Butch Williams Of The Heartbreakers, Sitting In My House

[Dave Thorley]

 

This guy is sitting in my house now..........Butch Williams of the Heartbreakers. Butch tells me that this 45 was recorded at United Sound in Detroit, WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Heartbreakers were a Louisville group, this was their second 45 recorded in 1968, a moment of magic !!!!!!!!!!!!, lead vocals on this side are by Eddie Haynes. The flip side and the uptempo side 'I've got to face it' had Curtis Wiggins, known as TC on lead vocals. This is the same guy that later recorded on Palm records 'Stand up when I talk to you'

 

https://youtu.be/HP7I4rRz3nc

 

 

The group also had an earlier 45 on Miracle Mile, but this was before Butch joined the group. After this second 45 the group broke up and all went their different way. Curtis Wiggins recording a further 2 solo 45's on Palm, Butch got a job at GE and it wasn't till 2002 that he recorded again, putting out 2 nice soul & blues CD. Nice bit of throw away Louisville info. Both the Palm label and Frontiersman, the label Leroy Barbour came out on, were names taken from old clubs in the city.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Dave Thorley

[Frankie Crocker]

butch williams.jpg

 

This guy is sitting in my house now..........Butch Williams of the Heartbreakers. Butch tells me that this 45 was recorded at United Sound in Detroit, WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Heartbreakers were a Louisville group, this was their second 45 recorded in 1968, a moment of magic !!!!!!!!!!!!, lead vocals on this side are by Eddie Haynes. The flip side and the uptempo side 'I've got to face it' had Curtis Wiggins, known as TC on lead vocals. This is the same guy that later recorded on Palm records 'Stand up when I talk to you'

 

https://youtu.be/HP7I4rRz3nc

 

 

The group also had an earlier 45 on Miracle Mile, but this was before Butch joined the group. After this second 45 the group broke up and all went their different way. Curtis Wiggins recording a further 2 solo 45's on Palm, Butch got a job at GE and it wasn't till 2002 that he recorded again, putting out 2 nice soul & blues CD. Nice bit of throw away Louisville info. Both the Palm label and Frontiersman, the label Leroy Barbour came out on, were names taken from old clubs in the city.

Neat story Dave. I found a load of these in Skippy White's basement in Cambridge, mid 1990's - never had any trouble selling the small quantity I took away. Remarkable that a record of this calibre could languish overlooked for 25 years.

[Dave Thorley]

 

So this is Butch's full story........................... He started singing at high school in Louisville with a group called The Creations at middle school, then joined The Marvells when he was at Ahren's High School, Butch wrote a song 'Smile for you' for the group that they then recorded. In 1969 he joined The Heartbreakers. This group had been formed two years earlier by Eddie Haynes and recorded a 45 on Miracle records, owned by a local lawyer Ms. Ora Miracle. For the next couple of years he continued singing with this group. Apart from Butch and Eddie Hayes, Curtis (TC) Wiggins Elzy White made up the group, Elzy also owned the label Derby-City records. They recorded a further 45 on Derby-City, 'I've got to face it/How do you say goodbye', this was recorded at United Sound in Detroit, as Elzy love the Motown sound and was trying to get a Temptations feel to the recordings. the first side had Curtis on lead vocals, the second side with Eddie on lead, backing was provided by session musicians at United Sound studio.

 

After the group broke up he along with Eddie Haynes joined a group called Enterprise The full line up was the aformentioned plus Kenneth Morton, Al Marshall and James Nes Neblett They had limited success in the Louisville area playing the clubs including The Frontiersman & The Palm. As an aside these two clubs also had record labels named after them, which Curtis Wiggins, after The Heartbreakers broke up recorded on one of them, Palm and release 2 45's. Frontiersman was the label that Leroy Barbour - recorded 'I ain't going nowhere and a song by local writer Phillip Mitchell 'Find me'. Enterprise did go into the studio and recorded a number of sides including a track that Butch felt they should have been released called 'Love bandit'. Tapes of this track got sent round all the local stations and had a fair amount of play for a few months, but no release was forth coming. With no real success with this group, His next stop was to join the house band at The Joe's Palm club called Crisis through the 80's he sang and played with them and a group called Area Code 502. In the early 90's he became the presenter of a TV show called Satrgazer, which showcased local groups. When this ended Butch felt that music wasn't going to provide him a living for much longer, so got a job at GE.

 

 

 

Butch's love of music never waned, and a stroke of fate produced his last two sets of recordings. His immediate work mates were always playing blues, one day he asked them why the blues, not R&B with. They said 'because it comes from deep inside and has more feelin' Butch said to them I'm going to write you guys a song. Some weeks later he came to work with his guitar and played them the song, they were blown away and said he must record this and anymore music he had. So a year later in 2006 Butch found himself releasing his album 'Introducing Butch Williams'. This was a mix of soul & blues classics plus some songs of his own, including the self penned number 'Keep on lovin' me the way that you do'. This was recieved well and this track got air play around the world and the CD a 5 star Amazon rating, which he is very proud of. This was followed by another album in 2012 containing mainly blues tracks, called 'How do you like me now?' . Butch has now retired from GE and is passionate about helping conserve and promote the musical heritage of the city of Louisville, most recently working his old friend Ron (Mr. Wonderful) Lewis and The Kentucky Music Hall Of Fame to create a permanent section for the cities R&B artists. 

Edited June 23, 2014 by Dave Thorley

[Guest in town Mikey]

Hi Dave.

 

Did he record anything with the Creations? There are a number of groups who have recorded under that name.

[Jordirip]

'How do you say goodbye' is one of my all time favourite slowies. An old soul pack 45 from the 70's.

[Dave Thorley]

Neat story Dave. I found a load of these in Skippy White's basement in Cambridge, mid 1990's - never had any trouble selling the small quantity I took away. Remarkable that a record of this calibre could languish overlooked for 25 years.

 

Hi Dave.

 

Did he record anything with the Creations? There are a number of groups who have recorded under that name.

 

'How do you say goodbye' is one of my all time favourite slowies. An old soul pack 45 from the 70's.

 

 

Thanks for all your posts. Funny enough up until only a few years ago there were still a bunch in Skippy Whites, but think they have now gone. As for The Creations, no they didn't record anything as a group. Know what you mean Jordi fantastic group ballad, shame they didn't stay together longer, but they were young and some of them very ambitious, so those members wanted to move on to what they thought would be greater success.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Dave Thorley