Roburt

MORE on Jim 'Hobie' Stanton -- the engineer (& probably producer) of many of the United Records soul tracks .............. In the 1940s, Hobe Stanton of Johnson City (Tennessee) pioneered some of the earliest recordings of what today are recognized as "bluegrass" recordings. Jim Hobart (Hobe) Stanton was a distributor who installed records in local jukeboxes in 1946. His ear for music and knowledge of local tastes helped him earn more by producing records himself. Much as Victor Records' Ralph Peer had done in 1927-1928, Stanton sought local talent, finding as much as he needed. His initial investment was minimal. Performers were eager to record, and regional radio stations had studios and equipment available for making master recordings on acetate discs (tape mastering was still a few years in the future). Prominent among those stations was WOPI in Bristol, Va. but other artists were cut at WWNC (Asheville, N. C.) and WWVA (Wheeling, W.Va). Masters were processed and records were pressed at Palda Records in Philadelphia, another independent producer. Payments to artists were minimal, but most were glad simply to be on record. A few even paid Stanton for the privilege. Several addresses for his Rich-R'-Tone Records appeared in contemporary trade journals: Rich-R'-Tone Record Co., 113 W. Main Street, Johnson City, Tennessee (January 1949); Rich-R'-Tone and Acme Record Record Co., Inc., Campbellsville, Ky., (August 1952); Rich-R'-Tone Record Co., 407 W. Main St., Morristown, Tenn., (December 1953). I have no idea when Jim relocated to Nashville, no doubt that info can be found on some C&W site on the internet. He seemed to open his own studio (Champ Sound Studios) around the mid 1970's.

Mike Johnson terms himself as Country Music's No. 1 'Black' Yodeler. Born in DC to parents who came from SC, he's been singing C&W songs since the mid 60's (he was always a big 'cowboy' fan). After cutting some earlier songs in Nashville, he eventually met up with Jim Stanton in 1983 & started recording at Champ Recording Studio on Church Street. Jim mentored Mile who continued to record his songs at Champ Studio until Jim Stanton's untimely death in 1989. Mike says "Jim taught me how the Nashville clique thought and worked..." So it seems that Jim Staton's heart was more into C&W than soul or gospel but he cut the later music styles to keep his studio busy.

This youtube clip of Zoot Money's Big Roll Band doing the song says that Percy Mayfield did the 1st version in 1960 ... Zoot first cut a version of this back in 1966 >> Zoot Money's Big Roll Band "Ž— 'Were You There? Live 1966'

Herbert Hunter (1962) ........

Ray Charles ..................

Just looked and the Linzy Washington 45 was also engineered by Jim Stanton; so I guess he was responsible for most of the initial 4/5 soul singles released on the label. Is the "Sitting In The Park" that was released on the label a cover of the old Billy Stewart song ?

The engineer on the Black Exotics 45 was Jim Stanton as well; so guess both thIs & the United Sounds were cut in Nashville; probably at his Champ Sound Studios. With regard to it sounding earlier than 1975 ....... most stuff that Jim Staton did was gospel tracks (+ country tracks I am led to believe -- stuff that came out on Rich-R-Tone Records). Most gospel acts in the 70's & 80's were going for a retro sound; so a male gospel quartet in 1973 would have been aiming to sound more like the late 60's Four Tops or O'Jays than to copy the current tracks those groups were recording. With most of his work having a retro sound, perhaps both these groups wanted a similar retro sound when they worked with him (or maybe that's the type of sound he always aimed for).

We discussed this guy's output on the "Boogaloo Investigator" thread.

If you plan to visit New York next year, be sure not to miss this Broadway show .............

YEP, been 'biggin' you up for too long. It's time to cut you down to size !!

Well the engineer on this 45 track was Jim Stanton. That must be the same Jim Stanton that ran Champ Records and Champ Sound Studio (of 1705 Church St. Nashville). Don't think the studio itself was up & running untill sometime into the 70's, but Staton was known as a producer & engineer on country, blues & gospel tracks before that. He produced / engineered loads of gospel tracks in the 1970's, most being custom recordings commisioned by the group / singer or their manager. Maybe this was a 'one off' session for this group that he was paid to work on (maybe he produced the track as well, no producer being credited on the label). Some of the gospel sessions he worked on resulted in releases on the Champ label itself in the 70's, but many escaped on other labels such as HSE. He produced / engineered this track on the Speight Sisters that was released on HSE .............

Kegsy has always looked shady to me .... even in strong sunlight !!!

I've probably already got it on a UK issue. No idea where to start looking to check though. I'll have to find the time to sort everything into some sort of order in my record boxes. I spend way more time looking for some 45's than actually playing em.

National & Regional Breakouts on this list .......

If you were a 13 year old kid, running a makeshift radio station out of your bedroom on 'Mickey Mouse' equipment, you must have been blown away when you saw this record company ad placed in Billboard ........... I bet Walt(er) was the 'big' guy in school all that year !!!

Some of these tracks now making it as Regional Breakouts had started out as local radio stn DJ tips (see earlier posts on this thread) ...

Some radio DJ picks back in August 1965 ........ the Contours were always a big live draw in Baltimore, so I guess it's no suprise that their latest 45 was being tipped in that city. Other cuts being tipped were from Edwin Starr, Barbara Mason, the Autographs, Roy C, the Olympics & Danny White.

The Jimmy Vick & the Victors 45 was played on radio station WALT out of Boston. The guys at Cherry Records were so proud of this fact that they gave the radio stn a namecheck in one of the ads they placed in Billboard magazine. ............. little did they know the following information .......... Walter DeVenne's first exposure over the radio airwaves came when he was just 12 years old on a makeshift radio station broadcasting from the cluttered basement of his parent's Medford (Boston) home. With his friends he initially ran his radio station from his bedroom, before moving the equipment to the basement. The lads would put together six hour long tapes to ensure something was on the air while they were in school. The little radio station was broadcasting over a four year period from when he was 12 up to 16. The call letters DeVenne choose for the station was WALT. Record promoters would send copies of records to WALT not realizing that a group of youths were operating the station. The lads were sent 100's of records and DeVenne would take many of the spare copies to the local record shops and sell them to make some extra pocket money. I wonder if they ever had more than a handful of listeners, I guess their signal only carried for a few hundred yards.

Job done then. CHEERS

Anyone here got a copy of Arctic #127 ??? Frank Lipsius is looking for WAV file copies of the Kenny Gamble cuts "Keep on Smilin" and "Chains of Love". I'm sure that he will show his appreciation to anyone who can help him out. If you can help, drop me a personal message & I'll pass along his contact details. ....... CHEERS JOHN

Sebastion, many thanx for posting those scans. I really like the 45's picture cover; very atmospheric.

The air fare from Sweden to the UK can't be that much Ady !!! Get him on to support Bettye Swann at Cleggy.

My son works for a Danish company & is always over there ...... ..... but the chances of him agreeing to go looking for a copy of this 45 whilst in Copenhagen are between zero & 0%. Wouldn't mind getting a look at the 45's picture cover ......... anyone know of a scan of it anywhere on the net ?

King George's Swedish recorded cover of Don Gardner's "My Baby Likes To Boogaloo" .......... ............ now this MUST be a rare 45 ................

I left a UK 45 by Jackie Opel in a 2nd hand place outside Barnsley about 20 years back coz it had no centre. The shop had multiple copies of 1000's of UK / US soul / reggae 45's and I was sure that on my next visit, I'd find one with a centre in. Went back a couple of weeks later & didn't find either one with a centre or the one I had 'stashed away' without a centre .... I was daft as, if you bought 20+ 45's off the shop owner, he'd let you have em for just pence each. Next time I went, some dealer like Manship had poled up and bought every record in the place. Still chasing a copy of that Jackie Opel 45 at a decent price today !!!!