Robbk

Screamin' Jay Hawkins- "I Put A Spell On You", "Frenzy", "Little Demon", and "Something's Wrong With You".

I don't suppose anyone would define "Happy Ghoul Tide" by Ray Oddis as "Soul"? At least it is "Motown". What about "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by The Versatones (same Detroit group as on Magic City). What about "People From Another World" by The Jive Five?

Yes. There were some early Motown releases on Indian 78s ( from 1959-1963?). I also think there were a few from the Phillipine Islands.

Most of you already know that I'm old and my short term memory is shot. But now you'd wonder if the doctor would let me out of the asylum. But, it's possible to see only part of the title on the "Look in your Box" page (highlighted 1st thread) , and then, quickly scroll down the posts without looking at the initial post. You would only read the first X number of letters in the thread title each time.

By whom? That's a very common song title.

The East Coast and Midwest pressings of the white DJs were vinyl. Only the West Coast pressing at L.A.'s Monarch Pressing Plant were styrene (although they were more plentiful than the Midwest pressing. That design was less common than Monarch's, but there were still plenty of them around when it was released. I can't speak for how many of each style made it to The UK. But, I'd guess that it shouldn't be considered "rare".

I didn't get a real good look at him, but, of the 2 black male dancers. the one with the sunglasses is the only one who could be Lester. I met him in 1977 (some years later than that broadcast). He was a good friend of Tom DePierro's and friendly with a lot of The Motown people from Detroit. He had known them there. He and Leslie came out to L.A. to try to get work in films and on TV.

Black kids from Chicago's South Side and West Side could have been in The USAF, or known someone who was in that organisation. But, I think that it is likely that the group just wanted a name that rolls easily of the tongue. I was living in South Chicago at the time (right near the boundary of South Chicago and The south Side. I worked on The South Side, and most of my friends were South Siders. Using three letter initials for a group name was thought to be "cool" at that time. Often, they didn't stand for anything, but, just sounded "cool". Then, the group thought they had to make up a back story on how they decided on the name, just to satisfy all the fans asking the question. I think The CODs just thought "CODs" sounded "cool". MVPs, CODs, TCBs, etc. just sounded cool. It was just coming into fashion near then end of the '50s and through the early '60s to shorten speech by using initials to stand for words.

Pete, is your friend writing a story on Lester's career?

Too bad you didn't post this in 1980. He didn't have any copies of his Labeat record, but he DID have a few artist photos of himself. I could have asked him for one. Of course, there was no Internet then, to have this forum, or the need for his photo.

M.V.P. stands for "Most Venerated Person" or MVPs (persons) - meaning a dignitary, or the most important persons at a civic meeting. Most Valuable Player for a sports league came about much later. C. O. D. means "Cash on Delivery". I guess the singing group used it to mean that they were a group who really "delivered the goods when they were on stage". But harmony group names often resulted from less than 2 seconds of "thinking". If the group liked the "sound" of the name, it stuck, whether or not it made any sense, at all. For example, some groups were named after cigarette brands or brand names of personal or household products. Many were names of cars.

Looks real enough. Seems to have a bit of groove wear *but that could be just the lighting in the video. In any case, it looks like it would play well enough.

I don't think there are many THOUSANDS of cuts that have never been heard by the public, anymore, after all the vinyl-unreleased cuts that have been released on CD over the past 20 years, plus those that have been released for digital download. But, there certainly must be at least several hundred, perhaps a thousand or two, including pop, gospel, and novelty.

Yes. I used to see many Japanese fellows grabbing Soul and also R&B records from our main sources, and even the little shops. And a few Belgians and Germans and Swiss, as well.

Well, I would say that I only came across a few Brit Soul record hunters in USA before 1977, but from 1977-1984 there were very many. Those I saw most were Nev Wherry, Bob "Larry" Wagner, Rod Shard, Dave Withers, Dave Raistrick, and Martin Koppel regularly raided my favourite place to find records (Detroit). John Anderson took away loads of great records from our Chicago warehouses. And, I had heard from the owners of many of my regular shops and warehouses that "I sold out the lot to a British guy", or some British guys came in here for 3 days and bought hundreds. After 1984, I was mainly in Europe, and didn't look for records in USA at all. But the US collectors I knew still DID have that attitude towards what The British in The NS were doing to the chances of our hard core Soul collectors (including many Black Soul fans) finding any decent non-hit Soul records with at least one fast or fast mid-tempo side. Luckily, at that time, The Soulies were still not interested in slower mid-tempos and "beat ballads". Now, they like just about all Soul. So, they are competing with us regular general Soul fans for EVERYTHING.

To be honest, I hardly talk to a living soul when I'm in USA. (L.A.). I only know my sister and her husband, and their 2 kids, and my uncle and aunt, and my brother-in-law's parents, who are Danish, and spend a few months there. I see them more in Denmark (where I am right now) than I do in L.A. I am on Skype every night, talking with my friends in Holland and Germany. All my friends in L.A. are deceased, or have moved away. Almost everyone here now speaks Spanish or Chinese. The two people I knew in USA (Bob Abrahamian and Ron Murphy) are deceased. So, I can't tell you about current Americans. But. during the late '60s and '70s there were a LOT of US collectors who resented Brits coming to USA and taking away lots of records they'd have otherwise gotten.

Yes. That did happen a lot before knowledge of The Internet became commonplace and before e-Bay became a household word. Nowadays, almost everyone in USA thinks one can get rich by auctioning off old junk on e-Bay. I'd venture to guess that MOST of the bigger collections of even the hermit record collectors who swore to "Never let those grabby Brits get a hold of my beloved Soul records" will have their kin placing them on e-bay auctions, to see what they can get.

I think what a lot of you Brits fail to realise is that a lot of Americans (and even Canadians) were buying this Soul music (yes, even the cutouts and uncharted unbacked releases, and small garage studio releases). I've heard many of you say that NOBODY wanted them back then, But that just isn't true. MANY people I knew had collecting taste the same as I, and they searched the Ghetto record shops, thrift stores, junk stores, book stores, furniture stores, Black families homes, contacted ex producers, etc. Not all of these collectors are known. Many of them kept their whole collections, but dropped ut of active collecting before The Internet came in. I know a lot of people my age who still won't deal with learning how to use computers and The Internet. Their record collections will continue to surface as they die or their houses are sold and they move to "Old Folks' care homes" or they die. I knew a LOT of collectors back in the '60s and '70s who were buying such records. More and more will be surfacing now that we are starting to get old and many of us are passing away. Now, it is different, because we have The Internet and e-bay. No one's great R & B/Soul collection will be tossed away by an ignorant group of children of a major collector. So, a lot of records that you've only known a handful of copies in Britain, will be seeing several more coming to auction every year or every few years.

"Girls" doesn't seem to be on You-Tube, can anyone post a file of it? I'd like to hear it.

"I See A Star" is lousy for fast Doowop. And just how is 1957 New York-style fast White Doowop Northern Soul???? Who is going to pay $29,000 US or £16,500 for that??? This doesn't make sense at all. Frankie Lyman and The Teenagers cuts are hundreds of times better than that,

No. That was the Chicago label, Dan-Dy co-owned, I believe, by Jack Daniels and Leroy Dandridge.

Some were picked up from their start of operation, but most were distributed only for a portion of their existences (as you can tell from the differences in their label designs when distributed by CIRCA and when not (not just having the insignia added, but different colours and/or font and label design, such as with Baronet, Theoda, etc.

Yes, there were hundreds. Many of them were also distributed by ARDCO (Allied Record Distributing Co.). Both were operated out of L.A. I'm not with my records now to list many of them. I think both of those distributors of small, independent labels were connected by ownership, or, at least in some way.

Lot's of obese people were chubby as kids. But, why would people call you "poppa" when you are a kid? Popcorn Wylie was called "Popcorn" because he loved to eat that stuff. I wonder if Chubby Checker was called "Chubby" at an early age?

I never heard of anyone else singing that song. I have it. It's almost my "newest" record (other than my Airwave, Altair and Rene records.