Amsterdam Russ

What a tune! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FlE6MRiyNc

Worth a try, but I suspect the seller will only think that you're kidding around!

The real title of the track we know as The Kid is Holiday. When the two tracks got released outside of the local Belgian/Dutch markets there was a mix up. Holiday became The Kid and vice versa! This is confirmed on Andre Brasseur's own website (which used to be available in a number of languages including English, but for some reason unknown is available only in French at the moment). Your 45, which was pressed for the local market, has the correct title. Also, if you watch the clip on YouTube, you'll see a series of comments that further confirm the mix-up in titles.

When you play The Kid, do you get this track instead?

CNR is a Dutch record label with a history stretching back to 1939. They released a greatest hits album of Brasseur's work in 1977. Your 45 is a reissue put out to coincide with that album.

Hey, Calum, it might sound an odd question, but are you the same person who set up a Silhouettes website a few years ago and also used to frequent the WebmasterWorld forums?

Could be the track 'Holiday', which is paired with The Kid on most releases. If it is 'Holiday' the reason for the mix up is that 'The Kid' is in fact 'Holiday' and vice-versa. At some point very early on the titles got mixed up. This possibly accounts for later UK releases that have the tracks swapped as A & B sides. I guess that when someone advised of the error they said the songs are on the wrong side - the A side should be the B side. In reality they were only supposed to swap the titles, and not the songs!

Thanks, Bob. It's a tough crowd in here sometimes!

That's OK; no need to acknowledge that someone has gone to the trouble of digging up and posting some information to help you with your question. I can only presume that you knew everything I'd posted already and so it wasn't worthwhile responding. Do forgive my amateurish efforts to help someone on this forum. You know, when I read your post I knew nothing about Som-Maior whatsoever and so, with a sense of curiosity and the happy desire to share information (and a bit of free time), I made a conscious decision to trawl online to see what background to the label might be gleaned. Three quarters of an hour later and what little facts I'd learned were collated into the post above. The Soul Source fora are exceptional places to share knowledge and I'm undoubtedly guilty of picking up way more that I have the ability to share. So, when the opportunity arises to perhaps offer something back (and do a bit of self-learning at the same time) I generally jump at the chance. Obviously, not all members appreciate such knowledge sharing or the efforts made to so. No problem, I'm not bothered...

It comes up as subscriber only content for me, too. However, there are ways round these things and here is the story in full as it appears on that site: The fashion photographer and commercials director has attached Christian Mckay and Lisa Stansfield to her first feature which is being backed by post production house LipSync. Christian Mckay and British soul singer Lisa Stansfield are attached to star in Elaine Constantine’s debut feature, Northern Soul, set against the backdrop of the UK’s Northern Soul Movement in the 1960s. The story follows two young men whose lives were changed forever by the Northern Soul Movement which developed in the industrial landscape of the North of England. Constanine is currently casting the film’s two leads and plans to use original Northern Soul records from the ’60s and ’70s. A regular photographer for Vogue and The Face,Constantine has also directed commercials, pop videos and short documentary projects. She wrote and directed her first short film Cold Water in 2005 and has directed three shorts about the Northern Soul movement in the last decade. Post Production house LipSync has come on board as an equity partner. Debbie Gray is producing for Constantine’s production company Stubborn Heart Productions. Henry Normal, executive producing forBaby Cow Films. The film will be financed via an EIS scheme, which is being set up by London accountants Nyman Libson Paul. “When Northern Soul exploded out of the North of England it touched young lives in a way that nothing had done before. As a young teenager, dancing to this music gave me an overwhelming feeling of belonging and euphoria. It’s this same feeling of excitement and belonging to something different and special that I want to give to the audience of the film,” said Constantine, who grew up in Bury, Lancashire. Northern Soul also provided the backdrop for Ipso Facto’s 2010 Soulboy, starring Martin Compston.

Website: https://www.northernsoulthefilm.com/

Discos Som-Maior was set up by Sebastiao Bastos in the early part of 1965. It concerned itself initially with local music and musicians. An early signing was young musician and future political activist, Gilberto Gil. One groups on the label were Trio Salambanco. Playing a fusion of jazz and samba rhythms, the group, which was formed in 1964, comprised of Cesar Camargo Mariano, Humberto Clayber and Airto Moriera. Although they split up after just two albums, they would later be considered as highly influential in bringing world attention to Brazilian fusion music. Soon after the trio split, Moriera, who was married to vocalist Flora Purim, founded Quarteto Novo with Hermeto Pascoal and headed to the States. Mariano joined another influential group, Som Tres. Not long after founding the label, owner Bastos went to the States to set up licensing deals and returned having clinched a mutual contract with Audio Fidelity. In the summer of 1966, Som Maior hit the top of the Brazilian charts with the novelty song Juanita Banana by The Peels, which had seen action in the States on the Audio Fidelity subsidiary, Karate. As well as the Brenton Wood 45, his LP was also released on the Som Maior label. ***Added: just spotted an EP as well - on eBay, complete with picture sleeve and which features the tracks Gimme little sign, Oogum boogum song, Baby you got it, and Me and you.*** At the end of the decade the label was still going and had appointed Fermata International Melodies, Inc, of Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood as it's official licensing agent for the USA and Canadian markets. That's all I can tell you, I'm afraid, apart from the fact that Som Maior means bigger or higher sound.

Kung fu slippers maybe? They were quite popular among some dancers in the south for a while around that time.

Thanks, Marc. All is good here. Yes, got a link to the Fabulous Playboys 45 during our emails about the group/acetate. As I said to him - I WANT IT!!

Gave it a listen and was impressed by the heavy rain you can hear all the way through the sound file

Holiday - was this not the theme tune to a TV documentary - something like "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium"? Come to think of it, I remember being told that The Kid was used as the theme tune to a well-known programme over here in the Netherlands. Looking online, apparently it was used by a DJ called Lex Harding on a Dutch pirate radio ship called Veronica. It also seems that somewhere down the line the titles got mixed up and what is labelled as Holiday is in reality the track called The Kid - and vice versa. This might explain the confused relabelling of A and B sides on later issues - except that they were still wrong!

A couple of recent additions. The Ramblers acetate isn't a soul track - it's an R&B number from 1956 that was recorded for Federal but never got released until it was put on a CD compilation not so long ago. I include it here though as a few years later The Ramblers evolved into The Falcons.

You're right, there isn't one. There are two!

Bemused? Let's see. One of them was a black American artist who had chart success in the soul genre during the 60s whilst the other is... No wonder people are bemused. Out of interest, how did you try to explain it to your work colleagues?

Funny this should crop up. Had some friends round at the weekend and we were have a good old time of it, as you do, swapping stories about or respective 'good old days'. One of our friends (an Italian with connections to the Italian and European Mod scene) was telling us that there is a growing desire among sections of the Italian Mod scene (and possibly among other European contingents) to move away from the label, cult and associated paraphernalia of Northern Soul. Soul music from the 60s in particular should be labelled as such, they believe, and not given the name tag of a regional and obscure youth cult from 70s Great Britain. 60s Soul should have it's own identity and be appreciated and understood in the context of 1960s America, not the perspective of the UK. Fans of the music should be saying - "that's a great 60s soul 45" - and not - "that's a great Northern Soul 45". After all, there is no such music as Northern Soul, only a cult that sprang up through an appreciation of 60s soul music. Possibly there is a stronger trend to disassociate from Northern Soul and all its historical trappings than may be realised.

Maybe I'm having a senior moment, but didn't this flyer make an appearance on here not that long ago, Ken? Or am I just dreaming it? I'm sure I remember as I was very surprised to see this, particularly as that's me in it. Instantly recognisable in the background is Ion because of his 'knees-bent/lean-back' dance style.

In certain circumstances emails can indeed be considered as binding contracts as a case at the Court of Appeal in 2010 confirms. Here's a link to more info on the case... https://www.clarkslegal.com/Article/892/Binding+contracts+created+by+email

I anticipate that "Jerry Nassis" is a pseudonym. An hour on Google following a hunch about the religious background (you suggested Mormon) of the individual showed me that the name - and derivative spellings of it - typically links to families with strong connections to the church. Those derivatives may use a 'G' in place of the "J" (Gerry or Jerry, for example, or even Jay), whilst the surname can be spelled in any variation (Nessis/Nassis/Nesis) that still allows it to connect with the initial of the forename vocally and be spoken as a single word. That word is Genesis. Interestingly, the Old Testament book of Genesis appears to be anathema to Mormons. To make the possibilities more interesting however, there is an influential Afro-American Mormon movement called the "Genesis Group". This was founded in 1971, which times perfectly with the apogee of your mystery soul man. Perhaps - and this is pure speculation - your rogue Afro-American Mormon knew his stuff and was expressing his religious rebelliousness through his chosen name. Of course, and more probably, he could just have been an ordinary guy...

Excellent reading. Thanks for posting the link. Listening to the before and after sound files, I'm really impressed by the massive reduction in noise obtained by using the glue method. Gonna have to give it a go.

I love it when you decide to do a bit of digging online into the names that appear on labels. It's something that I suspect we all do in some way, but certainly have to admit I don't do it enough. It's rare when a bit of time spent online doesn't turn up at least one or two snippets of information that you never knew about a singer or group, the label itself, or those involved in the production of a specific song. A case in point is a 45 I picked up recently - Cajun Hart - Got to find a way. I'm sure countless folks before me have been curious about the singer and, although I couldn't find out anything about the identity of 'Mr Hart' (does anyone know?), I was quite impressed by the credentials of the other names appearing on the label. Although the UK demo doesn't give the same info, the US release - and I've nabbed a scan from Popsike for the purposes of illustration - provides names for arranger, producer and songwriter, which are Sid Feller, Lee Magid, and Doug Goodwin. If you know all about the careers of these three then please, click away now. I thought it fascinating, and it was all certainly new information to me. Sid Feller died in 2006 at the age of 89. During his career as both producer and arranger, he had a lengthy and very successful partnership with Ray Charles. He was also in-house arranger for Capital and ABC Records and worked with household names such as Jack Teagarden, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Dean Martin and Nancy Wilson. The producer, Lee Magid, was an industry stalwart who knew the music industry inside out and back to front courtesy of his experience gained from having reputedly worked in just about every role possible. In 1945, he took a job with National Records and apparently championed the featuring of 'black' acts on 'white' radio. In 1947, he moved to Savoy Records and helped develop the careers of an impressive number of acts that included Johnny Otis and Little Esther (Phillips). At Savoy he worked with a young sound engineer by the name of Tom Dowd. Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, OC Smith and Marlena Shaw were others who received the useful support of Magid who also became manager of artists including Lou Rawls, Earl Grant and Sam Fletcher. The writing credits of 'Got to find a way' go to Doug Goodwin. The first thing you find out when looking him up online is that he was the composer of the theme to the Pink Panther Show. This, by the way, was done in the same year that "Got to find a way" was released. Don't get mixed up with the Henry Mancini tune that accompanies the Pink Panther films, it's the theme to the TV series Goodwin was responsible for. How could you forget these lyrics..? Think of all the animals you ever heard about Like rhinoceroses and tigers, cats and mink There are lots of funny animals in all this world But have you ever seen a panther that is pink? Think! A panther that is positively pink! Classic! As well as this piece of musical genius, Goodwin was responsible for the scores of many cartoons. For example - Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales; Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol; Hey there, it's Yogi Bear; The Ant and the Aardvark, and The man called Flintstone (a feature length Flintstone animation from 1966). The list goes on and on… So there you have it - Cajun Hart and the Pink Panther Connection! Do forgive me if this has all been documented before or is common knowledge! Even if it is, the next time I play it at home or hear it out, I'll be hard pressed to not think about a panther that is positively pink or even The Flintstones!