Sunnysoul

I should also have mentioned in my detailed post above a few other famous Soul Music personalities from the US who made their home in Australia in the 70's and 80's , namely ... One of soul music's greatest producers and arrangers GIL ASKEY of Motown and Curtom label fame , and who is alive and well and living in Melbourne, As well as the greatest and longest serving Ikette Ms VENETTA FIELDS who was also the lead voice with Mirwood's Mirettes. Venetta has been a mainstay on the Oz live and session scene since the mid 70's !

Now let me think , what's that fella's name ... aah yes ... Ian Levine

I am happy to clarify many of the points raised in this thread ! Firstly, let me say that the Spinners' original recording of I'll Be Around is untouchable, but of the many subsequent versions, Doug's is easily as good as any of the others !!! I saw Doug Parkinson performing live in Sydney on several occasions throughout the 80's and 90's and was lucky enough to meet and briefly talk to him about his music. And I was also the first person to inform him that his version of I'll Be Around on the Southern Star label was a northern collectable !!! You should've seen the look on his face when I told him it was fetching upwads of 75 quid !!! Familiar story , right ? Doug started out in the mid 60's in Sydney with a chart topping band that was something like an Oz equivalent of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, a tough blue eyed soul / RnB style act. Their 45's on Festival are all worth collecting and several have real northern dancefloor appeal 6T's style ! As psychedelia kicked in around '67 Doug went a bit "way out" as many performers did and it was around that time that his distinctive image and appearance was set in stone : frizzy afro style hair and pencil thin goatee beard . And he looks exactly the same today, not changed a bit. He is also a BIG guy and if you blinked for a moment you could certainly mistake him for a light skinned black guy !!! He certainly sings like one !!! By the end of the late 60's he had a massive chart hit with a super-soulful version of the Beatles "Dear Prudence" and he had further hits into the early 70's in a heavier RnB / guitar vein. But as time wore on into the mid 70's he followed his true musical calling as a genuine SOUL man and he became a central figure in the absolutely cooking local Sydney LIVE JAZZ FUNK SOUL scene in the mid to late 70's along with Marcia "You Gotta Let Go" Hines, Renee "Be There In The Morning" Geyer , the Hot City Bump Band, Johnny Rocco , Doug "Love Will Bring You Home" Williams (of Rockmelons fame - Searling again!) (incidentally Doug Williams once told me that at one time he actually recorded with with northern legends the Younghearts of Countdown Here I Come and A Little Togetherness fame when Williams was living in LA!) not to mention Delilah , Chelsea Brown (the black chick of 'Laugh In" US TV fame ) and Freddie Parris (yes that Freddie Parris!), and Steve Clisby the incredible original lead voice of US soul legends American Gypsy !!! But I digress ... Doug Parkinson recorded I'll Be Around in 1977 and it hit BIG on the Aussie charts. But success on the Australian pop music scene in the 70's never translated into riches so Doug - for the next 30 years up to the present day - has had to scrape a modest living and as a result has been constantly in demand for his singing voice on TV commercials for everything from Amoco petrol to mobile car repair companies !!! His huge soulful voice is instantly recognisable from the first few notes !!! He has NEVER been a cabaret or middle of the road singer at any time but that's been the "perception" amongst the general population Down Under because of the fact of his physical appearance and his biggest hit I'll Be Around came at the height of DISCO and because he's had to scrape a living as a singer he has often done shows in fooball clubs and retired servicemen's clubs !!! So he's always been saddled with that "perception". But ask any famous Australian musician or performer from the 60s70s80s and all have the utmost respect for the man !!! A Val Doonican or Englebert Humperdinck clone ? No way ! Only in the eyes of the ignorant or musically tasteless ! More like Teddy Pendergrass or Marvin Junior ! And he just happens to be a really down to earth quietly spoken humble kinda guy too !!!! As for the popularity of I'll Be Around on the northern scene, I met Dave Sinclair in Melbourne in the late 80's after I had promoted the first ever Northern Soul Allnighters in Australia and Dave DID confirm that it was he who had introduced the record to Richard Searling ! As Maria mentioned , Dave is still in Melbourne and can be contacted. (Maria are you in Sydney at the moment ?) Let me just finish with this (and no I'm not Doug Parkinson's personal promotions company!) if Doug ever were to get the opportunity to record that voice of his on a full LP worth of original written tunes with a collection of soulful US musos the results would certainly be soulfully spectacular !

UK Sue !!!

HOW GOOD IS THIS AMERICAN TV COMMERCIAL FROM THE EARLY 70'S PROMOTING A SOUL LP !!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUeJiapifSc Always nice to see the boys, one of the great Philly soul groups, but this clip is extra interesting for several reasons ... Firstly, they're in the UK performing live with the Top of the Pops Orchestra backing 'em .. and Secondly this is from the time when Major Harris had just joined the group , he having had several solo chart failures with rubbish like Call Me Tomorrow on Okeh Super stuff though !

If you're called "one-off" now, what are they gonna call you when you hit 10,000 ?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDJGYTiHJ5A I'm as excited about finding this footage as when I posted the clip of the Philly group Love Committee some months ago. Never thought I'd ever see film of these guys who recorded several fabulous and much sought after soul and boogie LP's on Mercury through the 70's ...

Wunnerful, Pete , keep 'em coming ! You're also closing in on the 10,000 posts milestone !

I'll dig it out of storage and let you know but it was one of those P-Vine LP jobbies that compiled two or three tracks from three or four artists from the same family of labels and put it out as a various artists comp. Great stuff BUT I hope someone will one day translate from Japanese into English those inner sleeve notes that so many of the P-Vine LP's carry with them !!!

Sean, just to complete the vinyl release picture on Eddie Billups, Shake Off That Dream and its wonderful flip side both appeared on a superb and very tough to find Japanese only LP on P-Vine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKcifLreYiY In my my very humble opinion, further evidence if any further evidence was needed , that Ruffin was the greatest soul vocalist ever ... This was in the twilight of his career around '79/80 on Soul Train and he completely transcends the commercial disco stage setting and turns in a totally gut wrenching performance that only he was capable of. Soul of the very highest order

The Sisters Love thread got me thinking ... Like most Soul Source members, I don't care much at all for most of Mr Levine's productions but this one really IS irresistible ... and so credit where credit is due ... Chuck as you'd expect does a fabulous vocal , the song is well written , and the intro nicked straight off the Spinner's "I'll Be Around" is a little naughty but it all works (despite the obvious limitations of the synthesised instrumentation) ... very anthemic isn't it ? What do you think ?

Pete, if you had one for sale, how much would you put on it ?

Such a brilliant and underrated record that deserves reactivation. BUT was it ever released in the UK ???

To add to the comments above, think Millie's " House For Sale " as released on the AUSSIE issued POLYDOR LP is again a little different to all the abovementioned takes ...

I guess it's been a life mission of mine from my mid teens to collect every Australian issued 45 , EP , 12" or LP that was literally EVER issued from the late 50's through to the early 80's and that is remotely connected to soul , blues , girl group , funk , philly , disco , ska , reggae , jazz , boogie or rhythm n blues. And that includes both commercial chart soul and disco hits as well as the more underground side of black music , eg northern soul related (Gloria Scott, Sapphires, Jessica James & the Outlaws, Tony Middleton , Metros , Larry Santos , Jackie Day EP etc etc ). I'm about 98% close to completion , it works out to around 20,000 records !!! So, for example , I have every Australian Motown 45 release from the early 60's through to the early 80's (even the country and pop things on Motown!) , and every Australian Chess , Stax , Red Bird release and so on ... and all the black music related releases on Aussie Stateside and London and Festival and W & G etc etc It's been been a great trip !!!

On Frank Wilson , if another genuine original copy of that record was made available for sale right now to the general public, I have absolutely no doubt that it would fetch (justified or not) WELL in excess of 15,000 pounds. Anyone here think otherwise ? In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were more than a few soul collectors in the world at the present time who would readily pay well over 20,000.00 - 25,000.00 pounds for a Frank Wilson if one were offered for sale.

Yeah, I was gonna throw in Eric in the overrated lot too, he was just so terribly ham-fisted in his approach to blues singing ... But Van Morrison is most definitely one of the most soulful white fellas to ever walk the planet IMHO, he had much more depth than Dylan , both vocally and lyrically ...

Yes, but the other side "The Big Parade" is a great dancer with a touch of the 5th Dimensions about it , but nowt wrong with that !

I simply can't tolerate that handful of white artists that the rock press have for the last 40 odd years been touting as great white soul / blues singers, to somehow justify that whitey really can sing as good as the black man ... Janis Joplin Joe Cocker Dusty Springfield (I know that one will upset a lot of my fellow soul source members!) and more recently Joss Stone and Amy Winehouse ... And I'm with Pete Smith and the others... I've never seen the point of Bob Dylan at all ... But just to give a bit of balance to my statement, I do believe that Steve Winwood's work with the Spencer Davis Group was very worthy of the "soul" tag, and the more I listen to Chris Farlowe's mid 60's Immediate work the more I value him as a white soul singer, and of course other marvellous blue-eyed soul/blues figures like Tony Joe White and the plethora of mainly southern white soul guys like Dan Penn, Ray Crumley etc etc ... anyway I digress

Same guy , yes, and he was a member of the Experts I believe. Co Operate is an excellent northern dancer !!!

I'm with Dave , gotta be Chuck every time !!!!!!!!!

Well, I agree with you , Tone !!! I also wanted to mention that The Insiders "I'm Stuck On You/Chapel Bells" amazingly was released on AUSTRALIAN RED BIRD, one of the holy grails of Aussie rare soul releases , along with Didi Noel's " Let The Music Play " (yes, on Aussie Red Bird !!! Didi was on Blue Cat in the US !!!) Unable to scan the Aussie Insiders release at the moment Tone but I can post you a nice colour photograph of it if you like , would look great as one of the illustrations in the insert to the CD, methinks !

Sammy Davis Jr " You Can Count On Me " !!!!!!!!!!!