Sebastian

Indeed, have never seen or heard of a version by Pic & Bill. By the way, I've got a Cresa Watson 45 that has got catalogue number CHARAY 90 but none of the sides on that one is in any of the discographies. And sadly her version of "Salvation" is not on it... Typical Major Bill Smith... Releasing records with the same catalogue number but with entirely different songs on them... Mine has got a nice version of "You're No Good" on it though (the Dee Dee Warwick/Betty Everett tune)!

That's definitely the Reuben Howell version. Out of the versions I've heard I personally prefer the one by Wilson Pickett:

There are ofcourse many $2000+ styluses that sound better than the Ortofon 2M series... but I did say decently priced option.

Here you go: https://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/356358-01.htm

And the superb LP-only "Call It Evil":

I'm after the one with "Dance A Go Go" on the flipside.

The 12" seems to go for $150-$200 these days.

If anyone has go the white demo of this release for sale, please let me know.

You might very well be right that it's more about how the stylus "ride" in the groove. I'm not 100% sure about the EQ thing, I've just read that the "EQ curve" in the 2M stylus series tries to bring out the most of the record without reproducing background noise. Indeed, the Wild Honey 45 is on vinyl. I couldn't find a poor sounding styrene record immediately, so I just took another one that I knew sounds bad with most styluses to illustrate my point.

Slight styrene noise that doesn't affect the entire frequency range can be EQed out. That's what the Ortofon 2M series does. I guess that the EQ curve is set to omit/dampen the frequencies where vinyl noise "usually" can be found. I've gotten rid of my bad sounding styrene records so couldn't make a perfect A/B test for you, but just to illustrate what I mean I've recorded the exact same 10 second part of a notoriously bad sounding record (Wild Honey's "I Can't Go On") using first the popular Shure WhiteLabel stylus and then with the Ortofon 2M Blue (both styluses are fresh by the way). The section sounds awful with the Shure stylus, but at least decent (and with more clarity) with the Ortofon stylus. Have a listen below. SHURE WHITELABEL: https://www.shingalin...ewhitelabel.mp3 ORTOFON 2M BLUE: https://www.shingalin...tofon2mblue.mp3 There are ofcourse other styluses out there that have a better and more nuanced EQ curve, but the 2M series (especially the Blue one) is a decently priced option.

It doesn't "rescue" the record, but for home enjoyment: invest in the new Ortofon 2M stylus (blue, bronze or black editions - not the red one!). They've done a really good job with the inbuilt frequency curve on that one, it minimizes and sometimes entirely omits styrene noise from being reproduced.

A superb tune, but surely a stone cold classic already? Was reissued on a very high profile CD (in both the US and UK) a couple of years ago so a well know tune to thousands of people.

"Finally Waking Up" is an amazing uptempo 60s dancer in my opinion. It might not be as rare as their HEM disc but it very seldom turns up for sale. Actually, in my experience there comes along at least 5 copies of their HEM 45 for every copy of the NINANDY 45!

A better version of what? Both the David Morris and Forris Woods 45s utilises the exact same version of "Stoned On Love". Different flipsides though. Is there another version as well?

$21.60: https://www.gemm.com/item/OTIS--BUSH--AND--CRUSADERS/SO--MUCH--LOVE/GML289401825/ $31.23: https://www.gemm.com/item/OTIS--BUSH/SO--MUCH--LOVE/GML189924114/

"Shake Your Mini" did come out on SHOWTIME 111, but "Heartbreaker" is UK/Germany only.

Haven't really been looking for it, but it's mentioned in the ABC discography: Isaac Hayes Movement - Disco Connection / St. Thomas Square - ABC 12171 And there are some label scans on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1310817 https://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1950291

Definitely check out Matt's night if you're in town. I had a blast and can't think of a better way to spend a wednesday night in NYC!

Nice unique danish picture sleeve for it:

Write some insane amount (1000 for example) in the box on your "shopping cart" page where you specify how many copies you want to buy, when you click "Update Qty" the next page will state "You requested 1000 items, but only xx were available". I once did this with Parliaments "Don't Be Sore At Me" because I could use a couple of copies... I put 300 in the amount box and I didn't get a warning message. It turned out he had 327 copies in stock! He's now down to only 80... Edit: Tommy beat me to it.

Indeed. Craig Moerer alone has got 21 M- copies on his site. Priced too expensive in my opinion at $35 each (£22), but at least it's instantly available to anyone who might be intersted: https://www.recordsbymail.com/search.php?keywords=86429

The 12" issue has got a 3:56 instrumental of "Let Me Love You" on the b-side. The a-side on the 12" is the extended 5:46 vocal.

Well, there you go! Didn't know they had cut two tunes with that name. Just found a clip of the BMN track and indeed, a very different tune.

Four Tops - Catfish / Look At My Baby - ABC 4143 (released 1976)

No, the records still sound like crap but high frequency hearing (treble) is one the first things that goes out the window when drinking alcohol. Most hiss, clicks and pops are in the upper/treble region of the frequency scale (5-20 kHz) hence they don't annoy you as much after drinking a couple of beers. I guess that's where "ok to dj with" comes from...