Roburt

And this outing from Earl would seem to date from 1977 ....... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsoub41RSUM So was anyone else on the label, apart from Earl Lett & Doris Duke ?? ... and how did Doris come to hook up with Earl's label ?? ........ so many unanswered questions !!!

A later Earl Lett offering on Beantown (the 'opening' on this one is too gimmicky for me) ....

Can we also discuss Beantown Records on this thread ........... The label seemed to exist for around 10 years whilst only releasing a handful of records, so it must have been more of a 'hobby' for Earl Lett than a major business venture. Another Beantown cut .......... Earl had at least one other 45 on the label ("Love & Affection") after having sides issued in the 60's on Skippy White's Wild label. What were the other releases on the label & have any of them been found in quantity ??

As Doris has received a couple of mentions on here very recently (one being in the Top 20 LP's thread), thought I'd ask how her stuff is viewed by US collectors .... We 1st got to know her via her Doris Willingham Jay Boy (UK) 45 which got club plays here (67 onwards). Next we had her work with Swamp Dogg, that from 'Day One' was championed as being Deep Soul of the highest order here in the UK (Dave Godin rightly waxing lyrical on her 1st LP at every opportunity). The album ('I'm A Loser') spawned 2 hit 45's (both on Canyon) -- "To The Other Woman" which made the national US Top 10 soul chart and "Feet Start Walking" which only just made the Top 40. Her output after the first album suffered due to her strained relationship with Swamp (they didn't get on or like each other) but more releases followed from the pairing. After Canyon Records quickly 'crashed & burnt' due to problems getting money in from distributors, the RRG label was quickly set up & a 45 from Doris escaped on the label (the tracks also being lifted from her 1st LP). Next up, Swamp secured a deal to run the Mankind label & he again worked with Doris. But I believe this LP (1971) was only really rated (at the time) here in the UK. She moved on to cut for Mainstream & then with the British team that ran Contempo Records. In the US, her Contempo stuff was brought together for a LP release on Scepter (though "Woman of the Ghetto" had escaped on a US Sam 45). A quiet spell followed for her, this ending in the early 1980's when a 45 Escaped on Beantown Records from up Boston way. Her Beantown 45 (cover) track "What Will Tomorrow Bring" is not too well known (due to rarity I guess) but is again a gudun. .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgfo-mZzGXY So Doris was always highly rated by UK soul fans. Seeing how often she quickly moved on from record labels, perhaps she was a difficult artist to deal with (but many were). Perhaps if she had established a solid trusting studio relationship with a producer, we would have gotten to enjoy even more great cuts from her. ... ANOTHER QUESTION ....... I know she was in a few gospel outfits before recording as Doris Willingham. Did she handle lead vocal duties on any recordings by these groups / choirs ??

RE: Impressions 'Big 16' Vols1 & 2, Bell Cellar of Soul Vols 1,2 & 3, Billy Stewarts 'Teaches Old Standards New Tricks' ...... ........ HOWEVER a chart featuring hand picked records by well known RARE SOUL Collectors does not count in my book, I think that would be a separate chart and an almost impossible task, as hundreds of rare records have been made available since 1982 All the LP's I listed above date from the mid to late 60's, so don't fall within your definition .. they were some of the early albums I bought and shaped my taste in soul music. They were very influential releases (at least in m opinion).

Ian, my mate was Alan Omokhoje who was recruited by EMI after his Edinburgh based Move Records ran into money troubles. He was never really happy at EMI as he wanted to push jazz artists (& rap I think) + do something with the soul artists that EMI released records on. He never got the chance to work with any of the US artists & I don't think any of his projects were commercially successful. After a while, they shipped him off to work in their Nigerian branch (coz he was Nigerian by birth). He had a mortgage on a flat in west London & when the UK property crash hit in 1988, he stopped paying the monthly dues as the place was then worth less then he 'owed' on it. This caused him a few problems when he returned to the UK & moved on career wise. Daft thing was, my son went to Hatfield Poly just after the mid 80's & he got on well with Alan (having spent a summer helping out in Moves' Edinburgh office). One day, I arranged to meet up with the son & a couple of his student mates and then drop in on Alan. We turned up at EMI central (one old gibba with 3 young trendy lads) and had to wait a few minutes before being given permission to go up to his office. Everyone else in reception (with their 'house brick' mobile phones) assumed I was a 'manager' pitching a new boy band .... so we got lots of 'advice' about how to get a deal while we waited. The lads never were signed by EMI though !!!

RE: So does this thread make JACKIES LP, The #1 LP to own if there was a top 20 of must own LP's ........ wouldn't have thought so ..... many more in demand LP's instantly spring to mind . I would certainly place Sam Dees Atlantic LP, Mancha + Barnes 'Rare Stamps', Impression 'Big 16' Vols1 & 2, Bell Cellar of Soul Vols 1,2 & 3, Billy Stewarts 'Teaches Old Standards New Tricks', some early Kent LPs & many more above Jackie's LP .... and I like most of Jackie's soul sides.

Robb, I realise that ALL record companies have to have people to tackle all the tasks I mentioned above. It matters not how big or small you are, you still have to address every aspect of the biz. I would guess though that the likes of you had to take on many tasks that didn't come naturally to you, just because you were the only person who would take on those tasks. A major like ABC & the like would however employ a whole team of people to undertake various tasks. Thus, say A&R or PR guys would be selected for their skills in their own particular area of expertise ..... mind you (record companies being what they were back in the day), lots of square pegs were put in round holes just because the guy in questions 'face fitted' -- perhaps he was a club buddy / hanger-on of an exec in the company. Guess the only task that an 'indie' was forced to 'buy in' was their legal rep. In the mid 80's, I used to visit EMI's London offices (in Manchester Square if I recall the name correctly) & the place was full of 'jobs worths' .... guys who thought they were the 'bees knees' but really were wasters of the 1st order. I had a mate who worked there for 3 years or so and became a regular visitor to the offices but I can't say what I saw going on whilst there filled me with much confidence that many there knew what they were doing.

The Am-Par Record Corporation was formed in New York City in 1955, as a subsidiary of American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters, Inc. Their record label was named ABC-Paramount. The President of the company was Samuel Clark and the National Sales Manager was Larry Newton. The heads of A&R for the label were Don Costa and Sid Feller, although Morty Craft, Johnny Pate and Creed Taylor also handled production for the company. ABC-Paramount had a subsidiary label called Apt. In the early 1960s, Impulse, a jazz label subsidiary, was established, and in the mid-'60s a blues label subsidiary, Bluesway, was formed. The Probe label was formed in 1968. In October, 1959, Enoch Light and his partners sold their labels to ABC-Paramount. These included Audition, Command Performance, Colortone & Grand Award. All of these labels were run by Light and were based in Harrison, New Jersey. Two of the labels, Grand Award and Command, continued to operate under ABC. Enoch Light continued as head of A&R for the Command and Grand Award labels. ABC purchased the Dunhill label from Lou Adler in 1966 and the Duke/Peacock labels from Don Robey in 1973. ABC-Paramount also distributed a number of labels, including Anchor, Blue Thumb, Chancellor, Colonial, Deb, Fargo, Hunt, LHI (partially), Royal, Shelter (partially), Sire (partially), Tangerine, Topsy, and Wren. So ABC ran a large organisation and were successful for quite a number of years, though their decision to junk 100's of mastertapes to 'save space' came back to haunt the owners of their back catalogue in later years. Is it documented anywhere just which artists / producers had lots of their work junked (surely it didn't include numerous Impressions cuts or Johnny Pate productions).

Club A'Gogo ..... One of the coolist spots in town .... ..... they play Rhythm & Blues there every day and night. ..

I think it (the show) is mainly about local blacks & whites getting together at a soul club AND how everything changes after a murder (the different crowds attending the club coming into conflict). So I think it will actually be about a typical 60's soul club rather than a 70's NS club ... but as NS seems to fascinate TV producers, I guess it makes sense (to them) to say it's a NS club (& feature NS tracks not really known in the 60's). Like many northern cities (Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham -- if that's still a northern city), Newcastle was hosting mod / soul allnighters by around 1965.

In early 1963, the Club A'GoGo was still mainly featuring jazz nights (Eric Burton used to perform there as a solo singer back then). But later that year & into 64, the club went over to blues & soul, thus becoming a major influence on groups such as the Animals.

I wonder if they will use a 'real' club in their NS episode .... if so, we may get a version of the Club A Go Go on the show.

A question for our knowledgable US listies .... Did ABC-Paramount stay with Sun Plastics Co., Plastic Products Co. & Clarion Record Manufacturing throughtout the 60's (as suppliers of their records) ? ..... coz I don't recall any of these companies being mentioned on a regular basis as the places where soul 45's (& LP's) were pressed up.

You get your first big chart hit & life instantly gets more complicated. Distributors from across the US want 100's of copies of the 45 by tomorrow . Radio DJ's & TV programmers want your act on their show in the next week. Bookers are chasing you as they want your act on their next big national package tour. ..... and these strange guys from overseas keep ringing up wanting to do a deal to put the record out in their country ...

If your label was located in one of the cities along the Great Lakes .... and you got your tracks onto local radio ... then it would also be heard across the border ..... so record labels from there would come knocking on your door .......

It may sound like the perfect job to most of us; but there was a lot to take care of if you were involved with running a record label back in the day. I'm not on about a small indie here; their main problems were finding the finance, getting their records played on the radio & then getting paid by distributors. But in a big label, there were many more tasks that had to be well taken care of & lots of different skills were needed. So you set up a new label (finance has been found) and instantly decisions have to be made. ...... Do you want your own studio ? If so, one has to be built or bought. Then it has to be staffed with producers, arrangers, engineers, etc. ...... Do you want / need your own dedicated studio band, if so you have to find the right guys. ...... Do you need your own in-house sing writing team ... Yes is usually the answer, so again you have to find the right guy, team. .... Do you just release in-house product or do you go looking to 'license in' outside productions or the best available little indie label tracks. ..... When you want to cut an act, you need an A&R team to decide what product will be most commercial for them. What 'sound' is flavour of the month; it's no good cutting the artist on a James Brown sound-alike track if its Motown that's selling best this month. ..... Appoint a Promotions team. Guys who have contacts & can get your new release on the radio and reviewed in trade papers / magazines. .... Lawyers, you'll definitely need a few of them. Staff to be placed on contact, artists to be signed & royalty deals to be negotiated. .... Find & appoint outfits to master & press up your product .... and not just locally but in all the regions across the States. .... An early release does well and foreign companies come knocking ..... who do you appoint as your licensee across various countries in the world, tricky decision. ... What do you do with the 'unsold stock' of 45's. It's just taking up space in the warehouse (yep, you had to rent a warehouse as well). Do you sell it off cheap, junk it & take it to the tip or just leave all those 45's laying about in that almost forgotten damp basement space that has no other use. .... and what about future rights; do you even realise that last years recordings will have a good value in the future (CD's, mp3's) and that those old master tapes may be precious. You'll need a vault where they can be stored properly ... & watch out, coz the vault will be full in 5 years time. Do you throw away the tapes that only contain unissued tracks (like ABC did) assuming that if you didn't want to put them out in 1966, not one will be interested in paying money or them in 2006. ........ So working for a record company back in the day wasn't as simple a task as all that.

Think this applied at the time ..... though don't think the record company had Bradford Market in mind when they placed this ad ....

More females from outa'town ........

Lloyd Price's Turntable Club in Manhattan had been operating for around 6 years by 1974. People were taking the place for granted by then, so the name was changed to give it a new lease of life. Not long after the 52nd St venue (1674 Broadway) got it's name change, a new disco opened a few blocks away (on 45th St in Manhattan) ........... guess what it's name was ..........

Sugar Pie .... but no Honey Bunch .......

I think the biggest problem will be to find a (safe & weatherproof) place to store all the bricks, wood & fixtures for an unspecified period of time. Guess what is recovered will take up quite a large area.

Guess Motown did a 2nd press of this 45 then .... can't see anyone booting it on the (later) real Gordy label.

RE: they may actually choose not to buy off certain people on purpose - I know I do, same as I won't sell to certain people. ........... best not upset you then Pete !!

More gospel in NY .....