Robbk

Another one from Detroit:

This is nice, too, with Minnie Ripperton on lead:

"If I didn't Care" by The Ink Spots, "Old Man River" by The Ravens, "It's Too Soon To Know" by The Orioles, "Sixty Minute Man" by The Dominoes, The Glory of Love" by The Five Keys, "Golden Teardrops by The Flamingos, "Gee" by The Crows, "Sh-Boom" by The Chords, "Honey Love" by The Drifters, "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston, "Sincerely" by The Moonglows, "A Thousand Miles Away" by The Heartbeats, "Earth Angel", by The Penguins were all very influential records.

This is very nice:

That sounds right. I have promos on Duke, Backbeat, Peacock and Sure Shot with the XXX. I don't remember seeing any without, but can't really be sure about that latter statement. No time now to check all my records on those 4 labels.

Satellite/Stax had a fair amount of pop and country/pop releases before #130.

Dearborn was the self-owned label of a Michigan record distributorship. Soul formed only a very small percentage of that label's production.

I've never liked The Four Tracks' Mandingo cuts very much. But, upon listening to them, I'd guess they were recorded using mostly Detroit musicians, and probably recorded in a lesser Detroit studio (with not-so-good acoustics) from which I have heard at least several records recorded.

There is no actual evidence. Toledo, Ohio, is essentially part of the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Almost all singers and groups from there recorded in Detroit. For every one from Toledo that recorded in Ohio, I'm sure that we could list 10 that recorded in Detroit. The liklihood is that they recorded in Detroit. However, you are correct that we have no evidence, whatsoever, that they recorded at Magic City. Mel Collins worked for Giant of Chicago. However, they recorded Ruby Andrews in Detroit, and had Mike Terry arrange other recordings of theirs in Detroit. If I had to bet money on it, I would guess that The Four Tracks' songs were recorded in Detroit. I would NOT bet money that it was recorded in Magic City Studio. Upon listening to it several times, again, it sounds not-at-all like the acoustics of soungs I know to have been recorded at Correc-Tone/Magic City, and the session players certainly don't sound like The Funk Brothers or any of the best Motown/Detroit musicians of the time. The 2 cuts sound like they were recorded in one of the low budget Detroit studios of the time. We know it was pressed in Detroit. It might also be possible that the vocals were recorded in Toledo, and the instrumental in Detroit (or Chicago, for that matter). Yes, "Glass City" refers to Toledo, which was known as "The Glass City", as that was a primary industry there. So, we have already admitted that Mandingo Records was a Toledo, Ohio company. But, as stated above, most Toledo based labels did their recording and pressing in Detroit, and most of their artists played most of their gigs in Michigan, rather than in Ohio. Toledo is to Detroit as East St. Louis, Illinois is to St. Louis, Missouri, and East Chicago, Indiana is to Chicago, Illinois, and Kansas City, Kansas is To Kansas City Missouri, and Newark, New Jersey is To New York, and Paducah, Kentucky is to Cincinatti, Ohio, and not even unlike as Windsor, Ontario, Canada is to Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Can't you upload it onto You-Tube, and post here a link to it?

Error.

I turned off the radio in late 1966, having to listen to 8-10 songs or so, before finding one I liked. I still liked a lot of Motown cuts up to about 1970 or so. During the early '70s, I only liked a handful of cuts (up to about 1972). After that, you could count the songs I like on your hands (a couple Spinners on Atlantic, Maxine Nightengale, "I'm Doing Fine Now" by New York City. 1967,'68 and '69 were already not all that much to my liking. My favourite years in music with, by far, my most favourite songs were 1964, 1953, 1965, 1954, and 1963. The acoustics and instrumentation of recordings in the '70s are not to my liking. Most of the songwriting and arrangements are not to my liking. It's just way too "new" sounding, I like the late '30s through the late '60s.

Ha! Ha! Ha! That's so funny to hear The Delta Rhythm Boys singing in Finnish. I've heard them sing in Swedish before. I bought "The Delta Rhythm Boys in Sweden" in 1956 (Jubilee red plastic 1966 release). It's funny to me. My brother lived in Oulu for 2 years (attended university there). He lives in Stockholm now. I have lots of friends in Finland through my Disney comic book work. I work for Sanoma Uitgevers (Dutch Disney Comics)-our parent company is Sanoma (Finnish firm)-So I sometimes work with them. When I next come to Finland, I will let you know ahead, so we can arrange a meeting.

But lots of full boxes were ruined completely from heat and storage warps, water damage, and lots of other boxes were melted down to re-use the plastic. Lots of other full boxes were probably thrown away, and ended up in landfills.

Yes! LOTS of non-union cash deals.

There's got to be something to that. The story goes that Gordy planned to use "Tammy" as his label name, but then soon found out their was another company with that name that was successfully selling records. He may well have offered to pay a one time fee to avoid a lawsuit from the Ohio label. We know they had to change to Tamla, so either they offered and failed to get clearance, or they just decided to use a different name when a lawsuit was threatened (the latter is the story I heard, in the early '60s).

We found financiers who "wanted to get into the music business, and LIED to them, telling them that "this song can'[t miss being a big hit!" "You'll make millions if it hits big!" Lots of suckers were found.

This is a nice late '60s Detroit Christmas ballad. Unfortunately I can't convert from my record player to digital:

My favourite Christmas song ever(maybe because I'm Jewish): It's WAy too short. I want it to go on and on, and on!

Not the most soulful.... but...

Everyone knows this one. I bought it new just when it was released:

"Christmas Time"-by jan Bradley. What could be better than The Chicago sound, written by Curtis Mayfield. The one possible improvement would be having The Impressions or Billy Butler and The 4 Enchanters backing her up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=w5rQH2vfggc