Good post Dave and good to have someone that was "in on the deal" at the time.....I got the album and never heard of the 45 until some years later, which is odd because we were mixing in the same social circles back in the early 90s (Bull Royston, Hemel, St Albans, Yarmouth etc.) - although in fairness there was a ton of stuff coming through.....and it was hard to keep up with everything coming in...
If I had a dollar for every singer who claims their record was bootlegged I'd be very rich moderately wealthy. We've had it with others like Mixed Emotions (another California record btw!) where the label owner was clearly as mad as a box of frogs claiming originals were bootlegs and his reissues were the real originals! Not saying that of Gene of course, just re-iterating that just because he tells someone it's a bootleg doesn't make it a bootleg.