Robbk

I listened to "Junkers' Blues". It's awful. He slowed it down from a raucous 1940 Boogie Woogie tune, to a 1920's Big City Blues tune, with a vocal that sounds like a White hick from Idaho trying to sing The Blues. I know there is a long tradition of remaking songs in very different music genres, but this is very disappointing, because he's one of my favourite comedic actors.

Thanks for uploading this. It's pretty disappointing, considering how well he's done at mimicking the American accent in his acting career, and what a great actor he is (both serious and comedic). The instrumentation is very good (but way too modern for me). But his vocal is weak. Not very good to my taste. And he's recorded one of my all-time favourite Blues songs, "Junkers' Blues", by Champion Jack Dupree (who I saw appear in a club in Oldenburg in 1990 (where he resided for many years) (when I lived in Bremen). I'd be afraid to listen to THAT.

Hugh Bloody Laurie!!!! Sang THAT song! Next, you'll tell me that Eric Idle sang it in "The Spanish Inquisition Sketch"! Did he record a Soul LP! "Hugh Laurie sings R&B Favourites"!

I bought Ray Charles' version new, when it first came out. It's just about my favourite Ray Charles song. Sorry, my English is not so good anymore. What I should have said was "I haven't heard THIS VERSION before."

Very nice! I've never heard of him nor the record, nor have i heard the song before this. Never seen that name. Very interesting. Must be from 1965 or '66. i would guess. Was it taken of a studio demo?

Panama probably doesn't have a gigantic local record industry. Perhaps Motown Panama is one of the largest distributors in that market, and they just picked up the distribution rights for that record, as whoever distributed Brunswick, at the time of that release, didn't think the potential oldies sales from it were worth paying for those rights; whereas Motown Panama wanted to expand their general oldies sales, and thought getting those two prestigious Soul oldies would help put their oldies series on the map, and also, they could promote it enough to warrant their paying for its rights? To answer this question, one would have to know a lot about Panama's record industry's market conditions at the time of that release. Chances are that it was Universal Records who distributed Brunswick. So, it is very possible that that release occurred during the period that Universal has distributed Motown. Based on that better likelihood, it may well be that Universal's major Soul oldies label at the time of that release was Motown. Although there is no special oldies label text designation on that label, it may be a special Motown series dedicated only to Soul oldies releases. The catalogue number series might provide a clue to answer that question. I'd be willing to bet that either the "P" series of that catalogue number is NOT Motown of Panama's normal, current records series, OR the starting numbers "1900" series is different from their normal, current release series (e.g. a designation representing their "Oldies Series").

I believe that when Johnny Pate was hired to run ABC's production office in Chicago in 1966, his agreement with ABC was that his publishing company, Yvonne Music, would split the publishing rights to all the cuts he'd produce which were newly written by himself or his staff, or the artists who would sing them with ABC's PamCo Music, which was wholly owned by ABC, after their split with Paramount. Of course, songs that were written previously but agreed upon by Pate and the artists (and their managers) would keep their own original publishing rights. I don't remember any ABC records produced by Pate that had PamCo sharing rights with the original writer's publishing company (without Yvonne's participation).

Pamco was short for Paramount Co. and was one of the main 1960s in-house publishers of ABC Records, Yvonne was likely Johnny Pate's publishing company. I have only seen "Pamco/Yvonne" as the publishers listed on different pressings of that record. To what variations of publisher listing names are you referring? Were they only on WDJ pressings, which you think may have been earlier - BEFORE ABC-Paramount leased the record???? And they had only Yvonne, or a completely different publisher listed?

No! Williams left Fortune in early-to-mid 1961, when he started with Motown. Sport started in 1967.

Andre Williams was a producer at Sport Records. Maybe that listing came from an acetate commissioned by producer, Andre Williams, and it was the instrumental for Johnny Soul's version? Williams did talk through his "Pearl Time" chart record on Sport 105 in summer 1967. And they could possibly have planned for a follow-up to it. It was a Midwest regional hit. But I doubt that Sport ever released a commercial 45 of Williams version, as I never even saw a WDJ issue of it. But, maybe it was recorded as an instrumental backing intended for a follow-up release to "Pearl Time", as they often recorded 4 cuts, to cover the optional 2nd release. The 2nd release probably wasn't cancelled because of poor sales of "Pearl Time" , because that sold fairly well. But I doubt there was ever a commercial release of an Andre Williams version. Maybe the instrumental originally made for Williams' version was given to Johnny Soul to record, after a disagreement between Sport's owners and Williams over the proceeds from "Pearl Time"? Interesting that Johnny Soul's version was a Mike Hanks joint venture production with the Sport people, and Andrew Harris produced it. And it was co-written by Mike Hanks and Emanuel Lasky.

Yes, I doubt that he was the Decca artist. He'd have to have been born before 1905-1910. He didn't become a band leader at 2 years old! The Caravan record is quite a bit too early for him, as well. The name rings a bell with me, other than the ABC 45. But, I don't remember that name as a member of a Chicago Soul group.

Yes, I am curious, too. It is strange that such a good singer only had so few recordings, and working with such a prestigious producer/arranger as Johnny Pate. And I don't remember him appearing at venues in Chicago in the mid-to-late 1960s.

It's a shame that Bob Abrahamian (may he rest in peace) never had the opportunity to interview any member of The Vontastics, for whatever reason. He interviewed almost all the Chicago Soul creators of their time.

I don't hear ENOUGH similarity between the two voices to think the odds are decent that Earl Jackson was a Vontastic under a different name. I think it is possible, but not very likely.

Yes. sad to hear this. He was very nice to me, back in 1980, making up a special big batch of Specialty hard card stock company sleeves for me. But, he lived a long life to 104. Condolences to his family.

As far as I remember being told and reading, The Northern scene in The UK was in its very early stages in 1969. But, I seem to remember being told that this Superlatives record was "discovered" by The Scene during The 1970s. IF that's true, then this later pressing couldn't have been pressed up because of UK demand. It's too fast to have been pressed up for The Beach Scene, even if that scene was requesting that old records be pressed up for them. It also wouldn't have been pressed up for The US VGH Oldies collectors, as it is too fast. And neither side was "old enough sounding" for them. So, it's a bit perplexing, However, several producers having held onto their master tapes have been known to re-open defunct labels and re-issue records on them (some of them 10 + years later). So, it might be possible that it's a legitimate re-issue. But, to be honest, I always thought it was a boot. And I've been told that by British NS collectors several times, as well.

Isn't that the song on an omnipresent US TV beer advert for a beer from a tropical country, like Modelo or San Miguel???

Thanks for informing me of that. So, maybe Rouser re-recorded it for The Beach Scene??? I don't know when that started. In any case, maybe Frankie and his current management thought they could get good sales with it being reissued.

Fairmount was a fully-owned subsidiary of Cameo-Parkway. They must have heard "Because of My Heart", and liked it enough to sign Frankie and The Butlers to an artist contract, rather than just leasing their Quakertown Productions' previous master (as they re-recorded it, or, at least replaced tracks and remixed it. In fact, I think I remember seeing a blurb in one of the trade papers announcing that Cameo-Parkway signed The Butlers, and that they were assigned to their Fairmount Records subsidiary label. As far as why Quakertown didn't release it originally on one of their labels, but, instead leased it to D.C.'s Rouser Records, must be because they thought this cut would become a hit, and they didn't have enough cash at that time, to press up all the records they thought they might need, and maybe they were offered a bigger cut in their split of sales revenue than any Philadelphia label with whom they had tried to make a deal on it. Rouser certainly didn't have a large network of national distribution like Cameo-Parkway, who ended up distributing it nationally. I suppose Rouser had, at least, a little better East Coast (regional) distribution than Quakertown/Liberty Bell.

Very, very likely. I remember seeing the Fairmount DJ issue in 1966. It is likely that the store stocker didn't get to stores until at least January 1967. Half or more of December is dead time (when nothing happens). But, I've also seen LOTS of records that were already out to distributors, and possibly to some stores, when the so-called official release date ended up being "assigned" or first recorded on paper as a later date.

I wonder if that Robert Lee on Steeltown is the son of Chicago Soul producer, Bob Lee?

I've also never seen store stockers of those 2 records.

Your clues on the unidentified song are too small a portion of the song. But, it doesn't ring a bell for me. What year does the sound tell you it was recorded?

This sounds the same speed as the record that was played on the radio in Chicago, when it was out, and the original 45 I bought when the record was first out.

We had a mint yellow stock copy of the Cindy Scott, in Tom DePierro's record file at Airwave Records. It disappeared at the same time as the Soul Frank Wilson, the Andantes VIP, and a few others. However, naturally, that one likely ended up in the UK and sold there. So IT may well be one of the two you describe, or perhaps not. But I have seen another, as well. I'm sure there are at least more than a handful.