Robbk

Yes, "Mad Mike's Moldies"!

I doubt there's ANY Detroit connection. It doesn't look like a Detroit pressing. No Detroit names involved. Wasn't Rufus Lumley from Minnesota? He was a legend there. Even Garrison Keillor revered him.

The termed them "moldies" in Pittsburgh. (as in moldie oldies).

Herb Abramson worked on projects in D.C. and Baltimore. He was early involved in D.C.'s music because he was friendly with Ahmet and Neshui Ertegun, whom he had first met in Washington. That, eventually got him involved with Jubilee Records. It may be that M.B.S./Mir-A-Don's recordings were made in D.C., or New York, or New Jersey, or, even Philadelphia. But, as they brought the group to NY to make the demo recording, it's most likely that they recorded the final mix and pressed in New York, as well. But not absolutely certain.

I don't remember Roscoe Bowie involved in a Chicago production. As far as I remember, he worked strictly on The East Coast.

I saw US LPs and 45s for sale at HMV as early as 1965. But they cost a pretty penny.

I thought it all started at 1719 Gladstone St.

I've always thought the person was female, based on the voice and mannerisms in the voice. I had also thought I had remembered her being part of the San Francisco Bay music scene in the mid-late '60s (e.g. seen a photograph-proving she was a woman). Sometimes people name their children with a name that might be thought of as belonging only to one sex. Men have been named Shirley and Beverly. One would guess that the female name would be "Othella", but some people like to be different. If THAT singer IS a male, he had serious hormone problems. That is not a "falsetto" performance.

After listening to both his 20th Century Fox record and watching the clip, I can say, without a doubt that both are the same person. One can hear his "trained voice" in both, with similar tone quality. I've always thought that the Fox artist must have also been a "Broadway" wannabee. I don't remember hearing his Coral cuts. Are they good?

Earl Connelly was likely to be Louisiana Blues singer, Earl King. Some of his early '50s King records list him as "Earl Connelly King".

I have a white background (with gold "stars" and constellation lines) with black print, having the Boola Boola etched, and X-3382 on "This Must Be Love", and with 1234-8 etched in the wax on "You're Still On My Mind".

I like The Steve Mancha best. The Funk Brothers' instrumental is the tightest and cleaner than that on The Professionals' version.

Here's a small photo of Mary from her Modern records period:

Here's The Calla record: The Producer is New York's Richard Rome. Little Jerry Williams (Swamp Dogg) was co-writer along with Rome on one side, Verdell Smith wrote the other (perhaps she was married to "Buddy Smith", or was his sister? Despite the credits not producing another connection, I'd say there's NO doubt that it's the same group on all 3 labels (potentially with group member changes-but the same origin). Two different NY Soul groups with the same unique name existing at the same time would be absurd.

The Volumes' cuts were all Detroit, and so were the Bobbie Smith and some others leased to that label by Harry Balk. But, that's no different from showing Big Top sleeves for Balk and Micahnik's records leased to Big Top (New York label), or Columbia sleeves for Detroit productions leased to Columbia, and Coral sleeves for Ortheia Barnes' releases, or RCA sleeves for Pied Piper's Detroit productions. They aren't Detroit record label sleeves. So far, I only know of Motown and Sound, and Dearborn (although, Dearborn is a Detroit label, like All Platinum(located in New Jersey) is a New York label (Metropolitan area)).

I'm 66 going on 67. Does that qualify? I started buying records (Black American Blues, R&B, Gospel, Jazz) in 1953. You tell me when the first Northern Soul record came out, and I'll tell you I bought it new, found it in a bargain bin within 1 year of its release, or bought a similar record new. Not being a Brit, I was introduced to Northern Soul collectors in the early 1970s. I went to my first all-nighter in Lancashire in 1980 or 1981.

Cheating, in that American Arts was a Pittsburgh (rather than Detroit) label? Harry Balk had some business relations with the owner. But, the company's operations were in Pittsburgh and many of their artists were located and produced away from Detroit. We can get Big Top covers as well. Balk leased a lot of his productions to that company. But it was also a non-Detroit company (operating out of New York).

Great article, Rob. Nice, thorough job. Unusual that I didn't learn anything I hadn't known before from other sources, other than the fact that Mancha was his real family name, and that his family had Spanish roots. Nice to know, however, that what I did think was true is confirmed. Normally, I find that some of the long-time rumours going round were only conjecture.

Duplicate post

The publishing on both of Margaret's cuts on GeneBro was owned by Popcorn Wylie's self-owned Ala King Music. But, again, I don't think they made any money "selling" the Stardust pressings (I'd guess that any sales that occurred went to cover the pressing costs, and as so many were given away, no profits were made). So, any inquiry as to any money due Popcorn's heirs or Ms. little, would be from sales or use of the 2 songs in some other form/format. On that same subject, there were likely NO commercial sales of the original GeneBro release. Even if there were, I doubt that they'd have been enough to cover recording studio time fees and pressing costs. So Ms. Little would likely be due naught from Gene Bro,,,,, and the same from Detroit Stars.

Andy Rix, who wrote what he learned from a telephone call with Ms. Little in a thread on this forum from 2010, said he was hoping to talk to her again, to get more information about her career and this production. I'm guessing that he never did talk to her again. Otherwise, we would know what he learned (ostensibly from his adding it to the 2010 thread). But, I hope he sees the additions to these 2 threads, and comments on that subject.

According to Ron, those 45s pressed up on Soul King and Stardust were basically to get the music to some few people who'd appreciate the music. Ron said he gave more than half of them away. He gave me two of each (one set to give to a collector friend of mine). He gave away copies to several others of his friends and some collector friends. He didn't really plan to make money on them, and I'm sure that he didn't make money on them. If I remember correctly, he told me he paid the rights holders small fees for the rights to press them up (I'm guessing a few hundred Dollars each). I'm also guessing that he either paid Gene Bro,,,,,? a fee, or couldn't find someone to pay for that production's rights. Wouldn't the artist, Margaret Little, only be due a percentage of sales revenue AFTER production costs are taken out? If so, as they really made no profit, she would have been due nothing, in any case. He told me he pressed up very few (I would guess 300, AT MOST, but possibly only 200 or maybe, 100), and did NOT market them to the Northern Soul scene. I'm guessing that those copies that got to UK came directly or indirectly from people who got them from Ron.

Yes, but "Bro" was probably only his nickname. As I remember it from a discussion we had on Soulful Detroit Forum, with Ron Murphy and other long-time Detroit music collectors and people in the music business, Bro's last name started with the letters "B-R-O....., but the real family had had other letters after those. I remember reading the name, but don't remember what it was. Unfortunately, that thread was lost during the reorganisation/reconfiguration of the SDF website.

As stated in the 2010 thread, it was definitely produced and recorded in Detroit(in 1967, I believe), by Popcorn Wylie. The "Gene" involved (Margaret's "discoverer" and manager) was said to be a barbershop owner on The West Side of Detroit. On the thread, he was said to have been named "Gene Bro". That doesn't sound right to me. We had a discussion on SDF in which Ron Murphy (who also had worked with Wylie) had mentioned his actual full last name (it started with Bro...and included more letters). He went by Gene "Bro" as a nickname. But, I can't remember the complete name; and the thread was lost during the Soulful Detroit Forum's website's reorganisation/reformatting effort. The label owner, "Gene", in question, was DEFINITELY NOT Gene Redd Jr., as suggested by some posters. Redd never really resided full-time in Detroit, although, he operated his Golden World-distributed Stephanye Records partly in Detroit in 1966. But he recorded only New York artists he had worked with in New York, and spent little time in Detroit, where he could "discover" young Detroit talent he'd want to record. The other thread also mentioned (from an interview with Ms. Little (margaret Little was her real birth name)), that she was given the recording studio time in recompense for a debt owed.

I think that a box was found (late in the game). Before the '80s, I had only seen a couple beat up copies in the hands of US collectors. I never found one for myself in many trips to Detroit in the mid '60s.