Mickey Finn

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/18/dr-dre-marvin-gaye-biopic-rights

Got a notification from Amazon about Lamont's new album. Also included, and giving some idea of how clever marketing people see Lamont's album pitching: Various Artists, "Smooth Rock" 4CDs, 80 soft rock, MOR and yacht rock classics Graham Nash, "Over the years" Various Artists, "Revamp: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin" (featuring Miley Cyrus, Sam Smith, Queens of the Stone Age...) Phosphenes,..

She also went through a phase of adding an 'e' at the end of Warwick (during her stint on Warner Bros) - silent as far as I know. Seems it was a numerology thing, 8 letters better than 7. Also Jean Carn became Carne.

Dionne Warwick reportedly prefers her surname pronounced as War-wick. Dee Dee had other ideas:

Names associated with HB Barnum include OC Smith, Lou Rawls, Freda Payne, Spanky Wilson, Johnny Bristol, O'Jays, 100 Proof Aged in Soul, Nancy Wilson, Jr Walker, Jackson 5, Al Wilson, Smokey Robinson, Buddy Miles, Edna Wright, Gladys Knight, Irma Thomas, James Brown ... as well as a lot of performers not in any way associated with soul. Looks like the resume of a professional freelance musician and arranger who has the versatility to..

Very sad indeed - 65 isn't much of an age to go these days. Got to laugh at these journos using their keyboard as a long stick with anything going near the dreaded disco, as opposed to "real" music. Miles Davis's 70s groups had some big r&b hitters - Mtume, Lucas, Michael Henderson, and guitarist Pete Cosey who was part of the Chess set up during the 60s, including the Electric Mud Band. Reggie Lucas had his own websit..

"Keep going on" by Gary Bartz feat. Tawatha appears on the Expansion Mtume-Lucas comp but this mainly instrumental is on the "Bartz" LP, also cheap as chips, and reissued on cd a few years back. Classy classy classy...

That comp steered me much deeper into their output than I had been previously. Everything seems to be available cheap as chips on vinyl or on cd reissue which makes for a very nice price/quality ratio. I'll never forget seeing Shaun Robbins pack the Blackpool Hilton lounge twice in the same weekend with that Sadane track. But Ralph Tee and Paul Clifford have been two of the biggest champions of this production team, representing..

Chris, I strongly recommend you get yourself a copy of this great compilation on Expansion: Most of the tracks featured here are on this, including this floor filling cracker:

"Give it on up" quite similar in style and arrangement to Stephanie's "Put your body in it" from the previous year ... and always good to hear Tawatha.

Ralph Tee played this yesterday on his monthly Solar show - brilliant arrangement:

Something from a rare black and white Thames TV show Benny Hill made in 1970, featuring Kiki Dee:

NY Times, May 22, 2018 Reggie Lucas, Versatile Guitarist and Producer, Dies at 65 By Jon Caramanica Reggie Lucas, a guitarist, songwriter and producer who was a member of Miles Davis’s electric band of the early and middle 1970s and who produced the majority of Madonna’s debut album, died on Saturday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 65. The cause was advanced heart failure, his daughter, Lisa Lucas, said. The versatile Mr. L..

Cliff recently recorded an album of soul songs, so with this "tribute" he gains entry. Dozier has form here, having also worked with Phil Collins on his "Inside Seduction" album from 1991, and Phil had a hit with "You can't hurry love". Just in case you missed it, Cliffy's soul album featured some very heavy hitters: From allmusic.com: Recorded in Memphis with Motown songwriting legend Lamont Dozier, Cliff Richa..

Since we're on a Bob James tip here, he did one album with Freddie Hubbard in 1976 that seems not to have been a success as far as their working relationship was concerned. Freddie was in the middle of a more commercial run of LPs for Columbia and this album was probably the most commercial, but it did have this pretty intense number: