Robbk

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.

I've seen a few Melic pressings where his name is spelled: "Westley". I can't remember which particular issues. But I also remember his name spelled that way on some venue appearance posters. I think there was general confusion due to the almost silent "t" as in the name Johnston, or that so many people saw the frequent misspellings, that people weren't sure of the official spelling, or even thought that he went by the other spelling for some portion of his career. Similar to Sam Cook(e), Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick(e), etc. I also seem to remember some late '60s and early '70s 45s of his that used the "Westley" spelling.

I've always thought that L.A.'s and Melic's Johnny Wesley was the same guy as Chicago's Vivid's Johnny Wesley. As Chicago's and VJ's Richard Parker was VJ's L.A. office chief producer, who produced both Wesley and L.A.'s Fred Hughes. I wonder if Wesley's Vivid cuts were produced in L.A. I never thought that their voices were from 2 different singers. Both his Vivid cuts and his Melic cuts were produced by L.A. producer, Lee Young. So, either Parker brought Young and his artist , Wesley, to record for VJ, or he leased the production from Young. Wesley, also went by Westley for a period, was a big favourite on the nightclub circuit in L.A. from 1964-70. The Four Tees were his back-up group. He had excellent range in his voice, and sang in different registers/keys for different music genres. He sang in a higher register for his sweet Soul/R&B songs, but sang in as much deeper key for his straight Blues, and Bluesy R&B. I really doubt that his Vivid cuts were sung by The Four Tees' lead, with Johnny in the background, or missing altogether. If that were the case, they would have had just credited "The Four Tees", or "Johnny Wesley's Four Tees. As I remember, VJ did have a couple cuts credited to just The Four Tees (who also recorded for Modern Records. Wesley's "Girl With The Red Dress On" on Vivid, is his most Bluesy Vivid cut, and is sung on a really low key. The flip, which is less Bluesy, is sung at a slightly higher register about half way between "Girl With The Red Dress On" and his much higher Melic Sweet Soul cuts.

Or, perhaps it was pulled even before any stock copies were pressed?

I found mine at Ray Avery's Records bargain-priced 45 shelves in Glendale a few months after it was released. It was a DJ copy, among about a couple hundred mint MGM/Verve/and other MGM-distributed labels. I don't remember ever seeing a stock copy of it, but I could have seen a few. That isn't a record that I'd have paid attention to whether or not it was a DJ or stocker. But, I DO remember seeing a lot of DJ issues of it. I never bothered to buy both stockers and DJ issues of Verve mid sixties releases, as I would have done for rare Detroit and Chicago Soul records. I don't remember either side being played on KGFJ in L.A. or WVON in Chicago.

I agree with this, at least for The Midwest and West Coast. I've seen many more of the Dee dee Barnes than the Cindy Gibson in those two regions where I resided. I only made a few record-buying trips to The East Coast, and never looked for records in The South(Southeast), So, I can't speak for those latter two regions. But, I was able to find and buy a copy of both records. I've never seen a WDJ of the Cindy Gibson, however.

"Did have Dee Dee Barnes on BLACK PRINT / BLUE LABEL a few years ago . " Was that one styrene? That's l.A.'s Monarch's west Coast pressing, which was the one we had in stock at Dolphin's of Hollywood, and I saw in quantity at California Music (Distributors), and in the other L.A. shops.

I've never ever seen the red stock copy of this, but seen many WDJs of it in looking through literally probably over a million or two 1960s 45s in my time. The stocker must be dead rare.

It actually CHARTED at #30! But, I'd bet that it got at least a few trial plays on many other Soul stations.

I never heard it on the radio there. But, I thought I remembered seeing a 45 of it. But, if I saw it in a thrift shop, it could have been brought there by someone who moved there from The East Coast. I think it got a few test airplays on KGFJ in L.A. But it certainly didn't get regular rotation play, or chart there. It definitely had a store stocker Monarch press run in L.A.

I bought that one when it was out, and don't remember it being terribly rare. If I remember correctly, we had it in stock at Dolphins of Hollywood, and I think they had it at Sam's, Flash, and Pat's as well. I think I remember seeing it in Chicago, too, at United Distributors. I never thought of it as "rare". I saw it a lot more on store stocker than on white DJ (which, ironically with regard to this thread, I WOULD have considered "rare"). I guess the recent rarity of 45s depends a LOT on how many of the original pressings got destroyed by the early 1970s. I'd be curious to hear from The Yank if he remembers seeing stockers of the Dee Dee Barnes in Chicagoland record shops around the time it was out.

I've seen many, many white DJ's of the Dennis Edwards International Soulsville, but to today, had never seen the original gold store stocker! I've seen hundreds of the Freddie Chavez white DJs, but only a handful of the powder blue store stockers. That's dead rare, too.

I've never seen nor heard that record. The voice sounds vaguely familiar. It has a sound that could be anywhere between 1965 and 1968.

We had one in The Airwave Records office non-Airwave Soul Records Collection. It disappeared along with the Frank Wilson and Andantes. I wonder if Tom sold them to Soussan? I have seen 2 other stock copies, but didn't want to spend collectors' prices for a non-Detroit/non Chicago Soul record.

And now I see that it is off-white, rather than powder blue!!! So it was a white DJ issue. No wonder I never saw a powder blue store stocker! Now I don't have to worry about having Alzheimer's disease. But I have to resign myself to the fact that I'm colour-blind!

It must be VERY rare. It's a Chicago mid-'60s record I've never seen on a powder blue store-stocker pressing (only on yellow). I'd like to know if this might have come from it's first, very limited release, and if The Yank saw it back in the day. Interesting that Jump Jackson wrote the song, and, yet, it was published by Ed Wingate's Myto Music, but still released a small, Chicago indie label. Did this come from John Anderson's haul from United Distributors?

Don Davis was producing for his Groove City records then. Maybe there were problems for Patti to get out of her current label contract then, so Davis couldn't release it on Groove City, and/or he couldn't get a label/distribution deal with a major label, to release it? Who was Patti recording with at that time?

I saw a fair amount of The Exits on Kapp on black store stock. We had them at Dolphins of Hollywood. I saw them in other shops as well. It didn't sell much or chart much. But it wasn't all that rare when it was out.

He may have gotten a lot of them from Ron Murphy, who ended up getting the remaining stock of them.

Happy Holidays, everyone!!!

Nice to hear that the Success masters will be included. I hope there are some nice unreleased cuts among them.

I've seen a few store stockers of the Tony Michaels, as well.

I saw a handful of Tamiko Jones' stockers, mostly back in the mid 1960s, and a few later.

Absolutely! Avin, Celtex, Expo, O-Pex, and Webcor ALL were Chicago labels, with Lasley involvement or connection, and all had links to Detroit, as well.

Avin was a Chicago label. Andre Williams was a Chicagoan, whose base was always in Chicago, but he worked more in Detroit for some years, but mainly commuted back and forth between the two cities for many years. He kept a home in Chicago, but stayed with friends and associates, in Detroit when recording there, and had an apartment there for awhile. He rarely had the money to finance his own record companies, so his labels were generally owned by financing partners even if he was the COO, A&R man and main producer.