Robbk

Ask Rod (ModernSoulSucks). He looked through those shelves (breathing that 10-inch layer of horrible dust), on many a sunny afternoon.

I think we could add: "Don't use cement blocks to hold up shelves made of loose boards, and nail your shelving to your walls with railroad spikes!" And,for good measure, put all you most valuable records on your lowest shelves.

As I am not an autograph collector, even though I have met many famous artists and a few musicians, I have never had any of them autograph anything for me. But, I have several 45s and a couple LPs with the autographs of the artist/group members, or musicians on them. The one I remember most, at hand, is Richard Street and his "New" Distants on Thelma Records. It has the autograph of all 5 members written in pencil on the "A" side ("Answer Me"). These were the new singers he recruited, when he decided to not join his fellow Distants in moving from Johnnie Mae Matthews' Northern Records to Motown when their contract with Matthews lapsed in late 1960. Most of the other former Distants signed with Motown as "The Temptations" in early 1961, and Street formed his new group near the end of 1961. He first signed with Hazel and Robert Coleman's Thelma Records in early 1962, when A&R man, Don Davis, changed DaCo (Davis/Coleman) Records to Thelma Records (naming the label after The Colemans' daughter, first wife of Berry Gordy). Street was first signed as an assistant producer and songwriter, and soon after, got an artist/group singing contract for his new group. Unfortunately, I'm not with my US 45s now, and so, cannot post a scan of those interesting signatures.

I've never broken a really expensive record. I had five yellow Atlantic 45s from 1951-53 broken from falling from my top wall shelf (16 feet high) during the great 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. But, 4 of them were duplicates for which I had an almost-as-good condition back-up copy (and they were not terribly rare (Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, Clovers). The most valuable was Atlantic 944 (Clovers - "Don't You Know I Love You"), for which I had a duplicate in similar condition. It probably is worth about £50-70 today. I was extremely lucky that neither of my Diamonds' nor early Cardinals, nor other, rarer early Atlantics were broken, especially given that it was a cement block that had been holding up detached boards (as shelving) that had fallen atop those records, that had broken those five. I had the top 3 shelves on that wall fall, with hundreds of records fall the 12-16 foot distance, with 4 cement blocks falling. During the quake, amidst the ground-rolling and wrenching-shaking, I ran out into my living room, and had to hold my chest against the remaining shelves, and spread my arms wide to hold up the remaining top shelves, to keep the remaining top 2 or 3 shelves from also falling. That helped my save my precious 1940s/'50s King/Federal/Deluxe/Bethlehem 45s, and my even more precious Chess/Checker/Argo/Cadet/Tuff/Parrot 45s. It could have been a terrible disaster. Since then, I have moved, and my US 45s are no longer in earthquake danger.

Gene Chandler was co-owner and one of the 2 executive producers of Maurci Records. So, I just assumed that he took them to him. Simtec Simmons was the other.

I have no clue who Monique is. But, I don't think she's from Detroit. I think that tapes of Dave Hamilton's tracks happened to get into the hands of Maurice Jackson from a Detroit contact of his, and he took them to Gene Chandler, and they recorded a Chicago singer (Monique) over them. I can't place her voice on another artist I know.

Both label styles are legitimate originals, from the mid sixties.

Great read! Thanks, Rob. Great read! Thanks, Rob.

Thanks for the link. Somehow, I had forgotten what I had read on that Fred Bridges webisode. The recordings for the Boo releases were made in several different recording studios in both Detroit and Chicago, for different portions of the recording process (lead vocals, background vocals, strings, background tracks, etc.). So, The Brothers of Soul did NOT come to stay in Chicago for long periods, but stayed in Detroit, and only commuted to Chicago fo one to 3 days or so.

As far as I know, Boo was Chicago based. The Brothers of Soul lived in Chicago during the late '60s, but they recorded some in Detroit (perhaps 35%), due to Fred Bridges' Detroit connections. But, they used mostly Chicago people in Chicago, with Mike Terry coming there from Detroit. I would guess that 2/3 of the Boo recordings were made in Chicago, and 1/3 in Detroit, and not all the Detroit recordings were made at Terra Shirma. But, I'll ask my old buddy, Ralph Terrana and his brother, Russ (owners of Terra-Shirma).

Sad to hear. 78 is much too young. I'm not far away from there, myself. I'd bet I own at least several 100 45s with Arthur's arrangements, and another few hundred with him as "merely" a session player. He provided a large part of my music enjoyment, growing up.

What's stamped in the runout will tell you. Also, if I'm not mistaken, all the boots I have seen were styrene, pressed at Monarch(and so, have the etched delta (with the following etched number with a telltale 10,000 series number from the late 1970s). And, their label colour is a lighter and brighter shade of green, with slightly more yellow in the green hue. The originals were not only a slightly more blueish and green, but darker. The only originals I have seen were vinyl, if I remember correctly (and were pressed in one of the smaller Detroit plants). I used to remember the name of that plant. But, I've forgotten it now. I'm now in Munich, away from my records. So, I can't check.

Dee Dee Sharp also sang What Am I Gonna Do. I'd bet that I could look through my collection and find 10 more different songs titled "Breakaway" and 10 more titled "I Still Love You", and 10 more titled "I'm So Lonely" and 10 more titled "Don't Pity Me" (but then, fully half my collection was released during the 1950s (so it wouldn't be surprising).

Shout was distributed by Columbia at one time, and Atlantic, as well (I believe).

And the singer sounds too young to have been Detroit's Herman Davis.

Goodbye Cruel Love was released on Motown and is, by far, the most common. If you have it on yellow Tamla with Globes, it's the Canadian pressing. Yes, now I remember that there was one small batch that had the wrong word (guessed wrong by the printer).

I think you meant "Good-Bye Cruel Love" by Linda Griner. "Goodbye Cruel World" (I'm Off To Join The Circus) was a horrible Pop song, sung by one of those '50s "pretty boy" movie stars, who couldn't sing. I think it was James Darren on Colpix Records? It started out with an instrumental intro of circus steam calliope music. Real camp!

I see that it is an L.A. label. I take it that THIS Herman Davis is not the Detroit guy that co-owned Lando Records and its Nu-Sound subsidiary that released Ed Henry and Nickels? The record was distributed by L.A.'s Kent Records.

Hits: My Girl - Temptations Ask The Lonely - Four Tops Truly Yours - Spinners Tracks of My Tears - Miracles My Guy - Mary Wells Run, Run, Run -Supremes Take Me In Your Arms - Kim Weston This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak For You) - Isley Brothers Everybody Needs Love - Gladys Knight & Pips Non-Hits: A Favor For A Girl - Brenda Holloway Keep On Loving Me - Frances Nero Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I - Velvelettes The Man Who Don't Believe In Love - Marv Johnson My Beloved - Satintones (Strings version) I'll Come Running - Carolyn Crawford Vinyl unreleased: Tears, Nobody and A Smile - Serenaders All I Do (Is Think About You) - Tammi Terrell Cry- Monitors Baby, Hit and Run - Contours (Dennis Edwards) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Versatones Crying In The Night -Monitors On The Avenue - Jimmy Ruffin All I Have Left are Memories - Sammy Turner & Serenaders A Tear From A Woman's Eyes - Temptations I Should Have Known Better - Marvelettes There are WAY, way to many to list that were perfect recordings, and better than almost anything else recorded by any other company

Yes it's real. They DID get national distribution and pressed on The West Coast. That looks to be a styrene Monarch pressing.

Can we hear the other cuts in that set somewhere? "That New Girl is really good. I wonder if the others are the same artist, or others.

The demo record was made in a Cleveland, Ohio studio. The Manhattans version was written by Carnival Records' owner, so I assume that that was the original. I assume this Ohio version was a remake. It's pretty nice, with a nice vocal and nice guitar. I'd like to hear a group behind him. There may have been a background group on another track. I don't remember ever seeing a remake of this song.

I'm pretty sure that the green was the original. I don't remember seeing a black one until several years later.

The straight design started the labe. The curved came later.

That might explain why I never saw one, as most of the records I looked through occurred between 1953 and 1972. The boot was probably made no earlier than the late '70s or early '80s, I'd venture to guess.