Roburt

Might be out of the same bag as Jerri / Jerry Jones ..... OR ..... ...... involved with the 'Jewel Box Review ' ......... https://worldofwonder.net/2010/01/08/The_Jewel_Box_Revue/

Nacio Brown Jr. who owned / ran Rona Records was the son of the famous songwriter Nacio Brown. His father's songs were cut by everybody up to the 60's / 70's and no doubt it was his upbringing at his father's side that got him interested in the music / recording biz. 45's released on Rona ............ https://www.globaldogproductions.info/r/rona.html The Kenny O'Dell 45 is the one missing from the listing (#1008).

................ INFO OFF THE NET on young R&Rer Nancy Claire (who had 45's out on Rona) .... One night in 1961 Claire and the Frantics were down at Tacoma's Crescent Ballroom (S 13th Street and S Fawcett Avenue) supporting a teen singer who had come up from Los Angeles to play some local teen-dances to promote his new single. Time has clouded memories of who exactly that singer may have been, but it was either a young man named Kenny O'Dell (who had worked with Arizona's rock-guitar star, Duane Eddy), or another billed as "Shane." The case for O'Dell includes the fact that he would later record a 45 single for the same record company that Claire soon would. Regardless of which singer it was, his manager heard Claire that night and encouraged her to cut a demo and forward it to him to maybe score her own record deal. Toward that end, Claire enlisted her pals the Exotics and together they recorded a few songs at their rehearsal basement and that tape was mailed off to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, on New Year's Eve 1961 she and the Frantics (along with Seattle's Counts) played a dance at Seattle's funky after-hours R&B mecca, the Birdland (2203 E Madison Street), "And that was so strange," she marveled, "because I had never been into an all-black nightclub before!" (Blecha, 1985). That same night she met University of Washington freshman, Larry Coryell -- who had just moved to town from Richland, and joined on as guitarist with another local band, the Dynamics. She mentioned that the Frantics were moving on to nightclub work and he invited her to audition with his band. Thus began her relationship with another of that decade's top Seattle bands. ...... Claire struck up a fine friendship with the Checkers' blind keyboardist, Mike Mandel, whom she often drove home after their gigs. En route they occasionally took detours: "I always wanted to go to these afterhours clubs," which she was legally too young to attend, "and I'd lead him to these places -- which if my parents had known at the time where they were -- [in the largely African American neighborhoods] ... oh! But they were so much fun! The Birdland [2203 E Madison]! The Black and Tan [404½ 12th Avenue S]! The House of Entertainment [204 Occidental S]! [Nightclubs] where all these real neat people would jam and play jazz. Well, I used to really feel lucky getting to chauffeur Mandel around" (Blecha, 1985). But before long the Checkers were signed to embark on a road tour backing the national teen-star Bobby Vee, along with the Ventures & Little Bill. Poor young Claire, still in high school, was only allowed do the tour's first date at the nearby Shadow Lake Resort. But that's right about when she finally heard back from Hollywood bigwig Nacio Brown Jr. (1928?-2002) -- the owner of the fledgling Rona Records label. He had heard her demo tape and sent her airplane fare to fly down and record four songs. Brown produced the sessions, with another seasoned pro, Perry Botkin Jr. (b. 1933), conducting the orchestra. Yes, an "orchestra." It was a far cry from the raucous rock 'n' roll bands Claire was accustomed to, but it seems the music biz machine intended to mold her into another saccharine teen-idol like Annette "Tall Paul" Funicello (1942-2013) or Shelly "Johnny Angel" Fabares (b. 1944). Still, it was quite an experience for the rural farm girl to suddenly be in the presence of big-time players. "I had never been in studio before and I was like a little girl in a candy store with all these musicians I had heard about. I have great memories of meeting [guitar master] Barney Kessel [1923-2004] and some of the other musicians at the session" (Blecha, 1987). "We had really big-name jazz people doing this record. I couldn't believe it! Earl Palmer [1924-2008] was the drummer. Carmel Jones [1936-1996] played trumpet, and Plas Johnson [b. 1931] played saxophone. Oh, it was neat! To get to see and meet everybody ... it was like a fairy tale" (Blecha, 1985). So Claire was handed the lyrics to a pop song titled "Jimmy," but "I had gone steady with a Jimmy for a year, and we broke up" Claire laughed. "So when I got the tune I said 'Ohhhh! I really don't want to do a song called "Jimmy."' And so they changed the name to 'Danny'" (Blecha, 1987). Thus, the "Danny" / "Y-E-S" single (Rona Records No. 1007) was released and she was immediately booked on a brief tour (to gigs in Los Angeles, Bakersfield, San Francisco, and other spots) -- along with some other striving stars (Jan and Dean, Timi Yuro [1940-2004], and Johnny Burnette [1934-1964]) to promote their records. That's when "Danny" began winning airplay at stations from Los Angeles, to Chicago, to Hawaii, to Idaho, and back home in the Northwest where it scored on KOL (No. 1), KAYO (No. 1) and KJR (No. 5). Yet Claire had mixed feelings upon hearing it for the first time on the radio: "I was excited. It was an accomplishment. But, it was out of my bag -- I'd been doing rhythm & blues and to turn around and do something like that ... I wished I could have done more Northwest blues like I was used to doing" (Blecha 1987). Still, "Danny" received an impressive Four Star rating in Billboard magazine and one of the giant labels, Warner Brothers, was apparently convinced enough to step in and license it from Rona for rerelease on their own label (No. 5298). But even as the single's momentum stalled out, Rona forged ahead with a follow-up 45, "Little Baby" / "Cheatin' On Me" (Rona 1009), alas with even less luck.

I'd guess that Bob Kuban's "The Cheater" would qualify as well. Massive in the clubs in the UK as well at the time.

Did some checking and it seems that these two singers appearing on the 'Allen Ludden's Gallery' TV show seems right & appropriate. H B Barnum produced their 'Mothers & Snarf' tracks AND who led the resident band on Alan Ludden's show .......... .............. right, it was H B Barnum !!!!

In addition to US hits that cost little to record, there were lots of 'overseas' hits that sold well without really breakin through in the US. In the soul field there was Felice Taylor & the Showstoppers which were hits in the UK. ALSO tracks such as "Shotgun Wedding" were big hits in lots of countries and must also qualify.

Sonny Childe was a UK based Yank (ex military I think). He did loads of club dates in the UK in the 60's, fronting the TNT. Moved back to the US around 69 / 70, changed his name to R B Greaves and had a few big hits. His Polydor stuff was produced by Claire Francis who seemed to work almost exclusively for Polydor back then (she cut loads of acts for Polydor).

Some info on Round Robin on the 'Mothers Records & Snarf' thread.

I went to see the Ric-Tic Revue package a few days later at the Ritz, Manchester. Almost the whole entourage put on a good show there. I recall Lou Ragland being up on stage (with guitar) for most of the show. Seems that he was leading / organising the backing musicians by then (he used to hold a similar position as the O'Jays band leader back in the day). Only performance that was a bit underwhelming was by Al Kent, I also got 'backstage' to chat with the artists and the atmosphere back in that room was quite electric. Got loads of goodly photos that day, both backstage & of the show itself. The stairs at either side of the Ritz stage were still there then, so I plonked myself halfway up the staircase to the right hand side of the stage & it was a great location to get good photos from.

A North Carolina show back in the day .............

Best leave your shoes off during this hot weather ...........

U Von was Don Covay's label and it was operating in 1977. At that time, I believe that he was based in New York, so I guess that makes the group a New York outfit. But more than that I don't know.

Heck I do look fine in that picture up above ....... thinks Gloria .......

By 1970, Spanky was knocking them dead at the LA Playboy Club (though strangely it would later be label mate Sharon Cash who would be signed to their record label). In 1980, she was still the darling of the local LA club scene;. By then she was wowing audiences (along with O C Smith) at the Memory Lane Supper Club. A 1970 newspaper piece on Spanky and her recent (back then) achievements .........

By June 1969, Spanky Wilson was appearing on top rated US TV shows (see TV review below) ........ By that time, she had already been into Paramount Studios (with HB) to cut her first tracks for 'Mothers'.

Spanky Wilson was born in Philly but brought up in Pittsburgh. She hit it big as a singer after moving to LA. She started playing live gigs around the town and one venue she appeared at was Shelly's Manne-Hole. That first night she was just the featured vocalist with the Jimmy Smith Trio (May 67). However, her impact on the local jazz scene was so great that by March 69 she was starring at the club in her own right. By 1973, her profile on the US jazz scene was so strong that she was one of the nominated artists in Ebony Magazine for Female Jazz Singer of the Year. She had a decent CD out from Ace.

Another favoured Gene Diamond track ............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjzITnFcK3w

A link to the Teri Thornton track on the other thread .............. it's about 2/3rds of the way down the page ..........

Just noticed that there's an old thread on the label (from 2011) but it turned up little additional info on the enterprise.

A Gene Diamond 'Mothers' track that seems quite familiar !!!! Wonder if perhaps HB had cut it earlier on a group (perhaps from Ohio) ....

.......... INFO OFF THE NET ............... Round Robin was a Los Angeles-based singer who got his start in the early 60’s with the regional hit ‘Do the Slauson’, and was for a time (thanks to a lot of exposure on the Lloyd Thaxton TV show*) something of a West Coast, dance-craze Chubby Checker. In fact, so popular was ‘The Slauson’ that he devoted sides of his first three 45s to the ‘Slauson’ (a street in LA) -- ‘Slauson Shuffle Time’, ‘Slauson Party’ and ‘Do the Slauson’. He recorded more than a dozen 45s between 1963 and 1975, running the gamut from R&B/twist party. His only Capitol 45 featured "The Vulture". The record has a deceptively slow, spoken opening before Round Robin drops in with a loud, overwrought and vaguely out of tune shout of ‘The Vulture’ and the tune hits a solid four on the floor dancers beat, with just enough vibes and baritone sax in the background. All this in addition to the fact that the record was produced by the mighty David Axelrod. ........ LLoyd Thaxton was a major LA-based TV and radio personality, whose dance party show was syndicated for a time in the 60s. Round Robin apparently released a couple of albums for Thaxton, so the chances are that there are in fact even more ‘Slauson’ tunes. Interestingly enough, Bob & Earl reportedly looked to ‘Slauson Shuffle Time’ for inspiration when they whipped up the mighty ‘Harlem Shuffle’. ........ MORE OFF THE NET ........... I played bass for Round Robin for several years from 1969 through 1975. He was a really good guy. We traveled from L.A. to Miami, to Chicago, New York, Texas, Colorado & all stops in between. We had a kick butt band with two guitars, Larry Green, who played & sang great, from Fort &Worth, and Dub Craft from L.A. who we called Zero. For a while, we even had two drummers. One of the drummers was Ollie Lamey who later resided in Las Vegas. The other drummer was from Cuba, and played conga drums when he wasn’t needed on the trap set. On sax was Arnold Barry, we called him Stunigan, and he hailed from New York City. He was a good singer, too. We also had a trumpet player, his name escapes me, and a trombone player, Rex White from Florida. We played James Brown, Chicago type music and everything funky from the times. The house was always packed no matter where we were. Robin wound up in Dallas building huge, wonderful, custom homes in the Plano area and then I lost track of him. Dallas seemed to be his home base as his act was truly loved there. Robin was kind and always tried to keep every band member happy, which is a very hard thing to do. Robin was very funny during the shows we performed, he danced light on his feet and belted out tunes with his soul. Thanks, Ray Brown; bass player, Round Robin (wonder how he got his name !?!) appearing on the Lloyd Thaxton TV show ........

Sharon got to appear on a few TV shows back then. She appeared on 'Allen Ludden's Gallery' TV show in August 69 (Spanky Wilson had also on the show 6 weeks earlier). In November 1970, she was featured on the 'Rosey Grier Show' (his series was on US TV for over a year). I wonder if clips from either show have survived ? A Sharon Cash 'Mothers' LP track ..........

Spanky Wilson ............ ....... AND LIVE .............

Little Gary Ferguson on 'the Beat'. His performances on the show were seen across the US in 1966 .............. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWL2tdNfQ6A ... AND on 'Mothers' .............

This label, which was owned by a Jay Ward & based in LA, sprung into life in 1967, burnt bright for some months and then disappeared in 1970. All its releases were credited to Jay Ward Productions but I don't believe that Jay was very 'hands-on' in the studio. H B Barnum seemed to be the guy who guided the artists through the recording process, though the label's output didn't really enjoy great commercial sales levels back then. The mix of artists signed to the label was all over the place. Jazz singer Teri Thornton had the first single to come out on 'Mothers' and her outing has fans on here. The B side of her 45 was just recently posted up on another thread (Soul Source Record Club). Round Robin (Lloyd) had been around a while in recording terms also. He had cut for Domain in the mid 60's and had appeared on the Lloyd Thaxton TV show. Round Robin's "Kick That Little Foot Sally Ann" had been a hit with UK mods in the mid 60's. His later outings on Stax's Truth label (the Round Robin Monopoly) have also garnered many fans down the years. Little Gary Ferguson was (if my memory ain't playing tricks) originally from the south (Dallas, Texas) and he first cut there for Red Bean Records. He really sprang to fame after he moved to the Nashville area. Back then, he was just 6 years old and seemed to be marketed as a rival to 'Little' Stevie Wonder (though he based his stage act around James Brown tunes). Another of his top live performance songs back then was "Midnight Hour". Gary made a few appearances on 'the Beat' TV show in 1966 and as these have survived, lots of soul fans now know of this kid's high profile back then. After his spell in Nashville, he headed out to LA to perform and was signed eventually to 'Mothers'. After his stint with 'Mothers', he was signed to (Ike & Tina's) Pompeii Records and the NS biggie "There's A Gift" was released. Gene Diamond I know little about other than that he cut other stuff for TAG ("I'm Only A Man") and his 'Mothers' 45 featured a Frank Wilson (of Motown fame) song. He also seemed to have powerful friends (Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis Jr, etc) when it came to political issues. Via Mothers & Snarf, he put out a campaign single supporting local Major Bradley. In February 1970, the LA Times reported on a live club appearance he had done. Their reporter thought that Gene had possibilities but still seemed to be searching for his own sound. Jazz lady Spanky Wilson had the most releases on the label and she would go onto bigger things via her Eastbound / Westbound Records releases in the mid 70's. Sharon Cash made her start with 'Mothers' towards the end of the label's life. She then cut for Playboy Records before becoming a member of the Honeycones (Hot Wax) in the mid 70's. Michael 'Love'Smith worked with her at Hot Wax. A partial run-down on the labels releases can be found here ........ https://www.discogs.com/label/Mothers+Records+%26+The+Snarf+Company