Roburt

In Dukes later years, Don Robey was casting his net far & wide to get people to work for him. By 1970, Gene Dozier had returned to Philly (after time in Detroit & LA) and was working with Gamble & Huff on Atlantic & Neptune stuff. Gene started some new collaborations while there (producing "Silly, Silly Fool" cut by Dusty Springfield with Roland Chambers), but he mainly worked with Bunny Sigler and Phil Hurtt. They wrote, performed and produced together, either as a pair or a trio. Gene and Bunny produced "Wild Child" on Carl Carlton which was released in April 1971 (Backbeat 619) and at the same time Duke Records licensed "Keep My Baby Cool" credited to Hot Chocolate for release (Duke 467). Hot Chocolate were in fact Dozier / Sigler / Hurtt and the track was the result of some studio experimentation. They had cut an uptempo backing track which was then played back at a slower speed and vocals (by Sigler / Hurtt) were added to it (this grouping wrote other songs together -- "Picture Us" which was later recorded by Bunny himself being one of them). (Eu)gene told me that Robey had been trying to sell Duke since 1971 & Gene used his LA contacts to get word to the management at ABC that the Duke set-up could be theirs. Just how big a role Gene actually played in setting the deal up I have no real idea, but he did 'big up' his role in getting the ball rolling on the deal.

Well, I quite enjoyed it. It had shortcomings but 99% of movies do.

Dionne's original version ........

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/19451047 ......... "I Say A Little Prayer" ........ Reffa ....

Yet another gem ........... .. the plaintive "Don't Make Me Over" ...

Another one of their great songs ......... ... this time handled by Chuck Jackson ........ ... "The Breakin Point" ....

Hal David, who in conjunction with Burt Bacharach, wrote some of the best 60's songs has passed away. R. I. P. "Reach Out For Me" ..........

Yes, he also owned the Zennette label (named after his daughter).

Shout certainly had faith in Jerry O's 'Boogaloo' track ........ .. & this paid off as his 45 was on the national US soul chart from September 67 till the end of the year.

I can't recall any of the Cleveland (soul) radio DJ's owning a local label (though they might have been involved with a tiny label that only managed 1 or 2 45 releases). The only Baltimore radio DJ I know that had his own labels was Bill 'Sparky' Evans. I think one of the St Louis DJ's might have been involved in the ownership of a label. BUT the main guy there, Bernie Hayes, though involved with the likes of Stax & Oliver Sain's labels (Vanessa, etc) wasn't ever a part owner as such. The likes of Ernie Fields (WOOK in DC) might have had a label, I'd have to check through my stuff to be sure. I'm sure some New Oleans radio DJ's must have been label owners but can't name specific names. A couple of Miami radio DJ's made 45 tracks themselves (Nicki Lee, King Coleman) but I don't think they actually ran their own labels. In SanFran, the Hit label (Jesse James 45's) was owned by Jesse Mason, but he was a record shop owner, not a DJ. Don't know too much about the radio / label scene in the other cities you named.

Paul Kelly (& the Original Cousins) at the Continental in 1965 ..........

Not an ad this time but a review of a show held at the Apollo Theater in late May 1970. Seeing the songs that each artist performed live brings home to you just how some artists (without a recent hit 45 track) struggled when it came to live shows. If you were a Motown artist without a hit, you could always do a Motown section in your show, giving name checks to the 'original artists' & telling a tale of something that happened when you were in their presence. Likewise if you came from Chicago (or NY), you could perform a section dedicated to hits of your home town artists. But, for lots of acts, this was their showcase to get more attention from their record company, to land a new recording contract or just an exercise to show how versatile you were. Guess in the cases of Carolyn Franklin & the O'Jays (who at the time were signed to Neptune which wasn't really getting much of a push from Chess), they were trying to show how versatile they were ....

Owning their own label came 2nd nature to Philly radio DJ's .... but I don't think it was as common in other cities down the east coast.

I'll be watching tonight (& I'll have an 'open mind').

Seems that Popside jumped on the Twist craze back in 1962 ...... ... two of their LP's were tipped to sell well by Billboard .... ... not too sure how well these Twist releases actually did though ........

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You left the Mojo allniter biggie ("Ooh, Baby, You Turn Me On" ) off the Willie Mitchell CD !!! ......... otherwise they all seem pretty perfect !!

RE: Webs 45 featured in the above post ....... Was there any reasoning why a particular 45 would be issued on Riverside rather than Pop-side by the mid 60's ?? (the Webs on Pop-side; Lou Courtey on Riverside) .. ... and is it known where the Webs tracks were cut ? I know some of Lou Courtney's stuff was laid down at Gloria Toote's Town Sound Studios in Englewood, NJ but have no idea on the Webs recordings.

Some from December 67 now ..........

Yet another Clover Records acetate; this time the track is by Joe Castro himself ............

R&B singer Kitty White (who had earlier cut for Mercury) was another artist signed to the label ........

The Demons track initially appeared on an RCA acetate ........

Clover Records was a vanity label that had loads of money put into it by LA based heiress Doris Duke (not the soul singer, though this Doris Duke did perform in a black gospel choir for a while ... even though she was white !!). Anyway, this Doris Duke lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills and around 1960 took up with jazz piano man Joe Castro. Probably at his prompting, she bought $1000's of recording equipment and had it installed above the garage at her mansion. Castro organised loads of jam sessions at the place & recordings were made on a regular basis. By the mid 60's, Castro wanted to have some new recordings released and so Clover Records was set up mainly for this purpose (though other artists were quickly signed to the label). National distribution was arranged and big trade ads taken out. Other acts were signed, tracks cut and 45's released. One of these 45's was the Demons "Going To The Dance", a R&B style track that sounds earlier than its mid 1966 date of issue. Anyone know much of anything about the group ?? However Duke & Castro's relationship was breaking down & maybe the amount of money going into this label also put additional strain on their romance. Whatever the reason, the couple split and the label was gone almost overnight.

You keep getting plugs for the book into threads I start Dave; maybe I should be on a % ... ........perhaps I can be a 50% owner (like Dick Clark at Swan). ..... BTW, what's the book called again ????

Profile on Bill Moss (who ran / owned Capsoul) ........