Robbk

"The Temptations Sing Smokey"

Thanks. I wondered why downstate, Centralia, in the middle of C&W yodeling country, would producer a Soul record. This meshes better with The Softiques' members memories of not recording any other songs, or having any releases. There were no backup singers, so I assume THESE Softiques were Spears' band musicians. Another of life's coincidences that the C&W record was pressed in Chicago, within no more than a couple years of the Soul group's Sheldon demo.

Apparently, The Softiques backed up John Spears on a Soul record from a tiny label in a farm town in rural Illinois. Unfortunately I couldn't find an MP4 of it on YouTube.

Yes, this and ALL other Sheldon Records are just demos, whether on acetate or vinyl. And they're not even made for distribution to DJs. The Softiques' was likely a special order, made by McCormack, who didn't want 100 or 200 DJ copies pressed, but only wanted to pay for maybe a box of 25 demos to hand to a few DJs with whom he had some connection or intro, and a few that he or General Johnson could use to promote the record to record companies. Bob A (may he rest in peace) said that member Betty Berry said that only a few were made. That's why it is so rare, and only a couple are known.

Thanks Dobber, Was The Condors on Sheldon issued on a vinyl commercial issue that looks like a real commercial record company label - something like The Softiques' Sheldon DJ copies? I knew The Condors same recording on Limelight, and as The Condors only on a Sheldon demo acetate. I have hundreds upon hundreds of US Midwest (and even some East Coast records) mastered at Sheldon. And an awful lot of Chicago Area productions were recorded there. But, to my knowledge, they didn't really operate a commercial record label (unlike many other recording studios who had their own successful record labels, some even operating subsidiary labels, as well. The Softiques seems to have been an unique, special case. I've never seen another Sheldon record that were vinyl non demo one-offs, but were actually commercial-looking DJ vinyl pressings. There was one other Sheldon Records issue with the same coloured label design as The Softiques; but it was just an an advert to promote Sheldon's services, with various 10 seconds snippets of the various music genres they'd recorded.

Thanks very much, Hunter! This is one of the few of his interview I haven't yet heard.

Clearly, the recent pressing's version with the chopped of ending of "Two Kinds of Boys" was taken off an acetate left at Sheldon's recording studio, in case McCormack would be successful using the small run of DJ copies to shop his record to a "real" record company. Sheldon didn't really have a commercial record label. They mainly recorded mastered records, and cut demo acetates or vinyl demos. I was shocked to see that they pressed up commercial-looking DJ issues with a colour label for McCormack. I rather doubt that the press run was more than 100 (2 boxes of 50), probably only 50. They are dead rare. I don't think they got any airplay. I didn't hear them played on WBEE, WVON, or WNYR. And from Bob's (May he rest in peace) comments, I assume that the girls never even knew the DJ issues were pressed up. They probably knew only about a couple demo acetates McCormack got, to shop the record to a real record company. Betty Berry (Crawford), lead singer on "Bashful" went on to hook up with Ruth Moore, to be in a couple later groups (Destiny and Coffee). Gloria Lewis, (Lead on "Two Kinds of Boys") left the business when she became pregnant, and the group broke up. "Two Kinds of Boys" is a super mid '60s Chicago Soul Sound, which is right up there in quality with lots of Curtis Mayfield's and Carl Davis' best, and deserved a better fate. Too bad The Girls didn't get any money from their 2009-present sales. The interview mentioned that Gloria Carver and Valencia Gray were the other 2 members. I'd like to find out with which other labels McCormack worked, and how General Johnson was involved (as financier and marketer?).

Thanks Marcos, But I'm trying to get to his Artist Interview shows, specifically, his interview of Betty Berry (Crawford) of The Softiques. I was blocked from the site, with an error message that seemed to imply that the website doesn't exist. Maybe the security settings on my new computer are set too high? Robb

I tried to go there, and got an error message that implied that it is no longer accessible (or in operation). I had thought that some people were given access to it to save it.

Interesting to see a photo of little Simon, with his mother and aunt from Morocco (probably taken after they moved to France). And it's also interesting that one of our Airwave Records singing artists, Art Posey was co-writer, together with Simon, on "Mr. Big Shot". It's a very small World!

This was a really weird situation, which rarely occurred in most small label leasing deals to distribute nationally. In most cases, the small record company makes their first pressing locally, and if the sales go very well, hasn't received enough revenue back from them to pay the cost to press up enough records to meet the high new demand from the record shops. So they make a regional or national pressing/distribution deal with a larger record company (label) who has much wider distribution and good distributor sales coverage. Often, the smaller label has not enough cash left for pressing enough records even for local coverage. So, the small label leases sales and distribution rights to the larger label and distributor, even for their local area. When the smaller label did have enough cash, they usually kept the local rights for themselves, and continued to press locally (as Tamla did in 1959-60 when they leased some of their records to United Artists and Chess). The first pressing of this Ballad's' release was pressed locally in The San Francisco Bay area. (I bought it new). The second Wee Records pressing was pressed up in Chicago, or L.A. most likely pressed by VJ, the lessee label, probably along with their VJ DJ issues (also containing the "Bunky's Pick" endorsement) as a precursor to VJ's national store stock pressings and their distribution. Bunky Sheppard was still a producer with VJ at that time, who also had his own labels distributed by VJ. A local San Francisco Bay Area label wouldn't have printed the "Bunky's Pick" endorsement on their records, without their being distributed by VJ. It only appeared on Bunky's own labels, and his VJ productions. I suppose that The Wee owners insisted upon retaining the Bay Area sales rights, but didn't have the money to press up their new local issues, and wanted to fill the local shops' orders as soon as possible. So they had VJ press up a new batch of Wee issues to get them out faster, possibly save a bit of cost, and have VJ just recoup their pressing costs from the first batches of VJ sales. You are correct that this 2nd Wee issue is, by far, the rarest issue. I've only seen a couple of them, whereas, I've seen hundreds and hundreds of the first (Oakland) Wee issue, and many more hundreds of copies the various VJ pressing issues (from L.A., Chicago, New York, The South). I think this 2nd Wee pressing was pressed in Chicago (based on the label design and font). L.A.'s Monarch VJ pressing of this record with "Bunky's Pick" on it had a similar style, but the print was sharper, and the letter thickness (width) was a bit different.

Thanks for remembering the thread and posting this. My copy was a bit different. It had James Brown on both sides, and I remembered him singing along with the rhythm track that was the backing for The Bobby Byrd side on this issue. I could have sworn that James was singing to it, rather than just talking. But, it was 55 years ago, and his singing on his last King and his Polydor records didn't sound all that much more melodious to me than just talking. But, my photographic memory still tells me BOTH sides were James, and he was backed (at least on one side) by the Rhythm Track that backed up Byrd on this issue. Maybe mine was just a variant of this public service issue? Maybe there were two different pressings? And maybe my memory just added the "Good Gawd" and screeching yells, and, perhaps a few grunts (conflated from other Funk songs of his). Too bad! MY memory's version was better (and funnier) than this. And that's the way my friends remembered it, too. It's a bit of a disappointment. The "legend" that we morphed it into, was much better than the "real thing".

"Any Girl in Love" by Gladys Knight & The Pips was a big surprise to me. I don't recall ever having heard that song. We had, of course, screened Kim Weston's version for placement in the "From The Vaults" LP series. And I like that one slightly better. But Gladys Knight's version is also very good. I especially like that an extra track with a sax solo was added to the break. But, I like Kim's vocal better, and also like The Temptations' background vocals better than The Pips. I find it interesting that Johnny Bristol wrote and produced a new song for Martha and The Vandellas in 1969 that copies their first hit style from 1963, from "Heatwave", which already had a couple clones in "Quicksand" and "Live Wire". I guess that after 2 years of diminishing sales, he thought to gamble on going back to what made them popular. It's good, but not very memorable, because it sounds like several (many?) other Motown songs. Nice that these new 7 inchers have been made available for 45 collectors.

I can't believe it's been 10 whole years since he's left us. His saving the knowledge of our especially our rare and lesser-known Chicago Soul music heritage, as well as helping many of the former music artists, made The World a better place. It's a shame he left it so early in life. I hope he's in a better place now. Just like Dr. Robert Stallworth, Robert Campbell did for Chicago Rhythm & Blues, Blues and Jazz of the 1930s-early 1950s, and Robert Pruter did for late 1950s and 1960s Chicago Soul, Bob Abrahamian helped to chronicle especially obscure 1960s and 1970s Chicago Soul, for posterity, for the newer generations to learn about their heritage and be able to listen to a lot of great music that they wouldn't have been otherwise able to hear. Interesting to me that he found a fair amount of great recordings by combing South Side record shops and thrift stores many, many years after I did, that I never saw, and in addition, he made the effort to meet as many of those artists as he could. We were very fortunate to have him as a member of this forum. And I'm very glad to have met him, and dealt with him personally. He was a stand-up guy, and will be fondly remembered.

I have that record. I think the "A" side, Gene Chandler's "Miracle After Miracle" is 1000 times better. The Van Dykes were a "Four Seasons clone group", whose original label was New York's Co-Op Records, which released several of their 45s. After having a minor regional hit with "Miracle After Miracle", they had to change their group name to "The Van Dyke 5", because of The Van Dykes, who had been recording for King Records. Here is one of their charted cuts from their original Co-Op label:

I have a couple 45s by The Vondors, who were from Columbus, Ohio, and recorded in Cleveland. I have their record, Holiday 125 "Look In The Mirror"(vocal)/"Foot Loose"(Instrumental)". I think I got it in 1966 or '67. My copy is a darker orange, but couldn't be thought of as being red. I think it sold decently in The Columbus area, because I've seen several copies. I've never seen any Vondors' record on a red label. I've never heard "Rich Girl". I'd love to hear that. "Look In The Mirror has a great "Chicago-like" late '60s sound, with a super sax break! Here it is:

A very interesting theory! Knowing what some of the record company owners did to save money, I wouldn't be a bit surprised. And, of course, when the record shop owners complained that they got demos instead of store stockers, they would just apologise and claim it was a printing error, but the customers won't even notice the small print.

Thanks for the snippets! I really like the idea of the Doo Wop song. Too bad they hit those flat notes. The base parts, however, are super. It sounds like straight out of New York in late 1956 or early '57. Takes me back to my early teens. Which Shrine group sang that one?

Yes! I agree 100%. JD Bryant's A side is one of my couple favourite Shrine cuts. It's a shame it's not included. Why was it left out? Not available for remastering? - or the only available copy was too beat up?

Must be backstock directly from Sammy Kaplan's kids or grandchildren.

Thanks. I have The Supremes Four, Twilighters and Harvey Scales & 7 Sounds, and Birdlegs & Pauline on 45. But I never heard The Esquires (which is very nice). I hadn't ever heard Step by Step, and 2 of the Betty Moorer or The Devilettes. I guess I should have gone to Kirchstein's more than once.

Can we hear snippets of those LP cuts? I couldn't find any listening files on the sellers' link.

Lots of good singers and interesting groups on this one. It should be excellent, especially for fans of the '60s Chicago Soul Sound, and Kirchstein's Wisconsin version of it. I can't wait to hear those recordings.

So, this proves that it is most likely to be Little Anthony, as Randazzo and Pike were the writers.

Apparently, Vic Damon also ran a record label (Damon Records) from his recording studio in Kansas City. Here's a link to its 45-Cat page: https://www.45cat.com/45_list_view_record.php?li=1888