Sebastian

That might be the case, but those hundreds of copies sure don't come up for sale much these days.

You're probably thinking of some other 45, this one didn't get a non-US release. It's a very rare 45 that seldom turns up. This was definitely an extremely high price for the Jeff Floyd 45, but it has been massively in-demand over the past couple of years and few copies are hitting the market. There hasn't been a copy on eBay in 3 years apart from the one yesterday. And it's been five years since a copy complete with its picture sleeve was listed. A copy sold on SoulSource for £500 about three years ago. It has never sold on Discogs, but has got 132 "wants" for it. "Don't Leave Me" is fabulous. Yes, the guitar solo as well.

Just have a look at the numbers in the run-out grooves. It's the original if it has got "5444" on the a-side. It's the bootleg if it has got "5544" on the a-side.

£400 is, as we all now can see, peanuts for this record. Would most likely have sold for $1000+ on eBay if listed properly. Probably much more. Demand far outstrips the pretty much nonexistent supply.

The original has got the following etched in the run-out grooves (note 5444/5544): A-side: TAMPETE-5444-A MZL B-side: TAMPETE-5544-B MZL The bootleg has got the number "5544" etched on both sides in the run-out grooves.

The orginal issue hardly ever turns up for sale these days (at least not "out in the open"). Why this 45 should only be considered a £300/£400 disc is beyond me. Far rarer and harder to find than that.

And it's definitely "I Need Some Loving".

That 45 is pressed with fairly low volume and has got an "airy" production so you need a clean copy if you want to be able to enjoy it. It always fetches decent money when offered in M- condition. Some past results: 2014-05-15 - $1290 (M-) 2014-01-23 - $99 ("BOTH SIDES PLAY THRU WITH BACK GROUND NOISE. LOTS OF CLICKS AND POPS") 2013-09-11 - $463 ("BOTH SIDES PLAY WITH BACK GROUND NOISE, LOTS OF CLICKS AND POPS") 2010-12-16 - $1247 (M-) 2010-09-27 - $1134 ("BOTH SIDES PLAY WITH SOME BACK GOUND NOISE, CLICKS AND POPS") 2010-03-15 - $636 ("Strong VG") 2009-09-24 - $1025 (M-)

It's now only 1-3 hours to go on these auctions: https://www.ebay.com/sch/pushkings/m.html Thanks for looking!

It's now only 2 days to go on these auctions: https://www.ebay.com/sch/pushkings/m.html Thanks for looking!

Fantastic 45! There is added brass and "sweetening" to the CRS version of "Don't Change On Me", the ZODIAC release is more sparse. The ZODIAC version can be heard starting at 15:39 in this mix: https://www.mixcloud.com/shingaling/sebastian-fonzeus-mix-2013-05-30/ Here's the CRS version:

Two different versions though, of both sides if I remember correctly, at least "Don't Change On Me" is different on the two issues.

It hasn't been bootlegged as far as I know, but there is an official reissue done by Tramp Records in Germany. The difference between the original and reissue can easily be spotted because the reissue has got "Licensed by Curtis R. Staten" at the bottom of the label. REISSUE:

Hello! I've listed a bunch of records on eBay. There are label/sleeve scans and soundclips to everything. Check them out at: https://www.ebay.com/sch/pushkings/m.html Thanks for looking! Take care. /Sebastian

It's a kind of "free for all" when it comes to most US recordings copyrighted before 1964. If the copyright for those recordings were not renewed during their 28th year, they're in the public domain and can be released/reproduced by anyone as far as I understand it. That's why you see the massive amount of CDs/45's etc. being released at the moment featuring that kind of material. According to Wikipedia: All copyrightable works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain; [...] For works that received their copyright before 1978, a renewal had to be filed in the work's 28th year with the Library of Congress Copyright Office for its term of protection to be extended. The need for renewal was eliminated by the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992, but works that had already entered the public domain by non-renewal did not regain copyright protection. Therefore, works published before 1964 that were not renewed are in the public domain. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States#Duration_of_copyright The above only applies to recordings published in the US, the copyright laws for recordings published in the UK or EU are for example a lot different.

Seeing as most of these reissues are being sold with the "buy it now" option on eBay, click the "Auction" option at the top of the screen instead of "All listings". Quite amazing that 15.000 items in the "northern soul" category on eBay UK are "buy it now" and only about 5000 items are for auction. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Northern-Soul-/27349/i.html vs. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Northern-Soul-/27349/i.html?rt=nc&LH_Auction=1

The original issue is slower too. The later issues have been speeded up.

There were three official variation issues of this 45 (or four if you count promo AND issue). It was the only release by this group as far as I know. The first and hardest to find issue is on the BR label as "The Carlettes": Then we have the CAPITOL promo release mis-credited to "Corletts": Lastly the somewhat correctly credited "Carletts" release on CAPITOL as both promo and issue: Was also bootlegged on a "Bobby Robinson" label:

The US LP was released in October 1968 according to reviews/mentions in Billboard Magazine. The UK 7" was released on 24 January 1969 according to 45cat.com. As far as the UK LP goes, it probably was released in late 1968 or early 1969 going by other UK Liberty LP releases with adjoining catalogue numbers.

That's "only" £48 each. I bet if you were to buy them one by one you would have to pay more than that per 45 on average.

If you're thinking of "Without A Doubt" on Okeh, then it's from 1967. I've only ever seen it with a "big 45" logo, never small.

This tiny scan is unfortunately the only one I've found of the b-side, but as far as I can make out it doesn't look like the vocalist is mentioned on the label.

Regarding Nappy Brown: hard to tell without seeing the labels etc. My record store is in Malmoe, Sweden.

As mentioned in the post above I don't have these two records in particular. I do like researching stuff like this, so I did one quick search yesterday and came up with the Jesse Powell 45 immediately based on the lyrics, but I didn't want to post it up on here because I wasn't sure. But when you wrote that it was a mis-pressed Fire label 45 you had, I did a couple of more searches and came up with the mastering numbers being similar and it kind of "sealed the deal". As I wrote, it was too much of a coincidence. I don't have a huge collection like many people on here, but I do collect records heavily and have got somewhere between 8.000-10.000 soul/r&b/funk 45's in my personal collection. I also run a tiny record store so I'm surrounded by records at all times. Enjoying, researching, cataloging and documenting music has always been very close to my heart and luckily I have the privilege to work full-time with handling vinyl records. I'm really, really happy about that being a reality and not something I take for granted.