The Marvin Smith Story and Interview by Dave Box
bio, interview and discography
The Marvin Smith Story
Contents:
Introduction
Interview (August 2014)
(The Unissued Songs)
Discography
Wilton Concert Details
The Marvin Smith Interview
Introduction
This is an article based on an interview with Marvin Smith this year. Marvin was better known by his time as lead singer of the Artistics, so I will first give a little background of Marvin as lead singer of the Artistics, and his solo recordings.
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The Artistics story was typical of most vocal groups of their era; they were part of the street-corner scene of the 1950’s, when a capella harmonizing was the style. The group formed in 1958 with Curt Thomas on lead, Larry Johnson as first tenor, Jesse Bolian as second tenor and Aaron Floyd as baritone-bass.
Larry Johnson remembered, in an interview conducted by Robert Pruter (for his publication Chicago Soul): “We started singing in social affairs, high school functions, things like that. There were lots of groups at Marshall High School, but we were the most popular. We were very competitive and would always want to outshine the other groups. In 1963, we formed the group with another lead singer, Robert Dobyne. We were rehearsing up north in an area where Major Lance lived, Cabrini Green. Major asked us to back him up on a record to be included on his first album, “The Monkey Time”. His manager, Carl Davis, heard our backing and signed us up on Okeh, releasing our first record “I Need Your Love” in October, 1963.” A good song, expertly done, although not hit material. Dobyne left because of conflict within the group, and was replaced by Charles Davis as lead. Charles was a singer of some experience, who had previously been with the Dukays, but this association didn’t work out and after a few months, in 1964, a new lead in the shape of Marvin Smith was found.
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Marvin was another singer with earlier professional experience, having sung for a few years with famed Chicago 1950’s group the El Dorados; he sang with the El Dorados and the Tempos from 1957 until 1961. With Marvin as lead, the Artistics had an immediate local hit with a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Get My Hands On Some Lovin”. The record was a top five hit in Chicago in July, 1964, going to the 45 position on Cash Box’s r&b Chart.
The most successful of Artistics’ Okeh releases was a song composed by Barrett Strong “This Heart Of Mine”, which made the national soul survey for five weeks in December, 1965. Later, in 1967, the success of “This Heart Of Mine”, and other equally good songs, caused Okeh to release their first album titled “Get My Hands On Some Lovin”. In 1965, the Artistics played at a homecoming dance at Crane High School on the West Side, on the bill with the Vontastics. In January of the next year, they played the Regal Theater with such acts as the Impressions and Otis Reading. Later, in 1966, they achieved greater success on the Brunswick label, when they followed Carl Davis over to that label.
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Marvin co-wrote “I’m Gonna Miss You”, a spectacular song, thoroughly Chicagoan in its sound; it stayed four months on the national Billboard charts and became close to a million seller. Whilst the Artistics were peaking, they were also undergoing a rift. Marvin was trying to establish himself as a solo artist, and had a pretty good hit going with “Time Stopped”, backed with “Have More Time”. After an initial tour with “I’m Gonna Miss You”, he left the group to pursue his solo opportunities.
Marvin was born on 8th October, 1940, in Palestine, Arkansas. He moved to the West Side of Chicago with his family in the late 1940’s. I first met Marvin some 12 years ago, on one of my annual visits to the Windy City. With the help of some of my friends from the 60/70’s music business, I called him and Marvin agreed to meet me at his home later that week.
After greeting Val and myself, and friend Edward Keyes, we were escorted to his basement and provided with drinks all round. For the next three hours we talked about Marvin’s musical history. He could not believe how much we knew about his record releases with the Artistics, and his solo work. When I told him how much we enjoyed his music in the UK, he just couldn’t believe it. At this time, he was totally unaware of the UK soul scene; this was about to change when he visited the UK, a couple of years later, to do a concert, and was introduced to the hundreds of UK soul fans.
During our visit, Marvin dug out some dusty old acetates containing tracks that he never got released. We were knocked out by the quality of the songs, and just couldn’t understand why they were not released at the time. Whilst some of the rather crackly tracks were being played, Marvin got out his guitar and sang along to them. What an amazing experience. The condition of most of the acetates was very poor and needed a great deal of restorative editing just to get them back to somewhere near their original condition, and this work I arranged when we returned to the UK. We then sent the cleaned up masters back to Marvin. One of the tracks was the backing track to the song “I Never Thought I’d Be Losing You”, a song Marvin gave to Major Lance. Marvin always wanted to record his own version of this song, so the cleaned up master was sent to him for this purpose.
Actually, Marvin never did his own version of the Major Lance song at that time, but 10 years later, in 2012, he paid for the session himself and cut the track again from scratch, with his vocals. He used many of the original musicians and it was skillfully arranged by no other than the legendary Tom Washington. The end result was just fantastic — don’t miss the first live performance of this song, and others, at the Wilton on the 15th November.
At this point in the article, I would like to hand over to Marvin (I interviewed him in August this year, 2014) to find out a little more about his unissued tracks, so let Marvin tell his own story...
The Marvin Smith Interview - August 2014
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DB The two songs — “Heartache Coming On” and “Hearts Made Of Stone”, you told me that they were written by Barrett Strong
MS That’s correct.
DB Can you tell me a little bit about both those songs?
MS Well, what happened was, I‘ve always liked the way Barrett Strong wrote songs, of course, you know, with Marvin Gaye, Temptations and Gladys Knight, and so many other people. But it was “This Heart Of Mine”, when he wrote that song it just seemed like that song was especially written for me. And I always, you know, we were all friends, you know, Barrett Strong, myself, Bobby Miller, and they were songwriters that pretty much everybody, you know, would love to have gotten songs from, so I don’t know if Carl Davis sent for Barrett, or, because he was still with Motown when he came to Chicago.
DB All the Motown guys and Funk Brothers all spent their time getting on a bus and coming to Chicago and doing sessions for Carl Davis anyway.
MS Well, you know that’s the past, like I say, I really didn’t know
DB Berry Gordy didn’t know that was happening for a while, but found out later and threatened them with a fine if they did it again, but they did it anyway.
MS And I didn’t really know nobody there, but Barrett, and Bobby, and so what happened is when Barrett came to town I guess Carl told him, you know, to come up with a song for us and that’s when he wrote “This Heart Of Mine”. And also his friend was Bobby Miller and Bobby also wrote songs for us. I can’t remember the titles of the songs right now that Bobby wrote, but when Carl had the session he had Sonny Sanders do the arrangements. Now you familiar with Sonny?
DB Oh yes.
MS Okay. I talked to Sonny, maybe a few weeks ago.
DB Is he here in Chicago?
MS Yes, he’s here in Chicago. Matter of fact, I got a call from Sonny, he had been kinda ill, and, but he did the session for…
DB “This Heart Of Mine” and “I’ll Keep Running”.
MS Yeah, “I’ll Keep Running”, “This Heart Of Mine”, and that was pretty much it, I think. I think Barrett wrote another song for us called “I’ll Leave It Up To You”, I can’t remember for sure, but there was another song Barrett wrote.
DB Yes, that song was released on a 45 and it was included on the later album.
MS Yeah, it was a record. They played it, I don’t know how long they played it, but they did play it, and I don’t know how much airplay we got, but people really did like it.
DB So during that time you actually got “Get My Hand On Some Lovin” released on Okeh, it was the title track on the album. Where did “Heartache Coming On” and “Hearts Made Of Stone” come from, did he write those for you at the same time?
MS Oh no, no, no, “Heartache Coming On” and “Hearts Made Of Stone” was sometime later. I think, if I can remember right, I think I went to Detroit and met with Barrett, and this is when he gave me these two songs, “Hearts Made of Stone” and “Heartache Coming On”. And not only that, but even when Barrett wrote “This Heart Of Mine”, he also wrote the song “Have More Time”, but that was during “This Heart Of Mine” time, but the other songs, they came much later. Matter of fact, this was after a long time after I had left Carl Davis, you know, the record company.
DB You say you went to Detroit and he gave you those songs?
MS Yeah, I went to Detroit.
DB How did they get recorded, where did you record those?
MS Well, I came back to Chicago and I think maybe it was a few years later, I just can’t remember the years, you know,
DB It’s a long time ago.
MS Yeah, ‘cos we talking about years and years ago.
DB You must have put a session together with musicians to do that?
MS What happened is, like, I came up with the money, to go in the studio, this is years later. This is when I contacted Tom Tom and Tom Tom told me he’d give me a good deal on the session.
DB He did the arrangements for both of them?
MS Yeah, he did the arrangements to “Hearts Made of Stone” and “Heartache Coming On”.
DB But there was no record company at that stage involved with those tracks.
MS No, right.
DB You paid for the session?
MS Yeah, I paid for the session. The problem was like after I paid for the session I really didn’t have any more money so, it ..
DB And they didn’t make you any money, because they never got out.
MS No, they were never out.
DB That was money down the drain.
MS Right, they were never with no record company. I really didn’t try to go to any record company because I hadn’t finished. I wanted to go back into the studio, because everybody loved the tracks, so I wanted to produce it myself.
DB You wanted to do some more mixing to them?
MS Right, I wanted to do mixing, more voice-overs, and eventually I came up with the money to do the vocal background, and the vocal background was by a group of young ladies called The Kitty Haywood singers..
DB I know the Haywoods, they backed many of the Chicago acts.
MS You know about them? Yeah. I haven’t seen Kitty in years, but they came, they did my vocal background and man, it was just, it was just great.
DB Right, so “Hearts Made Of Stone”, “Heartache Coming On” — we’ve covered those but we don’t know which studio you did them in, but somewhere in Chicago.
MS I remember, you know, I’m thinking it might have been Paul Serrano,
DB PS Studios
MS Yeah, right. That was pretty much where everybody was going, other than when we weren’t recording at Columbia Records any more we made a lot of our recordings over at Universal studios, over on Chestnut and Walnut.
DB Universal is where Carl run most of the sessions for his Brunswick releases.
MS Yeah, that’s what he did, that’s where he did his recordings.
DB I want to talk to you about “I Never Thought I’d Be Losing You”, but we’ll leave it for the moment. What about “Peace”? When did you do “Peace”?
MS Well, that was Tom Tom Washington.
DB Was that done at the same time as “Hearts Made Of Stone”?
MS Oh yeah, yeah, all four of those songs were recorded. Right, you making me remember now. So all those songs were done at the same time, that was “There Must Be Peace”, “Heartache Coming On”, “Hearts Made Of Stone”, and one more …
DB Well, “I Never Thought I’d Be Losing You” — was that done at the same time?
MS No, that was later.
DB Yes, that was when Major Lance picked that up.
MS Yeah, Major Lance.
DB So is there another track somewhere we haven’t got?
MS Well, what happened was Major Lance went to Motown and Berry Gordy, and Major called me up much later and asked me, did I have a song for him. And I told him, I had some songs that I was trying to record but I couldn’t really get them out, so he was desperate for a song, so I gave him my best song, and that was “I Never Thought The Day Would Come When I’d Be Losing You”. When I gave him the song, like, Gwen Gordy sent for me and I went out to California and I stayed at Gwen’s house for maybe a week, almost a week, and she was gonna record me.
DB Who was that, Berry Gordy’s sister?
MS Yeah. She was recording a group of girls, something about something in the middle. Every time I try to think about that song I think about something in the middle. But she was recording them.
DB She was recording in California for Motown?
MS Yeah. She was gonna sign me, you know, because she liked the songs that I wrote. As a matter of fact, she loved “Peace”, but told me that she didn’t want to record me then because “Peace” was too close to Marvin Gaye.
DB I was just going to say that.
MS So you know, but I had no idea that, I never thought about it that way, because when I wrote the song I had no idea it was gonna be in a Marvin Gaye type vein, because I didn’t really like it that way, but that’s the way Tom produced it, because Marvin Gaye was hot, of course.
DB Well, you’re going to do that, you want a hit, and if that style is in vogue at the time you’re going to make a record like that.
MS But I didn’t like it. I still didn’t like it because the way I wrote it, it was more of a Sam Cooke type of a song, cos that’s the way I sung it. But Tom, the arranger that he was, you know, he put it right into that Marvin Gaye vein. But I did like it, and I didn’t like it.
DB We like it. I loved it ever since you gave it me 12 years ago.
MS Yeah, everybody liked it, but I just thought that the vein that I had it in would have been more… I thought it was more soulful, more churchy.
DB Did you ever think about what you would put on the flip? I saw a copy of “Peace” on a United acetate, a 10” acetate, you had it 12 years ago when I first met you. Were there any plans for a B-side if it came out, or did you only have the one track at the time. Because the acetate you had was only one sided.
MS Well, you know, it’s kinda like where “Peace” and “I Never Thought I’d Be Losing You”….
DB Were they about the same time? That could have been the flip.
MS Right, those were all I had, you know. When I say I had, I felt like those were songs that were mine, that were finished, I was still trying to write, but after I made those two songs I kind of stopped writing because I was spending most of my time trying to get those songs out, but I never did go to a record company because I didn’t have the money, I didn’t have the transportation, I didn’t have the means.
DB And in a way you got your fingers burned on the other two, you spent the money for the sessions and never got anywhere.
MS Yeah, I was still working too, I was still working at the Post Office. So, you’re talking about trying to pay a mortgage, trying to take care of my family, all at the same time. Actually, when I left the group, I left the group after “I’m Gonna Miss You” was a big hit. Ok, I was concentrating also on “Time Stopped”, because I …
DB That was your solo work.
MS Right, Carl said it was time to make me a solo artist ‘cos he had promised me that he would make me a solo artist when I signed up to the record company, when I first came to Columbia, you know Carl told me that he would sign me up as a single artists, I just had to drop that Sam style. I tried to, I tried to find my own sound.
DB And you did on the solo releases on Brunswick.
MS Well, pretty much, me and the group were…
DB Well, they were actually there on those solo sessions?
MS Right. Doing the background. Right. They were the background, but maybe, at that time, like, I had a chance to go to Motown.
DB I was going to ask you about that.
MS Yeah. Berry Gordy and Diana Ross called the office, and Pam McCullen answered the phone and she said there’s Motown on the phone. I said Motown? Wanna talk to me? She said yeah, so I came to the phone and it was, it was Berry Gordy and Diana Ross.
DB Was that at Carl’s office? Was Carl there?
MS Yeah. Carl was there, so, but at that time I had gotten real popular with all of the Motown acts, from them saying, the Artistics saying I was worth it, saying how I took care of myself on stage, and like….
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DB Did you tour with a lot of the Motown acts?
MS Oh, I, Oh man, we were good friends, all of them. Motown acts loved us, and, so anyway…
DB I know you used the same barber shop…
MS Ah Yeah. So anyway, when Berry and Diana Ross asked me about coming to Motown, I told them, you know, I didn’t know, I had to go talk to Carl. I went and asked Carl what did he think and Carl said he didn’t know.
DB I can imagine what Carl thought!
MS He didn’t want me going to Motown records; I had had two hits with him, like “This Heart Of Mine” and “I’m Gonna Miss You”. Like I said, all the Motown acts liked us. I can remember when — a lot of people don’t know this — it was when Michael Jackson was on the show at the Regal and Michael was standing there in the wings and I was singing “This Heart Of Mine” and he was just blown away, watching me so intently. And I never will forget that, how much he was really admiring me. And… but that’s pretty much that.
DB So you must be the only guy that got an offer from Motown and refused it.
MS Yeah, I always say that. I say, I guess if Berry was ever asked that question he would say yes, he would remember me. Cos I was hot, I was hot. Well you know not only that, but people thought just like when we wrote “I’m Gonna Miss You”, like I had a good false tenor, as well as my natural voice, so this is the way we performed, like I could sing all of my songs, or anybody else’s songs, yeah I could sing Eddie Kendrick’s songs, so…
DB You could also do Smokey’s.
MS Smokey, yeah, I’m just saying Eddie Kendricks because Eddie had a more of a false tenor than Smokey. Smokey could go in and out with his tenor, but Eddie was just a natural tenor. But I could sing anybody’s songs, and I think I got that experience from being with the Eldorados. Because I had to sing all the Pirkle Lee Moses’s songs, and after singing… Well, I liked the guy with the pretty voices, you know. There was a guy by the name of Sollie McElroy, that was with the Moroccos. I loved Sollie. So I will sing everybody, I will sing Sollie, I will sing Nate Nelson, the Flamingos, I sing Sam Cooke, I sing Eddie Kendricks, I was just that kind of guy, I could sing anybody.
DB You could do a show on your own, then Marvin.
MS Well, the voice is not like it used to be. I still sing a lot of my songs.
DB So, then you finished up working with Curtis.
MS Yeah, with Curtis. Now let me tell you how that went.
DB How did Carl react to that?
MS I don’t know, I had left Carl then, I had left Carl. Matter of fact, after I left Carl I went straight to Curtis. So, when I went to Curtis, he signed me up right away. After about a year going back and forward to the studio, Curtis didn’t have time to record me, and I would come out there and sit around, and sometime he would pay me to go to the airport and pick somebody up.
DB That’s a little bit like Otis Leavill used to be with Carl.
MS Yeah, Otis knew everybody. Everybody knew Otis. So anyway, one day they were having an Impressions session, and I came down to the session. When I came in, I come in and I had my fists balled up, I was mad, cos I’d been with him for maybe a year, and he still hadn’t got time, you know, so I come in, but you know they didn’t keep me out or nothing. So I came in to the studio and the track “You’re Really Something Sadie” was playing and when I came in the room with Curtis and they were playing the track, I said, Curtis, I said, man, I sure like that tune. He said you do, he used to call me cat, he said you do cat? I said yeah, I do like that. He said, you know what, do you wanna try it? I said yeah, can I try it? He said ok, so he wrote the words down real quick, so, he played the track a couple of times, and he said, can you handle it? I said yeah, yeah. He said ok, go on out there, so I went out there, in the studio there, put the earphones on, put the words down, put the track on. Now it’s a funny thing about singers, you can look at the lyrics and they will tell you which way you think you might wanna go.
DB The mood.
MS Yes, the mood. When I looked at the lyrics, and listened to the track, my mind thought about Aretha. I thought about Aretha Franklin. I put the track on and I started singing and when I sung it, I think we did maybe two takes, and after that Curtis said that’s it, that’s it. I had been on the Dick Clark show previously, with “Time Stopped”, and there on the Dick Clark show they had Rate A Record, and they played “You’re Really Something Sadie”, and the kids were dancing to it, and they gave it a 95. Man, I ran out of the house shouting, Oh I got a hit.
DB The thing is, you said they liked that track, but in the UK the fans like “Who Will Do Your Running Now”.
MS But I never thought about that, I was so happy about “You’re Really Something Sadie”, I knew I was going somewhere.
DB When did you cut the other side then, more or less at the same time, as a filler?
MS No, I did that later. That wasn’t the only track that Curtis did, I did another track you haven’t heard, a song called “Stay with Me Baby”. You know that? Ok. That was the session, “Stay With Me Baby”, “Who Will Do Your Running Now”, and another song called “Stay, Stay With Me”, a different song. And he gave me… matter of fact I had about four other songs, he gave me the tracks to all of them. I was to learn them. So, after that, you know, nothing really…
DB So they picked the best two, Sadie went on the top, and whatever Curtis thought best of the rest on the B-side and left the others alone.
MS After that I went back to Curtis and he told me that he was pretty much establishing himself as a single vocalist and he didn’t have time to finish me up, so he gave me my release.
DB I can remember you giving me a cassette tape of Curtis teaching you a song on the guitar, which is amazing to listen to, Curtis teaching you the rhythm track, and singing along.
MS Right, and he also gave me a song called .. what was the name of that song .. “she made another man of me — got me standing on my own two feet — with a love I never knew before — now my mind is completely sure — she made another man of me, another man of me”. That was just like …
DB You never recorded that?
MS No, that was just like “don’t know much about history, don’t know much about geo…” see ‘cos Curtis knew who I came from as far as my voice, and I never did record that song. And then, after that, you know, I got my release from Curtis and I was out there again, trying to make a deal.
DB Well, it would seem as though Major Lance did ok with your track, as it was the first track on his album for Motown.
MS Yeah, but the thing about it was like, you know, they tried to take my publishing, you know, I had the song, I had my own publishing company and the next thing I knew they were trying to take my publishing - he was.
DB So, you, I presume, when you gave Major Lance the song, you gave the guys an idea of what the arrangement should be.
MS Yeah, I played it on my guitar.
DB But they just picked up on that, and on the album, the arrangement is based on yours.
MS Right. You know how good they were, as far as if they had a good song, I mean, if Motown had arranged it, they could have had Jerry Long; Holland, Dozier, Holland…, but the original session was cut here in Chicago.
The arranger was, I think. James Mack, he did the arrangement on it first, and it was cut at a session at Paul Serrano’s studio.
DB He wasn’t involved with Motown in any way. He was always in Chicago with Carl.
MS Yes, that was in Chicago. I think he did an arrangement on it and did the session at PS, then it got sent to Motown.
DB I’ll have a look on the album, and check the credits.
Well, that more or less covers those four unissued tracks; everything that came out we know the history around most of those. After that you have actually done very little. I know you were busy bringing up a family, working.
MS Well, I could do then was like… No, what actually happened is, I went back in the studio with the group and we recorded standard songs, like “I Wish You Love”, “What The World Needs Now Is Love”, those were great songs.
DB Did some of those come out on the later album?
MS Yeah, they released them later, on an album, but none of those songs were ever played on the radio. Great songs, I wish somebody would play them some day, especially I loved “I Wish You Love”, “What The World Needs Now Is Love”, “With These Hands”, “Lucky Old Sun”. Oh man, people would love those songs; if they ever saw us perform those songs… those were great tunes, we sung them like the Temptations would have sung them; people never knew that side of us. These guys could really sing, and they could step.
DB How many of the Artistics are still alive today?
MS Well actually, I can only account for the guys I sang with. There were other guys in the group — Tommy Green took my place, and before Tommy Green there was a guy called Robert Dobyne who sang lead. I don’t know what problem he had with the group, but that was when Carl brought me into the group as lead singer. The actual group was myself, Larry Johnson, Jesse Bolian, and Aaron Floyd, and these guys were real characters, people just loved us.
DB How many of those are still with us today?
MS Just Larry Johnson and myself. Jesse Bolian is deceased, and so is Aaron Floyd. Tommy Green is also deceased, but he took my place. Robert Dobyne is still around, haven’t seen him in years. But there was another guy — Charles Davis, he’s deceased. I’m a friend of his family.
DB You’ve never thought of going back and putting a group together?
MS Yeah, sure. I’d say, even right now, I feel like there’s money out there for the group.
DB The Chi-Lites are still doing it.
MS Oh yeah. Chi-Lites. Just Marshall alive now, but he keeps himself a group. But I’m sure I could do the same thing. Matter of fact, I was telling some of my friends that if I could find two guys that I could get along with and that could really sing, I’d want maybe two more guys with me. As a matter of fact, Barrett Strong suggested that to me too. Matter of fact, he told me he had two guys that he would like for me to try to sing with me.
David & Val Box. August 2014
Well, that’s the interview over, but not the end of the story. Marvin is coming to the UK for a second time to perform at the Wilton Soulful Sessions on the 15th November this year...
Ten years have passed since his last visit, but this concert is going to be very special. Marvin is going to perform all of his unissued tracks for the very first time on stage. He will also be performing his classic Artistics and solo releases. See end of article for details.
Acknowledgements:
Marvin Smith (For taking time for the interview);
Robert Pruter (For his invaluable information in Chicago Soul);
Dave Moore (For additional information);
Dave Rimmer (For additional discography info.);
Val Box (For all the interview transcribing and typing etc)
Marvin Smith Discography
The Four El Dorados (members Marvin Smith (lead), Jewel Jones, James Maddox and Louis Bradley)
Academy 8138 — A Lonely Boy / Go Little Susie — 1958
The Tempos (members Marvin Smith (lead), Jewel Jones, James Maddox and Louis Bradley)
Rhythm 121 — Promise Me / Never Let Me Go — 1958
The Artistics (members Marvin Smith (replacing Charles Davis) (lead), Larry Johnson, Jesse Bolian and Aaron Floyd)
Okeh 4-7193 — Get My Hands On Some Lovin’ / I’ll Leave It Up To You — 1964
Ted Taylor / The Artistics
Okeh Jzsp 111745 / Jzsp 111809 — Stay Away From My Baby / This Heart Of Mine* - 1965 (demo copies issued in purple vinyl) *flip by The Artistics.
The Artistics (members Marvin Smith, Larry Johnson, Jesse Bolian and Aaron Floyd)
Okeh 4-7232 — This Heart Of Mine / I’ll Come Running — 1965 — written by Barrett Strong
Okeh 4-7217 — In Another Man’s Arms / Patty Cake — 1965 (both sides written by Marvin Smith 1964)
Okeh — 4-7243 — Loveland / So Much Love In My Heart — 1966
Marvin Smith
Brunswick 55299 — Time Stopped / Have More Time* — 1966 (backed by The Artistics) *written by Barrett Strong — directed by Gerald Sims
The Artistics (members Marvin Smith, Larry Johnson, Jesse Bolian and Aaron Floyd) Marvin Smith left the group in 1967 but sang on studio recordings. (Other lead singers were Tommy Green and Fred Pettis)
Brunswick 55301 — I’m Gonna Miss You / Hope We Have — 1966 (first released in the UK on Coral Q 72488)
Marvin Smith (solo)
Brunswick 55314 — I Want / Love Ain’t Nothing But Pain — 1967
Brunswick 55348 — Fading Memories / Hold On — 1967
Mayfield 942 - You’re Really Something Sadie / Who Will Do Your Running Now — 1974
LP’s
The Artistics
Okeh OKM/S — 12119 — Get My Hands On Some Lovin’ — 1967
Side 1: Get My Hands On Some Lovin’ / I’ll Leave It Up To You / Patty Cake / So Much Love In My Heart / I’ll Come Running
Side 2: This Heart Of Mine / What’ll I Do / Loveland / I Need Your Love / In Another Man’s Arms.
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WILTON'S SOULFUL SESSIONS NIGHT
MARVIN SMITH Live at the Wilton
Wilton's Soulful Sessions Presents:
Direct from the “Windy City” Chicago, we are proud to present a soul night featuring a very special performance from: * MARVIN SMITH *
Soloist & Lead Singer of the Artistics
Supported by the incredible full eight piece band, including background vocalists - PUSH - who backed Debbie Taylor at our last event.
At the New Wheatsheaf Conference & Banqueting. Altofts Lane, Whitwood, Castleford, WF10 5QB
Saturday November 15th 2014 - 9.00pm - 3.00am - No admission after 11.00pm
Some of the songs Marvin will be performing at this special night at the Wilton are his previously unreleased 60/70’s recordings, performed on stage for the very first time along with timeless classics from Chicago’s finest years.
Previously unreleased:
“Peace”
“Hearts Made Of Stone”
“I Never Thought I’d Be Losing You”
“Heartache Coming On”
Plus favourite Classics:
“This Heart Of Mine”
“Have More Time”
“I’m Gonna Miss You”
“Who Will Do Your Running Now”
and more.
Dj's on the night will be Arthur Fenn - Mike Charlton - Boxy - Mouse
Get your tickets early to avoid missing this fantastic night.
Tickets are now available at: http://www.wheatsheaf.com/allnighter by Paypal or Credit Card
Admission: Advance Tickets £20 + Paypal and Postal charges
or £23 OTD if not sold out.
Info: Boxy - 01924 894555, Mouse - 07717 338009
LATEST UPDATE!
Tickets are now available online at: www.wheatsheaf.com/allnighter by PayPal or Credit Card. Tickets are £20 + paypal and postage charges. OTD price is £23 if not sold out. Tickets can also be purchased by contacting: Boxy - 01924 894555, Mouse - 07717 338009 or by hand from Arthur Fenn or Mike Charlton. Tickets are already selling fast so don't miss out on this fantastic night. Marvin is so excited to be able to perform in the UK again and have the chance to include his previously unissued songs in a full concert all of his own. His performance will be split into two sets as we did last year with Debbie Taylor (Maydie Miles). After the concert, Marvin will be available for signing autographs etc. Expect to hear not only his unissued songs, that he has never performed on stage before, but also classics from his time as lead singer for the Artistics and his solo work produced by the late Carl Davis and Curtis Mayfield.
Add to that the unforgettable professional musicians of the band PUSH - we can't fail to have another fantastic night at the Wilton's Soulful Sessions.
November 15th will be on us before we know it! So get ya tickets now!
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