Robbk

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.

Was Tommy Hunt's version recorded for Atlantic or Capitol? It sounds to me like Sylvia Shemwell is the most prominent of the girl group of background singers, so, I'm betting it was for Atlantic.

Tuff Records was run by Abner Spector out of Boston, with connections to Zell Sanders (owner of J&S, Dice, and Zell's Records in New York. Chess Records (owner of WVON (Rodney's boss), distributed Tuff Records and J&S Records. From Tuff's artist roster, as far as I know, only E. Rodney Jones, and Roscoe Robinson, were based in Chicago (and were signed to Tuff through the Chess connection. Bobby Copney(who was rumoured to also be Bobby Treetop), and most of Tuff's other artists, were East Coast based. I don't remember any of their non-Chicago artists,(other than the North Carolina bred Corsairs (who had a national following after their hit record, "Smokey Places", probably moved to New York), appearing in Chicago. Most of their artists were New York, Boston, or remainder of The East Coast based. Nobody I knew in Chicago knew who Bobby Treetop was. Treetop is too weird a name to be a real surname. It seems logical that it may have been Bobby Copney, who sang often, in falsetto. "Treetop" could refer to his vocal range often going as "high as the treetops". It's hard to feel confident that Treetop is Copney based on the voices on their two records. But it is also impossible to rule that out.

Great interview telling E. Rodney's story and about the start of WVON. Now I know why Al Benson wasn't with them for a long time - he was too independent, and wouldn't do only what Rodney wanted. A company couldn't run smoothly with 2 headstrong leaders going different ways.

I've listened to both versions many times back-to-back, and cutting back from one to the other after short snippets, and much of the time they sound to me like the same singer, with a few small portions where they sound like different people, with Wilson having a smoother, lighter, less gravelly voice, and The Professionals' lead having a heavier, deeper, rougher, more nasal and gravelly voice. That difference is why I have always thought they were different people. Melvin Davis and Edward Hamilton's voices were always fairly close to Wilson's, with that gravelly quality, sometimes I mistook one for another. I doubt that Hamilton ever recorded for Don Davis. But both Melvin Davis and Steve Mancha (Clyde Wilson) were Davis' two right-hand men at Groovesville Records, much of that occurred at the same time, and while The Professionals were with Groove City. So there is no real way to know for sure, without some documentation. But, we've been told by people who should know, that The Professionals only sang the "A" side, so we can be fairly certain that the "B" side was someone else (most likely Clyde Wilson or Melvin Davis. To me, although the 2 voices sound a little different, the singer sounds a little more like Wilson than Davis. People don't always sound the same every day. He could have had a little nasal congestion on the day he recorded The Professionals' version.

I always thought they were DJ records, with the letter "A" standing for "Advance", as in "Advance Promotional Copy".

No. I was referring to Jimmy Hart's "Tea House" on Blue Rock.

I use 6 commercial press run test pressings (as a general guess) because that's the regular number pressed up by the Detroit plant that pressed Motown's less important or emergency runs (ARP, I think), with whom Ron Murphy worked closely on their pressing his labels, and who pressed records he mastered, and from whom Ron acquired The Frank Wilson and Andantes issues. Naturally, a larger, major national label like Mercury, might request a few more copies than Motown, for different departments or different geographic offices. But, the amount probably would never be over 10, or less than 4 or 5.

Possibly only the 6 pressing plant test pressings were pressed up, and then suddenly, the pressing order was cancelled immediately after the decision to switch the release over to Mercury, and before the commercial press run could be started up. The same situation that had occurred with The Frank Wilson Soul, and Andantes VIP.

Yes it is. I've seen but one single black stocker in my many years of record spotting. Also, finding it on an original Detroit tiny one-shot indie label owned by Dave Hamilton would be an even greater find.

I'm pretty sure that the background group on "So Blue(Without You)" was The Dells, as VJ producer, Richard Parker, used the Dells on many of his VJ and Vivid productions, including Barbara Green's cuts. Incidentally, Detroiter, Joe Murphy had been the lead singer of Berry Gordy's old songwriting partner, Billy Davis' R&B Harmony groups from 1952-1961, The Thrillers, The Five Jets, The Five Stars, and The Voice Masters (Anna Records), and was Joe in the duo of Lo(Lorrie Rudolph) and Joe, on Harvey and Gwen Gordy Fuqua's Harvey Records. So, he had been around in the business since about 1950. The Dells(as The El Reys) also had recorded their first record in 1952. The Dells were a major back-up group for both Chess and VJ during the early 1960s. Their classy harmony was one of the reasons why both companies had such great recordings during that period.

I just meant that The "Call on Me" and "Just Believe Me" singer didn't sound enough like the voice on the Melic cuts, and really not quite enough to the voice on the Vivid cuts. But, I Could be wrong about the Vivid cuts. But, now that I listened again, it sounds to me like the Vivid singer IS the same singer as the two 80s cuts on the video recordings above. Now, I'm thinking they either they are ALL the same singer or The Melic singer is different from John Westley-Moffat. But, that doesn't seem all that likely, given that I've seen some Melic 45 alternate printings spelling the name Westly (WITH the "T"). It makes more sense that there weren't two different Johnny Westlys (both Soul singers operating in L.A. during the 1970s.

The singer credited above as "John Westley" is NOT the Melic/Vivid artist. The Quincy Jones vocalist IS L.A.'s Johnny Wesley. I don't remember Johnny Wesley as ever going by "John". But, I have to admit that I lost track of his career during the early 1970s.