Secret History of Chicago Music - The Independents

The Independents first 45 came out in early April 72 and went almost straight onto the national R&B charts (it had charted by the middle of April).

Back at Art Productions; the guys who were responsible for producing "Just As Long As You Need Me", were working with another Chicago based outfit; El Shobey & Co. Art Prods placed that outfits recordings with Shout Records ("Never Missed what You Got" Shout # s-251). Both 45's coming out at about the same time.

The El Shobey 45 struggled, whereas the Independents 45 was shooting up with a bullet from day 1. As stated in the article above, a group needed to be formed to undertake promotional work & fulfil the live show bookings that were flooding in. Maurice J and Helen C were recruited to handle the singing side of things but the outfit also needed a backing band instantly. El Shobey & Co were a 'self contained group' and it seems the musicians were cherry picked out of that group to back up the Independents on their shows. 

This left the two guys who'd written & sung lead on "Never Missed What You Got" out in the cold. Norman Shobey (who already had a long recording history) went off & found some work @ Curtom with Leroy Hutson. Brad Comer took longer to find his feet again but did work some with Mickey Stevenson & Willard King. Eventually he teamed up with Mary Love and the pair worked together, got married and made a bit of an impact with their gospel outings.    

Steve G will know better the exact date that the Independents 45 hit the shops but I guess that Scepter / Wand must have believed in the track & got promo copies of the 45 out to loads of black radio stns before the start of that April. The cut was on some radio stn charts in the 1st week of April ... 

Less than two weeks later & the Independents 45 was on radio charts right across the US ... 

 The 45 most likely came in the last 1/2 of March- the 45 was already part of the Sizzling Six for the week of March 27th in Durham, North Carolina. The single was reviewed in the March 18th issue of Cashbox.