3 Bossmen (Pipas Records) Curious?

[Dean]

Any info on this: 3 Bossmen - Under the Boardwalk / AINT TO PROUD TO BEG on PIPAS Records? 

 Only info I can find is what looks to be a silly price from ShugaRecords for $1000+. 

 

[Steve Ss]

​What do you want to know?

 

Sorry but I can't really tell you too much.

Googled it a few times...only really came up with the same Ebay ad with 1 for sale at $1m.......or something daft like that

 

Vaguely Carolinas/College band type sound....or think Joe E Young & Toniks but not with West Indian accents.....

 

"Ain't too proud to beg" is a more than passable version.....bit "moddy ", cool, groovy and funky....I do like it...but there's no accounting for my tastes....

its been into and out of my playbox several times over the years....to no real audience reaction.....

 

"Under the boardwalk" quite latin/new york/ good drifters pastiche...but vocals sound "white"...strained...

both sides are well recorded...guitars/sax/brass/organ/drums/lead vocal.....

 

had my copy over 20 years....cant remember if I bought it in States or traded it with Phil Dick after one of his visits.....

 

is it rare? probably........what's it worth?...well I would say more than what you really wanna pay......

 

I will see if I can load up a sound file....unless someone else wants to be kind.

 

If you find out more then please let me know..

 

Best regards

Steve

[Robbk]

It looks like a mid-late '60s Chicago pressing, and maybe I've seen it once (maybe at Soul Bowl in King's Lynn in 1982), so it must be very uncommon or rare (as I lived in Chicago when it was out - and looked at hundreds of thousands of 45s there at that time.  It must be a very, very small label with very few pressed, and only one or 2 or 3 releases.

[Steve Ss]

Robb,

it's a vinyl pressing....not bad quality...

scratched into runout groove there's "101/B " "&" "STM4757 1"............"101/A" "&" "STM4758 1"

 

the label does quite clearly state "STEREO" but to my cloth ears its not really obvious.....

the 45 is quite thin...like a UK Polydor press.....

 

Does that narrow it down?

 

Best regards

Steve

[Dean]

Thanks for info Steve and RobbK. I was interested in that general opinion Steve, particularly your comment "its been into and out of my playbox several times over the years....to no real audience reaction.". I don't recall playing it out when I was playing out. Played it some time ago to a couple of friends at our regular "Play what you've recently purchased / found and drink as much red wine as you can" evenings, all thought it sounded very college band.

Likewise googled to only find the silly inflated speculative priced copy, 3 wants on discogs made me query if it was receiving attention. Further search on discogs finds an LP on PIPAS, introducing the Bossmen with the following track list:

 

Tracklist

A1 Introduction   A2 Simple Song   A3 It's Too Late   A4 Do Me Right   A5 And I Love Her   B1 Funky Nassau   B2 Cucamonga   B3 What You See Is What You Get   B4 The Thrill Is Gone   B5 Them Changes

Further searches on Bossmen rather than 3 Bossmen will find a photo of the inner sleeve of that album:

 

Searching on Bossmen reveals singles on a variety of labels but haven't checked if it's the same as the PIPAS Bossmen/ 3 Bossmen.

Thanks again for the info, Dean.

[Robbk]

They look like a Latino group of Mexican origin.  But, I'd have been shocked if there were Mexicans in The Carolinas in the mid 1960s.  There were Mexicans in The Chicago area at that time, and some southern and Texas groups had their records pressed in Chicago.

[The Yank]

I think the 3 Bossmen are related to the Bossmen shown on the label in the pic . The 45

was autographed by 3 group members (Chucho(aka Jesse)  Perales, Vince Nares and Pete Perez). 

   Jesse was also a member of the 50's group Mando and the Chili Peppers who recorded for Golden Crest.

Edited May 23, 2015 by the yank

[Robbk]

No doubt The 3 Bossmen were 3 of the 4 Bossmen.  That Score record was pressed in the same Chicago pressing plant.  Maybe they were a Tex-Mex group from Texas, who had their records pressed in Chicago.  Or, possibly (but a lot less likely) they were an East Chicago group.  But, I was living in Chicago at that time, and had family in East Chicago that I used to visit.  And I don't remember seeing any Latinos there or anywhere in Chicagoland until the late 1970s or early 1980s.