The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 10

I've said before here, probably more than once, that I can go from to room to room around our house and be reminded of a song, or songs, I heard while decorating. I'll admit in some rooms the recollections are getting more than a little hazy – which either means I have been neglecting the decorating duties in recent years, or I'm an old geezer and my memory is failing me! Yes, both!

Back in August our spare room had the redecorating treatment. “Spare room” used to mean my junk room / secondary vinyl storage room. But I have been very good and decluttered (in truth I just managed to move most of it elsewhere in the house), and “spare room” now = our daughter's home office.

So what was my decorating soundtrack? Mainly old Downtown Soulville shows as presented by the always superb Mr. Finewine at WFMU. Plenty of old shows from the archives and a few new ones two. Towards the end of August he featured Ruby Johnson two weeks running, playing both sides of most of her 60s singles. I learnt that, like me, he is a big fan of Ruby's. All the singles he played nestle in his collection. It reminded me I must hunt down a few more of hers, it's not an easy task though, they don't often come up for sale – especially in the UK – and are often on the expensive side.

Anyway, the “spare room” for me is now known as the Ruby Johnson room. Here is the only single of hers I own.

Ruby Johnson – Weak Spot 1966

The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 9

In 1961 Major Lance had briefly been a member of the The Ideals. By August of '63 he was solo and in the charts with The Monkey Time. But watch out Major - in that time of dance crazes there was always another one just around the corner, and this one was definitely going to be bigger than the Monkey!

The Ideals – The Gorilla 1963

The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 8

I suppose I first started collecting Soul singles in the 70s when I would buy the odd one here and there from mailing lists. Then, the Northern Soul explosion meant that every man and his dog seemed to have a list you could buy from. Northern wasn't my bag though really, even back then I seemed to have been drawn to Southern and Deep Soul. I would often buy blind from these lists, or maybe just on the strength of a slim mailing list description or write up in Blues & Soul. A Willie Hobbs single was bought in this way and so in a way became a sort of foundation of my collection. I put it in a cardboard sleeve and wrote on it “Recorded at Fame, Muscle Shoals”. Where did I get that information from? The single dates to 1971, I probably bought it around '75 so it must have come from some sort of retrospective magazine article.

Anyway, because of this, Willie Hobbs has always been a singer I have been drawn to, and the collection now houses six Willie Hobbs singles. I thought I had featured him more than once on Feel It but, apparently, not. His only appearance appears to have been back in 2009. At that point there were, evidently, three Willie Hobbs singles in the collection, all from his time at Seventy 7, and I featured them all.

So, it is about time he was given some more love. This is the most recent addition to the Willie Hobbs section in the collection, I bought it maybe three years ago now. The single pre-dates his time at Seventy 7. It was written by Bobby Womack, Jerry Butler, and Jimmy Holiday. Who recorded it first? I'm not sure, I think it was probably Jerry Butler as it appeared on an album of his released in 1968. Willie's excellent take on the song was released early in '69, and other covers followed not long after, including a killer version by Velma Perkins (Vee Allen) which I think only saw the light of day as a Twinight promo in 1970 and is very very rare.

Willie Hobbs – Yes, My Goodness Yes 1969

The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 7

So, the eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed a sequence to this year's Advent-ure posts. Any of you that have will have predicted today's post would be from an artist or group beginning with the letter G.

Yes there is a sequence, and it's a simple one – I'm running through the letters of the alphabet A to … er .. X (the 24^th is going to be challenging!). I am finding this simple rule concentrates the mind wonderfully and makes it much easier to choose which record to feature, and when the posts come thick and fast you need to make quick decisions.

The Gs in the singles boxes are not that extensive, and I have posted many of them already, so it was quickly narrowed down to one of three artists – Don Gardner, Barbara George, or Roosevelt Grier.

“Rosey” Grier won out when I started reading up on his life. I suggested the artist in yesterday's post - Louise Freeman - maybe a Georgia native, well Roosevelt Grier was definitely born in Georgia, and he is still alive, age 88 years and counting; and it is fair to say his life has been full and varied. His singing career resulted in 23 singles and 2 albums, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. From pro American footballer to prominent bodyguard, to needlepointer and more. Read his Wikipedia entry, it's fascinating. At 6' 5" Rosey may be a larger than life character, but it's difficult to believe he could be larger than his own life! 

This was his first 45, released at the beginning of 1960 on the A label – that label name ensuring it would have been listed first on any new issue distribution lists!

Roosevelt Grier – Why Don't You Do Right 1960

The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 6

Here in the UK London Records were a godsend to Soul lovers in the 70s. The label was the UK home of Al Green, Ann Peebles, and any number of other Hi artists, but they also released singles from some other excellent and more obscure artists from labels such as Shout.

I can offer no information on Louise Freeman beyond the fact she had five US single releases - three in the 70s and two in the late 80s - and all were recorded in Georgia, so that is presumably her home state. (She rightfully has her place on Sir Shambling's site, but even John cannot offer any further background on the singer).

This is a beautifully arranged deepie. The intro is reminiscent of Betcha By Golly Wow, and elsewhere, fleetingly, Todd Rundgren's Hello It's Me comes to mind.

Louise Freeman – How Could You Run Away 1974

The Feel it Advent-ure 2020: Door 5

Jean Elias made only one record as far as anyone seems to know. The Duke/Peacock/Back Beat stable of labels made almost no use of Muscle Shoals recording studios, but this is where both sides of this 45 were laid down. I don't think  this 45 troubled the chart compilers though, the only Billboard references I can find to the single are listings in the "ones to watch" section in late November 1971. It is a mystery why Jean never found her way onto wax again as she is a good singer, this 45's tracks are above the average, and a Duke label stable Billboard advert as late as August 1972 was still listing Jean as being on their roster. I suspect for Jean it was a case of right place, wrong time. By 1972 the more "down home" Soul was starting to struggle to be heard in the face of the rapidly emerging Philly style and more lavishly arranged up town soul and funk.  

I thought I had posted the B side - How Can I Go On Fooling Myself - before, but it seems not. Of the two sides it certainly seems to be referenced much more frequently on the internet; it was, I am sure, the reason I bought this 45 a few years ago now and it has been the only one that has stuck in my mind. However, playing both sides again today I'm thinking the A side deserves some love too.

Jean Elias - You Made Me A Anybody's Woman  1971

  

The Feel It Advent-ure 2020: Door 4

It's Friday so we need something to dance around the kitchen table to.

There........ is what? There is. There just is!

I love the large gap in the title on this printing of the label. There were, it seems, at least four different labels for this release, this one being the most emphatic. Not only that, there were two different incarnations of Cadet 5574, The A side O-O I Love You being backed initially by There Is, and then subsequently by The Change We Go Thru (For Love). Why did that happen? Well, O-O I Love You entered the Hot 100 in November 1967 and stayed for 10 weeks, peeking at#61. However there was undoubtedly much love for its original B side (I suspect the radio DJs had flipped it) because There Is got its own release as an A side (Cadet 5590) in December of '67, and that also made the Hot 100 on January 20^th 1968, and it stayed in the charts for 11 weeks, peeking at #20. So, including life as a B side, we can easily say There Is spent a total of at least 16 weeks in the Billboard Top 100.  

So, there is no dispute, here is track worthy of another spin 53 years later.

The Dells – There Is 1967

PS: while The Dells (Cadet 5574) were sparring with the likes of The Impressions and Al Green(e) – his very first hit – in the lower reaches of the Hot 100, The Monkees, The Beatles, and Lulu were among the big hitters at the top. However, by February 1968 when There Is (Cadet 5590) peaked at #20, the Top 10 was somewhat bereft of big rock/pop names – Paul Mauriat (Love Is Blue) was at #1 having just knocked The Lemon Pipers (Green Tambourine) off the top spot, and The Temptations (I Wish It Would Rain) and Otis (Dock of The Bay) were both in the Top 10.