Garethx

Teddy Randazzo had a brief film career but managed to appear in some seminal Rock 'n' Roll films both as an actor and in cameo roles: "The Girl Can't Help It"; "Rock, Rock, Rock"; "Hey, Let's Twist" and "Mister Rock & Roll".

Curtis Mayfield appeared in the film "Short Eyes" as well as writing and performing the soundtrack: one of his most underrated albums for me.

Robert Cray was definitely the bass player in 'Otis Day & The Nights' in Animal House. I think the Mel Britt reference is apocryphal. The film appearance of Tony Clarke was supposedly in the Sidney Poitier film "They Call Me Mr Tibbs". Rhetta Hughes was in "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song".

I'm pretty sure Glen Campbell plays guitar on the track, making the remainder of the musicians likely the nucleus of Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew.

Don't forget that this is the man responsible for "Yummy. Yummy Yummy (I Got Love In My Tummy)"! Compared to that he sounds like Jimmy Ricks here.

Joey Edwards is a pseudonym for the writer Joey Levine. I think I'm right in saying this is one of his first 'solo' records but he found a lot of success later in the 60s as writer and performer closely associated with lots of pop hits in the Bubblegum genre. You may be surprised at exactly what he was responsible for in the pop field, much of it about as far from 'soul music' as it's possible to get. Here's a link to a page about him: https://home.comcast.net/~bubblegumusic/levine.htm I've often wondered why "How Big Is Big" wasn't covered more times as it's a wonderful song and could have gone on to become something of a standard. The Masqueraders version on Bell is simply magnificent, taking something catchy and essentially light and turning it into a gut-wrenching masterpiece of soul harmony singing: a measure of their vocal genius. I like Joey's version as a pop record and it has a certain naive charm but am a bit puzzled to see it getting spins on the soul scene.

The promo is as per the issue but minus the red ink on the logo.

In retrospect I was too harsh. It is also a good slice of gritty West Coast Northern Soul, but from a value for money point of view I'll go for the cheapie.

As mentioned above two completely different records. Funnily enough I dug "Lady" out the other night after not listening to it for years and it still sounded awesome: great downtempo Northern with a great hook and soaring orchestration. "Lazy" is appreciably tougher to find but in my opinion not in the same county quality-wise. An expensive Prize Turkey. B-side on both is the fantastic "I'll be Gone".

Always think of Kell Osborne's "Quicksand" and Glenda McLeod "No Stranger To Love" being played in the same spot by Dave Thorley as summing up exactly how broad a church Northern Soul can be. At the time the Titanic 45 sounded absolutely ancient and the HGEI release practically space-age. Both great records and both worked a treat: each with soul of their own kind but both records with 'charisma' if that makes any sense; certainly not the kind of records to get lost in a deejay set.

Is everyone sure about the Miko and Triple B versions being different mixes? I've only heard the former once from record but it sounded practically identical to the latter. As Chalky says the Ray Gant version on Jay-Walking is a good record in its own right: a dead-ringer for an Invictus record with the bonus of a fabulous version of "Don't Leave Me Baby" on the flip for the price of a few pints. What talent there was in the Ashford/Chandler camp at the time.

True Image on Juana.

Should be possible to pick up copies of Randy Brown's Parachute, Chocolate City and Stax albums very cheaply from the likes of musicstack or gemm. As everyone has said all are worth getting, with my particular favourite being "Midnight Desire" on Chocolate City: "The Next Best Thing To Being There" is a legendary slowie and there are several very good dance tracks on it, particularly "Do You Love Me", a gorgeous midtempo track with one of Randy's best vocals. For a time it seemed like he would become a massive star and could have been marketed as a successor to the likes of Teddy Pendergrass: his vocal quality was really right up there. For whatever reason that didn't happen and he remains, for me at least, under-recorded and somewhat under-appreciated. The Stax album is a bit of an odd one: very much like the Staple Singers "This Time Around" it features re-recorded backing tracks behind archived vocals, so the production isn't vintage Stax or Muscle Shoals Sound as you would expect but instead fairly weedy early '80s music from players with, it seems, very little feel for soul music. A few of the tracks like "Sweet To The Bone" are actually vocals by The Newcomers as opposed to Randy Brown solo performances.

Otis's reading of "Love Don't Love Nobody" is never far from my thoughts when asked to nominate the single greatest soul record (an impossible task!).

The Youtube clip is James King "Memory" as per the scan above. We've discussed this on here before and the consensus seems to be that the Expansion release is the first one in, as you say Dave, 1987. The US Pyramid 12" wasn't seen 'til a good few years later.

Candi Staton is just as good as ever judged on her European shows of the last few years. To characterise her voice as 'pretty poor' is a bit mystifying to me. Still, it's all about personal taste I suppose. Otis Clay still apparently performs with all his old fire and power completely intact. If you haven't seen him I would urge you to do so as he's probably the finest blue-collar soulman of them all and a staggering talent. Rance Allen still earns rave reviews for his live work and I will try to see him when I next get the chance.

Ironic how when certain records reach anthemic status on a dance music scene one can be in danger of taking them for granted. That's a trap I know I've sometimes fallen into with tracks like "I'll Come Running Back" and "Midnight Affair". Played both last night along with the rest of the album to mark Sandra's sad passing and have to say that the goosebumps came again, just like they did all those years ago upon first hearing. The Demon album must rank with any of the great achievements in the Southern Soul canon. Genuinely astonishing music which all those involved can be extremely proud of. It's heartwarming that such an otherwise lost masterpiece could indeed see a full release and ensuing acclaim within the artist's lifetime. Sandra Wright truly was an exceptional talent. Rest in peace.

Also worth bearing in mind other Willie Clarke 'group' records by non-existent groups like Famous Chromes and Perfections, both on Drive.

That's only really a part of the story Cliff. Carlos Wright and other members of the Wright family are indeed the group on the "Man From The Sky" side of the last release but "Stop Hurting Me Baby" itself doesn't feature them: on leads at least. The vocal group on that track was comprised of Willie Clarke and Clarence Reid with personnel unknown; the name was plucked out of the air and the group had no permanent membership as such. By all accounts it did well enough in the local market to sell pretty well and prompt the two re-pressings (borne out by the quantity of the SHMB/I'll Never Understand version about, enough that it could never be considered as a genuine rarity). Bob's post above about the variant with "I Believe" is interesting: the Miami musical historian Jeff Lemlich had heard of it but never actually seen one, so it's nice to find out that it does actually exist. Did Kitch buy or sell this one via ebay? Over to him I suppose.

Think Ian Clark was sent one as a new release when he was tying up the Jan Jones story. Rare and brilliant. When I hear records like this at Northern events I am convinced that Pete is wrong when he states that the Northern scene must look deeper into the fifties in order to continue to find fresh sounds. Pure soul that would have made it any of the great venues of the past had it been around in anything like a decent quantity.

That's all fair enough, but even a cursory look at popsike reveals that every single copy listed has gone for over $300, some for over $500. If you re-read the posts above you will see that no-one has quoted the guides at you, because this record isn't in most of them. The prices quoted here are simply recounting real-world, recent transactions among the posters themselves: first hand accounts, not published guides. The recent auction by John Manship produced a price of around £158 if memory serves. Several people here have pointed out that this price was something of an anomaly and low by recent standards.

I agree with that John, although the paler copy is not a white demo as such: it's pale pink with blue type and doesn't state 'dj copy' or 'not for sale' or any term like it. The copy on the orange logo which looks like the later Goodie Train releases such as Eboney Essence, Sam Frazier, Tiny Watkins etc. is, i'd guess. extremely rare. I was surprised that JM's went so cheaply: maybe it was a bit near to Christmas and also maybe wasn't the type of record that tends to do well on his auctions: I know it's a sweeping generalisation but the classic oldies in good condition seem to hit top dollar with more certainty over there than sounds which are little-known but have potential.

I agree with Ivor. Should be possible to pick up a 12" from the likes of gemm and musicstack fairly easily. Most of the 12s seem to be promos.

I think this has been tried at various times in the scene's history: might be finally ready to take off. There's an interesting article about the 60s club scene in Madison, Wisconson, here which touches on Irma herself in passing and some of the musical projects she was involved in.

The original version as well. Tony Ashley is great and a collector's dream, but it is a cover version nonetheless.