Roburt

Ren Woods was a good singer who worked in conjunction with E,W & F's Al McKay ....

Don was still 'sharp' & was totally amazed when shown copies of his Cedric & Sack 45's ..... He genuinely hadn't realised they had ever been released (& if they had been they should have escaped on Tru-Glo-Town, Botanic or Mr. G in his opinion.) "my baby like to boogaloo" was popular in a lot of US cities, which I guess is why the Emperors cover was made.

I agree Bob. I had a couple of long chats with Don Gardner about his 'rare 45's' out of non-East Coast locations. He had no idea that they ever existed but did say that he had sent copies of those tracks to Jimmy to keep him 'up to date' on Don's work (with a view to Jimmy getting Don some live gigs in Chicago & the like) ....... part of the story ......... Don's existing profile in Chicago resulted in him sending copies of his new cuts to his friend, local booking agent, Jimmy Vanleer. Jimmy had just started his Sedgrick / Cedric Record label & so, without Don's knowledge or consent he put some of Don's tracks out on 45. Jimmy's record company was just finding its feet, so although Don's releases, "Cheating Kind" and "Is This Really Love" were top quality outings, they didn't enjoy any commercial success. It is believed Jimmy Vanleer was also the linkman in the process that resulted in Don having a release on Monk Higgin's Chicago based Sack label as Don didn't even know of Monk, never mind send / lease tracks to him. At Xmas 69, Don decided to give up touring. Her got into construction & was hired by Curtis Mayfield to build him a pool at his Atlanta house. The pair got on so well, Don was hired to be Curtis's road manager, a job he retained for much of the 70's.

Pure speculation .... but could she have cut an early demo of the song & then forgotten about the fact that a 'rudimentary master tape' might be 'floating about' out there when she re-recorded the song (with full backing & production effort) for the 45 that was released on Mercury. If that was what happened, someone could easily have shopped the original master tape to that little Chicago label without her even knowing. Maybe that's why the 'little label' effort has a different title .... that might have been the song's 'early' working title OR the guys shopping the tape to the people who put out that 45 could have used a different song title in an effort to ensure they weren't found out. These happenings bring to mind the situation surrounding the Tobi Lark / Tobi Legend tale.

Philly International even hit the island ......... but Dynamic Sound could still manage to fix the label off-centre.

One of Chicago's finest came south .... .... not all the way to Miami, but not too far away ....

A Philly group who went to Coventry .....

Ja Tyrone Davis .............

Donny lads are the most soulful guys on the planet, so you don't need to be sorry for owt. Mind you, in my day, Sheffield & Manc were 2nd homes for Donny soulboys.

"Big Mistake" got a mention (& play) in a post started about 6 weeks ago in 'All About The Soul'.

BUMP .... as we have a new thread (in 'Look At Your Box') about Brenda's "Big Mistake" 45.

A top gospel group played some Miami gigs in 1959....

No straight up soulers on this bill ........ but Tommy Chong (Cheech & Chong) hadn't long quit Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers .... ... and Brian Auger had run UK mod soul group Steampacket in the mid 60's. Mind you, I bet Smashy & Nicey think "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" is soulful !!

A 45 from an old Motown fave; manufactured by CBS (Ja) Ltd ....

Did they get their suits from Burtons or Hepworths ??

........ aural exciters ........ a lot of women I know like these.

Didn't the Internationals come to the UK around 1968 as the 'International Showstoppers' to pretend to be the Showstoppers (not that they knew that when they left New York). Think they came back for a 2nd tour under their own name, but the mists of time have left my hard-drive (memory) quite fragmented. Anyone know why they changed their name to the Persuaders (name clash with 2nd group; split with label & / or manager) ???

Another Ja Atlantic 45 .......

Where'd that Mockingbird go ??

A jazzy groover was on, ahead of Tower of Power ....

Checked Bob's site & the interview ... guess they weren't from Miami after all ..... and my memory is even more shot than I thought.

I've got their mid 70's Wand 45 somewhere here (no idea where though). I always thought they were Miami based .... didn't KC & some of his mates write their "I Get Lifted" song & help out on backing / production duties on the track ?? (mind you Steve, my memory gets more mis-filed info everyday now; old age, gotta love it). .

RSO, another label that Dynamic Sounds were the Ja licensee for ...

It don't get any better than this ......... .. the best record the Masqueraders ever made (by a country mile ) ....

Another Tamla Motown 45 'Manufactured Under License In The West Indies' .....