Roburt

Steve, I'm told that the lead vocals on the "Go On & Find Your Star" track DO SOUND like it's Sam Dees singing. Can you confirm this ...... and does it sound like Sam's voice on the other track credited to Dee Ervin ("Hollywood Faces" or "Fire Sign" I think) ?

It seems that no 'movie soundtrack album' was ever released .. probably coz the film itself 'crashed & burnt' at the time (all the reviews say it stinks!). It seems it quickly made it onto video but even those seem hard to find these days.

1974 GRC (Atlanta) recorded Blaxplotation movie soundtrack story -- Back in 1974, the GRC studio people oversaw the recording of a score for the Blaxplotation film -- 'Black Starlet' aka 'Black Guantlet'. The movie score was cut at GRC's Sound Pit Studios in Atlanta around November 1974. GRC artists worked on the songs for the film; Joe Hinton & Dee Erwin (?) writing 4 songs especially for the soundtrack. These 4 songs were put out on a promo vinyl EP sent to some radio stations and film reviewers at the time. It seems this EP is quite (very ?) rare. Louvain Demps (ex of the Andantes) worked on the project as a backing singer on the songs & musical interludes. The songs that escaped on the promotional EP were "Up Is Down", "Hollywood Faces", "Fire Sign" & "Go on and Find Your Star", all written by Joe Hinton & Dee Ervin (?). It seems that those two were credited with having handled most lead vocal duties (or perhaps Sam Dees did the tracks credited as being by Dee Erwin). The main person Louvain worked with in the studio on the project was Sam Dees. She says he wrote some of the tunes for the score and he sang lead vocals on those songs on the soundtrack !?! I asked Louvain what she could remember about her input to the 'Black Starlet' movie soundtrack project ....... She confirmed that she did work on the songs for the movie soundtrack with Joe (Hinton) and Sam (Dees). She says .... "At GRC, I met Sam Dees for the 1st time, I already knew Joe from Motown. On all the songs with background vocals, those vocals were done by The Richard Law Singers, who I was part of. Sadly I don't have copies of the songs. Both Joe and Sam sang lead on their songs..... they also were the writers. Joe decided on the style the background singers were to approach the songs in. Working with Sam and Joe was wonderful, they knew what and how they wanted things to go (soundwise). If the movie had been as good as the music, I'm sure it would have been a "smash", as we Motowners used to say long time ago". She didn't make mention of Dee Erwin at all, though I mentioned him a few times in my message to her. So, I can only conclude that he was the 'up-stairs' management guy for the project & that he did little 'hands-on' studio work during the execution of the project. So it seems that Joe Hinton and Sam Dees had the main creative input on the project, I just wish I could work out which songs Sam sang lead on & which he actually wrote ..... AND ... if any of those cuts appeared on the Movie Soundtrack EP. I'd be interested to hear any of the tracks cut for the movie; I know "Go on and Find Your Star" has been played by at least one US based soul DJ in recent times (so it should be a half decent track). Anyone got a copy of this 'limited press promo' Blaxplotation movie EP put out in late 1974 / early 75 ?? Anyone got a video (or DVD ?) copy of the film ? (I know it was put out on video under both titles).

Been chatting with Keny Hamber. His 1st record was cut in a Baltimore radio studio (WSID) and released by a DJ from the station (on his own label). Kenny tells me that at the time he was performing live shows with a local group (the Enchanters) and they had their own backing band. The DJ, Sparky Evans, hosted a talent show 'on air' on Saturday mornings. So, as Kenny was acting as an unpaid 'go-fer' at the radio stn back then (he was still a young teenager), he knew Sparky Evans well. So he got his group & their band together and they all went down to WSID one Saturday morning. Kenny & his guys duly performed on the show. Sparky (who didn't know that Kenny sang) was blown away. On the spot, he told Kenny to repeat his performance in the studio & recorded the results there & then (just one take was cut of two songs). UNFORTUNATELY, Kenny was too young to get interested in how the tracks were actually cut (but they probably used record cutting lathes that the radio stn had back then). Anyway, a few weeks later a 45 of the song "Tears In My Eyes" escaped on a 45 on Sparky's Spar Record label (the quality of their performance & the actual recordings were poor due to the facilities at the radio stn). BUT,... Kenny recalls (when he was acting as a 'go-fer' at WSID) being asked to fetch & carry lots of 16" acetate discs. These contained recordings of the big local sports teams old match commentaries and they were played for a while on the stn after each big game. The radio stn copied the 'live commentaries' straight onto acetates as they went out live & then played them back afterwards off those acetates. So it seems likely that Kenny & his group's first ever recordings were cut onto one of the stn's stock of 16" acetates and this then used to make the resulting Spar 45's.

Didn't she sing the duet part with him on his Boardwalk version of "She's Got the Papers" ??

YES ....... I have quite a few decent 'spares' framed up & hanging on my record room (& living room) walls. ....... MY BIGGEST FAILING ........ is getting white cardboard 45 sleeves signed by every soul artist I have met over the last 20 years or so (which number many). Lots of times, I have to get them to sign the sleeve to a 'prized item'. These then go in special boxes (so the sleeves don't get dished). This usually means I never play the actual 45's involved ever again .... DOOHH. Luckily I have spares of at least 2 Bettye Swann 45's & so will get the sleeves to those signed in a few days & file those away in the special box section of my collection. Many moons ago (10 years+) I organised a charity raffle for Curtis Mayfield, which Ady let me run at a Cleggy Weekender. I framed up loads of things as raffle prizes (some soul 45's, a test pressing UK Columbia LP,some original posters etc) and those items certainly seemed to go down well with the people who won them in the raffle. So expect a few of those will still be hanging on walls somewhere in the UK.

Richard 'Dimples' Fields had a weird career. Born in 1942, he was singing professionally by the 60's. He landed record deals & had singles out on Cordon and Vance whilst buying & running a SanFran night club. He gathered good musicians around him and made a decent career playing live gigs (though most say he didn't possess a great voice or much stage presence -- guess if you own the club, you're gonna have yourself on as the resident singer). In the 70's he started up his own label and cut himself and people in his circle (Clydene Jackson). BUT the label was very badly distributed (guess many copies of 'Dat Richfield Kat' releases were sold in his club after shows). He wrote some decent songs but they never got heard by many record buyers due to his label's very low profile. THEN, via a friend, he got signed to Boardwalk Records, re-cut some of his earlier songs (+ covers he sang in his live show) AND started having hits as he approached 40 yrs old. In the end he had a dozen national hit 45's between 1981 and 1991 plus some good selling albums. YET .... if you research his career there's very little in detail about his pre-1981 activities and bio's on him can't even agree where he was born !!! MOST STRANGE ......... it can be hard researching a guy who just had one / two obscure 45 releases that eventually went on to find favour with NS-ers BUT you expect the full career of a guy who had 12 big hits to be well documented !! Is there even a full label discography for 'Dat Richfield Kat' record label ??

Swamp Dogg (Jerry Williams) tells me that he's a good way through writing his life story (bet that's very interesting). He says the book should be finished by the beginning of next year, so that's another one to buy.

The two posts above have a common link ............. Geraldine Hunt was signed up (managed?) by Bob Catron. Bob worked for & ran a number of labels, one of those he worked for was Witch. On Witch, he had the Versalettes recording under his supervision. After the label was shut down, they licensed a couple of later (Detroit cut) Versalettes tracks to Okeh ...... ..... but they called the group the Little Foxes for the purposes of their Okeh 45. So it seems that Bob Catron cultivated strong Chicago / Detroit links.

Going off tack a bit ..... but still acetate related .......... Back in the 50's / early 60's some disc recording lathes had 16" turntables. For use on these machines, 16" diameter acetates were made and used. These probably fell out of use just about everywhere by around 62/63. But as some folk on here are into doo-wop, blues and early R&B, I was wondering if anyone has a cut on a 16" acetate ?? Many radio stations had / used disc recording lathes in the 1950’s. These were soon replaced by tape recorders but the old lathes were still used for recording commercials. Audio stuff received from advertising agencies soon changed over to magnetic pre-recorded tapes but the radio station engineers still dubbed much of the content onto 16” transcription discs for play on the air. These transcription discs were known as 'instantaneous recording discs' (acetates). They were made from aluminium blanks that were coated with cellulose nitrate lacquer. The coating on the discs was a complicated brew of lacquer, plasticizers, dyes, lubricants, and other things but actual acetate wasn't used. They were termed 'instantaneous recording discs' at the radio stns because they would be used 'on air' immediately after the recording process had been completed. Back in the 1950's / early 60's loads of black music was cut onto such discs using these radio station based machines and the resulting tracks hawked around by the singers in order to land a 'proper' record deal. That's why many early 60's black acts had a radio DJ as their early manager, because those DJ's had made it possible for them to make a 'first record'. So a good few early 60's pre-soul tracks will have existed on such acetates. Anyone got one ? ........ Disc cutting lathes in use at a US radio station ..........

Moving on then ......... this time to Geraldine Hunt. She was born in St Louis but her family moved to a (very rough) part of Chicago when she was still young. She started singing early and was 'discovered' in the early 60's. She had 45's out on labels with Chicago connections but worked with people from Detroit (Mike Hanks, etc). She had releases on Katron (picked up by Checker), USA and Bombay, Mike Hanks being involved with cuts she had out on all those labels. Summer 66 and Bob Catron got her signed to ABC with Johnny Pate producing her for the company. She cut a duet with Charlie Hodges that charted for Calla in 1970. More 45's followed, many on Roulette. In the mid 70's, she moved to Canada and ended up having big disco hits into the 80's. So which (if any) of her early tracks count as DETROIT ?? Two fine (one 60's / one 70's) Chicago linked outings ............

The "As You Can See" cut ........... then tuvaside as well ........

Label scan of the other side of the 45 ..............

The Johnny Robinson who cut for Okeh recorded "Gone But Not Forgotten" (& "I Need Your Love So Bad") with Mike Terry producing ...... ... Guess it was a 'Detroit recording' then. His 'Memphis High' Epic album (cut in Memphis with Willie Mitchell) would be a good candidate for CD reissue in my book.

I like my vinyl as much as the next man ..... but I think I'll buy the CD version of one new release ........ Z Records have just put out a double album -- 'Overdose of the Holy Ghost'. This features a selection of great modern gospel cuts (I believe just 10 tracks spread out over 4 sides of vinyl). HOWEVER....... the double CD version features 24 tracks and is about half the price of the vinyl version. The Dan Greer track on the album ............ With the upturn in interest in old and newer gospel dancers, will we have to add NG, MG to the NS, MS tags in the near future ??

The news article says Bob B was working on tracks by Johnny Robinson back then. Johnny Robinson had a 45 out on Mercury in 1965; a 2 part song "I Gotta Kick The Habit" (I don't know who produced that). However, the teaming with Bob Bateman doesn't seem to have been successful as no Johnny Robinson 45's escaped on Mercury in 1966. There was a Johnny Robinson recording around then. That Johnny Robinson went on to have deals with Okeh & Epic but was recording (for Strike) as just Johnny R' around 1966. ..... see .......... https://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/R/johnny_robinson/index.php

Real singers, real musicians, good songs sung with emotion ......... it'll never catch on !!!

You just need to go to the 'Soul Video Audio Radio' section and click onto a 'Divine Gospel Show' thread ......... Greg posts up a link to his gospel shows on there (he puts them up on Mixcloud).

Well Capitol certainly believed in them back in 1967 ......... a trade ad (full page) they put out ........

Not according to Mercury Records press briefings given at the very end of 1965 & reported by the likes of Billboard. See below ......... ........ seems Mercury were takin loads of outside guys on at that time; Curtis Mayfield, Major Lance, Chip Taylor, Shadow Morton, Dave Bartholomew, Jerry Ross, Ted Cooper, Carl Spencer, Pac 4, Major Bill Smith & Bob Bateman .............

We could do with a 'new' decent Mag Men compilation CD .......... Collectables put a CD on the group out in the US about 20 years back ..... ..... BUT we need a decent one put together by a real soul fan. Where's Ian Dewhirst or Ady when you need them ????

A short piece on Bob Bateman & his biggest song at Motown ......... https://www.alexandermagazine.com/recordingeq/weeklytip/06tip03-3b_new.asp I know Bateman was working for Mercury in 1965/66, probably in New York (or maybe Chicago) ? So how come he came to end up working in New York and no longer being a part of the Motown team ..... ....... was he 'sidelined' there & thought he could do better working 'independently' ?

Will this do instead .............. ....... OR THIS ........... ......... OR EVEN THIS ...........

An ad from back in the day ............