Door 24 already, another Advent-ure over! It has really flown by this year.
A tradition that has developed here is to play out with a track from the classic Ronettes album A Christmas Gift For You.
All that is left for me to do is to raise a glass and wish you all a very Merry (and safe) Christmas.
Maurice Williams had started his recording career in 1957 as part of the group The Gladiolas (renamed from The Royal Charms as other groups were also using that name) they scored a sizeable R&B hit record straight away with Little Darlin' (Maurice wrote it and, yes, it is that Little Darling). The group morphed into Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, and through the 60s Maurice released singles with The Zodiacs and also as a solo artist.
It seems we can't escape a Covid Whirlpool at the moment. Incidentally, in 1967 Maurice released a single on the Deesu label, one side of which was Don't Be Half Safe. Could be used as a call to arms for the booster drive, at least to the double shotted. As for those that haven't partaken at all yet, well isn't it about time you did?!
The early 70s was when music first became an essential part of my world, and the wah wah funk of this track places it unmistakably from that era.
Very little is known of Timmy Willis, or Henry Sapp to give him is real name. That information I found in this article which, amongst its many side turns, does a good job of mapping out his singing career, or at least as much of it as anybody knows. I notice he was, for a short time, in a group called The Suspicious Can Openers! (I would love to know how they came up with that name).
This was Timmy Willis' last of six single releases (the B side actually), released late in 1972 in the US and getting a UK release in the Spring of 1973. I guess you would call him another journeyman in the Soul world, but all his singles are worth picking up and I'm looking out for them.
There aren't any track-listings for these shows so I can't tell you which one this came from now. That's a shame because I want to listen to it again. From memory, there were a few tracks like this included in it and playing this one again I now want to take a stab at hunting down physical copies of a few more of them.
This one proved pretty easy to find (not always the case, I can tell you!). It's not expensive in itself, although after factoring in the postage cost it wasn't so cheap. I did have to get a copy from America because it does not generally seem to be in any UK dealers' stock.
This one arrived in its original sleeve, which is in fantastic condition considering its age. It looks great!
Ella Johnson with Buddy Johnson & His Orchestra - Don't Fail Me Baby 1958
Earlier in this series I featured “The New Bloods” covering one of the Wicked one's songs, so here he is covering someone else's song. A mighty fine version that I admit I had not come across before, crazy really as it was recorded at Fame in Muscle Shoals, probably my favourite studio.
(The) Natural Four hailed from Oakland, California and formed around 1967. Their first (or possibly second) 45 was released on the wonderfully named Boola-Boola label in 1969. It is a seriously rare and expensive record nowadays. It is also seriously good.
He tends to be on the lookout for rockabilly, country boppers, loner country, white gospel, that sort of thing – and 78s, but his antennae twitch for soul and garage too (he knows his stuff, turning records for a living). To me it doesn't really matter that his “gold” is typically not aligned to my taste, nor in genres I know much about, it is his unfailing documentation of “the chase” and the occasional thrill that entails that has me completely hooked. All this and Mack is a funny guy and a great raconteur too; and I get to enjoy the sunshine and the off highway open road of the southern USA. Whenever I tire of trawling around the same old chazzas on my patch I know I can happily go virtual digging with Mack.
Anyway, I had my very own Mack Stevens moment (in microcosm) back in late September when in a Bristol suburb chazza I found a copy of a 1961 New York Doo Wop record. You have to agree that doesn't happen every day here in Blighty. A rare find and, although not a valuable one in monetary terms, a find like this is priceless in other ways. How it managed to find its way into a stack of the usual 60s-70s-80s UK pop detritus I have no idea - as is usually the case with finds like this nothing remotely like it was keeping it company.
Doing a bit of research – as you do - The Craftys were better known as The Halos and at one time included JR Bailey in their ranks who went on to release some mighty fine soul 45s and one killer (and rare) album in the 70s.
This is a styrene copy - I hadn't realised styrene was already well established by the early 60s.
Here's another top quality B side. You can find it on the other side of Short Stopping. I wonder how many people have this record and have never played the other side?
Veda Brown - I Can See Every Woman's Man But Mine 1973
I've read that the band hailed from Washington DC meaning they were presumably named after the DC district South Shore. However, their album was mixed by Tom Moulton at Sigma Sound in Philly and Dick Griffey also had some involvement, and he was a key player behind the TV program Soul Train, going on to found LA based SOLAR records. Then again Wikipedia, and the most comprehensive write up I can find on the band suggest the bands roots were in Chicago. Now I'm confused!
The writer of this track – Carrie – is, I believe, Carrie Lucas who had a number of albums released on Soul Train and Solar labels and married Dick Griffey in 1974.
Eddie & Ernie are one of my favourite Soul duos and I have featured some of their singles here in the past.
The first half of this song is I Found A Love co-written by Wilson Pickett and first released in 1962 by The Falcons (featuring Pickett on vocals) & Band (the band being The Ohio Untouchables who would later morph into The Ohio Players). Pickett also featured the song on his 1965 album In The Midnight Hour.
Numero re-released another single on the label, by The Sweet & Innocent, not so long ago (I really love that one too) and offered some information on the label, although nothing on the groups that appeared on Active beyond the fact that they probably went to Manassas High School in Memphis.
According to the Numero article Ron & Sari Bledsoe operated the Active label out of a store front on Chelsea Avenue. I looked up the address on the label on Google Maps. It is still there, although many of the shops in the block seem to be permanently closed. Maybe scheduled for redevelopment? Or just a sign of the times. Looking at Street View the block was built in 1929 and 621 was most recently operating as a beauty shop/barber according to the sole review on GM, although separately I found a D&B listing for the business describing it as recently as 2017 as a hobby/musical instrument shop. One can only wonder how many different guises the shop has had since Active was operating out of it in the early(?) 70s.
Mitty's man is going off to the Vietnam war and she has decided to have a party, a drown your sorrows one. Her big voice and a great “big city” style production makes this a really dramatic listen.
As was the case with many reggae and ska records from the 60s the lyrics are, shall we say, more than a little fruity. Sometimes the Jamaican patois needs some deciphering, but in this case we are soon left in no doubt about the Soul Sisters wishes. If you are easily offended I suggest you don't click play!
TheSoul Sisters – Wreck A Buddy 1969
(Apparently the title is patois for bang a body).
The Orlons - Not Me 1963
The label HLMJ only released five singles as far as I can tell, two very obscure soul releases that I think preceded Al Greene's first three singles (the first of these - Back Up Train – was a hit and was credited to Al Greene and the Soulmates). These singles were released about a year before he met Willie Mitchell and joined the Hi Records roster. Willie dropped the e from the end of his name and, as we say, the rest is history.
I really like both sides of this 45.
Turns out the label was started by Donovon Germain in 1978, and Audrey Hall goes as far back as the 60s, starting out as a duo with Dandy Livingstone (every day's a school day!).
This single does date to the mid 80s – 1985 to be precise – the A side is pleasant enough but I am very taken by the B side. There are some pops and clicks but, hey it's a reggae single, of course there will be pops and clicks! 49p well spent, in any event.
Wanda Robinson made one album in 1971 – Black Ivory – a spoken word tour de force from a strong black woman, with some wonderful backing tracks. Very much of its time. Perception released a follow up a year or two later with other tracks from that album's sessions. It was released without any involvement from Wanda as she had already left the music business, disillusioned. She changed her name to Laini Mataka and has subsequently had a number of books of poetry published.
This single was taken from that debut album which was named after the backing band on the album.
Wanda Robinson – Final Hour 1971/2
The backing track of Final Hour is in fact Black Ivory's debut single Don't Turn Around (one of theirs I don't have, yet).
I picked up three '50s UK Vogue Jazz EPs at a car boot earlier this year. All of them very nice and I am a sucker for the simple but striking Vogue label design, especially around a tri-centre.
The Chico Hamilton Quintet – The Wind 1956
Here's one of them. A click at the beginning, but this adds to its charm I think. The track's arrangement gives it a really exotic feel and I love the soaring brass, and Miss LaVell's vocals top everything off wonderfully.
Lillia Lavell “Lavelle” White, to give her her real name, is still alive and is now 92 years young. Her recorded output runs to six singles on Duke between 1958 and 1965, and then three albums released between 1994 and 2003. Quite a gap! She has been writing and performing most of her life, and is still performing on the Texas Blues scene, though she says she's not just a blues singer, encompassing funk and soul too. She has an active Facebook page where I did read a very recent “get well” comment so I hope she is still doing OK.
This 45 had a great picture cover, which unfortunately does not adorn my copy.
Lowell Fulsom – Make A Little Love 1967
What else is there to do on a cold winter's night :)
Like many people in the UK I knew of The Manhattans because of their big hit Kiss And Say Goodbye, and it's follow up Hurt, back in 1976. But it wasn't until probably this century that I caught up with this New Jersey group's fairly extensive 60s and early 70s output on the Carnival and De Luxe labels. They made so many great records, especially the Carnival releases! And looking at their discography on 45cat I see that they actually had two of those records released on a UK Carnival label in 1966 (with the same label design too, which must have been particularly eye catching to UK record buyers considering the staid look of most labels in the UK in the 60s) . Sadly all of the original members of the group are now deceased, including George Smith, the lead singer on this track I think, who tragically died of a brain tumour just before his 31st birthday.
This track is so easy on the ear.
From a 1961 obscurity on a California based label to a Noughties one.
This single was released in 2007 I believe but as it's 21st century and about 40 years newer than most of the 45s I'm buying nowadays I think of it as “new” and for that reason something that wouldn't ordinarily be on my radar. 2007 is 14 years ago now though, so it is hardly “new”. Putting it into context, when I first started buying records in 1971 if I had been buying a 14 year old single then this record would be the equivalent of some obscure Cool Jazz 45, or maybe a Rockabilly 45. Something definitely from a different era music wise from a 1971 viewpoint. Likewise in 1980 when it was mostly about the latest club/disco music for me it would have equated to a purchase of a mid 6os Soul obscurity that had been no doubt for most of its life, criminally, languishing forgotten in a dead stock warehouse somewhere (it wasn't unknown for me to buy such a record then, and of course now it's mostly what I do!). What I'm trying to say is that this 45 is hardly “new”; it is certainly obscure – and obscurity is a thing I am attracted to. So this could be the start of a whole new digging experience – trawling releases from earlier this century that will somehow always seem “new” to me but are in fact quite old now, if you see what I mean. And, who knows, maybe in another 30 years or such records, maybe even this one, could be worth a lot more than they are now.
I was alerted to this track when Kris Holmes played it on his show The Long Way Home recently and promptly ventured onto Discogs and purchased a nice minty copy for peanuts. The intro certainly evokes the theme from Taxi and then it develops into a nice jazzy groove with a certain filmic quality I think.*
Liparis Nervosa Sextet – Prayer 2007
* To be clear this is not typical of Kris Holmes' show which is very much rooted in the 60s and early 70s and is big on Soul and R&B – i.e. the stuff I really really go nuts for.
Another random selection of 45s for this year's Adventure. All will probably be taken from these stacks of vinyl sat next to me that have been growing steadily through the year. A mixture of 2021 on-line purchases, charity shop pulls, and car boot serendipity.
Debra Lewis had two 45s released on the Valiant label in 1961 and as far as I can tell that was the extent of her recorded output. I can tell you nothing about her, and I am not even sure whether she was black or white, although the label might suggest white. Valiant was a California label founded in 1960 by singer-songwriter Barry DeVorzon and manager Billy Sherman (according to Wikipedia). The label had a good run, finally being subsumed into Warner Brothers in 1967. It did predominantly feature white pop acts and, in its later years some psych output, all with a Southern Californian feel.
Debra Lewis – What You Gonna Do 1961
