Amsterdam Russ

Jimmy Witherspoon - Hey Mrs Jones - French EP

Jimmy Witherspoon - Hey Mrs Jones - French EP

Used a vinyl cutting service here in the Netherlands just recently for acetates. It was recommended to me by Jos who runs the Amsterdam Soul Club, and at 20 euros for a two-sided 45, I thought it well worth a try. Got my disc mid week and it's superb! I always send AIFFs for getting one-offs cut and have used Vinyl Carvers and a Belgian service that turned out to be really second-rate. The sound quality on the Dutch-cut disc is miles better than both - and I intend to use them again in the next week or so. Don't have their email address to hand, so drop me a pm if it's if interest and I'll gladly pass it on.

What a shame that your album was very nearly burned! I also have that LP, but have never met Tommy Hunt. For the purposes of making slightly tenuous connections, I did however meet the keyboard player who backed Tommy at the Wigan Casino. He was later in a band called No Spring Chicken and they used to play in what was then my local pub, The Britannia in London EC1. He was great! Sadly, he was going blind back then, and that was about 20 years ago. This was the same tiny backstreet boozer that Moon Williams played in a few times about seven or eight years ago.

Looks like a wedding disco!

D'oh! Thanks for that. Should have looked more closely on my own site first

I'm on a roll now... To answer my own question, Mr Creator, although released late 66/early 67, was indeed recorded quite a while earlier. Looking at a scan of the label, I noticed that the catalogue number is J70146, which made me think that it's not a WB number, but one from the Loma label. Sure enough, it is. In fact, the number sequence shows that it was probably recorded at the same session as My Soul Concerto and Sorry Mama (Loma 2053 - July 1966), with all three tracks involving HB Barnum and Dick Glasser. https://www.lomarecords.com/loma2053-apollas.html Mr Creator - J70146 My Soul Concerto - J70147 Sorry Mama - J70148 As sessions usually comprised of four tracks, and we know of three of those, is there one missing from The Apollas' discography? If Mr Creator was from the same session, it would be logical to think that the flip All Sold Out was also cut at the same time. However, the catalogue number for that is JX70091, which is a different session from around the same time (JX70135 & 5 is Dick Jensen & the Imports - Loma 2055 - released Aug 1966). So, while the mystery track is now identified, it leaves two questions: 1/ What are the Dale Brooks and Apollas tracks (both from different labels and times) doing on the same 45? 2/ Presuming a four track session (1/ Mr Creator, 2/ My Soul Concerto, and 3/ Sorry Mama), what was the fourth track recorded by the Apollas? Is J70145 or J70149 one of their other WB releases?

SOLVED! Just found a soundclip of the Dale Brooks song on eBay and it is indeed her! And it's the same version. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mod-R-B-Garage-Frat-Groover-Dale-Brooks-Ring-A-Leevio-WLP-Promo-45-LISTEN-/230936018507? So, what's it doing back-to-back with The Apollas singing Mr Creator? Did "Ring-a-Leevio" come out much later than thought, or is Mr Creator an earlier recording?

Thanks for helping to rule that one out, Bob. I also learned this week that there's a song called "Ring-a-ling-a-lario". That's by Jimmie Rodgers and so doesn't help in identifying the unknown girl group, although the lyrics do relate to the game.

A friend tells me that Dale Brooks - the female singer - recorded some of her 60s output in London, and even gigged in the city of "New Castle"! https://books.google.nl/books?id=YCkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=%22Dale+Brooks%22+Dolphin&source=bl&ots=xwk6AWO3sm&sig=3zTiOsJGnGLYtgAuH-fVMAiAnrw&hl=de&sa=X&ei=3R8-UcPRI8ev4ATyp4HwAw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22Dale%20Brooks%22%20Dolphin&f=false The same person also provided me with this link, which provides a bigger insight into the Ring-a-levio game, although strictly from an American perspective. https://dare.wisc.edu/?q=node/146 I'm no closer to finding out who's singing this mystery flip to Mr Creator, and I haven't been able to find contact details for Leola Jiles, Billie Barnum or Ella Jamerson. Can anyone assist with this? Perhaps one of them may be able to provide some insight on this.

Thank you for that, chief prefect.

US record imports would have first appeared in the UK circa World War II, when in their vast numbers the Yanks were "over-paid, over-sexed and over here".

According to the BBC... Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21767921

You might be interested in these two books: "Tamla Motown - all Dutch Tamla Motown releases from the sixties" and "The World of Artone" (which is to be published soon)... https://theworldofartone.com/

Didn't we do this one a year or two ago?

There were loads of copies of this flying through eBay a couple of years ago, and at nowhere near 'book' price - about 20-30 quid as I recall.

Could be a consideration. I recently read a blog post about music censorship and apartheid in South Africa. It makes for fascinating reading... https://soulsafari.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/banned-beats-in-south-africa/

Doing a further bit of digging, it would appear that the issue ref numbers on the sleeve refer to mono releases. Stereo releases began with an S - so SGALP1442, for example. Looking at a partial discography of the label that I found in Afrikaans, stereo releases replaced mono in 1969. At the very least it nigh on confirms that the sleeve is from the 60s!

Yes, in the last thread in which this 45 featured! I had a dig around of the various titles on the sleeve at that time and came to the conclusion that they were 60s releases. I also pointed out that Lara's theme came from Dr Zhivago as has been pointed out here once again. I do wish you guys would pay a bit more attention!

There are loads of songs and albums with the words House and Party in them, so it's definitely not a guess. It's all about digital/acoustic fingerprinting, but I never realised it was so advanced. Often times on YouTube you'd see that the iTunes link under a music video was wrong. They seem to have gotten smarter, and have access to richer databases of music! Anyway, it's still kind of spooky!

Looking through ebay, I came across a beaten up old acetate with pieces missing described as "Unknown frat rock R&B 7". Link here: https://www.ebay.com/...=item35c4db2155 The seller has posted a sound file to YouTube and described it as "unknown band". Play it and you'll hear the acetate is in a dreadful condition. It's not just crackly; the sound is badly distorted. It really is awful. What really surprised me is the ad underneath the YouTube player. It says that the crackly and unidentified track is "Willie's House Party" by the Willie Mitchell Combo (screen grab below). Click through the link to iTunes and it takes you to a Willie Mitchell cd, which you can buy. Listen to the sound file for "Willie's House Party" and you'll hear that the YouTube song id algorithm was spot on! And, this song isn't even on YouTube (if it is, I couldn't find it). I knew music id algorithms were good, but not this flippin' good! I think that's absolutely amazing!

My eBay account tells me that I've bought seven items in the last month; 70 in the last six months, and 125 in the last 12 months. Not a lot, I know, but 95% will have been 'Northern Soul' records. Add to that all the ones I didn't win and for certain there's stuff out there all right. I think most of my purchases wouldn't fall into the "top 500 oldie, classic rarity or current in demander" category. It all depends on what you're looking for.

I'd never have guessed that, thanks! Thing is, how many of them are into Northern Soul and how many of those are on here?

My stamped issue of Jerry Cook has a name scratched into the run out groove. It says PETE SMITH. However, I asked Mr Smith about this ages ago and he denied it was him.

This one came out of Texas - Marilyn Fowler - We got a good thing going on. https://youtu.be/ttx8decx2IM