Friday, March 16, 2012

You learn something new every day


I’m doing a bit of record filing and reorganising again. During which this 45 surfaced, and I’m glad it did.

There are a lot of things I don’t know. Here are two:

1.   1   I don’t know where I got this record. I’m sure it’s not been in my collection for long so I suppose it must have been at a boot fair, but it’s not in my list of purchases (yes, I know, it’s sad but I do try to keep a list of everything I buy).
2.   2  I didn’t know that Donnie Elbert had recorded anything outside of the soul genre.

Having done a quick bit of research on this record I can now tell you that the A side of this rocksteady number – yes, rocksteady! – “Without You” was a number one in Jamaica in 1969. It also got a lot of airplay on Radio Luxembourg which, inexplicably, failed to make it a hit in the UK. Donnie Elbert moved to the UK in 1966, and if it hadn’t been for that he probably would not have ventured into the reggae arena.   
            
I have just noticed too that the arranger on this is John Fiddy. I bought an LP in a local charity shop last year just because it had a sticker on the cover that said “John Fiddy Music, Foxton, Cambs”. I had never heard of John Fiddy but Foxton is where my brother-in-law lives so I thought it would be a good conversation piece.

1 comment:

ana-b said...

That's a great record. Never heard it before,