Robbk

Yes, Gerald Mathis. That's the guy. J. (John) "SoulSmith" (Smith) interviewed former Volumes' member, Bobby Peterson (during a Prestatyn visit to UK), which can be found here: https://jsoulsmith.blogspot.com/2009/06/magnetics-volumes.html What he says that Peterson revealed jibes with the other story that was going around, that they were, indeed, actually the Volumes' lineup that existed after Eddie Union had left the group to pursue a solo career. Assuming this is true, I still am inclined to think that there is a connection to the Allrite label group (at least one member).

So, then VJ was already out of business when J-V operated? I thought it was the same time that Exodus was being run by VJ's people (name change due to Vivian and Jimmy's lawsuit against their LA managers). I had thought that Customa Music was VJ's other publishing after Conrad (Vivian and Jimmy) and Tollie (Vivian, Jimmy & Ehwart Abner), to divide royalties between Vivian, Jimmy and Calvin. Maybe J-V had no direct connection to VJ, in that Vivian, Jimmy and Calvin couldn't operate as VJ after it had gone bankrupt, and was currently in litigation. But, that was also the situation with Exodus (was it not?). It wasn't a subsidiary of VJ, but was VJ's same people, operating a new company (but even using masters that had been paid for by VJ during their operation. I'm sure that Calvin got at least some of the money to operate J-V from Vivian and Jimmy (thus, the letters J and V in the label name). I doubt that Customa Music was owned outright, just by Calvin, alone. This was a similar situation to ours at Airwave Records. We went bust as "Airwave Records", and immediately reorganised a new corporation, "Airwave International", with the identical staff, and started releasing records on that label, which appeared almost as a continuum of "Airwave Records". No one noticed any difference.

It was long before Northern Soul, the first songs I liked were some of my father's 78s-"Junkers' Blues"-Jack Dupree, "Saturday Night Fish Fry"-Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five, "Minnie The Moocher"-Cab Calloway, "Stormy Monday"-T-Bone Walker. The first records I bought were R&B group harmony in 1953, "Golden Teardrops" The Flamingos, "Money Honey" - The Drifters, "Crying in the Chapel-Orioles. It would be impossible to tell which Northern Soul record I heard first (as what is classified as NS keeps changing, adding earlier cuts to the genre). But, I have been listening to "Black" or "African-American"-artist music from 1951 to the present (Blues (Ciity & Delta), Jazz, Boogie Woogie, R&B, Jump Blues, Gospel/Spiritual, R&B/Soul transition, early Soul, classic Soul (and also sub-genres -Motown, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, L.A. and Southern Soul)-with no break. I didn't notice an abrupt change from R&B to "Soul" music. It was gradual-and I liked much of both. I like all sorts of Black American music, in all tempos, vocal and instrumental, with all sorts of melodies and tempos. As far as records played on the Northern scene, I like too many to mention. My very favourites would be several hundred. Songs I like would likely be over 100,000. So, way too many to mention. Which ones would be in "my Top 100" would change daily, to fit my mood (or current memories)-as I am a senior citizen, so it doesn't work the same way as it did when I was younger.

I've read that The Magnetics on Bonnie were made up of a morphed version (personnel changes) of The Magnetics that had recorded for Allrite Records, with the Volumes' later lead singer (not falsetto lead Eddie Union-but their lead on the later Inferno releases). I seem to remember Ron Murphy mentioning this (possibly on Soulful Detroit Forum).

The faster Johnny LeMac is a better tempo and arrangement than the JV cut (in my opinion)-although both are very good. Clearly, he just took his same song and gave it a different treatment. I assume that the J-V is the original. But i don't know for sure. I bought the J-V new. It was a V-J label, when they were going out of business due to the overspending by new ("clueless") management in L.A. Calvin Carter produced that in Chicago. I think it was during the Exodus run in late 1965. Could someone upload a scan of the Johnny Lemac? BobA -when was the latter released? Was this the Chess or Brewtown release? I assume the Brewtown was the latter, in the early '70s.

That guy's got a lot of Krass!

Awful singing! The guy can't sing! On the Roulette record, the great song, and his group bail him out, and disguise his lack of range, and lack of feeling for the song. Same is true for the Landa cuts. He's left bare on this one, and found very wanting.

"Found True Love"-Billy Butler & 4 Enchanters, "Grand Spanish Lady"-Royal Ravens, "I'm Gonna Love You So"-Dukays, "Young Boy"-Barbara Green, "Up On The Roof"-Drifters, "Someone To Call My Own"-Equadors, "I'll Be There"-Uptones, "Delilah"-Major Lance, "My Beloved"-Satintones, "Feel Like Lovin' "-Sheppards, "I Didn't Know"-Voice Masters (Lamont Anthony (Dozier)), "Free"-Voice Masters (Ty Hunter), "Good-Bye Cruel Love"-Linda Griner (& Love-Tones), "I'll Come Running"-Carolyn Crawford, "This Heart of Mine"-Artistics, "That Was My Girl"-Parliaments, "A Tear From A Woman's Eye"-Temptations, "Come On"-Distants, "Cry"-Majestics, "Tears, Nobody and a Smile-Serenaders, "Pretty little Angel"-Little Stevie Wonder, "I'll Always Love you"-Spinners, "Any Girl In love"-Kim Weston, "A Favor For A Girl"-Brenda Holloway, "You Turned my Bitter Into Sweet"-Mary Love, "Run One Flight of Stairs"-Gloria Jones "Senorita I Love You-Impressions, "Walk Softly Away"-Starglows, "Do It To Me"-Hector Rivera, "Come Monkey With Me"-Gino Washington (& Rochelles), "A Little Too Long"-Wanderers, "Never Felt like This Before"-Five Quails.

1959-1964 were great years for transition from R&B to Soul. I like THOUSANDS of songs from those years (Much much much more than cuts from 1965-1969-and I only like, perhaps a handful of cuts from 1970-72, and maybe only one made after that ("Right Back Where I Started From"). There are way, way , way too many to start listing them (virtually everything released by VJ, Chess, Motown, Anna/Checkmate, virtually all the Popcorn and Beach cuts from that period, all the Brill Building written cuts from then, etc. The Volumes, Dukays, Five Quails, Royal Ravens, Serenaders, Poets, Caravelles (Harry Gates), Dynamics, Sheppards, Victorials, Barbara Green, Barbara Lewis, Jive Five, Marcels, Four Buddies (Van McCoy group), Chaunteurs/Presidents, Billy Butler & 4 Enchanters, etc. come to mind.

Definitely got that L.A. mid-to-late '60s Jazz-tinted R&B instrumental sound. I knew I had that cut. The Hideaways MUST have had some of the same players as did The Packers. They were basically mainly studio groups in any case, weren't they? Although, I DO remember the Packers making the rounds at clubs in L.A. in 1966-68.

That's right. We had selected that one for later inclusion in "From The Vaults". It was clearly Cal Gill on lead. It later came up for auction with some other Jobete Music and Motown acetates at the end of the 1980s or begnning of the '90s.

Does anyone here know the connection that The Valaquons' management had to Motown's L.A. Jobete Music office for them to have recorded a Jobete song for Tangerine Records ("Window Shopping On Girls' Avenue"?

Was that a label misprint of Cry Baby Curtis? Or is that just a typo on this post?

It was a fairly obscure R&B release from early 1957, which, to my knowledge, never had a legit re-issue. Despite having been distributed by Atlantic, it should be hard to find now. I'm almost sure I've seen a facsimile boot of it, which was made for the R&B collectors. Here is a scan of my original: Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Ha! I had completely forgotten that I have that record, as well!

Denbo (The Vinyl Junkie) came up with this interesting thread, pointing out that there were two different pressings of "Don't Worry About Dancing For Me"/"Leave Me Alone("I'm Begging You"). Let's hear it for members posting interesting threads! Hear! Hear! Amazing! You've even got me using a (shudder) smilie!!!

Sorry John. I have now added the acknowledgement.

I grew up listening to my father's 78s of City Blues, a little Delta Blues, Avant Garde Jazz, and Boogie Woogie. The first records I bought were Black group harmony (in 1953 (Flamingos, Five Keys, Drifters, Orioles, Dominoes, Moonglows). I LOVE 1953-1954 Group Harmony cuts, as well as 1959-64 R&B/Soul transition (Detroit & Chicago Soul, early Philadelphia Soul (1962-65) and New York Soul (1960-65). I don't like Funk. I like Chicago Blues (1948-1957) and a lot of Delta Blues. I like Gospel music (19302-1960s). I like Avant Garde Jazz Late 1940s-1950s and Cool Jazz of the 1960s, and also Afro-Latin Jazz 1960s-1970s. I don't like much Soulk from the '70s (only 1970-72). Motown 1962-66 and Chicago Sound 1962-66 are my favourites, along with Group Harmony from 1953-54.

The reason you haven't seen that Modern cover is because it was fom the original first run of Modern Records, used from 1957-60, rather than in the resurrected Modern (2nd series) from 1964-71.

Okay. I'll try a link direct to the page with my uploads. Click on the small images, and a large one will open: https://www.raresoulforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=7436&st=30

This was never released. The vocal is very different, so is the instrumental. Very nicely primitive.

I've posted hundreds of different company sleeves on RareSoulForum.co.uk . I've not got the time to post them all again. So, here's a link to that thread. There were a few nice ones posted by others, as well. Mine start on the third page: https://www.raresoulf...?showtopic=7436

I think that Shep on TNT COULD be Shep Grant. Their voices sound a bit different. But, on the Musicor cut, he is going "way deep", emulating Jimmy Ricks. That could just be two registers lower than on his TNT cut, but the same voice. A New York Baritone singer using the name "Shep" in the mid '60s fills the bill. The TNT guy doesn't sound like James Shepperd, Kenny Shepherd, or Wyatt "Big Boy" Shepherd. Who else could it be? It's not Bunky!

"Ximena" by Ronald Dean Strickland is listed on BMI.com. No artist listed. Strickland is a Texas songwriter. I don't know if anyone recorded the song. I found two listings for "Xiomara", but nothing on a recorded version.

Ha! Ha! - It looks like I'm playing "Doo Wop Fan Cop" here. I was just very surprised, because so many Group Harmony fans look down on "Soul Music" from 1964 and after, and, actually treat even group harmony music from 1958-64 as second class to 1952-1957. But, like Larry, there are a few people (like myself) that like '60s Soul music on that forum.