Sunnysoul

The Man Behind Mickey ShorrMickey Shorr grew up in the metro Detroit area and was working in the radio business at age 14. At 15, he opened a downtown disc recorder concession with money saved from a paper route. Shorr dropped out of high school and worked in several radio jobs including an all night spot he called "Corn til Morn". Following an Army tour, Mickey went to New York and worked burlesque with a comedy act. After coming back to Detroit he opened up a used car lot called "Joe's Jalopies". The cars were junkers and the business didn't make it. Mickey started doing his own radio ads selling seat covers. That led into being the top rated DJ overnight. Shorr promoted rock in roll and met many people in the recording business like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and was earning $100,000 in 1959. But Shorr's success fell as quickly as it rose. Mickey said he was fired Thanksgiving Day for payola. "For something I didn't do...I was blackballed for five years. No one would talk to me." He moved to Florida, then California where he peddled from a car loaded with cookware and tools, did some theatrical productions and even made a hit record that, according to Shorr, was "a corny take-off on Ben Casey. I lived on that for a year." A man from Chicago approached Mickey about setting up an FM station. At that time FM was just getting off the ground. The innovations Shorr brought helped them become the first FM to make it into the top ten. He had 25 female announcers from different nationalities and accents as well as sports done in "street language". Tapes were becoming popular and so were car stereos. So Mickey came home to Detroit and got on the bandwagon with $1000 and one installer. He opened up a shop on Davidson in Detroit. He was told he couldn't open his doors with so little but Mickey pulled the deal together anyway. The day before opening he was affectionately greeted by a man saying "Mickey, my man, how you doin?". Mickey said "He said it like I had never been gone and I knew from that moment I was going to make it. We opened the next day and sold 300 tapes." He suffered four heart attacks since, retired for 5 years and put the business up for sale. Driving over to sign the deal Mickey told his wife, "I can't sell. I'll die if I do." So, he didn't sell.

Already discussed at length on here .... /forums/topic/81035-micky-moonshine-going-rate/?page=5

Festival Records in Australia had no formal connection with Herb Abramson's Festival US outfit. As for Lee Gordon's connection to Detroit, Gordon was in fact an American, born and raised in Detroit. He came to Australia in 1953 and was a pivotal figure as a concert promoter during the early rock'n'roll era in Australia. He was based primarily in Australia until his death in 1963 although he spent much of 1958-59 back in the US. His record label Leedon was established in 1958 and distributed by Festival Records (Australia). All the early releases on Leedon were by overseas artists. It wasn't until late 1959 that Australian artists appeared on the label. On the Australian Leedon issue of the Popcorn record is noted "Lee Gordon Publishing Company". The composer credit is "R Wylie".

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Anyone noticed the clever advert ebay are using for their hump month sale? Obviously a soul influenced theme tune...

Why not simply communicate with the seller , ask the obvious questions and find out if the seller and the record are genuine ?

Kiki Dee - On A Magic Carpet Ride - is as good as it gets.

Dallas Hyde is a Brit expat normally resident in Western Australia but apparently based in Singapore at the present time doing northern and modern gigs. He posts regularly on facebook - I've just dumped below a facebook post of his from the other day. If you're on facebook just contact him .... Dallas Hyde 3 June at 13:57 · Edited You know your doing something right when the dancefloors bouncing that much and the crowds going wild plus and you have to do this to the turntables for record protection. What a great night it was in Singapore......memorable. Roll on the next one. This was one of the best received thunderous applause and cheep record to boot.

"I do wish Kent would release the sleeve notes alone for their CD’s in a book." I definitely second that .

Thanks for providing the scan of the record

Would still love to see a scan of the record, anyone ?

Thanks for that information. Does anybody know what became of Gene Faith after he left the Volcanos and after he recorded his solo sides ?

Excellent uptempo cover by Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers can be had for a few bucks

Various threads on here on this topic ...

Interesting comments from a Soul Source "guest" in the last post on the thread on "Heartache Souvenirs" producer Miles Grayson . Guests mark.w, on Sep 30 2007, 10:22 PM, said: I'm pretty sure Wiliam Powell owned a record store in LA when he did the Power-House tracks. Sometime around this coming out he was shot. May be something like the story of "Try Me(For Your New Love)" and Junior Mccants family having the record pulled after his death.

Anyone know what the Volcanos group line up is expected to be? Will Gene Faith be singing lead?

Any info on Kenny Carlton himself, Ady ?

Thanks Robb ... seems that no one else has any information to offer ..

That lead vocal sounds suspiciously like Maurice Chestnut !

The notes in the Goldmine CD "Lost & Found" speculate as to whether Kenny Carlton was in fact Kenny Carter who recorded for RCA. Anyone?

Looking for some bio information on Kenny Carlton who recorded "Lost and Found" on Blue Rock. There doesn't appear to be any information on him. Was Kenny Carlton a pseudonym? Was his Blue Rock release his only recording? Any information would be appreciated. Many thanks

Sadly there is little visual footage of the Platters from their"soul" years. However there is this nice clip from the late 60's with Sonny Turner front and centre ...

Would just like to see it Steve because there appear to be no photos whatsoever of the record on the net and none listed on popsike or collectors frenzy, discogs and the other usual media places. Literally nothing (that I can see or find).

Could someone be kind enough to post a scan of this record, both sides please. Many thanks.