Garethx

His 45 with the group Onion Stuffing is much better.

The other side of this 45, Thunder In My Heart, is one of the greatest of all deep soul rarities.

Well said Tony. Deejays owe it to the paying customer to play records in the best condition possible. Super-rare one-offs, acetates etc. I can understand being in sometimes ropey condition, but playing bog-standard oldies in knackered condition is an insult to the audiences intelligence.

Interesting to hear that the Bobby Sheen record actually got plays as a new release on US radio: I'm guessing the other side. The fact that it's not a rare record in any sense of the word led to its ubiquity on Northern Soul playlists after its initial exposure. Everyone who went to the states in the mid-late 80s seemed to come back with lots of copies of this 45, leading to it getting overplayed pretty quickly. But before it trickled down to that level it had real personality and magic and for that reason will always be a classic in my book.

Mustn't forget Pete Wid's involvement in the legend as I understand it was he who passed the record on to DT with the promise that it would one day be a monster; I believe he was referring to the other side and was somewhat nonplussed to hear Something New To Do blasting forth from the Top of The World speakers.

A brilliant record and we must give credit to soul-sourcer Dave Thorley for having the guts to spin it at Stafford, as in terms of feel and sensibility it was somewhat removed from the norm at the time and was all the more welcome for that. For a period in the late 80s this was virtually the Northern Soul National Anthem. I still love it and play it at home occasionally but am glad that it doesn't get hammered up and down the country any more. As a piece of nostalgia it transports me back to heady days of youth and happy times. Bobby Sheen was a great soul stylist with a god-given voice and the delicacy and craft in his approach is wonderfully portrayed in this tremendous 45. The Phillip Mitchell song manages to be both clever and moving, which is a tricky thing to pull off. Regarding it sounding like a television theme, note that the strings were arranged by George Tipton, who composed the theme tunes to, among other things, Benson, The Golden Girls and Soap. Aside from stuff like that he was also responsible for scoring the strings on one of the most transcendent of all theme tunes, that of Midnight Cowboy in 1969.

Al DeLory "The Moon Racers" on A&M. I think anyone reactivating that one would be looking nervously towards the exits for people carrying tar and feathers.

Link to Nate Adams in refosoul: https://www.soul-source.co.uk/rare-northern...ough-my-fingers

Also worth bearing in mind that the version spun by Richard Searling at the Casino in the late 70s was an Atlantic studio disc featuring Nate Adams covered-up as Hermon Hitson (Hitson's actual version remained unheard until the CD release in about 2005-6). To my ears Adams' version is (narrowly) the best: slightly looser than Sam Williams and more gutsy than The Ohio Players. There are a few threads on here about the various versions: the most intriguing one being where Andy Rix recounts meeting the song's writers, Lewis, Farmer & Lewis. They can clearly recall every version of LSTMF with the exception of Sam Williams, who they claim never to have heard of. Interestingly the vocalist on Sam Williams' other Capitol subsidiary recordings sounds, to my ears, nothing like the singer on the Tower 45.

Never seen an MGM issue of this. The Mutt & Jeff is the nicest looking in my opinion. The Move On Love side is a beautifully orchestrated west coast ballad. John Ridley claims on his sirshambling.com website that the Mutt & Jeff release of this side is considerably shorter than the Magnum and MGM versions. Can anyone confirm this?

Bessie Banks Try To Leave Me If You Can.

As an addendum to the above I wonder if he's aware that the harmony ballad side of their M-Pac 45 is considered to be something of a classic on the LA Low Rider scene. It's been compiled on at least a couple of CDs aimed at that particular market.

Hi Bob It's great news that Mr Lane remembered these tracks, less good to hear that he's not well at the moment. Let's hope he makes a full recovery. I hope he got to hear how highly the groups output is regarded throughout the world. yours in soul, gareth

I tend not to use the mike in my few stints behind the turntables. I guested for Heikki in Finland once and he insisted that deejays had to use the microphone. I approached it with trepidation at first, but after some refreshment warmed to the task: after a while I'm told it was impossible to shut me up. The language barrier helped of course, but after a gallon of Finnish ale I think I actually introduced one tune with (adopts husky tones of Tony Green) "Mike: you require one-hundred-and-twenty-one..."

Boss double sider.

My copy is mint with unblemished labels. The first big hit of these was a fifty count box with mint copies at the front, degenerating in terms of water damage towards the back. The mint copies sound a bit better than the water damaged ones (if you play them side to side the difference is quite marked) so I think there should be quite a price premium for the pristine copies.

Lynn Vernado is the aunt of Snoop Dogg.

I'm afraid it's long gone Russ: sold it for an unbelievable (at the time) £80.

I was trying to get the price down for you Russ. Probably not very successfully.

Funny old record. Sounds great out, but sadly underperforms at home: maybe the double-tracking of the vocal in some places. Collectable though, and is only going to rise in value.

All things considered this is a bargain.

Hi am currently looking for a copy of Joey Irving Can You Handle Me Baby c/w What Happened To The Love We Knew on Vincent in at least VG+ condition. TIA for any leads gareth

edit.

An interesting documentary, and I'm glad that it was made and shown, but if I could nit-pick a bit I would say that it didn't concentrate enough on the most important aspect of the label: the music itself. I would have loved more detail about the studio processes and the journey the musicians went on to basically redefine the sound of rhythm & blues: Steve Cropper and Booker T Jones, to name but two, were hugely influential musicians, but not enough attention was drawn to the fact. Cropper, in particular, seemed to be relegated to the role of talking about the various travails and internal politics of the label as a kind of bemused onlooker. The following live concert form Norway was fascinating: I'd love to see the footage they didn't show, as it would have been terriffic to hear Arthur Conley tackling a ballad, or Eddie Floyd performing material other than Raise Your Hand (wonderful as that was.) The highlight for me was definitely Sam & Dave: simply mesmeric and truly mind-blowing. I don't want to be unkind to the memory of Otis Redding, but it must have been a struggle for him to follow the dynamic duo night after night. I must stress these are minor quibbles and as I mention above we are fortunate that a major channel can find space in the schedules at weekend prime-time to broadcast programmes on this subject matter. soul on, gareth

Seems to be currently undergoing something of a revival. It's a pretty common 45, but because of current demand the price seems to be all over the place. I think the realistic range should be £60-75, but have seen it go for more and less in the last few months. Great record: the other side is a lovely Impressions-influenced midpacer.