Garethx

The reissue above is vinyl. The original Columbia-pressed copies are styrene.

How about starting a topic on the ethics (or otherwise) surrounding counterfeiting, which would be more germane to current discussions on the scene?

The first image is of a legit styrene copy, pressed at Columbia's Pittman NJ plant. The second scan is of a copy pressed at Plastic Products in Memphis. Both original label layouts. The "S" on these Columbia pressings of the record was a price code (responding to a recommended price). You'll also see this on Philly Int. records and other Columbia-pressed labels. Hope this helps.

Cheers Steve. This topic is interesting.

Which Willie Tee is in this bunch of rogue 45s?

^ Absolutely.

In some ways the Demon release came out at the wrong time in history. The Modern scene still had enough new material to concentrate on. The Northern scene probably wasn't the right place to play recent reissues. As mentioned above 'Running Back' got plays at venues which Terry Jones played at. I already had the 'Midnight Affair' and 'Lovin You' 45s, and at that time wouldn't buy something like that on vinyl—crazy, but that's the way it was. If I look at my shelves the reissue vinyl stops at around 86-87: the time I first had a CD player. I must have made a decision to buy reissues only on that format. I didn't have a copy of the album to listen to until about ten years later when I burned a CDR of a CD copy which belonged to the receptionist at the office I worked in. Although the Demon vinyl had long been deleted you could still pick them up in second hand shops quite easily.

Likely to be Truth rather than the Gospel Truth. The former label was the last of the Stax empire to fall. When I got the John Gary Williams album for the first time, the still-sealed copy had every reference to Stax in the label copy crossed out and the sleeve, spine and labels were stickered with the Truth logo over every Stax one. I would love the Sandra Wright to exist on original, so these sightings are potentially pretty interesting.

Top Northern, either side.

RIP Otis. Truly an all-time great.

This record is something of a standard on the other side of the Atlantic: it was a huge hit for a completely unknown band who are now considered a textbook example of the one-hit-wonder phenomenon. Youtube is littered with clips of Middle of the Road entertainers doing versions, most notably Andy Williams. Contemporary covers (like the Joe Arnold and Sam Fletcher mentioned) which might also be of interest from a UK club perspective include great versions by Carmen McRae on Atlantic LP, Charlie Earland on Prestige and a really great version on Philips by Bobby Hutton produced by Gene Chandler. I think the Bobby Hutton is by far his hardest 45 on that label. Maybe his best too. The Spiral Starecase is another example of a record which sold truckloads in the US but was by some fluke uncommon enough to play on the UK Northern scene, like Robert John etc. Funny when you consider things like Move On Up were considered 'too common' to play because of their chart status in the UK, while a US Curtom single of that particular title is anything but commonplace in its mother country. The strange world of Northern Soul...

Prince Paul 'In The Beginning' on Parker? Pretty rare in any format but particularly with pic sleeve.

I think it's a pretty good record: jazzy rather than poppy. This was apparently recorded at the same sessions as his two AFO singles but released in the time frame before WT started making his NOLA tracks. Some interesting background on Home Of The Groove here: https://homeofthegroove.blogspot.com.es/2011/07/suiting-summer-to-tee-willie-gaturs.html Foolish Girl is pretty scarce: certainly rarer than some of the Willie Tee NOLA and Gatur 45s.

Rest in peace Nick.

Maria Tynes was originally from New Orleans I believe, but moved to LA and had quite a bit of success in the R&B scene there. She wrote a couple of songs with Bobby Womack for Wilson Pickett and also wrote for Bob & Earl, the Sisters Love, Leon Haywood, Jean Knight and others. Maybe her biggest claim to Northern Scene fame was writing "Send Him Back" for the Pointer Sisters. Her few tracks as an artist show she had great vocal quality.

Maria Tynes is a good soul record. Would like to hear Nick's male version.

I think that the point about 'crossing over' is a bit of a red herring. That says more about the cultural climate of the times than it says about the qualities of an artist's work. There are still guys from Soul's heyday who wrote, produced and sang their material to a really high standard and who can still do it: Phillip Mitchell and Benny Latimore are mentioned above and I would add Bobby Patterson and Richard Caiton to that list. Caiton in particular never anywhere came close to crossing over—in fact the majority of his releases are excruciatingly rare—yet his relatively small body of work is completely satisfying from an aesthetic viewpoint. We should be proud of the fact that as Soul fans our devotion has led to these artists being discovered/rediscovered and appreciated, even by generations of fans who were not around when the records were first made.

Otis Clay. Genuinely one of the greatest male soul singers ever. Capable of wringing meaning from any line of any lyric put before him, not only with power but with great subtlety too. I put him in a category above many of those you list. He deserves to be a household name. I think you underrate Al Green. Vocally he is a genius and there can not have been many more charismatic or dynamic live performers in any genre of the popular arts.

^ I think that is literally impossible.

There are a couple of old threads here on S/S which mention the writing/production involvement of the D-Men / Fifth Estate. As other contributors have said the band themselves can't remember the identity of the singers. I think the nearest thing to a recollection on any of the youtube clips is a mention of the vocalists as being 'a couple of girls from the neighbourhood'.

The two non-Monarch promos above are from different RCA pressing plants.

Sorry, Bob. Unhelpful was the wrong choice of word, I meant no slight. Your topic raises a perfectly legitimate query. I should have stated that it's difficult to pin down a first press just by looking at the label artwork. Mastering sequences would be the definitive way, but would still be tough for an indie album. With majors there are general rules with master sequencing so it's easier to pin down where and when in a manufacturing run any particular record was made. I don't have an original of this any more so I'm guessing the album was mastered at one of the bigger studios in Chicago, either Universal or Columbia and then the masters sent off around the states to have the metal parts made and eventually pressed at any number of factories. Each stage of the process would add information in the run-out grooves: first the mastering studio and engineer, then the metal part makers, then the pressing plant.

The red label 45 of "Is It Because…" was pressed at ARP in MIchigan. The Blue/Tan copies at MidWest in Illinois. The latter plant was owned by Chess. It's often problematic to state which release was 'first' because in reality many titles were often pressed on different label stock at different plants simultaneously. As noted above this title was a strong seller and would have been in print for months in various forms. The are MidWest copies on the red logo too. As far as the album goes it's similarly unhelpful to talk in terms of a 'first press' just from a label artwork point of view. This would have been pressed in multiple locations, all using distinct artwork. That is true for the huge companies like Columbia, Capitol and RCA, so a small/medium independent like Twinight would have little guarantee of uniformity across its releases. The main priority was to get them out there while they were still selling.

FOR SALE NANCY WILCOX ‘MORE THAN A MEMORY’/ FOX FIRE FEAT. JOHNNY ADAMS ‘A STAR IN THE GHETTO’ 6T-31 Unplayed condition SOLD TIA for any interest, gareth

The second scan is a Canadian copy. "Manufactured and Distributed by WEA Music of Canada Ltd."