Loma Records - 50 Years Old Today

[Amsterdam Russ]

August 23rd 1964 marks the 50th anniversary of the Loma record label.

 

The first ever release (Loma 2001) was Billy Storm - I never want to dream again (There in a garden) / baby don't look down.

 

 

https://youtu.be/bLalYfXKoBo

 

Happy birthday, Loma Records!

 

 

[Robbk]

A very nice Soul label with a bizarre combination of rough Soul and sweet Soul for various L.A. producers, thrown together with classy, sweet Philadelphia productions by Jerry Ragovoy.  My favourites are The Enchanters and Apollas.

Edited August 23, 2014 by RobbK

[Guest Matt Male]

My favourite Loma:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuB3AdDkTmU

[Illusive]

So many fabulous up-tempo dance tracks on Loma but my favourite is a deep soul ballad: the flip of Carl Hall "Mean It Baby" the AWESOME "You don't know nothing about love"

 

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC !!!!!!!

 

 

Enjoy 

Edited August 23, 2014 by illusive

[Tiberius]

My own fave on the label is Bobby Freeman - Lies & coincidentally I picked a copy up for a tenner the other day.

 

 

Edit -

Edited August 23, 2014 by tiberius

[Benji]

A very nice Soul label with a bizarre combination of rough Soul and sweet Soul for various L.A. producers, thrown together with classy, sweet Philadelphia productions by Jerry Ragovoy.  My favourites are The Enchanters and Apollas.

 

And the very first release was by a blue-eyed artist. I guess they changed their mind after it

[Amsterdam Russ]

One of my absolute favourites from the label. Difficult to say why exactly. Not sure if it's about having some sort of empathy with the emotions of the record, or maybe the harmonies - there's certainly something about harmonies that resonates personally - or maybe it's just simply a sublime slice of that music we call "Soul". 

 

Whatever, it works for me - big time!

 

[Amsterdam Russ]

Technically, a classic from the Loma label!

 

"Mr Creator" was recorded in the same session as Loma 2053 - "Sorry Mama / My Soul Concerto" - but was given over to the parent Warner Bros because it had all the makings of a hit and as such would benefit from their marketing and promotions budgets. They were nearly right.

 

[Robbk]

One of my absolute favourites from the label. Difficult to say why exactly. Not sure if it's about having some sort of empathy with the emotions of the record, or maybe the harmonies - there's certainly something about harmonies that resonates personally - or maybe it's just simply a sublime slice of that music we call "Soul". 

 

Whatever, it works for me - big time!

 

Interesting about this Loma release.  The L.A. office Had Jerry Ragovoy arrange and record the background tracks in Philadelphia, and sent L.A.'s Olympics to Philly for him to record, or recorded the vocals in L.A.  This is the ONLY song by The Olympics I can remember that is "mellow", rather than their normal rough style.  Sort of like "That Day When She Needed Me" by The Contours (before they had Joe Stubbs or Dennis Edwards as leads). 

 

Also interesting that the title reads "Baby I'm Yours" (confused with the Barbara Lewis song), when it was titled "Another Lonely Saturday" when released on Blue Rock by Dee Dee Warwick.

[Amsterdam Russ]

Interesting about this Loma release.  The L.A. office Had Jerry Ragovoy arrange and record the background tracks in Philadelphia, and sent L.A.'s Olympics to Philly for him to record, or recorded the vocals in L.A.  This is the ONLY song by The Olympics I can remember that is "mellow", rather than their normal rough style.  Sort of like "That Day When She Needed Me" by The Contours (before they had Joe Stubbs or Dennis Edwards as leads). 

 

Also interesting that the title reads "Baby I'm Yours" (confused with the Barbara Lewis song), when it was titled "Another Lonely Saturday" when released on Blue Rock by Dee Dee Warwick.

 

I thought Ragovoy (Philly born) was working out of NY during his tenure with Loma. Am I wrong?

[Robbk]

I thought Ragovoy (Philly born) was working out of NY during his tenure with Loma. Am I wrong?

That could be correct.  I think he worked out of both cities in the mid '60s.

[Supercorsa]

Happy Anniversay to Loma. Only last week received my latest vinyl purchase, which happened to be on Loma. The Apollas, You're Absolutely Right.

[Guest Carl Dixon]

That 'Mr Creator'...the first few bars.....just...out of this world. I have always had a soft spot for this over the years...

 

[Guest]

Check out the Apollas CD on Kent...great collection

[Amsterdam Russ]

Ever the optimist, I still hold out hope of finding Loma 2004 - Bob and Earl - Everybody Jerk! 

[Guest]

Loma...like Mirwood and Motown EVERY collector has/had owned releases on the label, if not collected it to some degree over the years.

 

Let us also not forget that set of compilation albums from the 70's...the guy behind that superb project lost his job over their poor sales, didn't he?

[Amsterdam Russ]

Loma...like Mirwood and Motown EVERY collector has/had owned releases on the label, if not collected it to some degree over the years.

 

Let us also not forget that set of compilation albums from the 70's...the guy behind that superb project lost his job over their poor sales, didn't he?

The guy behind it was the legendary Claude Nobs, who was a senior WB exec at that time. Claude founded the even more legendary Montreux Jazz Festival, of course, and is immortalised as "Funky Claude" in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the water".

 

I exchanged a few emails with him about five or six years ago and he said he'd call me on the phone and tell me about how he came to put the tremendously ambitious 7-LP Loma anthology together. To my eternal regret, that phone call didn't happen. Still, I'm honoured that he even bothered to reply to my enquiring email at all.

 

Claude died in January 2013 from injuries sustained in a skiing accident. He was 76-years old.

[Guest Carl Dixon]

I have three of those LP's tucked away in a cupboard..I couldn't afford the other one and didn't know any of the tracks at the time (circa 1978/9 I think, or earlier). They sere something like £1 each, a brown, purple and red one. Would any DJ's play these LP's at events then? Or is it illegal?

[Guest]

had a few of the LPs

recently transferred to CDr

One was an R&B type....a bit different!

But the others contained some great stuff.

Dave Godin 'promoted' them in B&S I think.

[Guest Dave Turner]

 

Edited August 27, 2014 by Dave Turner

[Amsterdam Russ]

Would any DJ's play these LP's at events then? Or is it illegal?

To be fair, if looking only at monetary aspects then Loma isn't a particularly hard label to collect, so the aspiring DJ could get hold of most of the releases on original 45s without too much difficulty. Barring the yellow issue Soul Shakers "I'm getting weaker", the hardest one to find (based on my experience) is actually under the radar - or there's no interest in it.

 

For me, THE hardest one is a green label variant of a 45 that is cheap as both a yellow stock copy and a white label demo. I'm still looking for one of those.

 

had a few of the LPs

recently transferred to CDr

One was an R&B type....a bit different!

But the others contained some great stuff.

Dave Godin 'promoted' them in B&S I think.

Volume 3 is the R&B comp. Great tracks on that from the likes of James "Lucky" Carmichael, Smiley Lewis, Barry "Barefoot" Beefus and also including James Cotton's two fabulous sides - his cover of the St Louis Jimmy Oden song "Complete this order" and the mighty harmonica romp "Laying in the weeds".

 

Poor sound quality on the clip, but hey...

 

https://youtu.be/fkbetb99DXU

Edited August 27, 2014 by Russell Gilbert

[Guest Dave Turner]

Flip to Roy Redmond's "Aint That Terrible"and one of the better covers of Sam Cooke's immortal "A Change Is Gonna Come"

 

[Amsterdam Russ]

On the subject of Roy Redmond, how about this clip from the 1968 psychedelic cult movie The Touchables? It uses Redmond's take of the Beatles song Good Day Sunshine.

 

Redmond's song was originally released as Loma 2075 in July 1967. However, the song started to get plays in New York some months later and this local action prompted WB/Loma to put it out again in February of 1968 - hence why you can also find it on the green label Loma 2092.

 

The film itself didn't come out until November 1968, so it's unclear whether word of the inclusion of the song in the original soundtrack was a factor in the interest it picked up six months after original release.

 

Now, on with the groovy - and slightly kinky - 60s movie action! 

 

Edited August 27, 2014 by Russell Gilbert

[Guest Dave Turner]

On the subject of Roy Redmond, how about this clip from the 1968 psychedelic cult movie The Touchables? It uses Redmond's take of the Beatles song Good Day Sunshine.

 

Redmond's song was originally released as Loma 2075 in July 1967. However, the song started to get plays in New York some months later and this local action prompted WB/Loma to put it out again in February of 1968 - hence why you can also find it on the green label Loma 2092.

 

The film itself didn't come out until November 1968, so it's unclear whether word of the inclusion of the song in the original soundtrack was a factor in the interest it picked up six months after original release.

 

Now, on with the groovy - and slightly kinky - 60s movie action! 

 

 

They tie him down ready for a good rogering and then f**k off to play pinball ... Ain't that terrible  

Edited August 27, 2014 by Dave Turner

[Amsterdam Russ]

They tie him down ready for a good rogering and then f**k off to play pinball ... Ain't that terrible  

Let me tell you it's down right sinful!