Louise

Oliver Cheatham: “Soul Junction Finally Pop The Question” Listen to ‘Don’t Pop The Question’: http://soundcloud.com/chalkster/oliver-cheatham-dont-pop-the Listen to ‘Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers’: http://soundcloud.com/chalkster/oliver-cheatham-good-guys-dont Some of you while listening to your favourite internet radio soul shows over the last couple of years may have heard a great little uptempo 70’s dancer track reputedly by a female artist by name of Pam Jackson (a name purely based on a assumption). At long last the true identity of both the artist and the track has eventually been found, the full story continues below: The origins of the track came from a un-credited acetate that was won on E-bay by Italian collector Marco Cavenaghi. The acetate contained six tracks with the only information to be found being the name Pam Jackson which had been handwritten on the sleeve. Marco gave a cut of one the tracks to his friend Olindo Di Tizio to play on his radio show. It was Olindo who later passed a cut of the track which by now people were calling ‘Don’t Pop The Question’ to the following UK dj’s Bob Smith, Kevin Oxberry, Steve Plumb and Wayne Arbon, in the vain hope that through greater exposure someone would come forward and recognise the track thus revealing it’s true identity. Chat room discussions also failed to uncover any further evidence. Although a school of thought did arise that a possible candidate could be Detroiter Oliver Cheatham (who was renowned for his falsetto vocals) and that the track could be a previously unissued Magic City release. In March of this year (2012) during a conversation between myself and Kevin Oxberry (Kevin had previously spoken to me about the track) the subject of the elusive Pam Jackson track was raised again. Kevin stated that he and the other guys had exhausted all their avenues of enquiry and two years on were still none the wiser and had all but given up. At this point I volunteered Soul Junction’s services to track the real artist down. First of all I contacted A.J. Sparks, A.J had been a session drummer at Magic City and had played on most of the sessions but he didn’t recognise the track, this was followed up by talking to Cynthia Girty Of Cynthia And The Imaginations/ Imaginary Three, thus eliminating any remote chance of Pam Jackson being an alias or real name of one of the girls. My own gut feeling was indeed that the real singer was in fact Oliver Cheatham after comparing the track against his Polydor and Grand Junction releases etc. So next up I called Janet ‘Pixie’ Wright a former session singer at Magic City and a close friend of Oliver’s who still tours as a session singer with him and Jocelyn Brown to this day. Janet gave me Oliver’s telephone number, now Oliver a regular commuter (between Detroit and France) was actually in Detroit at that very moment. So I gave Oliver a call and explained what was on my mind and then proceeded to play him “Don’t Pop The Question” down the phone. After about 20 seconds in Oliver was singing along and excitedly shouting ‘man that’s my song that’s” Don’t Pop The Question (If You Can’t Take The Answer)” the songs real and full title. This was the first time Oliver had heard the song in nearly forty years. So after he eventually calmed down I played all the other tracks from the acetate to him. He instantly recognised a second track the beautiful sweet soul ballad “Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers”. “Great! We’ve got an A and B side how’s about leasing them to Soul Junction for a 45 release Oliver?” Say’s I, “yes!” Came the reply, “but I need to remember when and where I recorded them?” Say’s Oliver. A day later Oliver called me to say after much thought he remembered recorded the tracks in circa 1974/75 and that he co -wrote both songs with his cousin Bill Miller and that Bill may well be the songs producer. As a precaution we systematically contacted all the people who Oliver recorded for in and around this time to see if they had any claim on the tracks, one by one they all came back with the answer no! At this point things began to look doubtful and Oliver still hadn’t located the elusive Bill. A month passed before one night out of the blue I eventually received a call from Bill Miller. Bill a former Vietnam veteran and’ purple heart’ medal holder apologised for not contacting me sooner but his current business commitments involved a lot of travelling throughout the United States. He first off wanted to know how we got hold of the songs (see above) and then he confirmed to me that he was the producer on both tracks. He went on to Explain, that at the time (circa 74/75) nothing was really happening for him and Oliver having just left the Gaslight was considering a solo career, so they both clubbed together and bought some studio time at United Sound Studio’s In Detroit. This being where Bill produced some of their songs on Oliver (as well as some other artists). Bill then later received an invitation to a Producer’s party which the Motown Corporation were hosting to discover new local talent. Billy got a couple of studio acetates cut to take to the party which featured Oliver singing ‘Don’t Pop The Question’ and ‘Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers’ plus two other funk tracks by him. The acetate also feature two tracks by a female artist presumably the mysterious Pam Jackson (Bill has still yet to definitely confirm this). Subsequently Billy was signed by Motown as an arranger, producer and songwriter going on to work with the Commodores as well as the blue-eyed Ohio funk band Wild Cherry of ‘Play That Funky Music White Boy’ fame. Bill lost track of the acetates and now assumes that may have been left behind at United Sound studios when he removed his tapes and were probably sold off when the studio closed down? What ever happened, both copies eventually found their way on to the open market via E-bay. David Welding Oliver Cheatham’s “Don’t Pop The Question (If You Can’t Take The Answer)/Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers” Soul Junction (SJ518) is due for general release on Monday October 15th 2012. The A-side is the joyous dance track “Don’t Pop The Question (If You Can’t Take The Answer)” which once heard leaves the songs unforgettable hook firmly inside your head. While the B-side is the beautiful sweet soul ballad “Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers” which showcases Oliver’s falsetto vocals to perfection and is so reminiscent of his earlier 1970’s Grand Junction and Polydor releases. For those of you who are not familiar with the songs please take a listen to the sound clips on the Soul Junction website: www.souljunctionrecords.co.uk Acknowledgements to: Oliver Cheatham, Bill Miller, Janet Wright, Irene Perkins, Vee Allen, George McGregor, Cynthia Girty, Anthony Jones (aka A.J.Sparks), Marco Cavenaghi, Olindo Di Tizio, Bob Smith (Uptight Records) Kevin Oxberry and Nick Robbins (Sound Mastering Ltd) Press Release: Oliver Cheatham “Don’t Pop The Question (If You Can’t Take The Answer)/ Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers” Soul Junction 518 Release Date: Monday October 15th 2012 Oliver Cheatham will forever be remembered for his timeless 1983 R & B hit “Get Down Saturday Night” on MCA records, which he co-wrote with fellow Detroit musician Kevin McCord. But Oliver’s career began way back in the mid 1960’s when his future brother in law Allen Cocker invited Oliver to join his group The Young Sirs. The Young Sirs eventually joined Ernest and Barbara Burt’s Magic City label where they recorded the mellifluous “There’s Something The Matter (With Your Heart)” with Oliver now being regarded as the groups lead singer. Into the 70’s the Young Sirs became The Gaslight who recorded several excellent 45’s for Marvin Higgins’ Grand Junction label. With their “Just Because Of You/It’s Just Like Magic” later being picked up for national distribution by Polydor Records. Under the guidance of influential Detroit radio DJ and record producer Al Perkins, Oliver firstly became the lead singer of the group Sins Of Satin later re-named Roundtrip and then following a further re-naming just becoming known as Oliver. Following on from “Get Down Saturday Night” Oliver continued to score chart success with “SOS”, “Celebrate Our Love” followed by two duets with Jocelyn Brown “Turn Out The Lights” and “Mind Buster”. Further chart success came in 2003 when Oliver featured as a guest vocalist on Room 5’s UK No1 hit “Make Luv” which incidentally sampled Oliver’s “Get Down Saturday Night”. Oliver at this juncture was residing in England and had previously recorded a garage version of the old standard “Our Day Will Come” with the London based band, Native Soul. And so to the present, 2012 will see Oliver return to the fore with the eventual discovery of two great previously unissued 70’s soul tracks found on a once lost and forgotten acetate. The A-side is the joyous dance track “Don’t Pop The Question (If You Can’t Take The Answer)” which once heard leaves the song’s unforgettable hook line firmly in your head. While the B-side is the beautiful sweet soul ballad “Good Guys Don’t Make Good Lovers” which showcases Oliver’s falsetto vocals and is so reminiscent of his earlier 1970’s Grand Junction and Polydor releases. 2012 will also see Oliver return on a vanity project of his own with the forthcoming “Enjoy” cd album. For further information please contact John Anderson or Dave Welding Tel: +44 (0)121 602 8115 E-mail sales@souljunctionrecords.co.uk

Native Detroiter Ivy Jo Hunter was born Ivy George Hunter on August 28th 1940. As a child his parents sent him to music classes where he learned to play the Trumpet and Euphonium. Which pre-teens saw him perform with the Detroit City Youth Orchestra. Ivy’s mother told her son that being a professional musician was a very unsecure future and persuaded him to take up art at High School. Upon leaving High School Ivy also realized the life of an artist was tough going so he joined the army as an electrical engineer. "¨"¨After four years in the service Ivy returned to civilian life and decided to follow his first love and become a full time musician. After a stint of working several different clubs Ivy eventually wound up at one of Detroit’s most renowned clubs, The Phelps Lounge. It was a chance meeting there one afternoon that changed Ivy’s life around. Ivy was rehearsing with the clubs resident band and giving them their instructions as he had done many times before, when a guy who was just having an afternoon drink stepped out the audience and introduced himself as Hank Cosby."¨"¨Cosby liked what he saw Ivy doing and invited him down to the Motown studios. So in 1963 Ivy Jo Hunter signed four contracts as a writer, producer, artist and artist manager with Motown Records. Cosby was also responsible for introducing Ivy to William “Mickey” Stevenson and thus forming one of Motown’s most accomplished song writing and producing teams of the 60’s."¨"¨Ivy’s song writing credits can be found on a multitude of songs that achieved top 100 status both in the USA and throughout the world. Some of the highlights being such timeless classics as the Four Tops “Just Ask The Lonely”, The Spinners “I’ll Always Love You”, The Marvelettes “ I’ll Keep Holding On” and the Martha Reeves & The Vandellas seminal anthem “Dancing In The Street”. “Dancing In The Street” was initially composed as a ballad but Ivy and Mickey struggled to come up with a suitable title. That was until Marvin Gaye intervened, Marvin was chilling out smoking a cigarette in the studio at the time and was listening in to what the guys were doing. He then made the suggestion to call the song “Dancing In The Street” and to make it a up tempo dance number. Thus in doing so earned himself 25% of the song writing royalties."¨"¨While “Dancing In The Street” was recorded as a innocent dance record it also became an unofficial civil rights anthem with many young disillusioned black activists claiming the title was a call to riot. This was vehemently denied by both Martha Reeves and Berry Gordy. Although “Dancing In The Street” is regarded as Martha & The Vandellas signature tune, other Ivy Jo compositions on the Vandellas included the sublime “My Baby Loves Me” and the driving “You’ve Been In Love To Long” (later covered by Barbara Acklin)."¨"¨Towards the end of his tenure with Motown Ivy was placed with the company’s V.I.P subsidiary. The V.I.P logo had the reputation of being somewhat of a graveyard label for artists and writers who had fallen out of favour with Berry Gordy (even though some of Motown’s finest releases can be found on the label). Here Ivy recorded two 45’s “I Remember When (Dedicated To Beverley) / Sorry Is A Sorry Word (V.I.P 25055) and “I’d Still Love You / I Can Feel The Pain” (V.I.P 25063). An album release was also planned although given a release number (V.I.P.S 406) and a title Ivy Jo’s “In This Bag” no release ever materialized. Ivy was to eventually leave Motown in late 1970."¨"¨After leaving Motown Ivy later joined forces with his brother John Maxey (who’s day job was that of a special needs teacher) to form the Independent Detroit based Probe 1 Production Company in 1972. Throughout the 70’s and into the 80’s the brothers continued to produce and record releases on many local Detroit groups, The Citations (five former pupils of John’s) Empulse and North By Northeast amongst others. Most would appear on the labels that Ivy and John operated through Probe1 Productions, Redline, Probe 1 and Midwest International etc Ivy himself recorded solo outings such as “Ain’t No Black & White In Music / When Does The Loving Start” (Red Line PRL-01) and “ Everytime I See You It’s Hello / Anthem (Midwest 011087) as well as singing lead vocals on North By Northeast’s “Pain Of City Living / Slave Of Society” (Probe 1)."¨"¨Probe 1 Productions did manage to achieve some limited national attention. Firstly with the mellifluous “Two On A Cloud / Grown Up Fairy Tale” (Buddah 556) recorded by Curt Darin (a.k.a Curtis Gadson) but this release coincided with 20th Century’s buy out of Buddah records and the record failed to make any major impact. Other releases on Gadson (whom Ivy and John actually discovered) included “In The Middle OF The Night” (Midwest International 8150) and the heavily synthesised “Fire It Up” which they released in conjunction with fellow Detroit entrepreneur Ernest Kelley. This was later followed by the song “Hold On To Your Dreams” that Ivy Jo co-wrote with Vernon Bullock. “Hold on To Your Dreams” was recorded on former Dramatics vocalist the late William Howard and was released on the local Detroit Ju-Par label, based on Eight Mile Road. Howard recorded the song under his High School nickname of “Weegee”. The song became a big local hit, and through Ernest Kelley’s long time association with Henry Allen the song was soon picked up by Atlantic records and released on their subsidiary Cottilion label. The deal also included an album release using “Hold On To Your Dreams” as the title track. The album was recorded at the Sound Suite in Detroit under Vernon Bullock’s direction. (“Hold On To Your Dreams” was also later covered by The Staple Singers)."¨"¨A further collaboration between Probe1 and Ernest Kelley in 1981 produced the disco influenced “Coast To Coast” (MT 9710) which was recorded on a local Detroit act by the name of Solid State. This release came out on the Independent Music Town label. A previous Music Town release by Solid State “I’m Gonna Make You Mine”(MT9709) had no production connections with Probe 1."¨"¨1981 also saw the release of the Ivy Jo penned “Love Won’t You Hurry / Open Up Your Mind (To My Mind)” and was recorded by three male singers known as “Suade” this was released on Red Line (101042). Released back in May this 45 is well worth another shout as it is simply so good. Ivy Jo Hunter in collaboration with William “Mickey” Stevenson formed one of the most formidable song writing teams of the Motown stable during the 1960’s. Ivy’s writer’s credits can be found on a multitude of songs that achieved a top 100 status both in the USA as well as around the world."¨"¨Towards the end of his tenure with Motown Ivy was placed with the company’s V.I.P subsidiary. Here he recorded two 45’s “I Remember When (Dedicated To Beverley) / Sorry Is A Sorry Word (V.I.P 25055) and “I’d Still Love You / I Can Feel The Pain” (V.I.P 25063). An album release was also planned and although given a release number (V.I.P.S 406) with the title of Ivy Jo’s “In This Bag” no release ever materialized."¨"¨Some of the highlights from his eight year association with Motown include such timeless classic’s as The Four Tops “Just Ask The Lonely”, The Spinners “I’ll Always Love You”, The Marvelettes “I’ll Keep Holding On” and the Martha Reeves & The Vandellas seminal anthem “Dancing In The Street”."¨"¨After leaving Motown Ivy joined forces with his brother John Maxey to form the Independent Detroit based Probe 1 Production Company. Throughout the 70’s and into the 80’s the brothers continued to produce and record releases on many Detroit groups and solo artists which appeared on several of their labels. Ivy himself recorded several solo outings such as “Ain’t No Black & White In Music / When Does The Loving Start” (Red Line PRL-01) and “ Everytime I See You It’s Hello / Anthem (Midwest 011087) as well as singing lead vocals on North By Northeast’s “Pain Of City Living/Slave Of Society (Probe 1)."¨"¨Their only releases to break out of Detroit nationally were the mellifluous “Two On A Cloud / Grown Up Fairy Tale” (Buddah 556) recorded by Curt Darin (a.k.a Curtis Gadson) but this release coincided with 20th Century’s buy out of Buddah records and the record failed to make any major impact. Followed by ex Dramatic Willie “Weegee” Howards local Detroit hit for Ju-Par Records “Hold On To Your Dreams” which was later picked up by the major Cottilion label. Ivy eventually hit paydirt when in 1985 David Bowie and Mick Jagger covered “Dancing In The Street” as their contribution to the Live Aid Appeal. "¨"¨And so to the present, for this release Soul Junction have selected two previously unissued tracks from circa 1979 that Ivy Jo cut for Probe 1 productions. The excellent mid paced dancer “See You Around” b/w the sublime ballad “Yea, Yea, Yea” which showcases Ivy’s vocal talents to perfection.