Oscar Weathers has appeared here once before, just over ten years ago now. That song – You Wants To Play - was beautifully arranged and this one, which was Oscar’s next 45, is too. Quite why it has taken me so long to acquire it I’m not sure.
Soul for the connoisseur.
Oscar Weathers – When You Steal 1971
Moving along into the last few days of this year’s Advent-ure (already!) and it will be early 70s records all the way – and they all have red labels too! It’s just the way it’s turned out.
Put “Dale Dennard singer” into a Google search and the AI response is that Dale is male, and that is because the only search hit which says anything about this record, other than the bare facts on the label, says so.
As you will hear for yourself, Dale is female.
This is one obscure singer, and label. This is the only record released by Dale Dennard, and the New York based Coach label itself only has two, possibly three, known releases. I wonder if its is actually related to Gene Redd’s Redd / Red Coach label, it shares the same coach graphic as early Redd Coach releases, and in time sits neatly in between when the label name dropped the second 'd'. I can’t find anything that confirms this though.
The sound of this one is sinuous, sultry and sleazy.
Dale Dennard – If You Can Live With Yourself 1972
* This advert appeared in all the main music papers - Cash Box, Record World, and Billboard in April/May 1972.
In my head Atlantic Starr are filed as a 70s band as that is when I first heard them. But in truth most of their output came in the 80s and they hit it big commercially in the mid 80s.
Three of their songs have lodged themselves permanently in my memory to the extent that I can replay them in my head at will. Those songs are When Love Calls, Circles, and this one, Silver Shadow.
.. Pause .. Hmm, have I featured one of these songs before here? … opens a tab to check … yes I have.
Way back in 2011. I featured a Youtube clip of Silver Shadow because, as I said at the time, I couldn’t believe I had never had a copy of it. Well I finally picked up a copy a few weeks ago, and I did so because I was spurred on by recently playing Circles a few times (you can’t play these songs just once, they are infectious), which was the other track I featured back then. That 2011 post was published on the 29th October which, weirdly, was the birthday of one of my old flames – and she had the album that When Love Calls was on and I remember borrowing it at the time (I gave it back eventually) - and, somewhat weirdly, Mrs. Darce’s birthday is the 30th October. I must be attracted to Scorpios.
Silver Shadow is a gorgeous track. It was released in 1985, but I had it fixed in my mind it was from earlier in the 80s. I think it must have sounded a bit out of time in 1985 when soul was becoming increasingly bright and shiny, and poppy. It has an ethereal feel to it and, from memory, there was only one other track on the album it came from – As the Band Turns – that really approached it’s feel.
Atlantic Starr – Silver Shadow 1985
RIP Wayne Lewis, a founding member of Atlantic Starr who passed away earlier this year (June 5th), he was only 68.
Look at Gwen Owens’ catalog of originally issued 45s and they span soul’s golden decade almost precisely. Gwen’s singing extended beyond that though, singing in the group Hot later in the 70s and having one more single released in her name in 1979, whilst still a member of Hot. Her 60s recordings were mostly cut in Detroit, where she grew up; and her 70s output was mostly recorded in Muscle Shoals. In the 70s and into the 80s she continued in the music business as a session and backing singer, for some big names too. Into this century she was singing with a gospel group The Melodious Hearts.
Gwen is still very much alive. I can say that with confidence as I have found her, very much current, Instagram account. She occasionally puts up pictures of her old publicity shots, including one she described as her very first one. She was, and I have no doubt still is, a very attractive lady. On the internet it seems her birth date is most often quoted as June 19th, 1953 but I’m not sure that can be true. That would have made her 11 when she recorded her first single. But elsewhere I have seen someone quoting an article from the Michigan Chronicle dated June 19th , 1965 (coincidentally her birthday) where it refers to her two 1964 released 45s and states that she was just graduating from Pershing HS in Detroit, which would have most likely made her 16 or 17 when she first recorded.
Her 1967 45 - Just Say You’re Wanted And Needed - is a very rare record that commands very high prices on the Northern scene. It is a belter. even allowing for the somewhat out of tune horns. Looking at Gripsweat it seems only five copies have gone through Ebay in the last 12 years or so, and if one in decent condition came up for sale now I’m betting it would sell for $5k+.
This Josie release of hers is not a rare or in demand record, but it is a good one. I had heard the B side - It Ain’t Hardly Over - years ago and had it mentally filed as one to get at the right price. Now I have finally secured a copy it is the A side that is really grabbing me.
Gwen Owens– Keep On Living 1969
The newspaper clip is from Record World July 12th, 1969
The funk is tight, and the horns have some definite similarities with the horn arrangements that can be found on mid70s Parliament releases. No surprise at all as it happens – Walter Foster had links to the JBs, and Fred Wesley is credited as producer and arranger on this record. Walter had just a handful of 45s released over period of more than 20 years. This was his second release, some twelve years after his debut on Loma. That 45 was produced by James Brown, and I would think it is entirely possible Fred Wesley featured in the backing group.
Have a contemporary funk group ever made a record singing the praises of the orange one, I wonder? I don’t know of one and I suspect the odds are vanishingly small.
Walter Foster – The Peanut Man (We Got A Friend) 1977
The B side is a nice slower number too.
Walter Foster – It Makes You Wanna Cry 1977
Now, that’s a title that could grace a song about the orange one.
The next three records in this year’s Advent-ure are all late entrants, they dropped through the mailbox only a few days ago.
Lou Johnson must have liked a bit of yomping – and the circus. In a short period of time in the 60s he had records released on Hilltop, Big Hill - and BigTop. All were distributed by Bell. These labels were all run by the music publishing company Hill & Range which was run out of the Brill Building in New York, home to more than a few significant songwriters such Bacharach & David, Leiber & Stoller, Goffin & King. And Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich. Importantly (for them), Hill & Range had control over the recording output of Elvis Presley in the 50s and 60s.
In fact Lou Johnson had the only documented 45 issued on Hilltop - It Ain’t No Use, arranged by Burt Bacharach, a truly great record which is actually worthy of it’s own label! I have a copy of it and I must give it it’s own post here sometime. It bears a catalog number (551) in the same 55* range as Big Hill. 45Cat actually conflates the two labels. There were a few labels named Hilltop in the US in the early 60s so I’m guessing they changed the label name to Big Hill to avoid any possible copyright challenges. Lou also had the only releases (three) on Big Hill before he moved over to Hill & Range’s main imprint – BigTop. Possibly they were planning to focus the different labels on different musical genres but then thought better of it.
And what is in the grooves? This from the 3rd April 1965 edition of the US music paper Record World; straightforward and on point, life was so simple then:
Following on from yesterday’s post New Orleans gets another mention today. But, again, the music is not really New Orleans in style.
The Barons were a New Orleans group (this is the one only release of theirs that gave them two RRs), but although some of their releases had a funky edge I wouldn’t say they had the classic sound of that NOLA syncopation. This group were certainly active between 1967 and 1973/4, and were credited as backing vocalists on some singles that may have been released as early as 1964. Their currency as a group then pretty much mirrored the span of the soul’s “golden decade” ( roughly 1964-1974). Their discography shows a few singles released later in the 70s but I believe those were all recorded no later than 1974.
There is no definitive statement that I can find about where this track was recorded. The group certainly recorded a number of their later tracks at the Malaco studio in Jackson, MS, and although Super Dome was a New Orleans label Malaco it is possibly where this one was laid down.
A pretty detailed account of their career can be found at the The Home Of The Groove. This was one of the soul/R&B/funk music related sites I used to visit a lot. Dan Phillips hasn't maintained the site for some years and I can’t believe The Barons article was written nearly twenty years ago now. It was important I think that such research and on line documentation of the music of the 60s was done back then, as now so many of the artists and people involved will no longer be with us and their history may otherwise have died with them.
The A side of this record – Some Kind Of Fool - is a great number with a funky feel, but it’s the other side that really does it for me (I do like my B sides). I’m So Lonely is sweet and deep, and a gem. I notice a rogue apostrophe crept into the title on the label, unless it is deliberate and is trying to convey the message of being “soooo” lonely?
The Barrons– I’m So Lonely c.1973
I was alerted to this 45 during my deep dive last year into the history of Quinvy recording studio. This 45 was recorded there in the last days of the studio, probably in 1972. It is a fine slice of southern soul.
Jimmy Jules, whose real name was Charley C. Julien, was born in New Orleans. He had a total of six 45s released spanning a long period (1961-1977). Before that he was a member of bands going back into the 50s too I think. Under different group guises he also released three albums between 1977 and 1980. As well as singing I believe he also played saxophone, trumpet, and keyboards. He also wrote a number of songs that were recorded by other artists including a couple by a young Johnnie Taylor, and apparently backed artists such as Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding in the 60s. In the late 60s he also started his own label – Jim Gem. The first single on that label was written by Charley but the credited singer is a Charley Wynn. Sir Shambling doesn’t believe this singer could be Charley Julien, but I think it is a possibility. Although the Jim Gem label has a Colorado address the Charley Wynn 45 had a “Cosimo Code” which means it was likely recorded in New Orleans.
Just about as much information as I can find on Jimmy/Charley’s recording career can be found buried in part 11 of an exhaustive history ofNorala/Quinvy studios. This history was written some years ago. After some dedicated googling I have found that Charley passed away in September 2021. His obituary says that Charley was father to no less than thirteen children, some of which may well have been adopted.
All together it seems Charley led a very full life.
RIP Charley C. Julien aka Jimmy Jules
Jimmy Jules– Ten Carat Fool 1973
Behind Door 8 I shared some gospel soul. Here is some more. It is more overtly gospel, and the soul is definitely present in Alicia Myers voice; in the final analysis though it can be labelled a disco or, to be more precise, boogie banger.
I picked up a 12” of this a few years ago, but it was not in the best condition (one of, thankfully, only a handful of disappointing ebay experiences I’ve had). I was punching the air when I found this 45 in a local charity shop a few weeks ago. It was a branch of a local chain of charity shops and this particular branch mostly sells furniture, but it has quite a bit of vinyl too and I’m guessing it’s the branch they send the vinyl to when it hasn’t sold in their other shops. The final resting place, next stop the tip. Records are 20p each.
Alicia Myers was originally a member of One Way, a disco group who made some fine records in the late 70s and early 80s. She went solo in 1980. This track was written by Kevin McCord who was also a member of One Way so it was still something of a family affair. Originally released in 1982 in the US it was her biggest hit, although I wasn’t aware of it back then. It was reissued as a B side in 1984 in the US and the UK.
Alicia Myers – I Want To Thank You 1982
Most of the records in this year’s Advent-ure were doorstep finds, so to speak. This one, though, I found (along with a few other little ones with the big hole) in a record shop in Ludlow, of all places.
Syl Johnson could have been Al Green, that is to say the hit machine for Hi in the first half of the 70s. He had been invited down to Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studio before Willie signed Al, and he recorded some tracks with the Hi rhythm section, including the hit single Dresses Too Short. But Syl returned to Chicago – for the time being – and then Willie discovered Al Green. By the time Syl did join the Hi stable in 1971, after the Chicago Twinight label folded, the Al Green horse had already bolted into the charts. (Syl’s decision at the time wasn’t all bad because before he finally joined Hi he recorded and released the album Is It Because I’m Black – a stone cold classic in anybody’s book). At Hi Syl was forever in the shadow of Al Green (in fact all the singers – including Ann Peebles – were in that shadow, with the lion’s share of promotional push constantly going Al Green’s way).
Syl Johnson recorded four albums for Hi. The first three, issued between 1973 and 1975 are quality affairs and I’ve always had a real soft spot for them. In 1976 Syl had had enough of being in the shadows at Hi and effectively went on strike. This lasted until late in 1977 when this 45, and one other was issued. With That Wiggle Syl revisited two of his tracks that had been cut about a decade before – Different Strokes and Soul Strokes. The Disco boom was into it’s stride by then though and these 45s, not being in that bag, sunk without trace. Syl would leave Hi a couple of years later, his contract not renewed.
The information imparted here I gleaned form the booklet included in Numero’s Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology six album box set. Highly recommended.
Also recommended is a documentary on Syl that was released in 2017, I believe. You can find it here on Vimeo still for a very small rental cost.
The Metros were another short lived
group, lasting little more than a year. They racked up three
single releases in that time (a few tracks that were evidently left
in the can – for decades - have subsequently appeared on a couple
of 45s), and one album. That they managed an album release must have been due to the fact that, unusually for a new group coming out of seemingly nowhere, they had been signed to a major label – RCA. Their second
45 Since I Found My Baby, actually a B side, was massive on
the Northern Soul scene having the perfect our to the floor beat, and
you wouldn’t get much change out of £300 for a tip top copy. If you want that track on original 1967 vinyl then you can pick up a copy of the album, because it is included, at a more reasonable price.
This was their debut 45, released in the fall of 1966. It sounds earlier to me, with a distinct doo-wop style backing, and an early 60s feel to the guitar. Great record, another B side, and very affordable compared to their NS monster.
The Metros– Time Changes Things 1966
Here is another singer where the usual Googling yields very little information. This 45 appears to be the only record Russ Lewis released as an artist. He hailed from St. Louis according to the usual go to sites. The short lived Sharp label was based in Chicago and was started by Bill “Bunky” Sheppard a mover and shaker on the Chicago doo-wop and soul scene in the 60s. So it is reasonable to assume this track was recorded in Chicago. Into the 70s it would appear Russ concentrated on writing and production as his name is credited on a number of obscure small label releases including the Gold Future label which was based in Sunset Hills, St. Louis County, MO and was, in fact, his own label. T Washington also appears as an arranger on more than one of these 45s and I believe this is Tom “Tom Tom 84” Washington, a respected arranger who also started out in Chicago and was a main arranger for Brunswick Records in the 60s. It’s possible they met up when Gene Chandler recorded Groovy Situation, a song that Russ wrote and Tom Tom arranged. Russ was also listed as president of a music publishing company called Best Bet Music, addressed in Kirkwood, MO and active in the 70s at least. According to Discogs he was dabbling in the music business whilst at the same time holding down a day job as a mail carrier in Kirkwood.
The accepted A side of this 45, Brand New Recipe, is a good up beat number with some cool organ fills, but again, it’s the moody, bluesy B side that I’m sold on. It features some nice horns too.
A full on day today so no real time to craft many words around today’s post.
The Charmels had a brief run of four singles on Volt between 1966 and 1968, under the wing of Isaac Hayes. Some of the group had previously been members of The Dixiebelles, and then The Tonettes who had two of the earliest releases on Volt sandwiching Volt 102 which just happened to be Booker T & The MGs Green Onions. (I’ll take this opportunity to say RIP Steve Cropper).
Bought the tree today (you know – that one), the deccys were going up in our local watering hole near the farm shop where the transaction took place, and the Christmas tunes were being played (you know the ones). It’s far enough into December now to be able to embrace the season and all its trappings.
So I’m feeling good and today’s song makes me feel even better.
I always remember The McCrarys for their 1982 song Love On A Summer Night, which I think Robbie Vincent was partial to playing on his radio show. That was a feel good record, and so is this one. Listening to it you can’t help but feel uplifted. The lyrics can be taken equally as a gospel song or a secular one - take your pick. The group were rooted in gospel and it’s no real surprise to discover they founded The McCrary Foundation in 2014, a non-profit organisation aimed at helping those in need through the healing powers of music.
I’m feeling mellow today or, maybe more accurately, jaded after a rather boozy night with Mrs Darce’s family. The recycling boxes are full and we sent our daughter home with more empties. A sign of an enjoyable – and long – evening. Consequently this post will be brief.
Let’s return to the sixties for a beautiful slice of soul from Fred Hughes hiding on the B side of his third 45, released in the summer of 1965. It was also the B side of his subsequent release.
Fred’s recording career followed the same pattern as so many soul singers who started out in the sixties: a string of singles (eleven in all in Fred’s case) released on a number of different labels (and also one album release which was a collection of his later singles with a few covers thrown in to get the running time up). His final single was released in early 1971 following which no more was heard from him, and nothing about his later life seems to be documented.
A micro pub close to me has a "bring your own" vinyl night every now and then. I have been a regular attendee this last year. The DJ seems quite taken by the little selection box of singles I take along, especially the 60s soul, and has been known to take a picture for future reference of a few of the ones he is unfamiliar with. As any good DJ should. he takes some of his own to play too in case there are insufficient BYOs, which is usually the case. We have very similar tastes although he is 10 – 15 younger than me so if he plays anything from the 90s or more recent I usually don’t know it so if I like it I, in turn, take a picture of it for my future reference. So it was a couple of months ago when he played a Cathy Dennis single. She was new to me but I was quite taken. I wasn’t paying much attention to music in the late 80s and 90s. I didn’t much care for what was being pumped out on the radio and none of it really encouraged me to dig deeper. Family duties were very much uppermost in my mind back then.
Anyway, the Cathy Dennis single left enough of an impression on me that over the next few weeks I immersed myself in her back catalogue. Her output is generally very much of its time, mostly upbeat dance pop confections aimed at the clubs (and maybe MTV?) which I have seen described as “synth pop” and “euro house”. It’s not music I would normally seek out, and no doubt there were any number of artists and producers pumping out similar tunes at the time, but for some reason I can’t begin to understand or explain I find her music quite uplifting. I like her voice and, watching some of her videos on You Tube, I like her style - ahem, I may be a little bit smitten! In short order I have acquired four of her singles, they're cheap as chips.
Cathy’s chart star shone particularly brightly between 1989 and 1994. The single Touch Me (All Night Long) was her biggest hit peaking at #5 in the UK charts in 1991. It is in fact a remake of Tuch Me, which was written by Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael (names of note on the Disco scene in the 70s and early 80s) and released by Fonda Rae in 1984. I prefer Cathy’s version.
Cathy has gone on to be a very successful, and prolific, songwriter: Britney Spears' Toxic, and Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head being just two notable examples. (Who knew? Not me, every day's a school day!)
Timeshift backwards a couple of years from 1967 and today’s somewhat “under the radar” soul singer’s recording career could be said to have mirrored exactly that of Bill Brandon who featured in yesterday’s post. Putting aside a group appearance on a 1959 doo-wop 45 Chuck Bernard put out singles on a few different labels for about eleven years between 1965 and 1975. Despite making some excellent records only one of them could be said to have been a hit - this one, Funny Changes. The R&B Beat column in the New Year’s Day 1966 edition of the US music paper Record World said it had gone Top 10 in the Chicago radio station WVON’s chart (45cat had it’s release date as Feb 1966 but based on this comment I plumped for a revision to Dec 1965). Chuck hailed from St. Louis but much, if not all, of his recording career was spent in Chicago. It was, of course, one of the key cities for soul music in the 60s and 70s.
It’s only in the last year or two I have become aware of Chuck Bernard. This is the third 45 of his I now have and there are a few more on my wants list now; I really like his voice. Once again I think Sir Shambling is the only font of knowledge on Chuck. I have searched in vain for more information on his life. Who knows? Maybe, like Bill Brandon, Chuck Bernard went on to become a truck driver after he stopped recording. There are at least a couple of Chuck Bernard’s of about the right age listed as currently, or recently, residing in the Chicago area so one of those might be him.
This single would make it into the national R&B charts in early 1966 and it’s easy to see why. It would have sounded great coming out of a radio speaker, and must have been a dancer’s delight too. It also has an excellent, slower, B side.
Some of last year’s Advent-ure was spent hanging around in Muscle Shoals, and I featured a 45 (Don Varner) on Quin Ivy’s South Camp label then. We’re back at the South Camp today.
This was Bill Brandon’s first appearance on wax. You may know the song Self Preservation as Percy Sledge recorded it during his career, but it was originally recorded by Bill in 1967 at Quin Ivy’s studio in Sheffield, Alabama.
Bill Brandon did not hit the big time like Percy Sledge but had a number of singles and one album released during a recording career that lasted eleven years. most, if not all, of his recordings were laid down in Alabama, the State of his birth. It is reported that he did not leave the music business until around 1987, presumably he was still making singing appearances until then. Subsequently he took up truck driving.
He had a great voice and has always been well respected on the soul scene, although not a lot has been written about him. I wasn’t clear whether he was still alive, and the trouble is that the sort of sites – e.g. Sir Shambling, Discogs – that you can rely on for some information on lesser known artists are not always kept up to date. Anyway, after some searching I found that, unfortunately, Bill Brandon is no longer with us having passed in 2015 at an altogether too young 72. You can find his obituary here.
Checking 45cat for Zeke Strong and Carl Underwood I counted no less than six distinct releases of this song - Every Woman Has The Right... . The earliest dates to 1961. The most recent is possibly this one, which, purely by the Kujinga label design and colour, I’m guessing was released maybe in the late 60s or early 70s. (It was certainly released later than 1965 because Operation Bootstrap which is credited on the label was not started until very late in 1965. You can read more about Operation Bootstrap here. Many businesses were started under the Operation Bootstrap umbrella and it is noted that at least one fashion business had a Swahili name. The label name here - Kujinga - is very close in spelling to the Swahili word kujenga, which means to build (the game name Jenga is derived from this word). Kujinga itself is a word in Kimbundu, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, which means to turn or spin. Either meaning - build or spin - could make sense as the label name).
Zeke recorded this song (presumably with him providing the male vocal) with female vocals provided by, in turn, Geneva, Wanda Richardson, Dealia Copeland, Juanita Strong, and Patricia Brew. And there was also this release where Carl Underwood is credited on vocals alongside Dealia Copeland. The versions (all slightly different I believe) were released on a bunch of different labels all started by Zeke himself – Swingin’, Prowlin’, Safe!, Progress, Merging, and Kujinga.
All I can say is Zeke Strong really liked this song!
Carl Underwood and Dealia Copeland –Every Woman Has A Right (To Change Her Mind) 1971?
Here's a cool cat. He can do The Jerk and The Twine. Join in with Jack-A-Rue.
I knew of Jackey Beavers , but had never researched him before. In fact when I first came across his name I thought he was a female artist, and continued to think that for some years until I finally listened to some of his records. He was born in Cartersville, Georgia as Robert Lewis Beavers. His recording career started in 1959 as part of the duo Johnny & Jackey – Johnny being Johnny Bristol. With Bristol and Harvey Fuqua he co-wrote Diana Ross & The Supremes hit Someday We’ll Be Together.
Jack-A-Rue was his first solo record, released in 1965. He went on to have a considerable number of singles released over the next ten years. Two of these are particular favourites on the Northern Soul scene, including his last secular release Trying To Get Back To You, which came out on the Dade label. It was, in fact, Dade’s final release, in 1975. Dade was a Miami label. It is purely by coincidence that I have discovered this is not where the parallels with yesterday’s artist end. Jackey spent some years at John Richbourg’s Sound Stage 7 label as both a producer and recording artist, and he wrote at least one song for Ella Washington (It Must Be Love). Like Ella he left a soul music career behind in the 70s and turned to the church, and was ordained as a Minister.
I
find many artists from the golden age of soul went on to lead
interesting lives outside of the music industry. In Jackey’s case
in later life (Wikipedia tells me) he was Executive Assistant to the
Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Corrections for
three years; and an aide to Tom Murphy, Speaker of the
Georgia House of Representatives, for seven years. Jackey is no longer with us, having passed in 2008 aged 71. He is buried in Cartersville, the town he was born in.
I urge you to pay particular attention to the backing singers on this one (unfortunately I have no idea who they are). They are having a great time and I think they really make this track.
So here we are at the start of another Feel It Advent-ure.
Where has that year gone? Well, I know where some of it has gone – in the endless search of the new (to me) vinyl fix. All the records I’m going to feature in this year’s unfolding Advent-ure were acquired this year; mostly doorstep finds (so to speak), but charity shops, car boots, and record fairs were also visited - of course! As is the norm, most of what you will hear will be soul, but I will probably deviate away from that genre and throw in the occasional curve ball now and then.
I decided to acquire a few long time wants this year, which has involved paying a bit more than I normally do for dusty old singles. In a few cases, including the record featured today, they were not dusty at all but shiny and beautifully preserved, and probably only played once before, if at all. It always amazes me how you can still find records approaching 60 years old that are still, effectively, brand new. I I bought this one from John Manship, for many years a renowned record dealer, Northern Soul aficionado, and DJ. John has over 100,000 records listed for sale on Discogs (and has apparently recently acquired another avalanche of records – about another 100,000 I believe).
His prices for rare soul are typically eye watering – if you sort discogs inventory of a record by price if JM has a copy you will almost always find it at the bottom of the list i.e. the most expensive. Mitigating that somewhat is the fact that if the record is described as “Mint-” it is usually exactly that, a pristine copy that has quite possibly only never seen the light of day once i.e. when it was first imported into the UK by John himself from some dead stock warehouse or other in the USA decades ago, or twice i.e. it travelled from dead stock into a collection and then from there into JM’s warehouse. Anyway, JM has had two “half price” sales this year, which has enabled me to pick up a few records from him at acceptable prices (even at 50% off only just acceptable to me though, in most cases). Today’s record is one of those purchases.
Behind Door 1 of this year’s adventure is a gloriously dramatic slab of soul from Ella Washington. This is a Florida record. Ella was born in Miami, Clarence Reid (credited “Reed”) penned the song, Little Beaver arranged it, and it was initially released on the newly created local label Octavia, started by Fort Lauderdale DJ Larry Hargrove and named after, and with a little help from, his mother Octavia Roberts; both hailed form Tallahassee. (There was longevity in the family, I have read both of their obituaries and they were both in their nineties when they passed – Larry in 2022 and Octavia in 2000). I am guessing the record was cut at Criteria studios in Miami, it is certainly not a lo-fi recording.
An instrumental with the same (very similar) title appeared on the B side of Ella’s debut 45 – Nightmare. It was then released – with words – in late 1966 as the B side of her second single on Octavia. It made plenty of noise locally and Larry, thinking he had a potential big hit on his hands, settled on Atlantic, on the advice of Stax’s Jim Stewart, for a national release (with a very small rewording of the title). Atlantic didn’t get behind it though and it the single went nowhere. This was the last release Ella was to have on Octavia. She clearly had a quality voice and Jerry Wexler alerted WLAC DJ John Richbourg to her talents. He took her onboard, recorded her in Muscle Shoals and Nashville, and she would have a string of top quality singles, and one album, released between late ‘67 and early ‘72 on JR’s Sound Stage 7 label. Only one was a sizeable hit though – He Called Me Baby.
Ella left the music industry in 1973, becoming a “born again” Christian and, eventually, a pastor. She has released a few gospel records since her Sound Stage 7 days. As far as I know she still resides in the Miami area.
Ella Washington – The Grass Is Always Greener (On The Opposite Side Of The Fence) 1966/67
I have gleaned some of the information imparted here from Sir Shambling’s site (of course!).
Larry Hargrove’s obit.
Octavia Roberts obit.
