Robbk

Good point. He could get better deals and service from distributors by threatening the easy move of X label to one of his other distributors. just like the various labels were parcelled out to various distributors, the talent within Motown had to be divided up among the various labels, so he could get more records played per any given time due to the "payola" restrictions. He wanted to have records played from all 5 of his labels, so the talent had to be shared accordingly. Gordy was really just a name change from Miracle to Gordy, to stop Thelma Gordy from naming her record label (really her parents' and Don Davis' label) "Gordy. They ended up using "Thelma". And THAT was really a name change from "DaCo" (Davis/Coleman).

I was located mainly in Europe in 1981 and 1982, and I was not around for our recording session with him. i believe I may have shaken his hand and said "hello" once. But we never talked.

We also recorded him, and released a record on him at Airwave Records, in 1981 and 1982.

Yes. You are missing the fact that I placed a question mark after my sentence referring to the uploader listing Priscilla Price as "Priscilla Page". I have never seen any information proving that they are the same person. The fact that Prisca Sutton has commented on Priscilla Page's Alcor and Topper uploads, and NOT on Priscilla Price's records leads me to believe that it IS a mislabeling only, as you guess.

Bob, do you use Facebook? If so, you could contact her there. I don't, and don't want to get involved in that. I'm on The Internet way too much, to the detriment of my work, as it is.

So, Priscilla Page IS Priscilla Price, after all, and used "Priscilla Price" as a stage name in the 1970s? I knew that Geneva was a Detroit label, and Jimmy Roach worked out of Detroit during the 1970s.

Bob. I clicked on Prisca Sutton's name, and it sent me to her private You-Tube page. There is a click button to send her a message. It states that the link to her answer will be sent to my e-mail via Google +. Would you like me to relay an e-mail address or messaging service user name you use to her so she can contact you? I would tell her that you are a DJ/music historian who wants to learn more specifics about her career. Or, if not, do you have specific questions that you'd like me to ask her? Robb

Not surprising. If it would be okay to do that, I'd already have done it. But you have a lot of other questions that you'd like to ask her about her career. Often I get a personal message sent to me through my Yahoo e-mail. I guess that comes because Yahoo Mail is affiliated with Google, and has automatically made me a member. I don't use Facebook or Twitter, or any other message service. I wouldn't want to list my e-mail address on a You-Tube thread.

Bob, did you go to the You-Tube videos with commentary, and ask her to contact you? perhaps you could send her a personal message on whatever message service You-Tube uses (is it Google?), and you could, at the same time, tell her in a comment thread of one of her songs (the Alcor record) that you have sent her the PM, and she can find it in her in box.

They are definitely two different people. But, I'm still fairly sure that Priscilla Page is an "African-American". But, I don't want to ask her that question, as I think it might be considered rude, coming out of the blue from a stranger, out of any context.

Priscilla was either 16 or 17 in 1962, when she recorded the Rose-G/Alcor cuts, and, thus 20 or 21 when her Topper cuts were recorded in 1966.

Here's her first release, - original label of the Alcor leased cuts: The ZTSC number places it in mid 1962 (July?). The Alcor release was in October. Popcorn Wylie ran the day-to day operations of the label. We didcussed this release on Soulful Detroit Forum years ago. Ron Murphy told us who the owner/financier was (Rose G?). But, I have forgotten. Does anyone know who Rose G /owner was? The publisher was "Brown & Green". Might that have been Frank Brown and Rose Green? I doubt that it was Fred Brown, otherwise Joe Hunter would have run the session, rather than Popcorn Wylie. Does anyone know any other records on this label?

Yes Gaz, I'm almost positive she was African-American (Black). I'm pretty sure I've been told that by Detroiters who were adults in the '60s, and in the music business there (Ron Murphy and a few others). Maybe Lorraine Chandler could tell us? Most of the artists/writers either knew each other, or knew friends of the others. I may have even seen a photo of her, years ago. But I'm sure there's something behind my feeling of being sure.

Bob: Here's a link to one of Priscilla's uploaded records, on which she has made and answered comments. I suggest you ask her to contact you by PM or e-mail. Just click on the "You-Tube" icon. and it will take you to the You-Tube page, with the discussion and Priscilla's posts.

I have all 4 of Kent's Dave Hamilton CDs, as I was a contributor to their production. Unfortunately, there is nothing more on them than I have stated above.

My guess is that she is "African-American", rather than "Caucasian". But, Dave Hamilton did record a mixed instrumental group. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to find a photo of her.

She was in high school in Fall 1962, when she recorded her first record ("Dreaming"/"My Letter") which was produced by Popcorn Wiley and recorded in Detroit, for Rose G Records, but later leased to L.A.'s Alcor Records (subsidiary of Everest records). The other writer of the songs was listed as "Finney". It was really Janie Bradford (either under an alias, or Lance Finney collected the funds for her, or that was her married name, if she was married to Lance (as is rumoured). Her maiden name was Page, and first married name was Gilmore, during her Topper contract(1966). She goes by the short name of "Prisca", and her current last name (married name) is Sutton. Look up videos on Priscilla Page, and you can ask her questions directly (on comments on her Alcor and Topper records where they are uploaded).

Ha! Ha! That's what I do! Although, I did work for Motown in the 1970s, and I was co-owner of a Soul Record label in the 1980s. Do you have contact anymore with Tommy Moers? Did he stay in Detroit? Is he still with us?

Thanks, Roy, for coming to our forum to clarify things for us. Many of us are big collectors of Detroit R&B and Soul music, and I, myself. appreciate your productions very much.

B I've got plenty of records with songs where he got writing credit. I'd be shocked to find out he didn't have an actual part in writing those songs (a la Don Robey and The Bihari Brothers and Morris Levy and George Goldner. Just like Robert West, he was a businessman AND had had an ear for music, and knew what he wanted, He was one of our neighbours when our Airwave Records was located in The Hollywood and Vine Building for 6 years. He had the suite on our right, and Mickey Stevenson was on our left. Bunky came from mixed African-American and Caucasian background, but he was classified as "Black", and always thought of himself as a "Black man". His wife was "coal black", as I remember.

Where is the blue font?

I'd bet my house that that's not James Dean. As for William Weatherspoon, I've only heard his singing on one demo (was it "Baby, Hit and Run"?). In any case, I remember Weatherspoon's singing much more smooth and velvet-like. This is somewhat grittier (although a lot smoother than all the regular Contours).

Upon listening again, I hear no background group on this recording. That's a shame. It would sound so much better with a group singing harmonies. It would have been a great song for The Temptations, Monitors, Spinners, Originals.....etc.

Is that really The Contours? The only Contours' leads that sang mellow like that that I know of were Joe Stubbs and Dennis Edwards. That doesn't sound like Joe Billingslea, Billy Gordon, Bill Hoggs or Sylvester Potts (ALL of whom had gravelly, rather than smooth voices). Was this Hubert Johnson? If this really IS The Contours, I wonder why Kent Records didn't put it on their "Dance With The Contours" CD? I don't remember seeing a bootleg 45, or even acetate or studio demo of this. I never saw it in The Motown Vaults, and don't remember it from any Universal/Motown, Hip-O-Select, or any other Motown unreleased CDs. I's very good - right up there among their best 5 cuts.

It was a VERY common record. No one would buy it as a boot, when they could get an original US copy for a few Pounds.