Stanton of Johnson City (Tennessee) pioneered some of the earliest recordings of what today are recognized as "bluegrass" recordings. Jim Hobart (Hobe) Stanton was a distributor who installed records in local jukeboxes in 1946. His ear for music and knowledge of local tastes helped him earn more by producing records himself. Much as Victor Records' Ralph Peer had done in 1927-1928, Stanton sought local talent, finding as much as he needed. His initial investment was minimal. Performers were eager to record, and regional radio stations had studios and equipment available for making master recordings on acetate discs (tape mastering was still a few years in the future). Prominent among those stations was WOPI in Bristol, Va. but other artists were cut at WWNC (Asheville, N. C.) and WWVA (Wheeling, W.Va). Masters were processed and records were pressed at Palda Records in Philadelphia, another independent producer. Payments to artists were minimal, but most were glad simply to be on record. A few even paid Stanton for the privilege. Several addresses for his Rich-R'-Tone Records appeared in contemporary trade journals: Rich-R'-Tone Record Co., 113 W. Main Street, Johnson City, Tennessee (January 1949); Rich-R'-Tone and Acme Record Record Co., Inc., Campbellsville, Ky., (August 1952); Rich-R'-Tone Record Co., 407 W. Main St., Morristown, Tenn., (December 1953). I have no idea when Jim relocated to Nashville, no doubt that info can be found on some C&W site on the internet. He seemed to open his own studio (Champ Sound Studios) around the mid 1970's.

Mike Johnson terms himself as Country Music's No. 1 'Black' Yodeler. Born in DC to parents who came from SC, he's been singing C&W songs since the mid 60's (he was always a big 'cowboy' fan). After cutting some earlier songs in Nashville, he eventually met up with Jim Stanton in 1983 & started recording at Champ Recording Studio on Church Street. Jim mentored Mile who continued to record his songs at Champ Studio until Jim Stanton's untimely death in 1989. Mike says "Jim taught me how the Nashville clique thought and worked..." So it seems that Jim Staton's heart was more into C&W than soul or gospel but he cut the later music styles to keep his studio busy.

This youtube clip of Zoot Money's Big Roll Band doing the song says that Percy Mayfield did the 1st version in 1960 ... Zoot first cut a version of this back in 1966 >> Zoot Money's Big Roll Band "Ž— 'Were You There? Live 1966'

Herbert Hunter (1962) ........

Ray Charles ..................

Just looked and the Linzy Washington 45 was also engineered by Jim Stanton; so I guess he was responsible for most of the initial 4/5 soul singles released on the label. Is the "Sitting In The Park" that was released on the label a cover of the old Billy Stewart song ?

The engineer on the Black Exotics 45 was Jim Stanton as well; so guess both thIs & the United Sounds were cut in Nashville; probably at his Champ Sound Studios. With regard to it sounding earlier than 1975 ....... most stuff that Jim Staton did was gospel tracks (+ country tracks I am led to believe -- stuff that came out on Rich-R-Tone Records). Most gospel acts in the 70's & 80's were going for a retro sound; so a male gospel quartet in 1973 would have been aiming to sound more like the late 60's Four Tops or O'Jays than to copy the current tracks those groups were recording. With most of his work having a retro sound, perhaps both these groups wanted a similar retro sound when they worked with him (or maybe that's the type of sound he always aimed for).

We discussed this guy's output on the "Boogaloo Investigator" thread.

If you plan to visit New York next year, be sure not to miss this Broadway show .............

YEP, been 'biggin' you up for too long. It's time to cut you down to size !!

Well the engineer on this 45 track was Jim Stanton. That must be the same Jim Stanton that ran Champ Records and Champ Sound Studio (of 1705 Church St. Nashville). Don't think the studio itself was up & running untill sometime into the 70's, but Staton was known as a producer & engineer on country, blues & gospel tracks before that. He produced / engineered loads of gospel tracks in the 1970's, most being custom recordings commisioned by the group / singer or their manager. Maybe this was a 'one off' session for this group that he was paid to work on (maybe he produced the track as well, no producer being credited on the label). Some of the gospel sessions he worked on resulted in releases on the Champ label itself in the 70's, but many escaped on other labels such as HSE. He produced / engineered this track on the Speight Sisters that was released on HSE .............

Kegsy has always looked shady to me .... even in strong sunlight !!!

I've probably already got it on a UK issue. No idea where to start looking to check though. I'll have to find the time to sort everything into some sort of order in my record boxes. I spend way more time looking for some 45's than actually playing em.

National & Regional Breakouts on this list .......

If you were a 13 year old kid, running a makeshift radio station out of your bedroom on 'Mickey Mouse' equipment, you must have been blown away when you saw this record company ad placed in Billboard ........... I bet Walt(er) was the 'big' guy in school all that year !!!

Some of these tracks now making it as Regional Breakouts had started out as local radio stn DJ tips (see earlier posts on this thread) ...