The Yank

You are correct- according to Dave Moore's book " .....The Philly Sound..." , the single was done at Cameo- Parkway.

It is strange nothing happened with Jimmy Reed Jr.'s career. Versions of this press release were in Billboard, Cashbox and Record World in March of 1967. After such a big announcement , you would have thought more would have went into the promotion of this artist.

Here's another one -

I would say the two were related. These 2 items are both from Cashbox in 1959. Both Allied Record Manufacturing Co. and the Allied Record Distributing Co. share the same address-

Picking the 1st Soul record will always be debatable. The same thing goes for when the term "Soul" first appeared. I don't think it was the 1st time it was ever used but the examples below are a good starting point. The album was released in early 1961 and here's a part of the liner notes- "Soul in the last few years has become a very successful commercial term, more often than not, it is just a commercial term". So even in 1961, the term seems to have been around for awhile. I'm sure there are earlier examples of the term being used , hopefully someone will add to the thread.

For what its worth, there is a post of "I Know" on you tube (EagerBoy59) where two peoples say that it is Edwin on lead vocal.

It's actually Red Balloon #1000. And no, I don't own a copy .

It is definitely a Chicago label- mentioned in Pruter's "Chicago Soul" and is listed in Dante Carfagna's " Soul Music Of Illinois" as a Chicago label. I have a vague recollection of a "Sitting In The Park" interview where Bob asked someone about the address on Sunday William's "If That's What You Want". It was most likely Eddie Sullivan or Johnny Cameron or maybe even Clarence Johnson. An answer was given but I can't remember what they said. Sorry !

I don't know if "defunct" is actually the right word describing Philly Groove after 1974. In 1975, they signed a production deal with Warner Brothers and had releases from the Quickest Way Out and First Choice (I'm sure there are others), There's even a First Choice album from 1976,

I'm not sure if I would agree with Ed about Tony Galla and the Feathers. Tony did best in Buffalo, New York (his hometown) and the Feathers was played on over 30 U.S. stations going from Bakersfield, CA. all the way to stations in Florida.

Couldn't find any real info on Jeanette but, did find a picture of her (from Record World April 15, 1967) -

There was a third Ernie Fields a radio deejay / ventriloquist who worked at WHAT in Philly and moved to WMBM in MIami in 1967. Weirdly enough, the ventriloquist's dummy was named Cockroach. Not sure if if the Cockroach Production credits refer to him on the Demon Hot 45 or it's just a strange coincidence.

I think what the writer was trying to say was "Edward Armstead aka Eddie Hill (born Nov.20,1942 in Mulga, Al. passed away Oct.13, 2019 in Lakewood, Washington, USA)

Jean Shy was born Andria Jean Alexander in Chicago, IL. She did have a local hit as part of Tim and Jean with "Spring Fever" .

Are you sure about the release date? It was reviewed in the April 16th issue of Billboard and I can't find it on any radio station surveys before April of '66.