Early Years And Unheard Pearls 1970-1973
Hodges, James, Smith & Crawford 
CDKEND503
Kent Records 
Format: Audio CD
Release Date 26 June 2021
Hodges, James, Smith and often Carolyn Crawford were so soulful in their early years – these unreleased gems will cement their fine reputation.
Hodges, James, Smith (& Crawford) are one of the last great 70s girl groups to be compiled. The reason for the strange billing is that they were formed in 1970, had a release as Hodges, James & Smith, then as Love ‘N’ Stuff. Ex-Motown starlet Carolyn Crawford joined in late 1971 for two singles before departing amicably in late 1972, leaving Pat Hodges, Denita James and Jessica Smith to continue as a trio.
A snippet of the release notes written by Ady Croasdell follows below. 
The early 45s are excellent and have long been admired, but the tracks found in the vault are superb and make this a must-buy for lovers of the girl soul group sound. Highlights include the two M’Pingo 45s when they were a quartet and the unissued dancers ‘Wishful Thinking’, ‘What Made You Think’, ‘Nothing Special In You’ and the sexy ‘In My Fantasy’. Pre-release plays of these at the 100 Club and on On-liners have been very well received indeed.
Tracks
Side 1
01 Wishful Thinking
02 Let's Pick Up The Pieces
03 Somewhere A Valley
04 Write Me A Letter
05 What Made You Think
06 Nothing Special In You Boy
07 I'm In Love
08 Ain't That Right
09 Nobody
10 In My Fantasy
11 I'm A Woman (Who Loves You)
12 (It Was) Never Meant To Be
13 (I Wanna Be A) Hang Up To You
14 Let It Out, Let It In
15 Right On, Brothers, Right On
16 It Cracks Me Up
17 (Baby) Don't Leave Me
18 Baby My Love Is Showing
19 Again
20 I've Gotta Be Me
21 If You Wanna Love Me
Listen to two tracks above