Burford Fishback - A man with many irons in the fire (aka Sonny Fishback / Sonny Fisher)

Burford Fishback - A man with many irons in the fire (aka Sonny Fishback / Sonny Fisher)

Burford 'Sonny' Fishback was born in Nashville, Tennessee but moved to Louisville, Kentucky at the age of 13. He attended Madison Jr. High there in 1953 and in 1957 he  transferred to Central High School joining Mohammad Ali there. Sonny's plan and dreams included becoming a nightclub singer and a recording artist. In 1957 Sonny wrote a song called "You Ain't Going Nowhere" which was a mild local hit. Sonny then dropped out of school to become a performer in the Louisville area. He ended up at the age of 17 working in local nightclubs such as 'the Top Hat', Charlie Moore's, the Crosstown Cafe and the Diamond Horseshoe up until 1965. He then went on the road working in various nightclubs across a wide geographic area. Sonny was soon booked by an agency in Detroit, Michigan and via that deal got to meet James Brown, The Godfather of Soul. JB offered him a position as a songwriter with his organisation. From there, Sonny went to New York to begin his song writing career, while still trying to get a hit record himself. He decided to form his own label called 'Out-A-Site' Records and cut the self-penned song "The Heartbreaking Man".

James Brown wasn't happy with the label name Sonny used and so he discontinued his label in 1968. Sonny then began to record for NOla based Tou-Sea Records under the name Sonny Fisher. The song "Oh Love This Is Sonny" was released, but once again found little success (apart from it being picked up by EMI in the UK for inclusion on their 'Bell Cellar Of Soul Two' compilation LP). In the same year Sonny accepted a record deal with Duke Peacock out of Houston, Texas. While under contract with the company (still under the name of Sonny Fisher), he wrote and produced another song "I'm Going All The Way". In 1971 Sonny's desire for a hit record again drove him to form another of his own label's (Brown Sugar Records) in New York. The first release (1972) was badged up as by Brown Sugar & was titled "Somebody Stronger" but yet again this single brought him little success (even when put out again on ABKCO --.who acted as distributors for him for a time). Next up came a 45 he produced on 1619 B.A.B. ("World / For Your love") and this caught the eye of Chess Records who licensed it for national release late in 1973 (Chess # 2147).

With the lack of success both as a recording artist & label owner / producer, Sonny decided to close the label in 1973 and he then got into the concert promoting business. Some of the concerts he staged were by Kool & The Gang, The Persuaders, The Chi-lites, Evelyn Champagne King, The Flamingos, Eddie Holman and many others. In 1975 Sonny he branched out again, going into the nightclub business. He opened a club called 'Night People' where he catered for a high profile crowd, superstars plus hustlers. Sonny eventually returned to Louisville (1990) to take care of his ailing mother, who died in the early 90's. After his mother's death, Sonny was devastated, he became a drug addict and eventually ended up in prison for drug possession. During his incarceration Sonny developed a passion for writing and authored a number of books and scripts, the most notable these being his 'Plant A New Seed'. 

I first became aware of Sonny's work when I bought the Bell Cellar Of Soul Two album late in 1968. I really liked his track on that LP a lot & therefore started to look for his name when scanning record lists. Back then, it was all mailed-out printed sheets that listed 45's for sale or for auction. Being a true Yorkshireman (tight), I'd scan such lists after postie had pushed them through the letterbox for likely obscure imports that I hoped I could get cheaply (the big niter sounds always going for a quid or more back then). If I spotted a name I knew or a import label I had sumat on that I liked, I'd bid silly money to try and get a bargain (buying blind really). Putting a bid in of 1/11d or 2/7d, I'd miss out on loads but win some. As my taste in soul was quite wide (dancers, ballads, bluesy cuts, gospely tracks, big city sounds, Motown, Stax, LA labels, NOla stuff, etc.), more often than not, I'd be content with my haul (whilst worrying I'd missed out on a future biggie by bidding 6d too low). In Sonny's case, I never did come across another 45 with his name on it back then. But as he only had 2 releases under the name of Sonny Fisher, it turns out that my hopes of coming across other stuff by him was low.