Robbk

Ha! Ha! Sometimes I find a record in my collection I haven't played for 60 years!!! 20 years ago is a RECENT play (even 40 years ago would have been "relatively recent" - probably when I was re-recording a song whose cassette tape had dried and started having dropouts)!

I think I have the one shown on top of the thread. But, unfortunately, I won't be with most my 45s until September (I'm in Muenchen, Germany now). So, I can't check. But, I remember more of the lower posted issue being around in the late '60s in USA.

Not during the era when it was recorded. I don't know if a legitimate pressing of it (with full rights to the owner paid, like Hayley Records is doing with old masters) was made during the 1990s to today. I really doubt that a bootleg was ever pressed to vinyl.

But, one has to be on his or her guard to make sure his tone arm is balanced perfectly, or the grooves can wear, even if it is only very slightly off. So, it is "safer" to just play them to record them to files, and not play them on a turntable, over and over. Rare records of which only a handful are known, are too rare to risk ruining the original source.

I saw a fair amount of those back in the mid-late 60s and into the '70s. I would never have called it a "rare" issue back then. I remember a lot more of those and the Midwestern WDJs than the West Coast issue. Of course, I have no idea of what numbers of any of those made it over to The UK and circulated on The Northern scene.

Ron Murphy, Detroit record producer, record masterer and label owner, from the late '60s through the 2000s, and a friend of mine, told me that he had a good working relationship with many of the Detroit pressing plants. That's how he obtained many rare 45s, which had been both DJ and store stock press run test copies. He told me that standard policy at ARP, RCA Midwest, and most other large pressing plants was to make 6 labeled test pressings before each press run, to assure that no mistakes or problems would occur. The usual policy was for the plant to keep 2 of those test copies on hand, for samples in case of future runs. The 4 other copies were given to the customer (record company). THAT's how the Soul 35019 Frank Wilson DJ and store stockers were found (DJs were found by Ron in an old pressing plant box), and the 2 store stockers were in Motown's and Jobete's record files-I had seen those, myself-and we had one in Tom DePierro's office for 5-6 years), despite the real press runs being cancelled. I suspect that those Blue Rock unreleased issues experienced the same fate. Their scheduled press runs had been cancelled before any real press run - BUT, there WERE test runs of 6 store stockers (and, perhaps DJs, too?). And THAT is why only a couple copies are known (they were the 2 test copies retained at the pressing plant).

Yes, the Solid Hit is dead rare, with only a handful known. The multi-coloured Mahs of "Fun To Be Young" is not common at all, but I wouldn't call it "rare". The hit version with the new flip is extremely common.

I guess the UK Louisiana Red isn't all that rare, or just not in much demand. I imagine that the Atlas pressing would be in high demand by US Blues collectors, and should cost a few hundred Dollars.

Wow!!! That Louisiana Red Sue 337 has GOT to be dead rare!!! Hard to believe they would even have released that. It had been on Atlas Records 1246 (from 1960), out of New York, in USA (that is also fairly rare).

Everything I've read about Roger and Willie (Will) Hatcher said that they were brothers, and also cousins of Charley Hatcher (Edwin Starr). Roger and Willie Moved to Detroit at young ages, and recorded there. They both also recorded for Excello, in Nashville. I wonder if Mississippi Delta Blues Man, Willie Hatcher was Roger and Willie's father. They were born in Birmingham, Alabama.

Glad to see that Hayley will release many more previously unreleased Detroit classic period Soul gems. We can't ever get enough. The sound quality is great, too.

Looks good! Glad to see Bob's legacy won't be forgotten. Glad his great website will stay available to new listeners. I'm still in shock from his untimely passing. Every time an old thread on which he posted is resurrected, I get a twinge (and sometimes forget for a few seconds that he's gone). He was one of the few colleagues who could answer a lot of my questions. I miss him a lot.

This sounds like a mid to late '70s recording. Do you know when it was recorded? It sounds an Ollie McLaughlin production.

Yes, the 2nd sounds instrumentalwise, somewhat like the Perception single cuts I have. Weren't they from 1973?

These 2 cuts don't sound at all to me like J.J.'s Kable/Rich Fred Brown/Joe hunter recordings. These are much too new sounding. The first sounds very much like a Don Davis Groovesville recording. And the second sounds newer, more like an early '70s recording. But how could a Groovesville cut have escaped being found among the Groovesville tapes that were "discovered' near the beginning of the 1980s, and summarily made available on cassette tapes for the NS market? I'm sure you all remember those.

Rod "Modern Soul Sucks" Moss? A Soulie from a parallel dimension?

These don't sound like Motown masters. Were they recorded by Don Davis for Groovesville? The first sounds like '60s Groovesville. The 2nd like a later ('70s recording).

There were thousands of song performances that never got ANY airplay or sales, that I think were much, much better than most of the cuts that charted and were hits. There were probably several causes that contributed to that happening. One of them was lack of business acumen of the group or single artist's manager and the label owner and R&D man of the labels that released the records, in addition to the lack of funds by the given label needed for proper distribution, numbers of records pressed, and payola to get it played, and money to get into the music business with enough credibility to have access to the people who could market the record and get it heard by the right people. Also, first, the "British Invasion" changed the situation in the Pop record market, and the resultant changes by the US major labels' market strategies also started a slow drift away from R&B and Soul in the Pop market starting in 1964, and continuing throughout the remainder of the '60s and into the '70s. The Major US labels (Columbia, RCA, Warner Brothers, Decca, Capitol, 20th Century Fox, and to a lesser extent, ABC/Paramount, didn't really know how to market their R&B and Soul product. Motown, alone, had literally thousands unreleased cuts that were better than most charted Pop cuts. There was just no room for those to make the charts. There were so very many talented singers who could have been stars. There just was no room for all of them. Most of them had no chance from the start, because they were never seen, nor heard, by the right people.

Big Bunny was run by Bunny Jones, located in New York. I always thought The Dealers worked out of New York. And that must be where Don Thomas connected with The Drifters. I guess there must have been two Claude Johnsons, one in New York, and one in Chicago.

Probably a Chubby Checker non-hit.

Ha! Ha! Wish I'd have known about them. My Grandfather had a Canadian Chrysler from 1953-60. I wonder if it could have accommodated one of those record players? It wouldn'have helped me. I had only 78s, 45s and some 33s. I didn't have any 16 2/3s!!!

I've seen Claude Johnson have a lot of credits on tiny Chicago labels in the 1960s. Specifically, I remember him as a writer/producer with Trans World Sound and its subsidiary, June Bug Records. But, I seem to remember his name on several other Chi-Town labels. So, I'd guess he was from Chicago. The group may have been from Chicago, and yet signed to Cincinatti's King Records. King had offices in Detroit, and, I believe, they had a presence in Chicago (despite not having an official stand-alone office) during the 1960s. Gene Redd Sr. (not to be confused with his son-who worked mainly out of New York (except when in Detroit for Stephanye) was A&R man at King. So, he worked with many of the groups.

That Parkway record is probably a Chubby Checker.

Could be one of the biggest failures. I've never heard of it having gotten any airplay. It certainly didn't get played in Chicago, L.A. or The S.F. Bay Area. I wonder if it even got any play in Detroit, despite Wylie being local?

I assume that Bernie Harville is deceased. Were the recordings on the Ace/Kent CDs obtained from his son? Perhaps he knew the history of this record? Ady?