Ramona Collins

[Roburt]

RAMONA COLLINS

Ramona Collins was always destined to be a singer. Even though she was shy as a girl, her mother (Alice Collins Carter, a jazz pianist & singer) would take Ramona along to her gigs. That way, she kept the 16 year old safe and close by. But as a consequence she grew up in the music world and being exposed to jam sessions she developed a real appreciation for music and performers. Eventually she overcame her shyness and started to sing in public herself. She enjoyed the experience and it led on to a long career in the business, one she has enjoyed immensely. Along the way, she got to cut an iconic track that is still much admired by soul fans over 45 years after it was released.

Born in Toledo in 1948, her family moved to Lansing (Michigan – about 90 miles away) when she was just two years old. As her mother was immersed in the jazz world, it should come as no surprise that Ramona's early years were spent listening to the likes of Nancy Wilson, Dakota Staton, Nina Simone, all the old legends. But being a teenager in the 60's, Motown also figured large in her musical education. Her favorites with the company included Mary Wells, Gladys Knight, the original Supremes (before Diana Ross left to go solo), the Temptations plus other soul group's such as the Whispers, etc. She listened to all the great music of the day by both male and female singers plus she had a real love of doo-wop. It was a great time to be growing up back then (as many of us can confirm) and there were way too many great singers to recall them all because so much timeless music was created in the sixties. Ramona still loves all the old school entertainers, many of whom (like her) are still going strong in the music world.

When she reached 20, she moved back to Toledo because she wanted to see what it was like to live where she had been born. She wanted to stay relatively close to her family back in Michigan, so she remained in Toledo, not moving away to a city that was more of an established entertainment centre. Toledo is right on the border between Ohio and Michigan and is less than 60 miles from Detroit. Had Ramona been a few years older, she might well have been tempted to try her luck in the Motorcity. But by the end of the sixties, the writing was already on the wall with Berry Gordy having relocated to a new home in Los Angeles in 1968. Her decision hasn't turned out too badly for Ramona though, as she has managed to establish a good reputation for herself in Toledo as an performer. That fact really works for her now in her 'golden' years, but she's also very happy that she held down a day job for many years. She certainly 'hit the road running' music wise when she arrived in Toledo, it took her less than a year to land a record deal in the city.

As already stated, Toledo was never one of the major centres for soul music product in the 1960's / 70's. Back then the city only had a handful of recording studios and only one of them has left any sort of footprint. Hanf Recording was that studio, though in the mid 60's, A&T had been active and Ohio Recording Service was also in use up to the early 70's. The majority of local recording artists however used Hanf studios (1825 Sylvania Avenue, Toledo) through the 1960's to lay down their tracks. Another local business that had really established itself back then was Clark's Record Shop (1315 Dorr Street). This was run by members of the Clark family, the main man there being William 'Billy' Otis Clark. When Ramona moved to Toledo in 1969, the record shop was a hangout for many musicians from around town (Billy would end up recording many of them though most of those cuts remained unissued). Billy was also a concert promoter and that was the activity that resulted in him getting to hear Ramona sing. With his other lines of business ticking along nicely, Billy (aka Otis) decided to branch out. He was quite proficient at electronics and so he built a very credible studio in the back of the record shop.

Ramona states that her and a handful of other artists were used to test the studio out as a kind of 'trial' venture. She knew the other two acts that also secured 45 releases, Jimmy Holloway (“I Can't Lose Your Love / Prove My Love To You” on Glass City ) and the Casuals (“You Can't Leave Me Now / I'm So Glad I Found You” also on Glass City). She recalls many others would hang around the record shop / studio but those two were the only other ones to have releases. She tells me that Jimmy Holloway passed away a few years ago and that though the members of the Casuals are still around, they have not sung in many years either as a group or individually. There was actually a fourth outfit who recorded at the studio and had a 45 out, a gospel group from a local church; the Phillips Temple Harmonizers “God Said He Would Lead Me / Don't You Want To Go” put out on the Toledo label. It was usual though back then for gospel artists to personally finance their studio sessions and arrange any subsequent releases themselves. Ramona herself went into the Clark's studio in 1969 and cut two songs, “Now That You're Gone” and “You've Been Cheating”. She recalls cutting “You've Been Cheating” on two different sessions, one with and one without backing singers being on the track.

For the initial release from a tiny independent soul label, Otis Clark didn't mess about. He sent the tapes off to Chicago for them to be mastered at Ter-Mar in that city (the Chess Records facility). After deciding to name his label after the record shop itself (which did of course make use of the family name), a 45 from Ramona duly appeared (however it was credited to Romona Collins by mistake). Her tracks must have been mastered twice at Ter-Mar as one version of the 45 has the mastering numbers TM-4320 (and TM-4321), whereas another shows TM-4283 / 84 as it's number. The two different takes of the record feature one with a short intro, the other with a longer one. Why there should be three different recorded versions of this track, all of them put together over a very short period, is no longer known. Ramona believes that a mistake was made with regard to the tracks utilised on the record (it was Clark's first attempt at having a record made) and so it was used as a learning experience by him. With the two Ter-Mar numbers utilised, it seems that the 45 cuts were mastered in May and June 1970 with the 45's appearing shortly after that date. Each pressing run must just have been a few 100 copies though, as it remains a very rare 45 indeed.

As far as Ramona knows, the records were only sold out of the Clark's record shop back then, no outside distribution deal was put in place for the 45. Quite a few copies were even given away to family and friends, none of whom know where their 45's are today. In fact, very little effort was put into promoting the single. She doesn't even remember if it was played on local radio station WKLR back then (she believes that it was but only for a very short time). It seems highly likely that her cut was played on WKLR as the Clark's Record Shop actually compiled the radio station's singles chart for them (& had an ad on the weekly chart printout). When told a few years back that “You've Been Cheating” had become a valuable collector's item, she was shocked. The last time she had seen copies of the 45 (about 30 years ago) they were languishing in a cut-out basket in a now-defunct record store. Her single was by then selling for 50 cents a copy and those copies must have been the unsold stock from Clark's (moved on when the old store was demolished to make way for Dorr Street to be widened). No promotional gigs or radio station visits were arranged for Ramona, so she never even got to plug her record. She was still only 21 years old and a relative newcomer to the city; sad really that she had little or no control over her destiny back then.

Ramona never even got to return to the studio to lay down any additional tracks, which is a great pity. She wasn't put off though and soldiered on with her singing career. Back then she sang lots of popular songs; soul, blues and even Motown stuff. In those day (early to mid 70's) she would include lots of her current favorite songs in her live shows, these included most of the songs off Marvin Gaye's 'What's Goin' On' album (in fact, she still does his music in her shows), plus "Be Thankful for What You Got" and "Party Down" (by Little Beaver). Another of her favorites back then was "Ain't No Need Of Cryin' (Rance Allen: 1974) but she didn't actually perform this sing herself. As she always worked a lot, she had to keep up with what was going on musically. She would listen to all the music that was being played currently on the radio, learning lots of the songs that she liked and thought would be suitable for inclusion in her set list for shows. She has carried on including similar material in her act right down the years, though she gradually drifted towards the jazzy styled repertoire that she mainly performs today. Of course, life caught up with her. She took day jobs, got consumed by family life and had kids, but she never gave up performing. Ramona only went on the road once, for a short time back in the late 1970's when she fronted a show band from the East Coast (along with the outfit's leader). She didn't really take to all the traveling; it was fun but very tiring (and she really missed her kids).

Over the years she has sung with all kinds of bands, many times acting as their leader. In the early 80's, she was the featured singer with MoJo and they got gigs at venues like Lindy's (5660 Monroe St). Later in the 80's, she performed with Line One, the Back Street Band, the Bill Heid Quartet and the Bob Rex Trio at venues such as Stepping Out, Theo's Taverna, the Peacock Cafe and Rusty's Jazz Cafe. A more high profile engagement came her way in 1987, when for four nights a week she performed jazz at the Toledo Cafe in the Radisson Hotel (101 Nth Summit St). She also landed some gigs at the Moulin Rouge. Shows with the Toledo Jazz Orchestra followed in 1992 before she was teamed with the Eddie Russ Trio. In 1996, along with Line One, she cut a live jazz album at Rusty's Jazz Cafe ('Everything Old Is New Again'). The resulting CD escaped in March 97 when the outfit returned to the club for a launch party. 1998 found her also doing shows with Rudy Robinson's Quartet. She hired Rudy several times to do gigs up in Michigan that were part of the popular 'Sounds From The Forest' series of gigs (staged mainly in the Ludington area, north of Grand Rapids). Rudy and Ramona had first met at a place in Detroit called Bo-Mac’s Lounge (281 Gratiot), he hosted popular jam sessions there every Thursday night. Rudy Robinson had earlier worked with the likes of Bettye LaVette, the Temptations, the Dramatics, Johnny Taylor, Laura Lee, the Dells & many more.

At the start of the new millennium, Ramona was running open-mike nights at Murphy's Place where musical styles ranging from classic jazz to current pop songs would be on display. She followed this by performing with the Toledo Jazz Society at the Theatre Conference Center of Lourdes College in Sylvania. She has also done many benefit concerts down the years. As already mentioned, she didn't let “You've Been Cheating” remain her only recording. She is proud of the two independently produced jazz albums she has worked on more recently (she also helped to produce them), 'Everything Old Is New Again' (1996) and 'Live & Lovin' It !' (2004). She is now working on another project that will feature original material. Ramona hasn't discounted her original recording efforts though and is proud that something she did so many years ago has become a collector's item. In fact, she wishes now that she had been more savvy back then to the regulations that rule the song business. She had helped in the writing of “You've Been Cheating”, contributing some of the lyrics. But when the paperwork on the song was drawn up, there was no split in the songwriting credits. After all, Billy Clark was the businessman and had total control of the entire project. Young recording artists back then didn't understand the ins and outs of the record business, they were just there to get to sing.

The Dorr Street area of Toldeo is much changed since those days. All the buildings that crowded in on the street were long since demolished to make way for a wider road. The authorities in the city decided that an express highway into the centre was needed and determined that the road to be expanded would be Dorr Street. All the properties on the north side of the street were demolished in 1973. In 1978 they went the whole hog, further developing it into a 5 lane highway. So they demolished all the buildings that still remained on the south side of the road (where the World Theatre and Clark's Record Store had been). When the old Clark's Record Store (where the recording studio was also located) was cleared, all the copies of Ramona's old 45 that remained on the premises were either sold on for a few cents each or thrown into a skip going to the tip. She isn't fazed though. Ramona possesses an inner strength, so not much has managed to bring her down during her long musical journey. She is still out there, leading her own groups and singing with other outfits as a guest vocalist. After finally getting to retire from her last day job on June 1, 2015, she was finally freed up to concentrate more on performing. So her enthusiasm lives on, even though she has now officially been a singing entertainer for a period of 47 years. So should you find yourself in the US Midwest, it's always worth scanning the live show ads in the local papers to check if Ramona is due to perform in the area while you're there.

JOHN SMITH: Sept 2016

[Smudger]

Bloody Ell

where you been !

[Iancsloft]

Didn't Otis Clark spend time In Jail

I had contact by E mail years ago with Ramona when I sent her a scan of my 45 of You've been Cheating I'm.sure she mentioned Clark was inside ????

[Mick Boyle]

I went on Kevs USA trip to New York (New Jersey). After the event I was told Romona was there, gutted I didn't know or get to chat.

[Roburt]

Yep, Otis Clark did have his troubles with the law ... AND ... for our kid's info ... I'm not really back, just thought Ramona deserved her story being told ...

[Roburt]

Ramona is still very active on the Toledo (& Detroit) music scenes. She posts most weekends on Facebook about her gigs. 

Edited January 28, 2017 by Roburt

[Greety]

Great article John. Thanks for posting.