Robbk

That looks like it could be him. IF SO, apparently, changing his morals and living a highly-moral, pious life agreed with him. He looks much calmer. more content, less harried. and no longer weary and haggard, as he looked in the photos above (incredibly, at a much younger age).

So, YOU'RE the guy who kept ME from ending up with "our" copy of "Do I Love You", eh? Ha! Ha! Well, it was probably originally,"lifted" from Motown, anyway. Tom said that he found it among several other 45s and "assorted junk" in a cardboard box that someone at Motown was throwing away. He asked if he could keep the records, and the person told him yes, as they were going to toss all of it, anyway. I wonder how many people believe that story? But then, I believe Ron Murphy's story that he found store stock test pressings of, The Andantes on VIP and several other 1964-67 Motown pulled records among hits in a box that was going to be thrown away at a Detroit pressing plant. They had been the reference press run demos kept by the plant for future runs. The current workers in the plant in 1972 didn't know that some of them had been "pulled" and were very valuable. They had to clear shelf space, and couldn't waste space with "ancient jobs". So, one never knows what weird circumstances can occur in this zany World.

Yes. It's a nicely written song and a nice arrangement. I'd rather have a more soulful vocal, however.

No problem. I'll upload some drawings and comic pages on a thread in the "Freebasing" section.

To me, The Prophets, Ray Pollard, J.D. Bryant, Shirley Edwards and epsilons are the top 5.

Sounds like maybe early 1970s (1972-74)? Maybe a local, Toronto production? It's hard to peg. The songwriting/structure sounds '60s, but some of the instrumentation sounds early '70s.

Hi Ian, We owed a LOT of money, so our largest creditor had first rights to it. We declared bankruptcy, so I didn't really look into who ended up with it (I wasn't going to be affected). I don't know if Terry Brown ended up giving up the master tapes (I assume that he did).

Wow! I've never seen that before. It must be fairly rare.

Now YOU'RE joking, right??? Actually, I wasn't. I write, (and draw) Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories for Dutch, Danish, and German Walt Disney publications. Some of my stories (5 to be exact) appeared in British Donald Duck Magazine during the early 1990s. Maybe that's why the Disney Comics experiment there failed?

Ha! HA! And would you believe that I make my living as a COMEDY writer? A man with absolutely NO sense of humour!

Ha! Ha! I was very frustrated at Airwave, trying to get Tom to make '60s Soul productions, and watching them turn into "Post Disco" and late '70s style Soul mid-tempos and ballads. The nearest we got to what i like was a few excellent cuts by Don Level and Angela Carol Brown, that sound like they could have come from any era. But those never got pressed on vinyl. They only reached the demo tape stage. If I'd have known anything about "modern Soul"and had any kind of feeling for it, maybe we'd have made more money. I see now what you mean....Through my contacts in the music industry in L.A. (especially as Airwave was involved in the Disco/Dance Club scene) I should have known what Soussan was doing. That was true through mid 1984, until Airwave shut down, due to Tom's cancer incapacitating him. At that time, I knew that Sossan was still in L.A. producing Disco and 'Modern soul". But, after Airwave went down, I had absolutely nothing, whatsoever, to do with current music, living mostly in Holland, and working for Dutch Disney Publications. After Tom died in 1984, I had no contact with any L.A. music industry people. So, I had no idea whether or not Soussan stayed there and continued producing music. My only contact with music-related dealings was a once-a year visit to Rod Shard and Dave Withers, and stopping off at Soul Bowl on the way, and sometimes visiting John Manship. I got into the music industry too late for anything but nostalgic oldies projects, like "From The Vaults" at Motown, and providing occasional advisory input on Motown, Detroit and Chicago CD projects.

You're forgetting that Andre Williams was one of the major producers, songwriters and even performing artists with Sport/Boss/Sir Rah Records. His "Pearl Time" sold more than any of The Dramatics records, and probably took second place to sales of ALL of their releases only to "You Don't have To Say You love Me" by The Four Sonics.

Ha! Ha! You're kidding, of course! Reggie's singing is SLIGHTLY reminiscent of MOR's Andy Williams. But, this singer was Detroit's Reggie Alexander. I've seen his name on several other Detroit records. A. Williams is clearly Andre Williams, who worked on many Sport/Boss/Sir Rah productions. He had his OWN release on Sport, "Pearl Time". How could anyone think the "A. Williams" on this record is ANOTHER, different A. Williams? The odds are way too slim.

That rings a bell. But too many years have gone by for me to be sure.

Yes, he was still married when in L.A. (at least as late as 1982, when i last saw him. But, I don't remember her name. But how many Soussans would be living in Beverly Hills? It would probably be easy enough to track her down.

That tells me that he was still living in Beverly Hills in 2000. I wonder if he was still producing music? Not being into "modern" music, I wouldn't have a clue.

Would he have needed to get a US Social security number to live in USA as a resident alien, if he ran a business, rather than working for someone else? I rather think that he remained a French citizen, and has, instead, a residency card and an employer tax number for his entrepeneurship. maybe he eventually became a US citizen. But, I haven't heard of him doing anything in L.A. since the early 1980s. Of course, I was out of the loop since Airwave folded in 1984, and I started spending most of my time in Europe. I wonder if he moved back to Paris years ago?

Ah yes, "The Soulful Sounds of Helen Shapiro"! Well, I guess it Margaret Whiting can have a Northern soul hit..........

Ha! HA! I think that's quite an understatement. Several are really very, very good. But quite a few of the other cuts are "drek" (as we say in Holland). They are "worshipped" because of their rarity.

Simone Soussain (Soussan) (AKA Michael Saint Simon) seems likely to be of Middle Eastern descent. He may have been of Moroccan origin. But, I have no doubt that he was a French citizen, and lived in Paris for many years before moving to The U.K. He may be of mixed French Colonial (Morocco) and Arab Moroccan blood. As I remember, he had moved to Paris, then to London, (then, possibly elsewhere in England?), then went to USA in the mid 1970s. I met him in Los Angeles in 1976 or 1977. He was producing new records there, and also running his Soul Galore label, re-releasing Northern Soul cuts. He was there straight through into the early 1980s. He lived in Beverly Hills, with his wife. I visited him there. He had dealings with us at Airwave Records. I believe he ended up keeping (my business partner) Tom DePierro's copy of "Do I Love You" by Frank Wilson. Tom told me that he let Soussan tape it, and when he (Tom) returned to the recording room , Soussan was gone, and so was the record (along with a copy of The Andantes on VIP, and a few other NS-related records (possibly some Motown acetates?). I don't know if THAT is what happened, or that Tom sold him those records. But they had been in our company's record room, and I never saw them again. Tom (and, more importantly, Airwave Records needed money at the time (that was in 1982, just before we re-organised financially, into Airwave International Records). I don't know any more than anyone else about what really happened. Soussain being a Jew would come as no surprise to me. Now that I think about it, I believe that I had heard that he was born a Moroccan Jew. However, his becoming an observant, practising, Orthodox Jew, would shock me, given his former moral standards and lifestyle.

I always thought so (at least in theory). But sometimes it was the weaker side. In the case of Brunswick, (and Decca and Coral Records for awhile), the added diamond was invariably on the weaker side (so, for those companies, the extra mark seemed to mean the NON-plug side!).

I like Mary Wells' version. So do Popcorn fans.

Very nice sound! I missed a lot by not testing '70s records! I don't remember hearing this on Nederland Drie's "The Soul Show". Still, I don't think I'd pay $5-6.000 for it. I'll settle for an MP3. I bet there are a LOT more '70s cuts I'd like. I've probably only heard maybe one or two thousand '70s songs, while probably hearing several hundred thousand '60s songs.

Motown cut records at Muscle Shoals in 1972??? Wal - I'll be a blue-nosed gopher. If I hadn't up 'n moved residence to Den Haag, i might'a knowed that! Pobably too "modern-sounding" for me in any case. Early 1972 Detroit-recorded cuts with The Funk Brothers was probably "The Last of the Summer Wine" for me.

That's the RCA (Midwest(Indianapolis)) issue. Different press runs from different plants had different label layouts.