The Gambrells - Just the 2 sisters ?

[Blackpoolsoul]

I was listening to this amazing record and if this has been covered before I do apologise

Then came this video

The BMI says Sharon and Sandra

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=szghAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1633&lpg=PA1633&dq=Sandra+Gambrell,+Sharon+Gambrell&source=bl&ots=MNOWlG2Ha3&sig=ACfU3U1OKtKfzqBRkpdwB60h8lzaKQ1tDA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9nI-7ttThAhVKSBUIHW2UC-QQ6AEwAXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sandra Gambrell%2C Sharon Gambrell&f=false

Was Patricia Hunt also in the group ?

Were they the backing for this

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Blackpoolsoul
Videos

[Floyd]

Hi

the other side jive talk was big at Yate allnighters for Ian Clark

the W/D is a lot rarer

ATB

Floyd

[Robbk]

On 16/04/2019 at 04:07, Blackpoolsoul said:

I was listening to this amazing record and if this has been covered before I do apologise

Then came this video

The BMI says Sharon and Sandra

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=szghAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1633&lpg=PA1633&dq=Sandra+Gambrell,+Sharon+Gambrell&source=bl&ots=MNOWlG2Ha3&sig=ACfU3U1OKtKfzqBRkpdwB60h8lzaKQ1tDA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9nI-7ttThAhVKSBUIHW2UC-QQ6AEwAXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Sandra Gambrell%2C Sharon Gambrell&f=false

Was Patricia Hunt also in the group ?

Were they the backing for this

 

The Gambrells were a local, Detroit group.  Pat Hunt was an L.A. artist.  Was there also a song writer/singer named Patricia Hunt, who was from Detroit?  Pat Hunt got credit for writing the song.  But, I don't recall a songwriter from Detroit named Pat or Patricia Hunt.  L.A.'s Pat Hunt wrote songs for Jobete Music, but she only worked for them in L.A. with Hal Davis, Marc Gordon, and Frank Wilson.  That song was written in 1966.  I wonder if Wilson could have taken some of Pat's songs which had been rejected by Motown, to Detroit on one of his early trips there, and sold it to Alan Sussman's and Gary Rubin's "Tru-Soul Music", the music publishing arm of their (Detroit's) Pioneer Recording Studio, that also owned Pioneer and Tru-Soul Records?  Yes, those same Gambrells were backing up Scott(y) Bray, who had releases on both Pioneer, and Tru-Soul.  I'm sure the two sisters were NOT the whole group.  I'm sure I saw photos of 3 ladies, and also may have seen them appear on a Windsor Ontario dance TV show, Swingin' Time, from 1966 or 1967.  That would be quite a coincidence, if their 3rd member was also named "Pat Hunt".  But a lot stranger things than that happen all the time.  However, I suspect that their 3rd member had a name some of us know as a Detroit singer, who was also in other groups, or had solo releases.

 

Yes, both "Jive Talk", and "Find A Love" are fabulous, and I like both better than any of their Ollie McLaughlin productions (which is very surprising, as I love most of his work), and better than their Mike Valvano productions that appeared on MGM's newer Cub Records label(and I usually like most of those as well (such as "My World Is On Fire" by Jimmy Mack)).

Edited April 18, 2019 by RobbK

[The Yank]

According to Ollie McLaughlin's liner notes to "Detroit Gold Vol. 2",  he describes the Gambrells as "a Detroit high school 

group" that he signed after they did the back up vocals to Deon Jackson's "Love Makes The World Go Round" in one take.

No photos or group member names were in the notes.

 

[Robbk]

Here's an advert for Pioneer Recording Studios from the 1960s, showing that they (Sussman and Rubin) also ran Pioneer Records and Tru-Soul Records.

[Robbk]

8 hours ago, the yank said:

According to Ollie McLaughlin's liner notes to "Detroit Gold Vol. 2",  he describes the Gambrells as "a Detroit high school 

group" that he signed after they did the back up vocals to Deon Jackson's "Love Makes The World Go Round" in one take.

No photos or group member names were in the notes.

 

More proof that there were more than 2 members.  Ollie would have described them as a "duo" had they been composed of only 2 "members".  I never heard anyone describe a duo as a "group".  A group is 3 or more.  Maybe the 3rd member was a cousin.  Several 3 and 4 member groups which included siblings, were filled out with cousins, so they could be an all-family operation.  They often had a parent or uncle or aunt managing them.   I couldn't find anything detailed about the make-up of The Gambrells online.  We may have discussed them in detail on Soulful Detroit Forum. I remember a few threads where we discussed The Gambrells, but can't find one with details on the members.  But, most of those great early long, detailed discussions which often had input from older Detroiters who personally knew the artists and their families were lost when we changed the website's platform and format in late 2004, and more were lost later (2009?).  Lots of threads from our start in 2001, especially through 2004, were filled with obscure detailed information, because, at that time, our subject matter was still mostly, just Detroit Soul.  We had a lot of Detroit Soul collectors, and Detroit people from the music business from the 1960s and 1970s posting regularly at that time.  It's a great shame, and loss to posterity, that we lost most of those great threads.

Edited April 18, 2019 by RobbK

[Blackpoolsoul]

4 hours ago, RobbK said:

More proof that there were more than 2 members.  Ollie would have described them as a "duo" had they been composed of only 2 "members".  I never heard anyone describe a duo as a "group".  A group is 3 or more.  Maybe the 3rd member was a cousin.  Several 3 and 4 member groups which included siblings, were filled out with cousins, so they could be an all-family operation.  They often had a parent or uncle or aunt managing them.   I couldn't find anything detailed about the make-up of The Gambrells online.  We may have discussed them in detail on Soulful Detroit Forum. I remember a few threads where we discussed The Gambrells, but can't find one with details on the members.  But, most of those great early long, detailed discussions which often had input from older Detroiters who personally knew the artists and their families were lost when we changed the website's format in late 2004, and more were lost later (2009?).  Lots of threads from our start in 2001, especially through 2004, were filled with obscure detailed information, because, at that time, our subject matter was still mostly, just Detroit Soul.  We had a lot of Detroit Soul collectors, and Detroit people from the music business from the 1960s and 1970s posting regularly at that time.  It's a great shame, and loss to posterity, that we lost most of those great threads.

As per usual Robb fantastic stuff and as with other threads I am working on and getting superb help......thanks, I agree with your last comment so much and here's hoping that between us all we can capture this potentially lost history.... before it's too late

[Blackpoolsoul]

7 hours ago, RobbK said:

The Gambrells were a local, Detroit group.  Pat Hunt was an L.A. artist.  Was there also a song writer/singer named Patricia Hunt, who was from Detroit?  Pat Hunt got credit for writing the song.  But, I don't recall a songwriter from Detroit named Pat or Patricia Hunt.  L.A.'s Pat Hunt wrote songs for Jobete Music, but she only worked for them in L.A. with Hal Davis, Marc Gordon, and Frank Wilson.  That song was written in 1966.  I wonder if Wilson could have taken some of Pat's songs which had been rejected by Motown, to Detroit on one of his early trips there, and sold it to Alan Sussman's and Gary Rubin's "Tru-Soul Music", the music publishing arm of their (Detroit's) Pioneer Recording Studio, that also owned Pioneer and Tru-Soul Records?  Yes, those same Gambrells were backing up Scott(y) Bray, who had releases on both Pioneer, and Tru-Soul.  I'm sure the two sisters were NOT the whole group.  I'm sure I saw photos of 3 ladies, and also may have seen them appear on a Windsor Ontario dance TV show from 1966 or 1967.  That would be quite a coincidence, if their 3rd member was also named "Pat Hunt".  But a lot stranger things than that happen all the time.  However, I suspect that their 3rd member had a name some of us know as a Detroit singer, who was also in other groups, or had solo releases.

 

Yes, both "Jive Talk", and "Find A Love" are fabulous, and I like both better than any of their Ollie McLaughlin productions (which is very surprising, as I love most of his work), and better than their Mike Valvano productions that appeared on MGM's newer Cub Records label(and I usually like most of those as well (such as "My World Is On Fire" by Jimmy Mack)).

I guess the Pat Hunt you are referring to is the same lady that was Brenda and Patricia Holloway's cousin, who, if memory serves me right was in the Sequins, Wooden Nickels and Four J's ?

Edited April 18, 2019 by Blackpoolsoul
Grammar

[Robbk]

2 hours ago, Blackpoolsoul said:

I guess the Pat Hunt you are referring to is the same lady that was Brenda and Patricia Holloway's cousin, who, if memory serves me right was in the Sequins, Wooden Nickels and Four J's ?

Yes, THAT'S the very same L.A. singer to whom I was referring.  But I think she probably wasn't REALLY their cousin.  I heard from a few sources, and also read in a few interviews with Brenda, or people quoted her saying that they just told people she was their cousin because she and Brenda were best friends.  I think some people who had heard they were "cousins" started an urban rumour.  Pat was also in Brenda's first group, The Watesians, recording for Bob Keane's Donna Records. 

Edited April 18, 2019 by RobbK