Robbk

Rod "Modern Soul Sucks" Moss? A Soulie from a parallel dimension?

These don't sound like Motown masters. Were they recorded by Don Davis for Groovesville? The first sounds like '60s Groovesville. The 2nd like a later ('70s recording).

There were thousands of song performances that never got ANY airplay or sales, that I think were much, much better than most of the cuts that charted and were hits. There were probably several causes that contributed to that happening. One of them was lack of business acumen of the group or single artist's manager and the label owner and R&D man of the labels that released the records, in addition to the lack of funds by the given label needed for proper distribution, numbers of records pressed, and payola to get it played, and money to get into the music business with enough credibility to have access to the people who could market the record and get it heard by the right people. Also, first, the "British Invasion" changed the situation in the Pop record market, and the resultant changes by the US major labels' market strategies also started a slow drift away from R&B and Soul in the Pop market starting in 1964, and continuing throughout the remainder of the '60s and into the '70s. The Major US labels (Columbia, RCA, Warner Brothers, Decca, Capitol, 20th Century Fox, and to a lesser extent, ABC/Paramount, didn't really know how to market their R&B and Soul product. Motown, alone, had literally thousands unreleased cuts that were better than most charted Pop cuts. There was just no room for those to make the charts. There were so very many talented singers who could have been stars. There just was no room for all of them. Most of them had no chance from the start, because they were never seen, nor heard, by the right people.

Big Bunny was run by Bunny Jones, located in New York. I always thought The Dealers worked out of New York. And that must be where Don Thomas connected with The Drifters. I guess there must have been two Claude Johnsons, one in New York, and one in Chicago.

Probably a Chubby Checker non-hit.

Ha! Ha! Wish I'd have known about them. My Grandfather had a Canadian Chrysler from 1953-60. I wonder if it could have accommodated one of those record players? It wouldn'have helped me. I had only 78s, 45s and some 33s. I didn't have any 16 2/3s!!!

I've seen Claude Johnson have a lot of credits on tiny Chicago labels in the 1960s. Specifically, I remember him as a writer/producer with Trans World Sound and its subsidiary, June Bug Records. But, I seem to remember his name on several other Chi-Town labels. So, I'd guess he was from Chicago. The group may have been from Chicago, and yet signed to Cincinatti's King Records. King had offices in Detroit, and, I believe, they had a presence in Chicago (despite not having an official stand-alone office) during the 1960s. Gene Redd Sr. (not to be confused with his son-who worked mainly out of New York (except when in Detroit for Stephanye) was A&R man at King. So, he worked with many of the groups.

That Parkway record is probably a Chubby Checker.

Could be one of the biggest failures. I've never heard of it having gotten any airplay. It certainly didn't get played in Chicago, L.A. or The S.F. Bay Area. I wonder if it even got any play in Detroit, despite Wylie being local?

I assume that Bernie Harville is deceased. Were the recordings on the Ace/Kent CDs obtained from his son? Perhaps he knew the history of this record? Ady?

I'm guessing that the navy blue was a legitimate re-issue by Bandera's owner. He was still holding onto his masters in 1969, to take advantage of Patti and The Lovelites' new popularity.

Yeah! That record is "The BOMB!"

The article said that the fire used up the room's oxygen. There was nothing about an investigation, or any implication of dual suicide. So, what is the "untrue angle"? It seems to me as merely sensationalism. Perhaps the size of the title's lettering implies to the reader that there is a sensational angle (possibly lovers' dual suicide, or murder). And after one has read the article, we see that is is couched as a warning regarding safety, and for readers to use caution with gas appliances.

Yes, THAT'S what I was told. I just remembered it wrongly. It's been 36 years, after all. Very tragic for young people like that to be taken at such a young age.

I heard it was just an accident with the stove gas. Is that true, or was it some other way?

Yes, The Fabulettes (Florida group) recorded for Butane (as Mar-vells), Monument, Sound Stage 7, Phil-L.A. of Soul, Kangi and Access.

I doubt it. That doesn't look at all like a Chicago record. There were probably over 100 different groups called "The Mystics" included in the various music genres .

I would guess that THESE Fabuletts on TEAKO were a local, Chicago group. The group on Monument/SS7 was spelt: "Fabulettes", and was from Miami. Yes, The Mar-Vells later became The Fabulettes.

Well, then, I knew Nev Wherry in the late '70s. I'm good with record dates, but, at my age, trying to place the time of casual acquaintances often lead to inaccuracies. Could there have been TWO Nev Wherry's, both of whom had been Northern Soul DJs, and both been living in L.A. looking for NS records, both selling them to John Manship, both who died (together with their girlfriends), at a young age, from asfixiation from gas from a stove?

I knew Nev while he lived in L.A, in the '80s. I was shocked to hear about his death at such a young age. Both he and Bob "Larry" Wagner lived in L.A. for long periods.

Interesting that Berry said he turned down 95% of Smokey's songs when he was a young aspiring writer, but after hearing this, he new Smokey could be a writer - that THIS song was his first that Berry thought would be a hit. That makes it sound like Smokey came to him with this song in late 1957 or early 1958, BEFORE Berry produced Smokey's cuts for George Goldner's End Records in 1958 (starting with "Got a Job, and before "Bad Girl", "Way Over There" and "Shop Around"). If that's really so, why did he wait 3-4 years to produce it, if he thought it was a sure hit? I listen to these old men and women telling their life story, and changing what happened, either because of bad memory or an agenda to make themselves look better, or someone else look worse, or just to simplify the story to make less information for the public to digest, given that they already know out the major events. I think Berry used the latter case here. I'd bet the farm that Smokey didn't write "I'll Try Something New" in 1957 or '58, but that Smokey's early songs showed promise, which caused Berry to make the kid his right hand man, and that "I'll Try Something New" is his favourite song by Smokey, so Berry just cheated a bit, and combined the 2 stories. But these long-time celebrities can't fool people who were there (like saying that Diana Ross "discovered" The Jackson Five", and celebrities leaving out important parts of their histories just because they think those stories or accounts will be dull to the public, and making it sound like they became big shots overnight.

This voice sounds like the Jesse Herring Prod (Swa-Ray/Tru-Glo-Town/Verve/Mar-V-Lus guy. Must be the same, with that rich, smooth tenor voice.

As stated above, it seems that the DJ issues had different colours, and had the copyright month, when the stockers didn't. That's the opposite of most labels, whose DJ issues are less elaborate.

None of mine have a date until 7207. They started the date with 7207. I think those earlier numbers containing a date were 2nd pressings.

The blue background around the cloud, was the earliest, from Fall 1963. The yellow and green was a reprint from mid 1964. Not sure about that Du-ettes. That's the proper design for the late '63 release, but the blue looks too "greenish". But, now I see that using the month with the date may have been haphazard.