Milton Wright and Ambassadors Background Snips
I recorded the vocal version with the Terra Shirma Strings
Some background snippets on some classic recordings from The Honorable Milton Wright and a member of the Ambassadors
As to be expected over time there has been a fair few threads in the forum regarding Milton Wright and his recordings. As Box regs may be aware, nowadays he's still out there involved in music but due to his daytime job nowadays he is better known now as the Honorable Milton Wright, Judge of the Boston Municipal Court in Roxbury Massachusetts.
After reading recent discussion the Honorable Milton got in touch with this site and during the email exchange I asked if he could pass on any background information on his recordings. He was good enough to take the time to pass on the below...
'I recorded the vocal version with the Terra Shirma Strings. The instrumental version was released and the vocal versions were not released until later. I never received royalties for either tune. I wrote both tunes and sang on both.
I left Michigan and recording and finished my law degree at Boston University. At any rate "The Rollin River Song" which was misnomered "Like A Rolling Stone" and released as an instrumental was always recorded with a vocal track. The players loved it. I loved it. Ollie didn't. Or so I was led to believe. Anyway, those tunes belong to me. I'm not out to hurt anyone now. But I would like to begin now to be appropriately compensated. I am happy that so many people enjoyed my music. It is a gift from God that I cherish. Luckily I am still full of music and have pursued several new avenues including writing a musical ( script and music) and acting.
Thank you for your interest.'
As says he's still involved in various music related productions and can view a recent video of how he manages to involve singing with his daily courtroom routine via the Faith and Values Website
Another artist who also recently got in touch with the site after reading a recent thread ( this time directly by joining and posting in the forum ) was the sax player from the Ambassadors of Too Much Of A Good Thing fame.
He posted the below in the thread and as stated does deserves more exposure so its reposted below
"Came upon this little discussion and thought I’d clear a couple of things up. I’m the sax man from the Ambassadors. That’s the Ambassadors from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The group started as the Seven Dwarves. In 1964, they added two horns–a trumpet and a sax, very unusual for the time–and became the Ambassadors. Our first gig was at the Silver Springs Fire Hall, near Lancaster. In 1965, we cut our first record, Too Young for Me (flip side: Pork Chops, an instrumental) on the Fleet label. We cut a second disk, I Want a Love (flip side: Those Things Called Girls), which was never marketed. Only one copy of that record exists: a metal and acetate dub. Our third record was Too Much of a Good Thing, on the Pee Vee label (flip side: Whole Lotta Soul). The group had several drummers and bass players over the years, and we lost one singer, who was no longer with the group at the time of Too Much. The Ambassadors continued playing through December 1966, then disbanded.
In 1984, most of the original members reunited, with a couple of new guys, to play a reunion concert. It went so well that we kept going, playing with various personnel until 1992. We continued with the same music: the sweet soul sound of the sixties. Since 1992, we have reunited several times for one-time concerts, the most recent being in October, 2004.
We played behind a number of acts in the ‘60’s, including Lee Andrew and the Hearts. But we never played behind the Trannells–also from Lancaster, by the way. They were their own band. Our only connection to them was that our bassist on Too Much once played with them.
Our records are occasionally available on e-bay. A brand new copy of Too Much of a Good Thing–never played, still in original sleeve–recently brought $370.
By the way, the Ambassadors from Philadelphia, referred to on this site as the Uptown/Atlantic/Arctic group, was a different group.
'Nuff said. It's great to see interest in our band after more than 40 years!...."
There is a cd being released to coincide with a re-union at Yorkstown featuring original tracks (it seems) from Ambassadors and other local bands such as Del Chords, The Del Chords, The Tranells, El Dantes ,The Exciting Invictas ,The Crystalaires The Ambassadors Seven Dwarfs The Emperors The Chateaus The Magic Monorays The Thundering Sentries
can view brief details and a few photos via link below
link out of date
Have to say always find such posts and emails as above great enjoyable reading and thanks go to both artists for passing on
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