Garethx

The MGM presses are from the factory in Bloomfield New Jersey. As stated above West Coast presses are by RCA Hollywood. I think the East Coast ones are a bit less common.

The B in the runout is for the Bestway plant. As far as I know they were the only factory to produce styrene 45s with the paperless, screen-printed labels. I'm not aware that this record has ever been booted.

The word 'producer' on a record label could mean a number of different things in the mid-1960s. It could mean someone doing everything from arranging and engineering (and indeed playing on the session) on one hand; to merely buying an independently-produced master, putting a deal together financially and shopping it to a larger concern at the other extreme: akin to the role of a film producer in the movie business. I suspect Don Costa's involvement in these records was likely the latter. His name on a record meant something then, certainly with radio DJs and pluggers if not consumers.

Also Eddie Bishop would appear to be a pseudonym for Bill Ramal himself, who was a tenor saxophonist in addition to an arranger/producer.

Good spot on the Robert John link. Vocally "Eddie" could easily be Robert Pedrick.

Depends what you mean by expensive. A true original WDJ is certainly worth upwards of £250 currently I would have thought. Only likely to go higher as per any established classic these days.

Great that this mystery has been solved at last. Obviously sad that he passed some years ago. Listening to the Danny Peil & The Apollos 45 it's clearly him.

These are all RCA pressings and as such have different typesetting for each plant and either R, I or H in the run-outs. The one listed as a boot on discogs (pale green) looks more like an original RCA Rockaway pressing to me and should have a R in the deadwax (the giveaway is the writer credit set in Baskerville). The one listed as an original second press looks pretty dodgy from a type point of view.

True Chalky.

I think we'd all be surprised by the order numbers for RCA white dj copies. Usually in the order of 20,000 copies from each of their three pressing plants (Rockaway New York, Indianapolis and Hollywood California). If the record looked like it was going to be a hit then obviously the order numbers for issue copies would be huge. In the case of records which didn't get any airplay then the quantities for issues would be far smaller. In my limited experience the one which is particularly difficult to turn up as an issue copy is Faye Crawford's "What Have I Done Wrong?". By comparison Rose Valentine is not scarce as a black-labelled stocker. The issues pictured by The Yank above are from the Indianapolis (top image) and Hollywood pressing plants.

I've always thought the cheap Junior McCants 45 is far superior to the rarity. Just a far better record in every department: better song, more danceable, more instant. The deep side on the more affordable single is far better than the ballad on the reverse of Try Me too.

In answer to the original question, about how nobody could work out it was Junior McCants, remember that Marvin Gaye's Love Starved Heart was played covered up first, fifteen years before it came out as the box set promo single. If you can successfully cover up Marvin Gaye you can certainly cover up an obscure artist like Junior McCants. Bear in mind his 'known' 45 was just considered a cheap collection filler for decades. Very few people have ever been able to guess a singer's identity simply by listening. Covering records which are semi-known and rumours subsequently getting out is a different thing. Once they're uncovered it seems obvious but the detectives who can hear something and put all the pieces together are few and far between in my experience.

That's a good shout.

I don't think there's any connection between the Stag/Detroit artist and any of the others.

The change was around the transition away from the black issue copies to the cyan/tan issue label.