Sebastian

Partial clip:

The first big quantity of Dream Team (reportedly 100+ copies) turned up in September/October 2003 via a UK seller. He was selling them for £100 each (that's where I got my copy) and I remember that it caused quite a bit of a stir because it had been an "impossible" to find record up until then and a few of the early copies from the find were sold for huge sums privately, then the rest appeared with a dealer that doled them out cheaper.

There are several early Tamla Motown releases from The Netherlands that carry Nashville Matrix or RCA Custom matrixes, so the actual US made lacquers must've been sent over from the US to Holland. Same goes for lots of Beatles releases that have UK matrix but are clearly pressed in Denmark/Sweden/etc.

A seller on ebay that sold a copy in 2022 stated that he had 9 copies of this 45 for sale that he would offer to the highest bidder (in case that person was interested). It wouldn't surprise me if most of the subsequent copies have come from that stash. Nine copies is however still not a lot in the grand scheme of things.

Very small pressing runs. I've always had the feeling (and one of the ads above seem to back it up) that Paris Tower was a "pay-to-play" label. That the groups had to pay a fee to get their 45s recorded/pressed/promoted, hence little motivation for Paris Tower to do anything with the records once they had been pressed. A compilation that focuses on the garage side of things was recently released: https://www.discogs.com/release/28927195-Various-The-Best-Of-Paris-Tower-16-Crunchin-60s-Garage-Tracks-From-Tampas-Legendary-Label

The first episode and the final half of the last episode were great and somewhat illuminating. I'm happy that this documentary was made, it keeps the Stax story relevant and alive and I realize that most of us are already so deep into this stuff that a documentary like this only can scratch the surface. But I did find it suprising that one of their most loyal and succesful artists, William Bell, only was mentioned once during the entire four hours.

Interestingly both the Carolines 45 on Roulette and "Paris Blues" were released in 1966 on Polydor in Canada with successive numbers: POLYDOR CANADA 1075 - Tony Middleton - Out Of This World / Paris Blues POLYDOR CANADA 1076 - Carolines - Can't Stop Lovin' The Boy / You're My Baby Did Mala and Roulette perhaps license them in some way from the Canadian branch of Polydor (which had been a label outside of the US since the mid-1950s)?

The "Polydor Series" thing can be found on lots of 45s: https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=POLYDOR+SERIES+&type=all&format_exact=7"&country_exact=US&decade=1960

Was just putting a copy of Sonny Childe & T.N.T.'s "Heartbreak" (a.k.a. R.B. Greaves) on ebay and realised that it was only issued in the UK:

Judging by the posts made after yours on Wednesday, not everyone clicks on a refosoul link. It’s good to have all relevant info spelled out in a thread for clarity. But I can see how you think my post is redundant.

Here's the original sale of the acetate, from back in 2008: https://www.popsike.com/Little-Anthony-Gourdine-On-A-Magic-Carpet-Ride/330218343808.html The auction description was: Little Anthony Gourdine (??) - On A Magic Carpet Ride . Original UK 7" 45rpm "Unreleased" Single Sided Emidisc Acetate. This Acetate came with a collection of others that were once the property of Mike Vickers. Mike Vickers was responsible for the arrangements on Kiki Dee's version of this track that was released in the UK on Fontana Records. As far as I can ascertain apart from Kiki Dee's version of this, the only other version that is known of was recorded for Roulette Records in the USA by Derek Martin and that remained unreleased until recently. This appears to have been recorded for Demonstration purposes only and was sent to the UK on tape and then cut to this acetate for reference. I'm not 100% sure the vocal is by Anthony Gourdine but it sounds just like him and I'd imagine this track would have been offered to him first as Teddy Randazzo and Victoria Pike wrote a huge amount of material for Little Anthony and The Imperials. The label and sleeve are stamped "Franklyn Boyd Music Ltd" who were Teddy Randazzo and Victoria Pike's Publishers in the UK. In VG+ Condition.

Different flipsides on 102 vs 103 though.

This is 100% a one-sided vinyl test pressing, it's not an acetate.

Yes, and them singing on "Shining Star" (from 1980) doesn't add up either. The two songwriters of that track weren't even active until 1970 and 1976 respectively. The Debonaires might have provided backing vocals on some Manhattans tracks that appeared on DeLuxe or Carnival, but I find it highly unlikely that they as a group are included on the Manhattans Columbia recordings (or indeed The Spinners on Atlantic).

This makes no sense. Those songs are from 1973-1980. There's no way that "Shining Star" is based on a recording from the mid-1960s.

I had no idea about, and it's really interesting that Betty Willis version of Rita & The Tiaras "Gone With The Wind Is My Love" also got a release on this label (apparently after the Mojo release): https://www.45cat.com/record/nc108988us Both the Jim McFarland and Betty Willis 45s appear to be extremely rare.

They are the same takes/recordings, but the RPR release is mastered differently, sounds like it has got some reverb added to the entire recording. But vocal phrasings, the drummer accidentally hitting the rims of the toms etc are the same on both Key-Loc and RPR.

The US Ashford 45 is from October 1968. The Canada Stone is from late 1968 or early 1969 judging by other releases on the label. Eddie Parker "Love You Baby" is cat# GM 1. It is mentioned in Billboard October 18, 1969 that Googa Mooga will release "product selected from a dozen U.S. independents". That's about one year after the US/CAN releases. The Ironing Board Sam 45 on Googa Mooga which is cat# GM 3 is from around May 1970 according to a Billboard article, see below. The US issue of that 45 is from January 1970. The Billboard article also mentions the prior Googa Mooga releases by Eddie Parker and Al Gardner. The last Googa Mooga release is cat# GM 4, it's Eddie Parker "I Need A True Love". Its US counterpart 45 was released in Nov/Dec 1969. So with all that in mind I'd say that those Googa Mooga releases are from between late 1969 and mid-1970.

Here are the two Ann Byers 45s: https://www.discogs.com/release/12501712-Ann-Byer-Come-Look-At-Me-Forever-Yours- https://www.discogs.com/release/10414300-Ann-Byer-Lillie-Street-Living-It-Up

That’s great info! I’ve just found two 45s on the label with vocals by Ann Byers, but they don’t show up as such on Discogs or other discographies because most people cite the ”lyrics/poem writers” as the artist. I’ll edit the Discogs entries when I get the time to do it.

So... with the info from the ad above I'm trying to figure out Fox Century Plaza's modus operandi for making money... It seems like you sent your poems/lyrics to FCP, then they created versions by letting demo singers sing over pre-exisiting backing tracks, then they made acetate(s) of these which they sent to the songwriter. Like they did to Doug Wass here: https://www.45cat.com/record/nc892980us and here: https://www.45cat.com/record/nc359805us Then, if they approved of the acetate recordings, finalized Fox Century Plaza label 45s were pressed up for a fee. Does that make sense? Has anyone got any of the original paperwork from the label?

Just found this press clipping/ad about Fox Century Plaza Records and thought it might fit in here.

I've edited the Discogs entry to reflect this. Would be good if the entire Fox Century Plaza discography on Discogs was overhauled like this. Wonder who "A. Brown" is? https://www.discogs.com/release/29808745-A-Brown-13-Kisha-Conception-Keep-Your-Love

Another one is Kisha "Keep Your Love" on Fox Century Plaza Records. James Alexander looks like the artist and Kisha the songwriter. But it's a woman singing. Supposedly the same Kisha that did "I'm Just Raring" on Omega.

Very common record on issue/stock. Definitely a whole lot rarer as promo/demo. I've added the promo to Discogs now: https://www.discogs.com/release/29796028-Cecil-Garrett-The-Fascinations-Bearcat