Everything posted by Robbk
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Hook Line & Sinker On Mica; Roy Wright
Hawk Records was also co-owned by Bob Lee. Jerhart Music was his personal music publisher (not shared with co-owners). So, when Bob Lee started doing A&R work for other label owners, such as Benson, he had their labels re-relelease his biggest hit-Jimmy Robins' "I Can't Please You", plus Roy Wright's "Hook line and Sinker", and a few others. Lee owned Vick, together with Ruth Moore, Jerhart, together with a money backer. Mica was owned by Al Benson, for whom Lee later worked (1966) -Thus the re-issues.
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Roy Wright - What's The Story?
Mica was owned and run by Al Benson, who sometimes used Bob Lee as a producer. Vick was owned by Bob Lee and Ruth Moore. I believe Vick was regionally distributed along with other Bob Lee labels and Leo Austell's labels, including Renee, Sta-Set, Con-Duc, Mar-Jan, Hawk, Jerhart, and others. Mica had no connection other than independent producer, Bob Lee, working for both. Mica was related to Crash, Glow-Star and The Blues, as they were all owned by Benson during 1965-67.
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Emotions On Vardan
It's not so much that I'm in USA (because I'm only there about 25% of the time- but also in Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Canada large chunks of each year), but, rather, that I WAS in Chicago, Detroit, and L.A, DURING the time that the music was being made, and was buying up R&B and Soul 45s by the thousand during those times (1953-1972), and also working for Motown during most of the 1970s, and helping run a Soul record label from 1979-84. Yes, it was traumatic learning so suddenly about Bob's passing, and not having had any inkling that such a thing might happen. We were friends, as we had similar interests and tastes in Soul music, and were both from Chicago, and loved Chicago soul so very much. We swapped records and CDs. During his last 3 years or so, we communicated almost every day in e-mails, on Soul-source threads, and sometimes by phone. Yet, we weren't close enough friends for me to find out that he was depressed, and had threatened suicide once before. I've lost many friends to illness and old age, but none so young as Bob, and so tragically.
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Emotions On Vardan
I'm honoured to be mentioned in the same breath as our esteemed departed friend, Bob A (may he be spinning discs in the place we will all go after our toil here is done!)
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Emotions On Vardan
Yes, it's the same 2 sides as Philips.
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Emotions On Vardan
The original Emotions' group consisted of James Gregory (Greg), Daniel Saunders (Danny), Melvin Williams (Mel), McHenry Otis (Mike), and Robert Coleman (Bob). Mike sang lead tenor on most songs, Greg was second tenor, Bob was baritone, Mel was bass or baritone depending on the song, and Danny performed a variety of parts where required. Danny, a very talented musician, had taught himself to play piano and bass guitar. Greg also played piano, and he and Danny composed most of the songs themselves.The only industry connection they had when they started was Danny's brother, Ted, who was a member of Don Julian's Larks. One of the Larks' Money sides, in fact, is not the Larks at all, but this very same Emotions group, who had cut their tracks in an LA studio, with Arthur Wright doing the arrangements. There's no mention in the article about The Emotions/Lovers having a connection with Kulka or Golden State Recorders. The Vardan record shows no connection to Golden State Recorders. Arvey Andrews was the group's manager. He was also in the same military base as the group. Danny's brother, Ted, introduced the group to Arthur wright, down in L.A., and they had an audition. Wright recorded several of their songs in L.A., with Andrews paying for the sessions. Wasn't Golden State Recorders only in San Francisco, starting in 1964? I see no evidence that the recordings on Gate Records were recorded later than The Emotions' L.A. Vardan session, nor that they were recorded in San Francisco. The A-side was sped up, but the B side probably was just a 3rd song recorded in the L.A. session, which. I believe had 5 or 6 songs recorded. The three on Vardan/Gate, and at least one more, the cut that appeared on the flip side of a Larks' release on Money Records. I believe that Andrews got the Vardan release pressed up in The Bay Area. During the Vardan Record's run, The label owner of The New Jersey Emotions' group sued Vardan/Andrews. They agreed to the group name change to The Lovers. Then, I assume that Andrews got The Lovers' version pressed up on The Bay Area's Gate Records. I believe that the Gate flipside cut had also been recorded in L.A. by Andrews with Arthur Wright arranging and running the session. The Gate record lists "Arthur Andrews" as the arranger. But, I believe that was a printer error, and should have been "Arthur Wright". I believe that Andrews, as owner, kept the master tapes, and decided to put the other flip on the new, Lovers' release, and to speed up "Do This For Me". Either he went to Gate Records to lease the record, or, perhaps, more likely, Gate Records was his own label, too, or co-owned by him with a financial backer partner. After some local Bay Area success, Andrews then leased the record to Mercury for national release, and they released it on Philips. I haven't seen any connection to Kulka, nor a connection to Golden State Recorders. Perhaps Andrews DID get the speeding up job and recording of the new flip side cut done by Kulka at Golden State Recorders in San Francisco. But, I've seen no evidence of that. And, I've also never seen evidence that Arthur Wright commuted north to The Bay Area to arrange and run recording sessions. On the contrary, I have seen several situations in which Bay area groups traveled down to L.A. to record using Arthur Wright.
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Emotions On Vardan
The group had to change their name to The lovers, when a New Jersey Emotions group sued them. Their connection with L.A.'s Arthur Wright was that one of The Emotions' members was a cousin of one of L.A.'s Larks(former Meadowlarks) of Money Records. Arthur Wright was their arranger.
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Emotions On Vardan
Here's a scan of the Gate 501 release:
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Emotions On Vardan
Here's a link to an article on The Emotions/Lovers group history: https://solidhitsoul.com/vardan.html
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Emotions On Vardan
I've never heard that it was booted. I don't know why they would boot it. It was fairly common. Also, it came out on Philips as by The lovers. i'm sure that was just a group name change.
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Motown Questions On Bbc Mastermind Friday 7Th Nov
Quite right!
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Motown Questions On Bbc Mastermind Friday 7Th Nov
Wasn't Neil Young in The Mynah Birds (along with Rick James)? They had a release scheduled for VIP, but it never came out.
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Motown Questions On Bbc Mastermind Friday 7Th Nov
Drums is correct. Temptations question is confusing because it states "after My Girl" . I think they mean David Ruffin, but maybe they should hace worded the question a different way.
- News: HOF: Ady Croasdell - Outstanding Contribution Inductee
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Larry Clinton Info?
Didn't Clinton also have a release on Arctic Records? I'm sure I have one by him on Arctic.
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Are You One?
I think being called a "Rare Soul Collector" wouldn't be an insult - nor misleading nor a misrepresentation. But a "Northern Soul Fan" is mot what I am.
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Are You One?
This applies to me, as well. Of course, no Brit would think of me as a Northern Soulie. But other North Americans, especially on the Doo Wop forum I frequent, think that I'm heavily into NS. I'd like to be thought of as a music fan, and, if someone had to divide the music into categories, then I'd like to be thought of as a fan of Jazz, Blues, R&B, Gospel, and Soul music, rather than just any single one. (I also like classical, Oriental, Blue Grass and old-fashioned non-commercial US Country-Folk music, Middle Eastern, and, indeed, most ethnic folk music - but wouldn't likely be pegged as a "fan" (fanatic) of those genres).
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Boot?
It MUST be if it is, indeed, grey in colour. i've seen blue and pink Wheelsville USA, but no grey.
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Etta James - Can't Seem To Shake It
Then it WAS an Argo master. I wonder why it wasn't released by Chess in some form? It must have been arranged by Phil Wright or Riley Hampton (with less possibility (but some) that it was Johnnie Pate (who still was a free-lancer at that time). With Billy Davis producing, and the song not being an old, "standard" song, the writers were very likely from Billy Davis' Chevis Music writing staff (including, Davis, himself, Carl Smith, William McKinley, Leonard Caston, Gerald Sims, Tony Clarke, Raynard Miner, Ty Hunter, and Maurice McAllister, among others).
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Etta James - Can't Seem To Shake It
This song was discussed in the "Modern Soul category. Is this a recording that was made after 1979? Was Ed Townsend the producer? Maybe he was the writer, or co-writer? So, then it WASN'T recorded during Etta's time with Argo/Cadet?
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Etta James - Can't Seem To Shake It
WOW! Right up my alley! Classic Chicago 1964! It could have been a fantastic 1964 Chicago recording. What a well-written song! It's very sweet. It's neither made for the gruff and Bluesy Etta James lead, nor the fairly weak group behind her. And the instrumental is weak, too, where are the drums, percussion? Strings have the right idea, in the main, but go the wrong way in a couple places. The call-response of the lead and coordination with the background group could be better. The background group should be much stronger. The arranger didn't emphasize the nice changes correctly. Too bad. I can hear, in my mind's ear, a fabulous recording. It would have been one of my favourite styles. And if done correctly, would have resulted in one of my all-time favourite recordings. Etta did okay with it. But, it would have been a lot better, if it had been recorded at Universal Sound Studios, (1) produced by Calvin Carter , arranged by Riley Hampton, and sung by Barbara Green backed by The Dells; or, (2), it would also have worked well in 1965, produced by Carl Davis, arranged by Sonny Sanders, and sung by Mary Wells, backed by Billy Butler and The Chanters. Or (3), I'd even have settled for Leo Austell producing, Burgess Gardner arranging and Betty Everett on lead, with The Daylighters backing her up! Who wrote that terrific song, and what company originally published it?
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Chess Label
That just corroborates what I stated above. Which is that 1845 was first on the black label.
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Chess Label
I've NEVER seen that blue issue. I've NEVER seen ANY of that blue vertical logo design on any Chess record after 1830. I'm guessing that's a special reprint. It looks real enough. But, in 1963 I lived in Chicago. the original release was on the black issue, and, later, still during its initial sales run, the yellow and orange. I traveled across USA and Canada for 3 months that year, looking at hundreds of thousands of 45s. I never saw it. If that were used in a press run in a plant that had an old overstock of the previous label style, why did I never see it in ALL these 52 years since? There must have been precious few pressed. Some kind of special commemorative issue? A boot? It looks legit, however. But. I CAN'T bring myself to believe it is from 1963.
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News: The Mystery of Junior McCants - Cincinnati Library Panel
Nice story. Sorry to hear that the reason his 2nd record is so rare is because he died so young of cancer, and was fighting it off from age 6. That's very tragic. Nice to know that he was relatively happy, and seems to have enjoyed the time he did have, and seemed to make the most of it. I will have a different attitude towards listening to his songs. I've had his first record since it was out in 1965. Now I'm not surprised that I never got his second (although I DID see it 4 or 5 times in other's collections. Maybe I passed up buying it at least once, because it cost too much (over $2).
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Value Of A Complete Run Of Ric Tic Label?
It was the one on Checker, and, if I remember correctly, also, the one on Check-Mate. So, when I was 16, I thought his name was "Kendricks", and in early 1964, I thought it was "Kindrick". And a couple months later, I thought it might possibly be "Kendrick". I wondered why this guy couldn't get his name straight, but could sing the lyrics in his songs, just fine. [url=https://s77.photobucket.com/user/Robb_K/media/WKendricks2_zps0cbdf5ad.png.html][/url I've heard that his real name was Kendrick. But I've also heard that it was Kendricks. You know Americans, it doesn't matter all that much, what one's real name is, as long as it's close. McDaniel or McDaniels, what's the difference? Lose or loose, who cares? Didn't Eddie Kendricks have his name spelt "Kendrick" on one Motown record? The printer's favourite between Kendrick and Kendricks won out over personal rights to be known by one's legal name.