UK RCA in the 1960's

[Roburt]

At the start of the 1960's (& into the mid 60's) RCA was represented in the UK by Decca Records. Though it didn't state it on the RCA 45's released in the UK, they were administered by Decca execs and I guess it was the Decca guys who decided which US releases to put out here.

RCA 'black act' releases, certainly in the UK, seemed to be thin on the ground apart from those from big acts such as Sam Cooke. Not too many soul artists seemed to be signed to RCA. Though when Motown broke thru in a big way (in the US), they must have realised they'd been ignoring black audiences & losing lots of sales -- certainly after white teenagers got turned on to Motown / Atlantic / Stax stuff. But here in the UK, not many of the soul acts who had US RCA 45 releases enjoyed British exposure.

But sometime around 1966, RCA realised they had been 'missing a trick' and took self-control, opening their own office in the UK. I don't know who was in charge of it (bet Ady does) or even who they got to press up their releases (maybe still Decca at the start). But even when their own guys were deciding what US recordings should gain UK release, not much seemed to change initially. I know the RCA UK execs decided to run a big 'country music' push in spring / early summer 67 (big ads being placed and a string of country singles being put out) but they didn't seem to follow a similar strategy for their black acts. I checked thru soul releases on UK RCA from autumn 66 thru to late summer 68, and there weren't many.

There was a 'blue-eyed soul' release from Len Barry and a couple of outings from their pop guy Paul Anka (who at the time was cashing in by cutting soulie type tracks) & from Peggy March (she'd had a string of UK 45's by Oct 68), but not much from black artists. Nina Simone was a big name who signed with RCA at that time & she had a UK 45 out in early April 67. But little else escaped here -- King George's "Drive On James" being an exception in Feb 67 (though it had done nothing sales wise in the US). It seems US RCA 45's weren't selling that well coz the label didn't really understand how to market their releases to black radio stations in the US (their radio related guys only having good contacts with the DJ's working at US pop stns). As their soul 45's weren't making the sales charts across the US, they seemed to get ignored by the UK RCA execs. Nothing much else escaped here till the Four Kents single in June 68.

Of course, eventually the penny dropped at RCA, more black acts were signed in the US and properly promoted and their releases started to make the charts over the pond but this would be a while later. Maybe triggered by Nina Simone's big UK chart hit "Ain't Got No, ...", which made the UK top 20 in November 68. The UK execs even signed a black British act around that time, the Chants, but did very little for the group. Around the world, soul music was in the ascendancy and RCA acknowledged this fact by putting out the Sam Cooke comp album 'The Man Who Invented Soul'. Even though this LP escaped in many countries, the UK wasn't one of them.

By the mid 70's, they had cottoned on finally, but I guess that was just a knee jerk reaction to the NS scene's reverence for mid 60's RCA soul dance tracks. Anyone here know the whys & wherefores of things at UK RCA from the mid 60's to mid 70's ?

Edited 5 hours ago by Roburt

[Dobber]

Nice insight mate,and what a thought provoking idea of what a sight it would have been to see things like Willie Kendrick change your ways on a uk single and many others like that?

[Bo Diddley]

29 minutes ago, Dobber said:

Nice insight mate,and what a thought provoking idea of what a sight it would have been to see things like Willie Kendrick change your ways on a uk single and many others like that?

This UK album from 1969 is a near miss for Willie K and the Exciters!

"Just A Little Bit Of Soul"

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Bo Diddley

[Nickinstoke]

On the question of who was pressing RCA late 60s/early 70s, I worked in the Decca factory in Bridgnorth in 1970/71, making cassettes. We regularly produced cassettes for RCA (usually Elvis & Jim Reeves), and in the staff shop you could order vinyl records, including current RCA releases, so it looks as though Decca were still pressing for RCA at least until 1971