Robbk

Yes, it brought a few tears to my eyes. But, it's nice to hear his voice every so often. Nice that "Sitting In The Park" 's interviews have been saved, and we also have these interviews of Bob. I have had a lot of family members and friends who left no recordings. So, I can only remember their voices from my memory, and from dreams. But recordings, and film are a lot nicer, as they are more accurate, and then trigger other memories of those people. I'm relatively old, and don't know how long I'll be around. But even if it's 20 more years, that goes by really fast (as one gets older). So, I hope I'll be in contact with Bob again, after I go. The older I get, the more I believe that's possible. I know that sounds irrational, but The World is plenty ridiculous even when one has had a good foundation in the sciences, and has good mathematical logic.

The Gambrells were a local, Detroit group. Pat Hunt was an L.A. artist. Was there also a song writer/singer named Patricia Hunt, who was from Detroit? Pat Hunt got credit for writing the song. But, I don't recall a songwriter from Detroit named Pat or Patricia Hunt. L.A.'s Pat Hunt wrote songs for Jobete Music, but she only worked for them in L.A. with Hal Davis, Marc Gordon, and Frank Wilson. That song was written in 1966. I wonder if Wilson could have taken some of Pat's songs which had been rejected by Motown, to Detroit on one of his early trips there, and sold it to Alan Sussman's and Gary Rubin's "Tru-Soul Music", the music publishing arm of their (Detroit's) Pioneer Recording Studio, that also owned Pioneer and Tru-Soul Records? Yes, those same Gambrells were backing up Scott(y) Bray, who had releases on both Pioneer, and Tru-Soul. I'm sure the two sisters were NOT the whole group. I'm sure I saw photos of 3 ladies, and also may have seen them appear on a Windsor Ontario dance TV show, Swingin' Time, from 1966 or 1967. That would be quite a coincidence, if their 3rd member was also named "Pat Hunt". But a lot stranger things than that happen all the time. However, I suspect that their 3rd member had a name some of us know as a Detroit singer, who was also in other groups, or had solo releases. Yes, both "Jive Talk", and "Find A Love" are fabulous, and I like both better than any of their Ollie McLaughlin productions (which is very surprising, as I love most of his work), and better than their Mike Valvano productions that appeared on MGM's newer Cub Records label(and I usually like most of those as well (such as "My World Is On Fire" by Jimmy Mack)).

I agree that the Earl Beal from The older, Philly Silhouettes couldn't be the guy in The Tangeers. But, possibly he was his son (named Earl Beal Jr., who simply added an e and an l to his 2 names for a "stage name". It would be quite a coincidence to come from generally the same area (Baltimore and Philadelphia shared almost as many local ties as Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and the 2 men look enough alike to be father and son. And the ages work a LOT better than the Tangeer being 44 years old.

The '50s group was from Philadelphia, and the Trenton group seems to be from Central New Jersey. So, it seems clear that the 2 groups had no connection.

Trenton New Jersey is closer to the Philadelphia market than New York (Northern New Jersey) Market. It was always considered "Downstate". So, I would guess that everyone in Trenton would have been well aware of the 1950s group. THAT group was still going strong on the club circuit in 1964, and had a regional hit with "Dollar Sign" that year. 1964 is too close to 1968 to have had no connection. The Re-Vells were really a very well-known local Philadelphia (and thus, Eastern Pennsylvania/south New Jersey group. So, I believe it is VERY UNLIKELY that a new group would come up with that name out of the blue. Someone would have told them to pick another because of the former group. By the same token, it is not very likely that The 1950s group would have stayed intact all the way to 1968. Actually, they had already had at least one line-up change between 1961 and their 1964 Kapp release. I'm guessing that they had at least one more between '64 and '68. I would bet that roughly half the members would have been new by their Trent-Town release.

Apparently from Trenton, New Jersey. I wonder if this Lemons was related to George Lemons and his family in Detroit? It's a fairly uncommon name.

WOW! Ray Stevens, C&W/Novelty singer, of "Ahab The Arab" fame, produced that song. Will wonders never cease?

I'd like to hear that. I'm a big fan of The Originals. I've liked C. P. Spencer since his time with The Five Jets, starting in 1954.

Impossible to keep just one record out of several 10,000s. The old desert island problem. But, I never even had a single favourite song from the first day in 1953, when I heard both "Red Sails In The Sunset" and "My Saddest Hour" by The Five Keys, and "Golden Teardrops" by The Flamingos. All 3 are STILL my "favourite song" to this day 66 years later, and there are probably more than 100 more added to them, which mean not one iota less to me than those 3.

As far as I remember, they were for ALL current products (which include BOTH new AND represses).

Those were very common back during the end of the 1960s and through the 1980s. I don't know how easy it is to find them now.

I'd believe 1963 before 1959. My best guess is late 1961 or early 1962.

I would say it IS 100 % sure that Laurie used it first. But, I don't remember seeing it before 1961. I would guess it started no earlier than late 1960. I looked though 1000s of records in Chicago between 1959-61. I never saw it in 1959 or even 1960.

I should have brought more Quality, REO and Arc covers with me when I left Canada. I am short several Quality, and 4 REO covers. I have a surplus of 7 Arc covers.

I keep my Amy records in Amy covers, and my Malas in Mala covers.

Both of Popcorn's labels, Soulhawk and Pamline were distributed by Atlantic. So, why would anyone be surprised that Atlantic put a Pamline record out on the "Mother label"? Based on the distribution deal they had with Wiley, apparently, they had the option to move any Soulhawk or Pamline release onto one of their labels (Atlantic, ATCO, or Cotillion) IF sales on the original label were high enough to indicate an opportunity to sell more with Atlantic's highest level of distribution channels (or more well-known and well-respected label). That was a commonplace option the large distributors had written into their distribution deal contracts with small, independent record labels. He shouldn't have been surprised that it was released on Atlantic. But he's fully within his rights to ask for royalties from Atlantic's sales. However, based on what I've seen over the years, Atlantic had almost no sales. That Atlantic pressing must be extremely rare, as compared to the number of Pameline store stockers AND white DJ issues which have been seen back when the record was out, and have turned up over the years till now. It has also been very common for the major distributing label's issue to never get distributed after being pressed, or for it to fail, because they didn't give it a marketing push, or they didn't have people doing the groundwork who would give it any priority (e.g. they had LOTS of other records to push for which they had a much closer relationship with the record company). So, it showed up to potential buyers as one of their products, but the potential buyers never had any reason to be interested, not having heard of the label or artists, and never having heard the songs.

Yes, I do. But those years were long ago. I'll have to think about it for awhile. I remember Bob Hite, before he joined Canned Heat. He was chubby, clean shaven, with greased down Italian-style slicked back hair, sitting behind the counter in Westwood's Rancho Music (Westside suburban record shop), in a Hawaiian shirt, playing his ukulele. After we had been friendly for a few years, he told me about the new singing group he was forming with Henry Vestine, and a few other Blues record collectors I had met. When he told me the name, I blurted out "THE CAN'T EAT????? What kind of name is that for a BLUES band???? (I was an "Old Man" even at the tender age of 20) . That was 1966, and if I remember correctly, just when those new-fangled singular noun group names were coming in. When I found out the real name was "Canned Heat", I thought "THE CAN'T EAT" was better. Bob had an amazing collection of Blues 78s. I've met Mickey Stevenson, Bunky Sheppard, Ernie Freeman, Lonnie Cook, Gloria Jones, Mary Wells, Bo Diddley, Albert King, B.B. King, Dootsie Williams, Ruth Dolphin, Freddie Gorman, Robert Gordy, Dee Dee Warwick, Brenda Holloway, Lester Tipton, The O'Jays, The entire cast of "Amos 'N' Andy" TV show, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, prize fighter Sugar Ray Robinson, Mel Carter, Bob May, Cap Wortman, Jane Hill, Music Man Murray, The Wenzels, John Hillyard, Ray Avery, Art Turco, Lew Bedell, Art Rupe, Hunter Hancock, Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar), and a lot more. I met a fair amount of record collectors, shop owners, and music industry people in Chicago, Detroit (I used to drive there 2 Saturdays a month to look for records from 1963-66 (right during the best music years), and L.A., and also the San Francisco Bay Area, where I lived in 1971-72, and had gone on several long weekend trips during the late '60s. So, I'll have more stories coming. None of my stories are funny. My funny stories all come from the 20 years I worked in Africa, The Middle East, and The Far East, and living in Germany. Nothing very funny has happened to me in The Netherlands (and that's okay with me. I like stability of a decent situation. Also, a lot of Black entertainers came into my father's stores on The South Side of Chicago, and in "South L.A." (actually, The West Adams section of it). I was a "Ghetto Child" in my mid and late teens and early 20s). But, right now I've got heavy work deadlines and am also working on my 2018 taxes (which is complicated - involving 3 countries). So, I'll have to pick this up some time in the future. In any case, I'm a lot better at bringing up things from a prompt (comment about something that triggers my memory, rather than trying to search among the cobwebs to find long unthought of memories).

I just want to say that while I remained in Lily-White Manitoba, I was an AWFUL, Awkward And down right Bad, dancer, who just did not have that Smoothness(which was roughly average for most of Canada) . After moving to Chicago, and attending a 60% African-American high school, and being coached by my new friends (most of whom were Black), I at least moved up from a rating of "pitiful", to the bottom of the "passable" range. Had I moved directly to the Lily-White Chicago suburb, where I moved 2 years later, I'd have remained in the pitiful category all my life. Well, actually, I might have picked up a little style, anyway, after moving to The Netherlands.

Yes, the Seattle label had nothing to do with Jack Ashford's Detroit label. And Patrinell Staten was a Seattle resident.

I not only shopped in all three stores but worked there, as well. The original store was located at Vernon Ave. and Central Ave. in South Central. The 2nd store was at Manchester Ave. and Broadway, in South L.A., and the 3rd was at Crenshaw and 43rd St., in The Crenshaw District/Liemert Park. I shopped at all 3, and also helped out, sporadically, carrying record boxes, and helped Mrs. Dolphin with inventorying her records. I also shopped at Flash Records, which was also on Vernon and Central, and Sam's Records, on Adams Blvd near Western Ave., Pat's Records on San Pedro Place and Gage Ave., and Crain's Records, on Adams Blvd. and West Blvd. in The Crenshaw District (which was owned by KGFJ DJ, Herman Griffith). All those were the classic L.A. Ghetto record shops which had extensive stock of R&B, Soul, Blues, Jazz, and Gospel records. I also had friends working at Record Merchandising (distributor), and a couple other distributors in L.A, and I had the same kind of coverage in Chicago for record shops and distributors.

Contours - "First I Look At The Purse" "I don't care if she waddles like a duck, or talks with a lisp, I just think I'd be better of if her Dollar bills are crisp.... 'cause first I look at the purse." Champion Jack DuPree - "Junker's Blues" (1940) "I was standin', standin' on the corner, with my reefers in my hand... Up steps the sergeant, takes the reefers out my hand...." The Jive Five - "People From Another World" (1961) "My heart started beatin' fast as it could beat, I stood there shakin' from my head to my feet, I didn't know exactly what I should do. When a monster said 'Which way is 5th Avenue'? I hollered 'Save me-e-e.... Save me-e-e, I hollered Save me, I hollered Save me, from The People From Another World!" Actually, the nonsense lines spouted from the aliens are actually even better, but I dare not try to spell them!

They were different label designs used by different plants, sometimes at the same time (e.g. there was some overlap but not completely). Yes, sometimes the difference was also because of a later pressing, but only when the plant used both designs, one first, and then the 2nd. How do I know this - it is because I saw both designs within a month or two of the record being released in different regions (when traveling from L.A. to Chicago or vice versa in the mid 1960s when I lived in Chicago but attended university in Los Angeles (returning to Chicago in fall ( Thanksgiving) break, Winter (Christmas). spring (Easter), and summer)). Of course, in those days. I looked for records, incessantly.

That must be an original. It looks EXACTLY like the original I have, which I bought in 1966.

He played piano, as well, especially to compose his songs. But, I don't think he did the arranging on any final recording sessions. I guess that the only thing that can be done to learn more about him, other than trying to track down family members through his parents' names, is to compile all his record label credits, and see all his music company connections, and follow those leads to find people alive today, who dealt with him, and see what they remember about him.

That's too bad. I guess I should have talked to Bunky about him, when I had the chance.