Robbk

Many of those on that long list were NEVER pressed in any form. They were "scheduled", but withdrawn before scheduling. The Frank Wilson, Andantes, Patrice Holloway were all pressed (at LEAST the 6 pressing plant store stock pressing plant test pressings). Many of the others (Kim Weston, Oma Heard) actually got out to distributors, and some stores, before being recalled. Gordy 7004, Miracle 3 and 4, and many others never were pressed in any form (other than acetate or music studio blank label test pressing). Many of those were scheduled for release on one Motown label, and moved to another (Serenaders, Lollipops, LaBrenda Ben, etc,). Little Iva-Raynoma Gordy had a batch of 25 or 50 pressed up on Miracle in 1963 for her own use. Not ONE was pressed in 1961, when that record had been scheduled.

Was that released on King Records, as well? I have only seen it on Federal 12506. I know that a LOT of Federal and DeLuxe recordings were re-released on King in later years. But I've not seen one of this record, nor have I seen it on any discography of the label.

Yes there was,-: Argo 5373 Don and Bob "Shy Guy" / "Little Red Schoolhouse" 1960 Usually, the standard artist contract provided for release of one 45, followed by the record company option on the artists second release. Sometimes the company took that option (especially if the first release sold well), and other times the company chose not to spend the money on a second release. In this case, the second release sold much more. But, yet, a second contract was not offered.

Thanks Ady for drawing that to my attention. Senility strikes again. Ric-O-lac Music IS Richard Stamz's personal music publishing company-NOT Ric Williams'! I got my Chicago Rics switched. Of course, RicWil and WilRic were Ric Williams' publishers. I'm used to my "short-term" memory having problems, but it's kind of scary to be losing long-term memory of things I've known for over 40-45 years. I probably would have caught that mix-up, but it still irks me.

The two Argo cuts sound like they could have been cut in Chicago. It's significant that there was no Music Publisher that shared the rights with Chess' Arc Music, as they normally did when Chess leased recordings from the original release label. So, it seems that, perhaps Don and Bob brought their songs to Chess in Chicago, were signed and recorded there. I know that Don later moved there. No producers were listed on Chess records, so we don't know who ran the session. That was before Ter-Mar Studio was set up, so, I guess it was recorded at Universal Sound Studios.

I have some of Rudy's records. I never knew his father was Bob love. It's not only a small World, but a small business!

Thanks Dave. It's a small World. At Airwave, we were working with Don on two songs to release, but things got in the way, and we never released them: ( "Swept Away" and "Love Just Let Me Down Again"). Both were ballads, and non NS material, but quite good quality Soul. So, his son, Don Junior IS the successful Rapper!

I now see that there is a young rapper also Named Don Level. I wonder is he is the Chicago Don Level's son?

A very ordinary bluesy midtempo with a weak instrumental. Just because there is only one known copy doesn't mean people are willing to pay many thousands of Dollars/Pounds/Euros. I'd be surprised if he got a 20th of that price.

The songwriters listed on the record were Level and Love. Could their names have been Don Level and Bob Love? In the late 1970s and early '80s with Airwave Records, I worked with a singer named Don Level, who was in his late 40s at that time, and was from Chicago. Does anyone know their full names and who produced the record and where it was recorded? Was it an in-house Chess production, or an independent one, picked up by Chess? Any information would be appreciated.

Pearl Woods worked out of New York. Interesting that the songwriting credits went to G. Costello on Charge (perhaps he was the owner/A&R man of Charge Records); and Pearl Woods and R. Earl got the writing credits on Dawn Records (presumably a Ric Williams label-as his Ric-O-lac Music got the publishing). How did Ric Williams, in Chicago, get to release a year-old Pearl Woods record? I wonder where the connection is? At least she was able to get songwriting credit on the second release (although it did nothing in terms of sales). I lived in Chicago at the time, and don't remember hearing that on WVON, or any of the other radio stations, and although I do remember seeing the Dawn record a few times in cutout bins, it wasn't very common.

The vocalist mentions The Jerk and The Twine, so 1965 sounds about right. It COULDN'T be 1963, as those songs didn't yet exist then.

I picked up my black copy in L.A. when the record was out in the '60s. i saw only black copies back then in shops. I think the yellow must have been only one pressing batch, and am guessing that it is the rarer of the two colours (maybe not in The UK, but, certainly, over all. There should be a fair amount of regular Soul collectors in USA that liked that record and bought it (at least in California (where it got distribution).

I know I've heard that sax player before, and also the piano player. At least they should be traceable (if not, necessarily whose name would have been written on the label.

I've checked out The Red Saunders Foundation's website which covers African-American music produced in Chicago from 1939 to 1960, to look for labels I might have forgotten. Unfortunately, there were none that I had forgotten. Also, I remembered to check Bally Records, and your cuts were not issued on that label. The Red Saunders Foundation website even had labels with only one or two issues listed. So, I think that the odds are this record was not released. Still, upon listening to it, Bob may be able to tell whose voice the vocalist is. Good luck. By the way, I was not only doing that "research" as a favour,, but moresobecause I was interested, myself.

Although, clearly a 2nd or 3rd choice studio for most of the known labels, they seem to have been used quite a bit by United/States Records in the '53-57 period. Bob Stallworth has a history of the major R&B record companies on The Internet, and he is an expert on what was going on in the industry then. I'm sure he could tell you a lot about which firms used which studios (of course, Universal Sound Studios was used most by the most of the major R&B record companies in Chicago through the '50s and into the '60s (when it competed with RCA, Ter-Mar (Chess) and others. I had heard of Boulevard Studios before. But it was just another one of the studio names to me. In any case, I'd bet Bob S. could identify the artist for you and tell you the label and catalogue number. If NOT, then you might have an educated guess that it wasn't released.

No. We still can't assume that those cuts weren't pressed up. There were likely to be many one-off or two-off indie labels I have never seen, plus, we now have 1957-58 to look through (which I will NOT do). I still think that Bob Stallworth should be able to help you.

I also remember that during the mid to late '60s, the big HMV store (wasn't it on Oxford Street?) carried a surprising amount of obscure US Soul productions on UK labels in the bins, and at that time, the store had record players in booths where you could play any record you wanted to hear. I left a LOT of pretty rare British Soul records there, because I already had the US issue.

My ears didn't fail me. It WAS Mike Terry on sax, and there were some Funk brothers and other Motown session players working on it. It's definitely a high-quality production, and a well-written song. But it's "poppish", and, thus starts at $75.00 US. If it had a "soulful" vocal, it would start at $500.00. It is DEFINITELY on Sound Score Records. What I meant when I stated that you might be confusing the label with another label, is the memory of a Melvin Davis release on that same Sound Score Records. I've never heard of that existing, either when Sound Score was discussed, or when Melvin Davis' career was discussed. I also remember Dennis Coffey or Bob Babbitt or Ray Monette in thread with Ron Murphy and some other Detroiters discussing Mike Theodore and Sound Score Records. And someone mentioned that there was another release. But, if I remember correctly, they mentioned that it, too, was "pop" rather than "Soul". Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have an unknown Melvin Davis record turn up with two 1964 great cuts arranged by Mike Theodore, and instrumentation by The Funk Brothers.

See what happens when one gets old? I've got a great memory for things that happened 50 years ago and back. But, if it happened within the last 10 or so....... zilch!

As I started collecting LONG before Northern Soul started (and before what you all would term "Soul Music), my answering this question is probably "off topic". But I'll do it anyway. I first started listening to music in 1951 (mostly the 78s played by my parents, who were big fans of all types of Jazz, City Blues and the new genre of R&B. The first songs I remember liking were rockers by Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, Bulmoose Jackson and his Buffalo Bearcats, Amos Milburn and His Chickenshackers, and T-Bone Walker. But the most memorable single song from my early listening, I would say is: "Sixty Minute Man" by The Dominoes. I bought all the R&B and Soul records I could get my hands on, and listened to all the "Race Music" radio stations or programme hours we could hear in Chicago during the transition from R&B to Soul. So, I was in on Soul's beginning (WHENEVER you define its start). So, I couldn't choose a first Northern song that "got me into The Northern Scene", as such. But, I like many of the classics that were played early in Northern Soul's development. "My World Is On Fire" is one of my favourites.

That doesn't sound ANYTHING like Frank Wilson's voice (EITHER Frank Wilson, for that matter). That sounds much more like The Versatiles (but not their regular male lead).

Those cuts were NOT released on Mercury or Okeh Records. I checked Okeh, despite their own production mainly operating out of New York, because they did lease productions from Chicago, and did a little bit of recording in Chicago. Columbia would not be worth checking.

These cuts weren't released on Chess, Checker, or Club 51. I'll now check Mercury and the rest of the early '50s Chicago labels I know exist. I'm not about to look through all the national major labels like RCA, Columbia/Okeh, However, I really think that your best chance is to get through to Bob Stallworth.

I now have finished checking Chance, Sabre, Parrot, Blue Lake, Theron, JOB, Cobra, and Drexel. It wasn't released on any of those labels.