Tom Storm (of The Fabulous Peps)

[G F]

I just played an interview with Tom from about 20 years ago (he has since passed away) and he mentioned his first recording was a song that Norman Whitfield wrote called 'Alone'. He said the label credited him - Tom Storm - but didn't know anything else about it: Does anyone here know that 45? He said it was before The Peps were formed - and talked about in being in the late 1950s, which doesn't seem quite right. (Tom was born in 1940.)

Norman Whitfield wrote a couple of early Thelma productions, such as 'I've Gotten Over You' by The Sonnettes (released on the KO label around '62). 

[Robbk]

On 11/08/2021 at 05:40, G F said:

I just played an interview with Tom from about 20 years ago (he has since passed away) and he mentioned his first recording was a song that Norman Whitfield wrote called 'Alone'. He said the label credited him - Tom Storm - but didn't know anything else about it: Does anyone here know that 45? He said it was before The Peps were formed - and talked about in being in the late 1950s, which doesn't seem quite right. (Tom was born in 1940.)

Norman Whitfield wrote a couple of early Thelma productions, such as 'I've Gotten Over You' by The Sonnettes (released on the KO label around '62). 

I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of a Tom Storm solo record.  But, I'm very interested in this, as it would have been a Detroit record.  I don't recall any reference to Norman Whitfield recording anyone before The Sonnettes, or working for anyone before Thelma.  Maybe he was working for The Colemans' Daco Records and Don Davis in late 1960, and it was released on Daco, or leased to Apollo, but, I never heard of such a record. 

[Robbk]

I searched BMI.com for "Alone", written by Norman Whitfield, but there were no results.  So, the publishing rights weren't renewed.  I guess Norman didn't think one of his earliest published song (if not his first), wasn't worth the money to renew its rights.  I looked up "Alone", sung by Tom Storm, and there was no entry.  I searched 45 Cat for "Alone" by Tom Storm, and there is no entry.  No entry for Tom Storm as a solo.  I'd like to hear from other Detroit R&B/Soul experts and find out if ANYONE had heard of such a record.  Keep in mind that the quote about Storm's interview was that he sang the recording that Whitfield made as a solo artist, and it WAS released, referring to a "Label" that credited him. 

Maybe Storm just saw a recording studio vinyl demo record that had him listed on it as a single artist, but no commercial record, or even DJ issue was pressed up?  Maybe that's why I never saw it or heard of it in my record-scarfing trips to Detroit during 1962-67, and in my visits to other major Detroit collectors, viewing their collections, and never saw it on any of their wants lists, or any label discographies.  Maybe it was a DACO demo from 1960, that Don Davis had made at United Sound, and he and The Colemans never did anything with it? 

I was buying Detroit records in 1959-61 (when the recording was likely made).  If it had been released commercially, I should have seen it, heard of it, seen it listed on a discography or wants list.  So, I think it was never released.  The only big surprises I get are when some early Detroit records produced by one-man operations by a forgotten or unknown producer, that were never distributed to stores, but small batches of them were pressed up (in a vanity move), and kept in the producer's garage, turn up many years later.  Norman Whitfield likely was approached many times for any potential find like that.  If he had gotten a record like that released, we would all have found out about it long ago, and the record or a new record made from his master tape, would have been played on The NS scene many years ago.  Or, if no master tape was around any more, we would have, at least, heard the story of Norman's first 45 production.

[G F]

I'm puzzled, too, Robb. Tom seemed very clear about it, but I have to wonder if he was mistaken... take a listen:  

[G F]

Here's an MP3...  

Segement of Tom Storm.mp3

[Robbk]

It sounded to me like he said "that's when MANNY wrote 'Alone' for me." - that doesn't sound like he was referring to Norman Whitfield.  He started off with "Eddie taught me all I know." - could that refer to Eddie Holland?  I'd like to hear the part when Tom refers to Norman Whitfield.  If Norm wasn't referred to by Tom, then his saying I recorded my first song near the end of The 1950s makes more sense, and allows "Alone" to have actually been recorded in the late 1950s, with a producer other than Whitfield, and on a label other than Thelma or DaCo, and make it more likely that it was actually pressed up.  I think we need to hear more of the interview.

[G F]

At the start of the segment, he refers to The Temps (Temptations) and he's talking about Eddie Kendricks. Earlier Tom told me he used to babysit Eddie's children when he was young. 

I can clearly hear 'Norman ' - "That's when Norman wrote... 

[G F]

PS: Tom mentioned Norman Whitfield earlier in my interview with him... something about meeting him at an early Motown place on the corner of John R (a street in Detroit).

It didn't see quite right at the time as I know Norman was with Popcorn's Mohawks, but I don't recall reading anything about a 'Motown' place on John R.

  

[Robbk]

3 hours ago, G F said:

PS: Tom mentioned Norman Whitfield earlier in my interview with him... something about meeting him at an early Motown place on the corner of John R (a street in Detroit).

It didn't see quite right at the time as I know Norman was with Popcorn's Mohawks, but I don't recall reading anything about a 'Motown' place on John R.

  

I put my ear to my speaker, and can hear Norman now.  And it's hard for me to believe that Berry Gordy offered Tom Storm a 13-year contract in 1959.  Tom states - after explaining that his mother turned Berry's offer down, that "That's when Norman wrote my first record for me, and it said Tom Storm on it." I stick to my guns that that was more likely to have been late 1960 or 1961, and it was likely to have been a studio demo that was never released, rather than a commercially released record.  Even if it had been pressed up in a tiny batch of 25 or 50, to use as DJ promotional copies, we would likely have seen one of those by now, with many such records found in boxes of those that were left in pressing plants, or amongst the belongings of the original producers.  If it had been pressed up for commercial sale, someone would have learned about it in an interview with Norman.

I've read 3 biographies of Norman that state that 18 years old (would have been 1958), he played Tambourine with Popcorn Wylie's Mohawks with Thelma Records.  But, Thelma started in 1962.  So, as I had surmised, he must have recorded Tom Storm while he was working with Thelma Records' predecessor label, DaCo Records, in late 1960 or 1961, or while he was with Popcorn and The Mohawks when they recorded for Johnnie Mae Matthews' Northern Records in 1960, when he also played the tambourine for The Distants on "Come On".  So, Tom Storm must have met The members of The Distants through Norman, or met Norman through The Distants.  And he met Eddie Kendricks after he and Paul Williams joined them to form The Temptations.

So, I imagine that Whitfield produced Storms solo recordings for the hoped for 45 while he worked for Johnnie May Matthews in early 1960, or for Don Davis and The Colemans while with DaCo in late 1960 or 1961.  In either case, I really doubt that a commercial record was pressed up.  Maybe Storm was inspired to name his group "The FABULOUS Peps" because of his label-mates, The Fabulous Playboys, at DaCo Records in 1960 and 1961?

Edited August 13, 2021 by Robbk

[G F]

Tom likely knew The Primes - not The Distants. There's a lot of guessing and supposition in there, Robb.

Popcorn and his group recorded for Motown in 1960/61. 

I can clearly hear Tom say 'Alone'. I put my ear to my speaker... Can't you just turn up the volume?

Like you, I doubt the  existence of a record by Tom titled 'Alone'. 

 

 

[G F]

Here's another segment of my interview - this being near the start. Maybe I shouldnot have talked about Richard Street - but he recorded for for Thelma Records and became Thelma's (Berry's ex) boyfriend.

Tom mentions a ' studio' on John R and Edmund. You can find that location on Google Maps.

I think he's a talking about a place the Colemans (Thelma's family) had before moving to Grand River - that Daco period.

Tom II.mp3

[G F]

PS: Jackson Park in Windsor (over the river from Detroit) used to hold Emancipation Day festivals.

 

[Robbk]

41 minutes ago, G F said:

PS: Jackson Park in Windsor (over the river from Detroit) used to hold Emancipation Day festivals.

 

I'm never averse to learning more about The World.  But what has this got to do with the price of tea in China???

[Robbk]

4 hours ago, G F said:

Here's another segment of my interview - this being near the start. Maybe I shouldnot have talked about Richard Street - but he recorded for for Thelma Records and became Thelma's (Berry's ex) boyfriend.

Tom mentions a ' studio' on John R and Edmund. You can find that location on Google Maps.

I think he's a talking about a place the Colemans (Thelma's family) had before moving to Grand River - that Daco period.

 

The Colemans operated a regular recording studio (open to public customers) before they opened the Thelma/GeGe Records office?  Or, did he mean that that was DaCo Records/DaCo Productions' office, that also contained a small in-house recording studio (like Fortune's)?

Edited August 14, 2021 by Robbk

[G F]

You're right about it being an office/practice room. I recall others talking about it prior to the move to the office/practice room on Grand River. 

You've totally lost me on the 'tea in China' comment.

[Robbk]

8 hours ago, G F said:

You're right about it being an office/practice room. I recall others talking about it prior to the move to the office/practice room on Grand River. 

You've totally lost me on the 'tea in China' comment.

What does the information about Emancipation Day being celebrated in a park in Windsor have to do with the stated subject of this thread?  Did Tom Storm debut "Alone" in an Emancipation Day concert there in 1959?

[G F]

 Did Tom Storm debut "Alone" in an Emancipation Day concert there in 1959?

No.

Many Detroit amateur acts went to Jackson Park in Windsor for the Emancipation festival and I was simply letting people here know where Jackson Park is. 

Didn't you hear Tom mention Jackson Park in the MP3 segment?

 

Tom sang a Platters' song (My Prayer) there in the late 1950s and won the talent contest.

Ronnie Abner's group in the 1950s (The Vibratones) won the talent show there the year before. (Ronnie teamed up with Tom around 1962).

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by G F
incorrect answer

[Robbk]

4 hours ago, G F said:

 Did Tom Storm debut "Alone" in an Emancipation Day concert there in 1959?

No.

Many Detroit amateur acts went to Jackson Park in Windsor for the Emancipation festival and I was simply letting people here know where Jackson Park is. 

Didn't you hear Tom mention Jackson Park in the MP3 segment?

 

Tom sang a Platters' song (My Prayer) there in the late 1950s and won the talent contest.

Ronnie Abner's group in the 1950s (The Vibratones) won the talent show there the year before. (Ronnie teamed up with Tom around 1962).

 

Sorry, I'm not a Detroiter, nor a Windsorite, so I didn't know that R&B and Soul Acts sang in Jackson Park on Emancipation Day.  I DO know about Windsor being connected to The Greater Detroit Metro Area, and connected to their radio and TV markets (CKLW and all) and music industry because I'm a Canadian.  But, I didn't hear Tom mentioning Jackson Park in the MP3.  A lot of it sounded muddy.  My speakers on my computer in L.A. are not very good, and my hearing isn't all that good, as I am in my mid 70s.  Thanks for answering my question.  Also, I had never heard that Tom won a talent show in Windsor, nor that Ronnie Abner won one as well.

[G F]

Yes, the recording was done on a cheap Radio Shack cassette machine and mic. At the time - in the late 1990s - I wasn't thinking of using the interview recordings; I just wanted to a record of what was being said.

In case you didn't understand, here are some salient points:

At about 1:05 to 1:40 - Tommy says he once sang in The Flame Show Bar, when he was 19. His mother managed to get him in and he sang some jazz songs.

At about 1:48 he mentions Jackson Park...

At about 2:30 he talks about Eddie Kendricks

At about 4:05, Tommy talks Eddie and others telling him about Jackson Park - I get the impression T Eddie also went to the talent contest in Windsor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Robbk]

On 13/08/2021 at 18:58, G F said:

Here's another segment of my interview - this being near the start. Maybe I shouldnot have talked about Richard Street - but he recorded for for Thelma Records and became Thelma's (Berry's ex) boyfriend.

Tom mentions a ' studio' on John R and Edmund. You can find that location on Google Maps.

I think he's a talking about a place the Colemans (Thelma's family) had before moving to Grand River - that Daco period.

Tom II.mp3 6.73 MB · 7 downloads

Yes.  That was DaCo's office address.  3942 John R. Street is printed as their address on the Joe Weaver single.  It was a major thoroughfare there, with only businesses, not individual, free-standing houses.  The Colemans lived at 8040 Dexter.  So, DaCo had an office and rehearsing studio there, on John R, but they did all their final recording at United Sound and Specialty, as far as I remember.   They moved to a bigger place, in a nicer building, on 6519 Grand River, in early 1964, after they had enough sales coming in to amass some cash over and above their operating costs.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Robbk

[G F]

On 12/08/2021 at 23:16, Robbk said:

I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of a Tom Storm solo record.  But, I'm very interested in this, as it would have been a Detroit record.  I don't recall any reference to Norman Whitfield recording anyone before The Sonnettes, or working for anyone before Thelma.  Maybe he was working for The Colemans' Daco Records and Don Davis in late 1960, and it was released on Daco, or leased to Apollo, but, I never heard of such a record. 

Hi, Robb

I just found this interview with Joe Harris: 

In the summer of 1962, one month after graduating from Northeastern High School, Joe was taken by a well-known artist named Lee Rogers, to a club in Detroit called The Village. There he met with Thomas Hester (aka Tommy Stone), Richard Street, McKinley Jackson, and Ronnie Abner to form the Fabulous Peps. They were immediately signed to the Thelma Record Label in Detroit. Their first recording was a song track written and produced by Norman Whitfield on Tommy Stone. The song was originally titled “Alone”. Don Davis and Lee Rogers rewrote the lyrics and called the song “This Love I Have for You”. The A Side was a song called “I Love You Baby”. 

 It's here:

https://www.therealundisputedtruth.com/joe-pep-harris

 

[Robbk]

10 minutes ago, G F said:

Hi, Robb

I just found this interview with Joe Harris: 

In the summer of 1962, one month after graduating from Northeastern High School, Joe was taken by a well-known artist named Lee Rogers, to a club in Detroit called The Village. There he met with Thomas Hester (aka Tommy Stone), Richard Street, McKinley Jackson, and Ronnie Abner to form the Fabulous Peps. They were immediately signed to the Thelma Record Label in Detroit. Their first recording was a song track written and produced by Norman Whitfield on Tommy Stone. The song was originally titled “Alone”. Don Davis and Lee Rogers rewrote the lyrics and called the song “This Love I Have for You”. The A Side was a song called “I Love You Baby”. 

 It's here:

https://www.therealundisputedtruth.com/joe-pep-harris

 

So Tom Hester became "Tommy Stone", and then, "Tom Storm", who first sang "Alone", which must be the first recording to which Storm referred in his interview.  And it seems it was soon re-written as "This Love I Have For You", and paired with "I Love You, Baby", and released on Thelma's subsidiary label, Ge Ge Records.  So, the original recording of "Alone" may no longer exist.  Davis may have taped over it, as they were no longer going to use it at all.

[G F]

I don't think it was ever recorded - there was the basic structure/lyrics for the song, which Don Davis and Lee Rogers changed. I see 'That's The Way Love Is' is credited to Rogers on the Ge Ge label.

[Robbk]

On 17/09/2021 at 02:49, G F said:

I don't think it was ever recorded - there was the basic structure/lyrics for the song, which Don Davis and Lee Rogers changed. I see 'That's The Way Love Is' is credited to Rogers on the Ge Ge label.

But Storm said in his interview that the first song he ever recorded was written for him by Whitfield, and it was titled "Alone".  If he hadn't ever recorded it, I would guess that he'd have remembered that he and his Peps had recorded "This Love I Have For You" as his first recording.

"That's The Way Love Is" was the flip of "I Love You" on Tom Storm and The Peps' other Ge Ge release.

 

Edited September 19, 2021 by Robbk

[G F]

I just think that Tommy had first known the song as 'Alone' and that title just stuck in his head.

'I Love You' and 'That's The Way Love Is' was the group's first Ge Ge record.

The group's second one on Ge Ge didn't credit Tom Storm.

 

 

 

[Robbk]

10 hours ago, G F said:

I just think that Tommy had first known the song as 'Alone' and that title just stuck in his head.

'I Love You' and 'That's The Way Love Is' was the group's first Ge Ge record.

The group's second one on Ge Ge didn't credit Tom Storm.

 

 

 

I don't believe "Alone" would have stuck in his head more than the recorded and released song, given that he and the group would have had to sing the released song in practices, the recording session rehearsals, the session, gigs after the release, and rehearsals for them.  I don't think that is even possible. 

Sorry, I meant The Peps OTHER Ge Ge record.  It wouldn't make sense if "That's The Way Love Is" had been their 2nd release, given that Storm remembered it as their 1st.  I have both records, plus Eddie Hill's 502.  Apparently, this first Ge Ge issue should have been # 501, if they had decided on a numbering series before pressing it.  I wonder what "Ge Ge" stands for, and if it was a partnership between The Colemans and either Armen Boladian or Norman Whitfield?

Edited September 19, 2021 by Robbk