Roburt

The Florida based outfit that also used the name Tropical Records was based out of two different places in the NE part of the State. One base was Ormond Beach which is on the Atlantic coast immediately north of Daytona Beach. When the label released the Bobby Williams 45 (see post #7) they were based out of Deland which is inland and about 40 kms from Ormond Beach. There is a bit of info on this TROPICAL RECORDS on the net ........ here's an extract (relevant bits) ....... ....... (some) TROPICAL RECORDS 45's 118: Charles Vickers -- Did You Have A Good Time / Every Day's Blue Monday 125: Charles Vickers -- Where Do The Teardrops Go / I'm Trying To Believe I'm Through (1967 release ?) 128: Country Church Singers -- Jesus Was A Helpful Man / And He Heard Me //Who Else Is Listening / Divine Guidance & Revelation 130: Bobby Williams & His Mar Kings -- Darling, Here Is My Heart / All The Time 136: True Heavenly Gospel Singers -- Nobody But You, Lord / Ain't It Sweet To Know 139: Charles Vickers -- No, No More Tears / Can't Get Anywhere With You // If I / Wondering, Wondering 140: Tammie Johns -- Soul Searching For My Baby / Soul Power (both wr. Sullivan-Sherman) 141: Mighty Willing Gospel Singers -- All The Way With Jesus / Have You Got Your Ticket 147: Roger Hamilton & Odds & Ends -- I'm A Mojo Man / Something's Wrong (c.'69) 153: Gospel Days -- I've Tried Jesus / Holdin' On By Faith 164: Charles Vickers -- That Little Honey Bee / Jim Lea -- You Can Light Another Candle (Chuck McCarthy) 167: Heavenly Trumpets -- I Want To Rest / O Not Enough Love 170: Sensational Spiritualaires -- Give Up The World / Son Of God 171: Charles Vickers -- Thunder Bay / Yes-es Of Yesterday 172: Charles Vickers -- Let There Be Another Tomorrow / Let's Go Back 172: Charles Vickers -- If The Hat Fits / You've Gotta Meet Your Partner ....... (some) TROPICAL RECORDS LP's 165: Charles Vickers -- The Charles Vickers Album Come On Down (Olga Wolkenstein) Over Too Soon (Gunther Woschank) If I ("Rebel" Fortini) I Don't Want To Dream An Impossible Dream (Gene Aloe) Witch Woman (Florence Trento-Gordon Florence) Did She Mention My Name? (Henry G. James) What More Can I Offer? (Albert McCauley) Half-Hearted (James Harmon-Henry Marcus) Raining Sorrow (Joseph Zavitsky-Helen Chaney) A Million Clowns (Jessie Munro) Twilight Lonely (Louis Petro-Bernard Reichman) Soul Searching For My Baby (Mike Sullivan-Don Sherman) ................................................................... 402: Charles Vickers -- Does Disco Baby, What's Gonna Happen Tonight? (Wanda & Wen Allen) Woman And Love (Theodore Stokes) Shut Your Mouth (Wanda & Wen Allen) Just To Get Her Out Of My Mind (Thelma Miller) Tryin' To Keep You Out Of My Mind (Lee Alison) Nightmare (Jim Kelly) Livin' In Paradise (Donnie Covington) Tug Of Love (Robert Bernasconi) Black Widow Spider (C.U. Smith) Disco Joggin' (Camille Beaulieu) Crazy Knockin' (Bernie Perry)* I Promised My Baby (Bernie Perry) There Can't Be A Dream Without A Dreamer (Cliff Huddleson & Stacey Stevens) .............................................................. 403: Charles Vickers -- Disco Pop For The 80's A Brand New Face (Edward Culver, R.C. Culver) I've Been A Fool (John Drogas) So Lonely (James Miliken) It's Significant (William Doane) True Love Can Never Go Wrong (Ted Nagle) You Are Mine (Wanda Allen, Wen Allen) Please Walk Away (Wanda Allen, Den Allen) Love Left Before I Woke (Larry Liljenquist) How Many Years 'Til April? (Vyrl Burghart) Gift Of Love (G.P. King) Home For Me Is Only Where You Are (Sonia Oliver) From The First Moment (Randy Braman) Nothing Will Keep Me From You (Lionel Beauchamp, Duane Hannigan) ALL ABOVE TAKEN FROM ......... https://www.songpoemmusic.com/labels/tropical.htm It makes sense that Charles Vickers cut for this Nth Florida label (& not the Miami based one) as he was born in Daytona Beach.

Found this post on youtube which dates back to October 2012 ........ My name is Wyzard Seay (jerry seay) I am Frankie's brother, I played bass on most of his recordings, along with my other brothers we were always there to support him,he was a trail blazer, lit me up and sent me on my way,... I am the bassist for the band Mother;s Finest,wrote a lot of the signature music for the band, played with Stevie Nicks and tons of other great artist, I will always remember the entertainment value he brought, he passed away this morning, I'm proud to be his brother-RIP, Wyz ............ this one as well (from the same time period) ............ I (Gerry Cole) played guitar with Frankie circa 1975/ 76 at the Wreck Bar in Castaways in N. Miami Beach. Those were the days! Party time baby! The band was called Frankie Seay and the Contact High. I was so naive, I thought it had something to do with the medicine Contac. lol I never heard this tune- we didn't do it. This sounds like mid to late 60's. In the middle of the gig, he had this schtick that he did. He would have like a chick sit on a chair, and he'd hold it with his teeth! No lie!

Yes, that's the extra info I provided John Ridley with a while back. I reported on Frankie's passing in post # 17 above. As that was over 2 years back now I don't fully recall where the info came from but it may have been reported in a local (Miami) newspaper at the time.

I'd go with this (an official repress) option as well. I believe that when Duke - Peacock was sold to ABC-Dunhill, in addition to all the rights, ABC also got all their master tapes. No doubt the master tape for the Malibus tracks were still in decent condition and included tracks of much higher quality than had actually made it onto the original version of the 45. It seems that ABC also got the master tapes to all the old unreleased recordings the Houston outfit had in their vaults. But these were probably all dumped when some 'smart' ABC exec decided to throw out the tapes of all the companies unissued stuff to 'free up' storage room space.

Boba chatted with Billy about his solo recordings just after 48 minutes into the interview ............ .... OF REAL INTEREST ......... Billy says he wrote "Mr. Shy" for Ruby Andrews. Ruby actually cut her version of the song (but it had a different title) !!! .

He (BM) hailed from the Chicago area though I know little else about him. "Mr. Shy" was a local radio hit in November 65. The Flash label was owned by Don Clay who was the manager of St. Lawrence Records in 1965. ......... info off the net ................ Billy's brother was George Mcgregor who recorded "Temptation Is Hard To Fight" for Twil/night ....... The B side of this 45 ("Everytime I Wake Up") featured both George & Billy on vocals. The 45 was reissued by Numero in the recent past ..... https://www.45cat.com/record/twi102

POST #18 ......... the Orig and the so called boot, both have different info on them the boot say`s a div of ABC/Dunhill Duke Records was not sold to ABC-Dunhill until May 73, so it seems strange that a 6 year old non-hit 45 would have been legally repressed by ABC in the US a long time after it had first escaped. Could possibly have been a special repress done to meet UK demand though ... OR ELSE .... a definite bootleg.

Seeing as facts are being disputed concerning another 45 just sold on this auction ...... ..... thought I'd add my twopenny worth .......... RE: Groovettes Think It Over Baby / Ain't A Thing You Can Do About It Philadelphia boy, Billy Jackson’s brief flirt with California Soul gave birth to one of the most-wanted .... Billy Jackson had nothing to do with this recording. It was Philly's Gene Dozier who had been using Billy's name since he had moved to Detroit a while earlier. This was Gene's first record session after relocating to the LA area.

Recorded at Arthur Smith's studio in Charlotte, NC. Smith was a C&W musician who had been writing hit songs since the mid 40's. He opened his studio in Charlotte in 1957. The likes of Pat Boone, Ronnie Milsap, Johnny Cash & loads of country artists cut there, however James Brown recorded "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" there in June 65. The fact that JB cut a big hit there probably led other soul singers (such as Pervis Lee) to use the studio. Think the Pervis Lee track dates from 69 and it was issued on a UK (maybe US) pressed 45 not too long back.

I know segregation was still fully in force in the Carolinas into the early to mid 60's and was only outlawed by federal statute (against local polititian's desires). So mixing of the races hardly ever took place until just prior to the mid 60's. Is that the reason why lots of Carolina based beach groups were all-white outfits if formed prior to say 1963 ? If so, it seems strange to me that soul music was the most preferred genre that they all played.

A Detroit newspaper article about 'lesser known' (to your general US listener) Motown songs ...... https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2014/10/23/motown-playlist/17705513/ Don't think any of them will be unknown to UK based Motown fans.

The Jerry Green on Woodward One could also have been the guy that was a member of the Contours from 1964 to 1967.

Donny singing "Wildflower" with Skylark ...... There are other, more soulful, versions of "Wildflower" out there but it doesn't take away from Donny and his original (hit) version.

The leader of Mavis's backing singer ensemble is usually Donny Gerrard. Donny had big hits when the lead vocalist for Skylark in the 70's and also solo hits on Rocket & Greedy from 1975 to 77. In the UK he is best remembered for his top MS cut "He's Always Somewhere Around" (Greedy: 1976). If he's over with Mavis on this upcoming trip, it would be good if someone could interview him about his own musical career whilst he's here.

Dave also stated ............ The LP track was licensed from Mr Wonderful records ......... Which seems to have been the case (judging by the tracks US label of release) and how come the track ended up on a release from the Edinburgh based label. I guess the US Mr. Wonderful 12" has never surfaced over here in any quantity. I'd put "Secret Admirer" up here but can't find it on youtube.

Dave Thorley said this on another thread ............. ... Just as an aside Jerry Green was from Louisville and a one time member of The Heartbreakers. Jerry ... has a night club in the city to this day and sings there himself weekly. I have started a new thread on Jerry as discussing his track & career wasn't really relevant on the other thread (about Tropical Records). The track that kicked off the discussion was included on the UK 12" LP 'Move Into Soul Vol. 6' This guy's work is covered on at least 3 different Discogs pages ....... https://www.discogs.com/Various-Move-Into-Soul-Part-6/release/3301622 https://www.discogs.com/artist/730121-Jerry-Green-3 https://www.discogs.com/Jerry-Green-Connect/release/1443785 His track "Secret Admirer" escaped in the US on the Wonderful Record label in 1985 and the 12" single's label stated 'from the forthcoming LP' but it didn't seem to be included on Jerry's LP that escaped in 1988. I guess the Jerry Green who had "I Finally Found The Love I Need" out on Detroit based Woodward One Records is a different guy. A picture of Jerry (& friends) at a show undertaken at the Breckinridge Inn in Louisville .........

A while back (couple of years ?) a Lou Ragland track was played on the show .... and B.M. gave a short bio on Lou's recording career ........ not a thing I EVER expected to hear on a mainstream BBC radio show.

Don't get me wrong, your statement was 100% correct, just that the Frank Seay link to this thread stands up (IMHO) but Jerry Green had no actual connection to Tropical Records or their record store.

The St. James Club, where Little Eddie Taylor used to perform back in the day (see post #5 above) was also in the same area as the old record store (post #34) ........... the club being on the corner of 36th St & 2nd Ave (which is just east of I-95 and just south of the Airport Expressway). No idea if any of the buildings on that corner today housed the club or if the club building has been demolished. For most of it's life, the Tropical Record Co. offices / base was out of the same building (as the record shop -- which was located on 7th Ave. adjacent to 50th St) . Wonder which studio they used to record their tracks ? Their building -- 4950 7th St -- looks quite deep but if they kept their old record stock at the back of it, then it doesn't seem likely that they had their own studio located there. The company address on the ad I used to open this thread appears to be 4900 7th Ave .... so either that was a mistake or they moved a few yards up the road quite quickly.

Yep, that was also on 'Move Into Soul 6' along with the Frank Seay cuts (& others) ...... ...... But Jerry Green wasn't from Florida & his track wasn't licensed from the same source (AND so has no real connection to this thread). Frank Seay was still Miami based & he had enjoyed earlier releases on Tropical. Incidentely, I used to assist Move Records with their stuff so have every release from the label. But as the mid 80's was a long time ago, I can no longer recall the full info on these tracks.

That record store was next to the corner of 50th Street just by the I-95 expressway. It's just north of where the I-95 connects to the Airport Expressway (the airport being just South West of the location). I wasn't too far away from it last Thursday as I drove into the rental car park at the airport to return our steed before flying home to the UK. I also used the I-95 road a lot during our stay but not that bit of it (which as already stated is a bit of a dodgy area).

Kegsy, you always told me that you discovered lots of top gear that went down well at niters !!

As implied by the group name (Page Three), this trio were all glamour models who tried for a singing career. Their track was produced & arranged by two ex-members of the Shadows. By all accounts they appeared on TotP on 25/8/1977 to plug this track (no doubt coz they were pleasing on the eye). The 45 was also released in Japan. Can't say I'm at all impressed with their vocals though the cut is quite danceable.

But who was this Al Wilson ?????? ..... The Soul City / Rocky Road / Playboy label guy confirmed it wasn't him when he played Cleggy.

A Baltimore TV show that the 'other' Tempests appeared on in 1967 ...... This outfit were (to the best of my knowledge) an 8 strong white ensemble who were around from 1962 to 1968. They gave up after that as club's found it cheaper to book 4 piece rock bands than this larger outfit. They didn't seem to land too many gigs in Baltimore's black clubs, though they did get a gig up in Ohio as support for the Impressions. Bit of a strange coincidence that both outfits cut tracks at Edgewood Studios in Washington.