Robbk

HA! HA! THAT would be quite funny, and that's quite an understatement! Wouldn't you say, Rod? Ask Modern Soul Sucks if anyone here would really dare to take a peak at such a travesty. In any case, I'm probably the most technology-challenged old geezer you could find. I've never owned a camera in my life(despite traveling all over The World for 50 years), other than the one on my most recent I-Mac tabletop, and MacBook, and my first mobile phone (which I've only had for 1 year, and whose camera I still haven't a clue how to use.

More were created on the dance floors. There were a few that were created by artists (but, I would guess that their ideas for them probably came from seeing kids on the dance floor making those moves). We had some pretty good dancers at my high school (Bowen, in South Chicago). I wouldn't be surprised if The Uncle Willie, or one of the other Chicago dances started there. But, kids would see steps other kids were doing, at sock hops, and modify them to their own taste. Also, they watched the good dancers (like Lester Tipton and Major Lance, and the other featured kid dancers on the TV dance shows -in the '60s, and they copied steps from them).

Dang!!! I forgot "The Mess Around"!!! I have a Chubby Checker and a Ray Charles record dedicated to that "so called" dance. We never saw that dance in Chicagoland (as far as I remember). Maybe it was Chubby Checker just throwing his legs and feet all around in a random, clumsy "mess"? Sort of like doing "The Mashed potatoes" and letting your legs wander randomly and clumsily all over, after the initial floor scraping?

There was NO dance called "The Shake and Fingerpop". Fingerpoppping was snappping your fingers to the beat, shaking was referring to the dancing. That just meant, "come on woman, let's go out and do some dancin' " . They were doing The Jerk, The Skate, The Pearl , and The Boogaloo when that song was out. Yes, we Ghetto Chillin' did The Bop, The Stroll, The Madison, The Twist, The Hully Gully, The Mashed Potatoes, The Pop-Eye Waddle, The Duck, The Funky Chicken, The Uncle Willie, The Stomp, The Bird, The Watusi, The Pony, The Camel Walk, The Shing-a-ling, The Temptation Walk, The Dog, The Limbo, The Swim, The Fly and The Tighten-Up. The 81 was not really a national dance craze (that was mainly a Philly thing as was The Bristol Stomp), The Uncle Willie was a Chicago thang), I guess that The Boston Monkey was a special way of dancing The Monkey (only in Boston). The Monkey, The Skate, The Swim, The Boogaloo, and The Watusi all involved a lot of arm motion (but also foot and body motion. Other dances were mainly body and foot motion. Others, like Weegee Walk, The Clam (Elvis' song), just had a song to try to introduce them, but no one ever saw those so-called "dances". Most of them were just a single "dance step", as opposed to a full blown "dance". No self-respecting teenager would have been caught dead doing "The Freddie" or was it "Freddy"?

I lived in Chicago at the time the record was out, and searched for 45s in USA up to mid 1972. I have seen more copies of the orange & white than the gold. I would say about 5 to 1. But I wouldn't say the gold was "rare". As to how many of each are now in the hands of NS collectors, I couldn't say. Both Monique records are "uncommon", but I wouldn't define them as "rare".

No! No! My quote "Nail your record shelves to the wall with railroad spikes." was advice TO DO, to keep from getting your records broken in earthquakes. Shelves going high up on a tall wall are bound to come crashing down(carrying all their contents) IF they are not strongly nailed to the wall. Small, narrow nails wouldn't be strong enough to hold heavy shelves to a wall in a strong earthquake (6.0 or higher), or a middling quake, with your house located near the epicentre.

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