Roburt

Is much known about this record company & it's modus operandi ........ it operated out of two bases and seemed to license in some of it's releases, while other stuff appeared to be in-house production efforts. Linked to Bill Staith and Opus VII out of Ohio ... so it spread it's influence across a fair bit of the US .... The soul & funk it put out (which is of most interest to us) seemed to be a small part of it's remit; loads of pop, rock & country too (so may have also had contacts in Nashville).

Top soul artist Lenny Gamble is live on TV (Channel 4's CHRISTMAS BRUNCH) right now talking about his big NS hit & his live appearance at Wigan Casino (if you tune in to Channel 4 +1 in about 45 minutes you'll catch it again) .... NOT TO BE MISSED .... the whole story with added northern dancing thrown in ...

Lee Maye .... he was kept quite busy in the recording studio between 1963 & 1969 ...

Great article here on the Rosemont label & the guy that owned / ran it (& the recording studio that was the main side of the business) .... seems just about everything associated with the studio / label was lost when Katrina decimated New Orleans ... https://www.offbeat.com/articles/the-rosemont-records-story/

The Morecambe Weekender with Sammy Ward, Lou Ragland & Francis Nero on live was held in May 1990 (if my memory is holding up). I ran Lou's UK tour that year and it was one of about 8 live shows he did here that visit (he also did the Yarmouth Soul Weekender on that visit) .... the promoter of the Morecambe event wanted the acts to sing over backing tapes to help keep the overall cost down. I believe the 2 Motown acts were sourced via Levine (& his Motor City label). Sammy Ward dancing @ Morecambe ....

Felice certainly was keeping busy back in the mid 60's ...... Early in 65 she was still in the Sweets (with her 2 sisters ?) and they had a 45 out on Valiant in March 65. Then she must have gone solo quite soon afterwards as her Groove / Cadet 45's escaped in summer / September 66 (credited to Florian Taylor). But in December 66 she had her first Mustang / Barry White produced outing released "It May Be Winter Outside", so that must have been cut around November time (this 45 was released by President in the UK in Jan 67). Her 2nd outing under Barry White's direction escaped in March 67 (US / April 67 (UK) before her big international hit "I Feel Love Coming On" (which didn't even get a US release) hit the UK record shops in Sept 67. Her initial 2 singles on President were both radio / club hits here but the 3rd outing on President made the UK pop charts in November 67 and prompted a number of UK trips / tours over the next 12 months or so. Have the Sweets who had the Soultown 45 out around Oct 67 got anything to do with Felice's group ?

Yes, I added that in, it wasn't there originally. I just wanted to show just about the most important gig she landed on that UK trip. Her Top 10 was printed in NME on 25th Nov 67 and the ad for her gig was in the same edition. She was in good company playing the Saville Theatre in London back then. The place was leased / run by Brian Epstein & the Beatles members would attend on a regular basis. I was there on the night in May 67 when Garnet Mimms was the main support act to top of the bill Jimi Hendrix. Others that topped the bill around then at the venue were the 4 Tops and Jnr Walker.

Seems that around the time that the Florian Taylor 45 was picked up by Chess Records (from Groovy), Felice made a trip over to Chicago to see the guys at the company. In the attached (see below), she states that she was at Chess at the time Fontella Bass was recording "Recovery". Now "Recovery" was released in December 65 and was probably cut a few weeks ahead of that date, say November 65. BUT the Florian Taylor 45 didn't escape on Chess till September 66, so Felice being over in Chicago as early as November 65 seems very unlikely to me. Anyone have any info on these events ?? . . . BTW the quote comes from around a year after her Cadet 45 came out, so the details must still have been fairly fresh in her mind. P.S. can't say I agree with her choice of fave 10 tracks ...

She had 3 7" EP's released in the UK, some others in Europe plus quite a few '7" 'Little LP' jukebox albums in the States. Any of these would look great framed up & hung on a 'record room' wall .... nancy wilson unchain my heart

Her producers seemed (many times) to aim her tracks at the MOR market, but she could still put in a very soulful performance ..... personally, she liked to think to refer to herself as a 'song stylist' ...

She was mainly considered much more of a jazz singer ... but did make a lot of fine soul recordings too ....

It has been announced that Nancy Wilson has passed away at the age of 81 . . . . . R I P .... https://www.showbiz411.com/2018/12/14/rip-great-jazz-and-rb-singer-nancy-wilson-81-winner-of-three-grammy-awards

Then there's Roosevelt Grier, Ed 'Too Tall' Jones (Searling used to spin one of his tracks in the 80's), Alexander O'Neil, Ernie Terrell and others from the US.

Always been a sucker for stuff on different UK labels ... I got this as it was the first that took my fancy on the Warner * Spector label.

The group visited the UK a few times in the 60's & played quite a few club & theatre gigs ... tours here in 64, 65 & 67 .... They did a big UK theatre tour in 64 with Wayne Gibson, Spencer Davis Group & Manfred Mann. OF COURSE ... they toured right across the US for years too ...

Gladys really was at the pinnacle in 73 & 74 ... as in 73 she also won this award ...

I know for some on here, music just about stopped in January 1970, but many of our 60's faves enjoyed the same or even more success in the 70's ... A run down of the most commercial soul in 74 ....

There are a few different songs by that title. Certainly Debbie Taylor also cut a version of the Adams / Jordan song but then she was also a Perception artist at the time.

Anyone know anything about this singer. Guess she was New York based and worked with Patrick Adams & David Jordan for Perception. Two 45's released but then she just seemed to disappear totally.

UK TV clips now ...

AND ANOTHER ... one of the most exiting live acts in the 60's ...

Same show ...

A couple of old clips from US TV ...

Her sides were done by Teen Town Productions. This outfit seemed to originate in La Crosse, Wisconsin (a small city on the banks of the Mississippi River between Chicago & Minneapolis St Paul). They usually cut white garage bands, putting their stuff out on labels such as Coulee, Twin Town and Transaction. The writer of both songs on her 45 was Chicago based David Wilkerson (who worked a lot for One-derful / Mar-V-Lus). So (to me) that points to her being from the La Crosse / Chicago region and having hooked up with Teen Town Prods to cut her tracks which escaped on Chicago based Avin Records. Although her 45 credits just Wilkerson as being the writer, when registered with BMI the song had gained another writer; Veron Taplin. It seems that Taplin had connections with Bill Lasley's Celtex & Avin Record labels and got his name on the song via that means. One of the most NS style 'garage band' records cut by Teen Town Prods was the Unchained Mynds - GOING BACK TO MIAMI (a cover of the Wayne Cochran song done in a Mitch Ryder & Det. Whs fashion) .... This doesn't help ID who Donna was but provides some background on her cuts.

In 1965, EMI were putting stuff out in the UK plus 45 other countries (see btm of ad below). Don't know if they used the Stateside label in all those countries though. Guess Capitol Records (USA) was one of those foreign country EMI companies, so that's at least one country where there would have been no Stateside label releases. I think they only had the Capitol label in Canada too in the 60's (Cliff Richard 45's -- EMI's biggest British act with an international profile ahead of the Beatles -- had his stuff put out by EMI in Canada on the Capitol label).