I'm not sure how long she stayed in the music biz, but young white teenager Audrey Slo certainly made an impact in the mid 60's with her Swan track "Gonna Find The Right Boy". She did some live shows to promote the record and even went on a tour along with a number of other recording artists ..... 

Is much else known about her ??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFSX3YvrqU

The tour she was involved with was a bit of a strange one.

It was led by Baltimore radio DJ 'Hot Rod' and featured mainly Baltimore based artists (the Royalettes, George Jackson, Eugene Del & others). The venues the package appeared at were various US Job Corp Centres, no doubt they were put on as an attraction to help draw people to the centres.

As all the other artists involved were from Baltimore, anyone know if Audrey was also from the city ?

  On 09/02/2014 at 14:23, Roburt said:

I'm not sure how long she stayed in the music biz, but young white teenager Audrey Slo certainly made an impact in the mid 60's with her Swan track "Gonna Find The Right Boy". She did some live shows to promote the record and even went on a tour along with a number of other recording artists ..... 

Is much else known about her ??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFSX3YvrqU

Her certain "impact" couldn't have been very large.  I never heard of her and never saw that record.  I was looking for records in 1964-66, and looked through hundreds of thousands of 45s.  I made trips to The East coast in 1967-71.  I never saw that record.  i listened to radio in Chicago, also from Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, during that time.  I never heard it played on the radio.  IF it charted, it was likely only in Philadelphia and Baltimore (maybe also Wash. DC.?).  It must have been a dead rare record, with very small press run, and little chart action.  I don't remember seeing her on "American Bandstand", and yet, Dick Clark was a part owner of Swan Records.  THAT is a clue that she had little or no chart action.  And, being a Caucasian artist would give her MORE chance on Clarks's show than if she were of another heritage.

 

Does anyone here know how to find out if her record had chart action in Baltimore or Philadelphia?

Audrey Slo also had a record out on Baye Records (Baltimore?) or DC (Chesapeake Bay?).  Baye 1117 _ "Mama *What Dos A Girl Do)".  It ALSO sounds like 1965.  I have also never seen that one.  Surely it was only a local release (and it probably had little if any chart action.

Here's her Baye Record:

Quite like "Gonna Find The Right Boy" from way back but never imagined her as a young white teenager, another revelation.

The instrumental flip had a few plays as it is quite similar to "The Spy". Could be the same musicians.

In 1974 I was staying in Philadelphia with my boss, Ed Balbier who had a record warehouse there . One day he said there were some boxes of records in his house cellar and I should have a look. In a corner were about 15 boxes of records and in one of these were about 60 copies of the Audry Slo record on Swan which ended up back in the UK.If Rob said he never saw them around in the 60s maybe it didn't make it out of Philly and around Baltimore/Pittsburgh.

In some of the other boxes in the cellar I found about 90 copies of Lenis Guess "Just Ask Me" six months after it had been pressed and issued on Route so was worth hardly anything then.

Rick

This is Audrey slo.And I am in north carolina. I am from Baltimore . Gonna find the right boy was made in Philly on swan and on bay label the back side is if I could live and was written by my piano player John run.there was also a first record on a monitor lable.made in D.C. called slow Dancin in with Don and flip side I'll still love you written by Johnny cymbal who sang it to me on a guitar and gave me the lyrics to learn We both had the Same manager at the time ,who was Jack gale who died a few years back ,I was singing at the spa nightclub with Ronnie dove when hot rod, of wwin radio pick me up as manager.I had an interveiw for the ed Sullivan show when I quit.but had been on the buddy Dean show with the first record slow dancin with don.

Mama was made in new yourk and diana ross listen to it on a view with hot rod on we in and told me on the radio to keep up the singing ,I had a voice. And hot rod was like a father to me , I cured my heart out ,he died Christmas eve, 1996 with throat cancer. I will forever miss him.

  On 09/02/2014 at 17:24, RobbK said:

Here's her Baye Record:

The pressing plant Spelt Audrey's name wrong on the A side and managed to get it correct on the B side, that's printers for you

Audrey, it would be good to learn anything at all about your recording session for "Gonna Find The Right Boy" (or any other of your studio sessions) … PLUS … what can you recall about that HOT ROD tour (what type of venues did you perform in & how long did the tour last) + what can you recall about the other acts (George Jackson is a bit of an undocumented singer apart from his earlier years in the Balto group the Plants).  

Did you get to meet the song's writer, Leon Huff ??

Your 45 has been known to sell for a lot of money … Many thanks for posting here. 

Edited March 25, 20196 yr by Roburt

Hi Audrey. Love "Gonna find the Right Boy". Still after a copy though.

Audrey's 45 did get some airplay in Baltimore - 

she's at #29 on this survey - 

Edited March 26, 20196 yr by the yank

Record World- July '66 -

 

So "Gonna Find The Right Boy" made some noise in Baltimore, got local radio plays and charted on WWIN. From the mag info, it seems Hot Rod was pushing Audrey's track from the date of it's release. Hot Rod had been an ever-present on Baltimore radio since 1951. He was the MC on many big shows staged at Baltimore's Royal Theatre and at Carr's Beach.   

Richie Barrett is listed as the tracks producer with Leon Huff writing the song. Richie did quite a bit of work with Swan (mainly 3 Degrees or 3 Degrees members cuts) on which he'd also worked with Leon Huff before Audrey's track. Norman 'General' Johnson also worked with Richie on 3 Degrees related tracks for Swan. In addition to these cuts, Richie & Leon had also co-operated on earlier Swan cuts by the likes of (Norman Johnson &) the Showmen and Locomotions. Richie had also worked with Norman Johnson on Eddie Carlton's Swan cuts.

Obviously Richie Barrett was the 'elder statesman' in all these collaborations (he'd been involved in the recording biz since the mid 50's and had recorded himself since around 1958, cutting the Beatles fave "Some Other Guy" with Leiber - Stoller in 62). It would be great to learn something about the dynamics of the studio process on tracks like Audrey's outing.

Edited March 28, 20196 yr by Roburt

More about Hot Rod … https://www.bluesaccess.com/No_29/rooster.html