Henry Lumpkin

[Roburt]

I know this guy worked with Smokey at Motown in the early 60's and had a few good tracks released. I guess he cut a lot more stuff at Motown than actually escaped at the time.
Then he turns up 3/4 years later on Buddah, working with ex Motown guy Bob Bateman (+ Lou Courtney). His later stuff was most likely cut in New York but his Motown stuff was cut in Detroit (I believe).
I know he went out on lots of Motown artist shows in his 'Detroit years' and even went on a Hitsville tour. He got lost in the shuffle at Motown though, as many artists did.
APART FROM THE ABOVE .... and liking some of his records ... I know very little about him. Where was he from and what became of him ?? Was he a young guy during his Motown spell as I suspect and if so, how come he never sustained his singing career into the 70's ?

[Roburt]

Two of Henry's tracks ..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNuLCu2FWTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy5dyZZlEOU

[Dave Moore]

Henry also recorded in the early sixties with Billy Jackson in Philly. Have a great Motown promo photo of him that Barry Simpson gave me. It's framed now but I'll try and find the scan of it I did.

Regards,

Dave

[Robbk]

I think he was from The East Coast.  He sang "I'm a Walkin' For JFK, which charted in some cities in 1962, releases on Cameo-Parkway's Fairmount subsidiary.

[Guest trickbag]

The excellently-named Henry Lumpkin had to wait over a year for a follow-up to his first Motown single, I’ve Got A Notion, released in January of 1961; in the meantime, he’d been co-opted into a short-lived new vocal trio, “Hank, Gino & Bob”, with Gino Parks and Satintone Robert Bateman, but that plan had been scrapped before their debut single Blibberin’ Blabbin’ Blues, now credited to Parks solo, saw a release. The extremely early, out-of-sequence Motown catalogue number on this single suggests it was originally planned for release much earlier than January 1962.

It’s a shame Henry’s Motown career never really got off the ground; as mentioned previously, his physique (described by Parks as “hefty” in the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 2) might have been an obstacle to solo superstardom in an increasingly image-driven business, or perhaps there just wasn’t room for another teenage R&B singer-songwriter in the Motown stable at the time for Lumpkin to receive a proper promotional push. Whatever the reason, he certainly had the raw materials for success.

The company clearly thought so, not only giving him a second solo single release, but also letting him do it with his own song. The result: a bluesy, slinky R&B number, much in the vein of the stuff later cut by Shorty Long for the Soul Records subsidiary.

Henry gives it 100%, turning in a raw-throated blues delivery over a less intense, more pop-flavoured R&B rhythm bed (and some rollicking Nawlins boogie-woogie tack piano thrown in for good measure), letting loose with a full-on howl when the music calls for it.

Lumpkin’s lyrics are good fun, too. A particular highlight comes when he starts riffing on the lyrics of Jack and Jill Went Up The Hill (no, really), and adds a sandpaper-rough postscript — She picked him up, and set him right / I said, ah, now she’s lovin’ him day and night — but the whole thing is worthy of a smile or two, especially when he changes the “woman” in the title to “lover” (“He’s like a book without a cover / He’s like a child without a mother / Now that’s a man / Oh that’s a man / Without a lover”).

Once again, the record wasn’t a success, and once again Motown weren’t deterred; there was never a Henry Lumpkin LP, but another single did see the light of day later in the year

motown junkies

 

 

ricky.