The Yank

Early release from Baby and Neptune Records when the company was still based in "New Ersey" -

French version of the "As Long As I Have You" album -

Sad to hear his life took such a left turn. Jack also contributed to one of Martha's best 70's efforts -

Great but moody B side featuring a young Dionne Warwick (along with her sister Dee Dee, Cissy Houston and Myrna Smith ) -

I've never heard of Charles Farrington but, there's this artist who also recorded for Hawk -

With the Holidays right around the corner-

I live in the States and in the last few months, I have paid tax on purchases from e-bay, Discogs and Amazon. I think over 30 states passed laws that now require online companies to collect sales tax on all purchases. No one is being picked on.

Actually, it's not a theory at all, in the 1st chapter (maybe even on the 1st page) of the book "Louie, Louie", Richard Berry admits to using the opening riff of "El Loco Cha Cha" for "Louie, Louie". I'll admit that the lyrics of "Havana Moon" probably also influenced Richard also.

Richard Berry borrowed the intro of this and used it for "Louie, Louie" -

The Drifters performing "At The Club" live-

I'm not going to speculate on this. Let's face it, "Just Say The Word" was a B side, and the record wasn't a hit. If it was a big seller, I'm sure there would have been lawsuits. Leiber and Stoller probably saw Ray wasn't getting any pushback from Don Robey and Duke and probably wanted a piece of the action. In their book "Hound Dog", Leiber and Stoller don't mention this record causing any problems when they started negotiating with Nesuhi Ertegun when he was negotiating with them to come to Atlantic.

If you skip the remakes, that's actually a pretty solid album. Here's another fine track from the album -

Here's a better picture of the Frankie Marshall - I don't know the exact month it was released but, as I said before it was reviewed in June, 1955 in Billboard.

Ray Charles recorded "I Got A Woman" in November of 1954. The Frankie Marshall 45 was reviewed in Billboard in June of 1955. California based Leiber and Stoller didn't begin their association with Atlantic until 1955 so I doubt if they were sitting in their offices when Ray recorded "I Got A Woman". Here's an article from November, 1955-

Ray Charles song is said to be based on -

Currently up for auction on a well known site, this is an almost carbon copy -

This sounds like it may have been the "inspiration" for Venicia Wilson's "This Time I'm Loving You" -

Two additions- 1) Astors- "In The Twilight Zone" - 236 pounds 2) Jimmy James- "This Heart Of Mine" - 387 pounds

This early version of "He Who Picks A Rose" isn't an exact copy but comes awfully close to ....

The group as Nuns (!) on an episode of "Tarzan" -

The group's 1st 45 on Motown -

Cool Yuletide ad from '62 promoting one of the group's early releases -

Canadian releases-