Robbk

I should have stated: "before moving to 'The North'.

The information above is confusing. It makes it appear that Armstead was born in Washington State. But later, it states clearly that he was born in Mulga, Alabama. He lived there until joining The US Armed Services (Army?). After he returned, he moved north with his family, to Detroit. He spent his only his later years in Washington State, and died there. Joshie was born in The South, and lived there before moving to The North (New York and Chicago).

The recording sounds like the singer could be Norma. But it is difficult to be sure. The voice doesn't give telltale clues that it is another person.

Thanks! I figured "Shy" wasn't her real surname. I bought her Brunswick and Dakar records. I also remember "Spring Fever" but didn't buy it.

Is that the same woman as Chicago Soul singer, Jean Shy? I've always thought that that surname couldn't be her born family name. Maybe if it was spelled "C-H-I it stood for "Chicago"- hence "Jean Chi" . Maybe that was her nickname, later used as a stage name. But after becoming her official stage name, she spelled it "S-H-Y" instead of "C-H-I" to avoid people thinking it should be pronounced like "Chee"?

That can't be a Maltese cut. Is it known to be a Carnival production, or a later recording?

That looks like an original to me. I have several Lauries with the record/credit information sides reversed. That isn't a "sign" that such a label indicates a bootleg.

He was a French Citizen of Moroccan extraction. Had he ever become a British citizen? Does The UK allow new citizens to keep their existing citizenship as a dual citizen?

Morocco, although legally, a protectorate, was treated by France for most of their hegemony, like a colony. There were many French citizens living there, and, as in Algeria, Moroccans could become French Citizens. That process is how Soussan's family (or he, himself) became French citizens, and were able to move to France. And, of course, Simone (Simón) resided in France for quite a few years before moving to England. He grew up there.

There was also a Surf guitar instrumental group named The Andantes, who recorded for a tiny local label, and picked up by Dot records in 1963. I think I seem to remember that there was yet another Andantes group.

My impression was that ASCAP was the older association, and started with the New York Tin Pan Alley trade of mostly standards, and BMI was the newer of the 2, and started out grabbing a lot of the WWII and post WWII trade from the glut of new independent record labels signing new singing artists, which included "Race Music, C&W music, Gospel, and other genre niches. That included R&B. Of my 40,000 singles and couple thousand LPs, the great bulk of my r&B group and single artist songs that were written by the newer, non mainstream, non major label, songs that were NOT old standards were registered with BMI, rather than ASCAP. Probably 95% of my R&B and ;60s Soul songs were BMI. It was only when groups and single artists sang remakes of old standards, that the songs were registered by ASCAP.

Sorry to read this sad news of another great singer from my generation. They're ALL passing on and however more years until they are all gone, and I am too, along with them, is going fast and will come before I'd want it to. That's a fact of life, and we have to accept it. But it is sad, nonetheless.

Thanks for pointing that out. Do you know how Ralonzo got the name "Phelectron"? Does it have something to do with atoms or electricity? Did he have a tremendous amount of energy? Overactive (hyper)thyroid? On Speed?

Thanks. I thought the articles said Jean was Johnny's wife. I just assumed that. I didn't think Johnny was old enough to have a 20+ year old child. And was thinking about Ed Wingate's starting up Golden World for his future wife. The articles DIDN'T say what her relationship to Johnny was. So, Johnny set up the label for his daughter to start a career in music. Nice to have rich parents.

(1) There were a couple news articles about the formation (foundation) of Phelectron Records, and its in-house music publishing company (Trevenia Music) in 1965, in the music industry trade papers (magazines). They covered the basic structure of the new companies, and a little bit about their 2 singing artists, Terri Goodnight and Jackie Day. Apparently, The Cochrans had their own connections to people who knew about the budding young talented choir singer (Terri) (perhaps a member of their sponsoring church?), and probably someone who was a friend of Jackie's. Cyril Roberts was a songwriter for the label, as well as Jackie Day's producer. I would have guessed that he would have been made their A&R man, and manage the company until Jean could get up to speed (sort of how Bob Hamilton ran things at Golden World's start, until JoAnne Bratton could get up to speed in experience in the business). (2) I was wrong about Jean Cochran just using a song Cyril Roberts wrote. Roberts WAS involved with Phelectron, in a major way. He was the producer of Jackie Day's record, and writer of "Naughty Boy". So, one would think that Jean would have made Roberts her A&R man, and picked his brain for advice, and possibly asked for a demo tape of how Terri Goodnight's song should be sung, and also had him make recommendations on experienced producers and arrangers to use, recording studios and engineers, distributors to approach, and use him as a marketing man to deal with DJs and distributors and getting gigs for her artists. And so, with Roberts leaning on his past experience in the business, Jean might have made less mistakes in operating her label, and had at least some small modicum of success. With Roberts involved, I'm not sure why she chose Easton to produce Terri's 2 records (unless he had previously produced records sung by her choir). Still, being as they decided for Terri to sing some Soul-style songs, why not have Roberts produce them, and have her practise copying the style the demo singer used on the songs until she got the style down, before recording? If she was uncomfortable recording that kind of music, why have her record it? I guess Jean as a very young woman, new to The Business World, with no one to guide her but a songwriter and ad-hoc producer, who hadn't owned a record label up ton that time, as far as I know, and her father, very busy most of the time, was apparently, based on the results, overwhelmed with the challenges that most tiny, independent labels faced, even when run by people experienced in that business. They seemed to not have a well-thought-out, logical plan of operation, and were just making decisions on-the-fly.