Robbk

I'd love to have had someone with a voice like Carolyn to sing me to sleep at night, and wake me up in the morning!

I never thought I'd post an Anthony Newly "Show Tune" on here, but, it fits the category:

Man am I living in the past (only 60 years behind the times. To me, "Bip Bam, (Thank You Ma'am)" is the 1953 Drifters' song. And Bill Brown is the original bass lead singer of The Dominoes ("Sixty Minute Man"), who was also the bass, sometimes lead of The Checkers. I thought this might be a 1950s previously unreleased version of Brown as a soloist, or The Checkers singing The Drifters' song.

Yes, thanks, Yank. I wrote down Royals/Midnighters first, then thought about it again, and thought I remembered him having been with The Dominoes. Both were Detroit groups. In the 1950s, King/Federal/DeLuxe had an office in Detroit. They grabbed up a lot of Detroit's local talent. The Ramblers were signed by Federal. The Five Jets (with Famous Detroiters Billy "Roquel" Davis, Joe Murphy and Derek Martin) were signed by DeLuxe.

To current ears, BOTH versions sound ancient. But, remember that I was around at the time, listening to the Chicago and Detroit R&B radio stations, and buying records. I had heard the Kudo record first, in 1958. It still had the mid '50s R&B sound. Both sides of the Chess/Anna 1959 version had the new, early 1960s more complicated instrumental sound. and, even the vocal sound of the ballad side ("This Heart of Mine"), had less of the old vocal group harmony sound of the mid-to-late 1950s, but more of the new, 1959-1963 R&B/Soul transitional sound, which was less dependent upon 5 or 4-part harmony, but put more emphasis on the lead singer and the more complex instrumental track/tracks. Lots of fans listen for, and thus, hear the singers more, and concentrate less on the instrumentation. To ME, the instrumentation and harmony of the background singers is very important, along with the singing of the lead singer.

Roburt, you have come to the right place to get your questions answered. In spring of 1958, Chess Records made a production deal with Detroit producer, Robert West, hoping to put out records on his most promising artists (which included Stanley Mitchell and The Tornados, The Falcons, Sonny Woods, The Majestics, Joe Howard, The Playboys and, possibly others). Soon after, Chess put out a 45 on The Tornadoes, which, I believe, was recorded by West in Detroit (probably at United Sound Studios). The record didn't do well. Chess decided not to release the 2 Falcons' Kudo sides immediately. It got pushed to the back burner, and lost in the shuffle. Some months later, West was not satisfied with what he was getting out of his Chess deal (not much action with The Tornados, no Chess Falcons release, no release on his other artists). In the meantime he had shut down Kudo Records, and started Flick, Bumble Bee, and Contour Records, and signed additional local Detroit talent. When The Falcons' next release, on Flick, took off in early summer, 1959, he leased it to United Artists (out of New York), while making a new across the board production deal with them, to release all his new productions they wished to pick up. UA released "You're So Fine" on their Unart Records subsidiary, and it took off nationally. After a second Unart release, The Falcons were moved to the parent UA Records label, as were many other Robert West produced artists. In the meantime, Chess Records, who apparently, still had the rights to release "This Heart of Mine"(must have been a 2-year lease), decided to piggyback on The Falcons' success of "You're So Fine". So, they decided to release "This Heart of Mine" on Chess Records. But, the Kudo cuts sounded dated. All of The Falcons, Robert West, and Chess A&R people (Leonard, Phil, Willie Dixon et al) probably agreed that they should have West re-record it, and record a new "B side". West did so, probably again at United Sound. During that time (mid - late 1959) Chess already had a record distribution deal going with West's protege, Berry Gordy(Motown's Miracles & Tamla's Ron & Bill), and the latter's sisters, Gwen and Anna, and Berry's songwriting partner, Billy "Roquel" Davis (who was also Berry's sisters' (co-owner) partner in Anna Records. They, and Robert West Productions were Chess' producing arm in Detroit. Robert West had been Berry Gordy's mentor in his entering the music business, and West's record distributing company had distributed Gordy's RayBer Records release by Wade Jones, as well as a couple other RayBer Music productions put out on one-shot labels. So, West and The Gordys were good friends. So, West agreed to use an Anna-produced song on the flip of the re-recorded, updated "This Heart of Mine", which became "Just For Your Love". The recording session was probably run by Berry and Gwen, with West in attendance. The latter was a businessman, who, I believe, didn't know enough about music, to run his own recording sessions. He had always taken "executive producer" credits, but usually, if not always, had a music person run his recording sessions. I read that his Silhouette and Kudo sessions were run by Sonny Woods (of The Dominoes), and Berry Gordy (Marv Johnson, Nancy Peters, Bryan(t) Holland). The Chess Release had disappointing sales. So, Chess, trying to get the record started through local, Detroit promotion, decided to have its local "branch" (distributed label) Anna Records, release it, so they could give it a local marketing push. So, the record was "picked up" (released by) Anna Records, in mid stream, in Fall, 1959. The Anna release sold more than The Chess record, due mainly to local, Detroit/Michigan/Toledo, Ohio promotion. But, it was still not very successful, based on Chess' and West's expectations. Artwise, it was a nice success. Both sides were among The Falcons' best recordings (in my opinion). West's production deal with United Artists lasted until early 1962, when he signed a new production deal with Atantic Records, in which, The Falcons' releases appeared on Atlantic's main label, and West's current flagship label, LuPine Records, was distributed by The Atlantic-ATCO Distribution Group. As far as Chess releasing US national hit records on more than one of their labels, that had been a marketing strategy of theirs from as early as the early 1950s. They didn't have a special "oldies" re-issue label until 1957, launching their "Golden Goodies" label. They had previously (early 1957?) started re-issuing Chess and Checker "oldies" on gold-coloured labels which had the same design as their current labels. But, the gold label issues, and Golden Goodies issues were not sold in big numbers. Before that, and even through the period of Golden Goodies' releases, Chess also re-issued "oldies" (former hits) on a different Chess-owned label from the given original release label. For example, "A Simple Prayer" by The Ravens was released on Argo, Chess, and Checker, as was "Tear Drops" by Lee Andrews & The Hearts, and "Billy's Blues" by Billy Stewart. Hundreds of previous hits were released on at least 2 different Chess labels. After Chess hired Billy "Roquel" Davis to run their new Detroit subsidiary, Check-Mate Records, there were several Check-Mate Records that were also released on Chess or Checker Records.

I had only seen all male photos of The Laddins. But, I recognised Yvonne in The Steinways, as being a member (lead singer?) of The Glories, from their photos (I've seen several-including 2 Date picture cover sleeves).

The hot, dry summer here in Denmark hasn't caused any of my records to warp, but it made it illegal for us to burn our witches on Mid-Summer's Eve, due to fear of the fires spreading!

Any relation to the famous actor, Basil? He's one of my very favourites.

Sorry. I'm in Denmark now, so not with my records. After another 2 weeks here, then I return to Munich, Germany for 5 weeks. Then I return to The Netherlands. I won't be back with my Chicago 45s until September. My Paree is an original. The indentation dip in the centre of the label area isn't so deep nor so pronounced. It's more like the Al-Tog record shown above. But, the font looks the same.

The Paree issue was first. But, The Admirations were singing at venues in Chicagoland, and The One-derful cuts got some air time. So, maybe Paree's owner it pressed up again, to get some sales. Maybe the letter pressing is a lot more common (or the only one known) because some boxes of it that Anderson got provided most of the copies The Northern Soul community has. My copy looks like the one in the scan above. But, I didn't get it until 1968 or 1969. But, maybe the earlier original pressing had a different font. I can't remember. I don't remember seeing the font that was on the record above, before late 1967 or early 1968.

That was taken when I was working for The UN in The Arab countries and Africa from 1976-1989. If I remember correctly, it was taken while I was working in Jordan (1979-82). I think it was in 1979, which would have made me 33 years old at that time. I am now 72.

It was Luther Dixon, in New York, producing the releases. I doubt that it was a similar situation between Maurci and Dave Hamilton's tracks, because Hamilton said he knew nothing at all about Maurci Records in Chicago, and how they got hold of the tracks.

Most people in USA don't know British pronunciations. They think Houston is HHHHHouston, when it is "Euston", and Warwick is WarWWWickkk, when it is "Warrick".

As far as I know, The Americans are the only people who pronounce that letter "Z". In German it is Zett, Dutch zet, Canadian and British English, "Zed", Frisian "Zet", Flemish, Afrikaans, etc.

And The Canadian (both French and English), as well.

"And that's Sade(pronounced as Sade) with "Hang On To Your Love". Sayd song and he said "IT'S SHARDAY!!!!" He must be the bloke who started the Narbay rumour! "Sade" is pronounced "Shah-Day".

Zed. Zed. Hill! I love it!

Harold Buer-razh Steve Mahn-chah ¡El acento en Español, está en la síliba segundo al finál¡. ¡Como Don Quixote de La Mancha, y Don Juan Mancha¡

Per-reee-Gents. I thought they were a kiddie Boy group. "Paris Gents". Chalfonte Street. is pronounced "Shall-Fontt". The final e is silent en Francais.

Not if they have a copy of that record!

It is Nah-Bayyyy.

I'm sure that MOST of them are deceased now. We had a scan of Lonnette's sleeve on this very forum, not all that long ago (maybe within the last 2-3 years? Hard for me to gage the last many years because it flies by so fast. I think someone just told me something within the last year, and find out that was 10 years ago.