Jim McFarland - LONELY LOVER (Summit 1791)

[AnthonyReichardt]

The first issue of the Steve Benson produced Blue-Eyed Soul track, 'Lonely Lover' by Jim McFarland. Months later in 1969, it was issued by RPR Records credited to Jimmy McFarland. According to Benson, he gave co-producer credit to Wayne Martin because he was a nice guy who was the husband of his girlfriend's sister and that he put up some money for the session. He wasn't involved in the recording process.
The creation of this track began when the then 22 year old producer was in the office of Mark Davis who after working as an executive at the Motown Records west coast office, had formed an independent production company. As Benson was leaving, Davis handed him an unlabeled 8" acetate disc and told him that they weren't going to release the recording on the disc and if he wanted to do anything with the song, he was welcome to it. The disc had a 1965 recording of 'Lonely Lover' by Marvin Gaye. Steve took up the offer and while at his job at Disneyland, asked the 25 year old arranger for the band at the Tomorrowland stage, Jack Eskew, if he would be interested in creating an arrangement for 'Lonely Lover'. He agreed and eventually, 13 musicians and three female background singers were booked for the session at Nashville West Recording Studios on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood to record the backing track along with a Motownesque cover of 'Baby I've Got It'. Originally, Ray Lockhart was suggested to Benson by singer Betty Willis to provided lead vocal on the tracks. Steve recalled that on the day before the vocal was to be recorded, he had a function up at his home. He had a professional hypnotist at the gathering who actually hypnotized Ray Lockhart. While Ray was under hypnosis, the hypnotist suggested that he would perform at his absolute best for the session the next day. Well, suffice to say, following the session at Wally Heider's Studio in Hollywood, although Steve was not satisfied with Lockhart's vocal on 'Lonely Lover', he nailed it brilliantly on 'Baby I've Got It'.
At a later date shortly thereafter, Steve brought in vocalist Jim McFarland who he had recorded on several of his other productions, and had his vocal added to 'Lonely Lover' at Sound House Recorders in El Monte, California.
After the track was mixed and mastered, Steve pressed it on his own label, Summit Records and distributed it to various radio stations. He gave the disc catalog number '1791' after the house number where his parents lived at 1791 Beverly Glen Drive in Tustin, California.
Months later, Steve's friend, composer Lou Barreto, suggested that he set a up a deal with RPR to issue the record.

Steve Benson said at that time, having already been within the recording industry for a few years, he learned just how slimy the record business was.  His previous dealings leasing his productions to Era, Ava, Crusader and Venus were frustrating.  Ava Records was infuriating.  RPR was no different and him being only 24 years old, record executives basically just flicked him aside as if he were an annoying fly.  He recalled that when he made the deal with RPR to release 'Lonely Lover', he submitted a mono tape copy of the final edit.  They actually wanted the multi-track tapes, but having learned from past experiences, he declined to provide them.  RPR did do some promotional advertising in the music magazines and the record was getting airplay in various markets.  He held out and waited patiently for a short while for some compensation to come his way but in the end, the RPR deal would only garner him a mere $100 which he said that he had to struggle to get.  He said that he showed up at their office in a older, worn building on Hollywood Boulevard only to find that they were headed out to the race track.  After a 'tense' discussion, Steve was handed the cash.  That was that.   

 

Edited March 4 by AnthonyReichardt
additional information

[Tlscapital]

6 hours ago, AnthonyReichardt said:

...Months later, Steve's friend, composer Lou Barreto, managed a deal with RPR to issue the record.

 

Nice. Thanks for sharing that. Lovely. Now would anyone know (or you Richard) if the take is the same or not ? Like for instance the Sunny and the Sunliners 'should I take you home' b/w 'if I could see you now' that was first released on Key-Lock is all together another take than the one released later on RPR.

Where the Gino Washington 'I'll be around' b/w 'like my baby' on Atac (distributed by RPR) features the same takes as the local Atac release but with an overkill smoothened remix and a cut-off of the "staccato" guitar never ending intro on the 'I'll be around side'...  Leaving me to wonder now on this Jim McFarland...

Edited March 4 by Tlscapital

[Sebastian]

2 hours ago, Tlscapital said:

Sunny and the Sunliners 'should I take you home' b/w 'if I could see you now' that was first released on Teardrop is all together another take than the one released later on RPR.

They are the same takes/recordings, but the RPR release is mastered differently, sounds like it has got some reverb added to the entire recording. But vocal phrasings, the drummer accidentally hitting the rims of the toms etc are the same on both Key-Loc and RPR.

[Tlscapital]

25 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

They are the same takes/recordings, but the RPR release is mastered differently, sounds like it has got some reverb added to the entire recording. But vocal phrasings, the drummer accidentally hitting the rims of the toms etc are the same on both Key-Loc and RPR.

OK different mix/mastering jobs then. My bad. But significantly different enough for me to be noticed for tunes that I'm not that found of. For somer reasons I seem to remember them being different takes for the little attention I paid once in comparison. But this makes better sense and follows what I heard with the Gino Washington mastering/mix difference. Guess we could expect something similar with Jim McFarland...

[Corbett80]

Lovely looking label! This must be pretty rare…

[Dobber]

So whilst this version looks like an actual issue,it wasn’t “issued” to the public? Any idea how many pressed,must be a bloody rare item!

[The Tempest]

There was also an 8” RPR acetate up for sale just before Xmas with a slightly longer cut on it - only by about 5 - 10 secs where Jim’s voice fades and the backing singers carry on

[Chris Turnbull]

Really interesting info, never had this down as blue eyed for a start 

[Tlscapital]

53 minutes ago, Chris Turnbull said:

Really interesting info, never had this down as blue eyed for a start 

[Dave Pinch]

always thought he was white but its better than Marvin.. does anyone own this.. i`ve never seen it before this year when it was submitted to 45 cat 

[Mal C]

Here is the R.P.R acetate, think this is from Mick Holdsworth's website, can you confirm Mick? info says:

Eight inch reference acetate, scrolled to 7''. This is a slightly longer version, maybe 8/10 seconds longer, where Jimmy stops singing and the music and backing singers briefly carry on without him. The reverse is uncut and unlabelled. Light background noise, listen to soundclip.

[Chalky]

Another great topic with super info.  Never seen the Summit release before.

[Theothertosspot]

8 hours ago, The Tempest said:

There was also an 8” RPR acetate up for sale just before Xmas with a slightly longer cut on it - only by about 5 - 10 secs where Jim’s voice fades and the backing singers carry on

 

19 hours ago, AnthonyReichardt said:

As Benson was leaving, Davis handed him an unlabeled 8" acetate disc and told him that they weren't going to release the recording on the disc and if he wanted to do anything with the song, he was welcome to it

Would they be one and the same and possibly the pic posted by Mal C, with added written details?

[AnthonyReichardt]

Producer, Steve Benson said at that time, having already been within the recording industry for a few years, he learned just how slimy the record business was.  His previous dealings leasing his productions to Era, Ava, Crusader and Venus were frustrating.  Ava Records was infuriating.  RPR was no different and him being only 24 years old, record executives basically just flicked him aside as if he were an annoying fly.  He recalled that when he made the deal with RPR to release 'Lonely Lover', he submitted a mono tape copy of the final edit.  They actually wanted the multi-track tapes, but having learned from past experiences, he declined to provide them.  RPR did do some promotional advertising in the music magazines and the record was getting airplay in various markets.  He held out and waited patiently for a short while for some compensation to come his way but in the end, the RPR deal would only garner him a mere $100 which he said that he had to struggle to get.  He said that he showed up at their office in a older, worn building on Hollywood Boulevard only to find that they were headed out to the race track.  After a 'tense' discussion, Steve was handed the cash.  That was that.   

[Mick Holdsworth]

16 hours ago, Mal C said:

Here is the R.P.R acetate, think this is from Mick Holdsworth's website, can you confirm Mick? info says:

Eight inch reference acetate, scrolled to 7''. This is a slightly longer version, maybe 8/10 seconds longer, where Jimmy stops singing and the music and backing singers briefly carry on without him. The reverse is uncut and unlabelled. Light background noise, listen to soundclip.

 

Hi Mal, yes it was, and still is my copy, although I withdrew it from sale a few years back.

 

 

[Sebastian]

I had no idea about, and it's really interesting that Betty Willis version of Rita & The Tiaras "Gone With The Wind Is My Love" also got a release on this label (apparently after the Mojo release):

https://www.45cat.com/record/nc108988us

Both the Jim McFarland and Betty Willis 45s appear to be extremely rare.

[Mal C]

Wow, Anthony, I think you have created a bit of a stirr here, especially as Betty Willis 45 has been added to the mix. Sure some folks knew these existed, but I've never seen this label till yestarday, sure that is the case for allot of us,  this is what this site is all about, so thank you

[Eddie Hubbard]

Jimmy McFarland also cut a good version of Bob Relf’s - Blowing My Mind To Pieces ,wonder what the back story on that was ? 

[Corbett80]

What label was that on Eddie?

[Eddie Hubbard]

1 minute ago, Corbett80 said:

What label was that on Eddie?

I’m not sure if it was just a download ,it’s on YouTube I think 

[The Tempest]

 

[Corbett80]

Thanks!

[AnthonyReichardt]

On 04/03/2024 at 10:02, Mal C said:

Here is the R.P.R acetate, think this is from Mick Holdsworth's website, can you confirm Mick? info says:

Eight inch reference acetate, scrolled to 7''. This is a slightly longer version, maybe 8/10 seconds longer, where Jimmy stops singing and the music and backing singers briefly carry on without him. The reverse is uncut and unlabelled. Light background noise, listen to soundclip.

Apparently, both the Summit pressing of 'Lonely Lover' and Mick Holdsworth's DCT Recorders acetate disc, have the longer fade which was edited out of the RPR issue.  

[The Yank]

On 04/03/2024 at 15:41, AnthonyReichardt said:

  RPR did do some promotional advertising in the music magazines and the record was getting airplay in various markets.  He held out a

   I can't find any kind of promotion work RPR did for "Lonely Lover" but, the single did get favorable reviews in all 3 of the big Trade Papers (Billboard and Record World August 16,1969 and 

Cashbox in the August 23rd issue).

 

Edited March 6 by The Yank

[Corbett80]

Anthony are these 45s in your possession and if so, would there be any way you could kindly post up pics of the full records themselves - not just the label -  with any runout info?

Would be very much appreciated!

Atb,

J

Edited March 6 by Corbett80

[AnthonyReichardt]

Steve Benson noted that the Jim McFarland and Betty Willis Summit singles were pressed by Alco.  The Alco stamp is not visible in the run-out grooves nor are there any delta numbers, only the catalog numbers:

'Lonely Lover' - S-1791-A

'Let Me Be Your Man' - S-1791-B
(Same track issued as the Messengers in 1965 - Era 3143)

[Corbett80]

Amazing thank you!

 

what a lovely item!

 

j

[Robbk]

I don't remember ever noticing those Summit records.  I DO remember seeing Mcfarland's RPR issue, during the late 1960s.  That leads me to believe they were released 1972 or later, as IF I passed them in shuffling through 45s, I didn't pay attention to them because they had a "well-into-The '70s design", representing a time when I didn't like much of them music released.  Does anyone know when the Jimmy McFarland Summit 45 was issued?  

[AnthonyReichardt]

41 minutes ago, Robbk said:

I don't remember ever noticing those Summit records.  I DO remember seeing Mcfarland's RPR issue, during the late 1960s.  That leads me to believe they were released 1972 or later, as IF I passed them in shuffling through 45s, I didn't pay attention to them because they had a "well-into-The '70s design", representing a time when I didn't like much of them music released.  Does anyone know when the Jimmy McFarland Summit 45 was issued?  

In 1967, Steve Benson acquired the services of an artist co-worker at his day job at Disneyland to create a record label design.  He wanted a 'Materhorn' styled image in the logo to coincide with the label name, 'Summit'.  Both the Betty Willis and Jim McFarland Summit discs were pressed in 1968.  Incidentally, Steve still has the original artwork cells used in the label design.

[Chalky]

On 05/03/2024 at 15:37, Eddie Hubbard said:

I’m not sure if it was just a download ,it’s on YouTube I think 

They were indeed download and a cd too, home made.  Lou Barreto put them out.  The Gloria Jones was released on Phil Dick's label eventually.

[Eddie Hubbard]

5 hours ago, Chalky said:

They were indeed download and a cd too, home made.  Lou Barreto put them out.  The Gloria Jones was released on Phil Dick's label eventually.

Do you know if they were “ from the vaults “ or recent recordings Chalky? The backing tracks sound identical to me 

[Mike]

1 hour ago, Eddie Hubbard said:

Do you know if they were “ from the vaults “ or recent recordings Chalky? The backing tracks sound identical to me 

there's a fair bit of info including comments from lou himself aka @love1scent on the recording etc in this news item and the comments