Sitting In The Park Ray And Dave Interview / Chilites Tribute Show

[boba]

Hi. Today on my radio show I interviewed Ray Caldwell, lead singer of Ray and Dave. Ray was originally from the South Side of Chicago, growing up around the Hyde Park neighborhood. Ray began learning music at an early age, initially playing a piano donated by his neighbor. Ray attended Dusable high school and, at the Dusable Hi Jinks talent show, met Jimmy Dobbins. Dobbins was performing with a group that had moved to Chicago with him from Mississippi. The group was performing acapella at the show; Ray joined up with the group as their pianist as songwriter.

Ray met up with singer "Dave" while playing the piano at the back of his mother's beauty shop. Dobbins' group soon disbanded and the trio began doing shows together. The group was discovered at a show by Bob Lee, who soon became their manager. Lee took the group too Al Benson, who signed each of the trio to his Crash / Mica label. At the same session the group recorded 4 sides at the Chess studios, which were released on two singles. Jimmy Dobbins "Little Miss Perfect" / "What is Love" was released on the Crash label and got play in Chicago; "Little Miss Perfect" was a nice uptempo cut backed by Ray and Dave. Ray and Dave's "Wrong Wrong Wrong" / "Six Lonely Days" was released on the Mica label and became a local hit. The record had an excellent uptempo Chicago sound with 3-part harmony (which included Jimmy Dobbins). Although Ray sang lead on the track, he had to be persuaded to sing lead as he had previously was mainly the pianist for the trio.

Ray was soon drafted and did not really get to hear the local Chicago play but even heard "Wrong Wrong Wrong" played on the Jukebox while he was stationed in Louisiana. When he finally came back to Chicago, Ray found that he was unable to receive royalties from the record from BMI as he was not correctly registered as the songwriter. Disillusioned with the music business, Ray left for California to be with his family. Jimmy Dobbins continued with music, cutting one more record for Chimneyville records in 1973. Jimmy apparently passed away in 1995, according to the comments in this blog:

https://dereksdaily45.blogspot.com/2008/06/jimmy-dobbins-little-miss-perfect.html

Ray has become involved with producing music again. You can listen to my interview at the bottom of my interviews page at:

https://www.sittinginthepark.com/interviews.html

I also did a Chilites tribute show in memory of Robert Earl Lester ("Squirrel"), who passed away last week. You can listen to that show at the bottom of my shows page at https://www.sittinginthepark.com/shows.htm . playlist follows. Thanks for your interest.

Hilites - You did that to me - Daran

Marshall and the Chilites - Pretty girl - Daran

Chilites - I'm so jealous - Daran

Chilites - My baby loves me - Revue

Chilites - Love me - Revue

Chilites - She's mine - Blue Rock

Chilites - Give it away - Brunswick

Chilites - I like your loving - Brunswick

Chilites - Are you my woman? - Brunswick

Chilites - Being in love - Brunswick

Chilites - Living in the footsteps of another man - Brunswick

thanks,

Bob

[Pete S]

There you go, the magic of the internet for everyone to see. Three weeks ago Ray emailed me simply to say thanks for putting his record on a podcast, he had no idea the record was known...three weeks later, he's being interviewed on the radio! Really pleased for Ray, and nice one Bob.

[Guest cenco]

great show thanx

[boba]

There you go, the magic of the internet for everyone to see. Three weeks ago Ray emailed me simply to say thanks for putting his record on a podcast, he had no idea the record was known...three weeks later, he's being interviewed on the radio! Really pleased for Ray, and nice one Bob.

thanks for the contact Pete, Ray was very happy to do the interview.

[Djmelismo]

Hi Bob!

Been listening to the latest downloads this evening. Thanks as ever for bringing us those interviews and music shows, always very educational and enjoyable. I think I have asked you before, but here we go again: have you ever done an interview with members of the group Windy City? They are definitely one of my favourite groups of all time. I have their LP (a superb set with strong material, great production, amazing vocal harmonies and lead vocals to die for) and a few 45s, one of them being a straight up funk tune, not on the album, if memory serves it´s entitled "Spank".

Regards,

Melismo

[boba]

Hi Bob!

Been listening to the latest downloads this evening. Thanks as ever for bringing us those interviews and music shows, always very educational and enjoyable. I think I have asked you before, but here we go again: have you ever done an interview with members of the group Windy City? They are definitely one of my favourite groups of all time. I have their LP (a superb set with strong material, great production, amazing vocal harmonies and lead vocals to die for) and a few 45s, one of them being a straight up funk tune, not on the album, if memory serves it´s entitled "Spank".

Regards,

Melismo

still on my list of people, sorry I have not gotten to them yet! I have another early 80s group I'm working on that I know you would be into that hopefully will be coming up soon (don't want to announce it as that has a way of screwing things up). Thanks again for being a regular listener by the way.