Linda Tate R.I.P

[Andy Rix]

It has taken a long time for the news to reach me but I felt it wholly appropriate to pass on the news that Linda Tate died in July 2015 at the age of 72.

Linda was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and lived most of her life in Metuchen. Linda was an international relations coordinator for Merck and Company for 33 years before her retirement. 

Linda is known to us through her recordings at Shrine Records, as Linda & The Vistas, and Assault Records where she fronted the Pretenders.

Despite trying to locate Linda for years I never quite got there ... but thankfully she did learn of the admiration we had for her via the studio engineer, Jim, who was present for the sessions that produced the Shrine 45 and the unreleased version of 'Believe Me' which were both cut at Herb Abramson's A-1 studio in New York.

Jim and I touched base a number of years ago and shared stories ... as often happens such connections slip away but in those intervening years he 'found' Linda and passed on what I had told him. I'm saddened I never got to tell her myself but I'm pleased to know that she did find out about the impact of her recordings on our shores.

In the sleeve notes for the second Shrine CD I wrote .....

SHRINE 100   LINDA & THE VISTAS - BAD APPLE / SHE WENT AWAY

Linda Tate heralded from Rochelle, New Jersey, was half-Indian and according to Eddie Singleton, had "a voice like a bird". She had met Eddie whilst going out with Billy Brown, a future member of The Moments, who knew Eddie from their home-town of Asbury Park. Her first recording, ‘Believe me’ / ‘It's not my will’ (Assault 1879), was written, produced and arranged by Eddie and credited to Linda & The Pretenders. Eddie believed that Linda had the talent required to make it big, so never wanting to miss a beat, he had taken her into the studio to cut her next single. The top side which was co-written by Harry Bass, was a bouncy girl group item which belonged to another era; sounding totally out of place as a Shrine 45. The flip was the tender, yet mournful, ballad, which provided such a perfect showcase for Linda's unique voice. The song had been inspired by the assassination of John F. Kennedy of whom Eddie was a great admirer. Sitting at his piano he composed the lyric "He went away and left me crying, He went away and left me blue"; the song, when finished, became 'She Went Away'. The plan to release the new recordings as a follow-up to the Assault single were shelved, as the deal fell through, but Eddie, believing the song to be worthy of release, decided to save it for a rainy day. When Shrine opened for business Eddie wanted to get some product out immediately and it seemed only fitting, given the circumstances of the song's inspiration, that it should become the first release on the label. After all, its very name reflected Eddie's admiration for the murdered President: literally a shrine to the memory of JFK. The single was pressed in early 1965 at the Custom Matrix plant on Long Island and it received some airplay, selling a few copies locally, but more importantly it served as an announcement that Shrine had arrived.

The late Harry Bass also commented that Linda had a voice like a "rare beautiful bird" and said, when hearing 'Believe Me' for the first time since being in the studio when the recording took place, "Andy you  may recall that this is the group that performed the "Boy from New York City" (The Ad Libs) on stage, on the road, when the original group disintegrated right after recording that song. They worked the Apollo in NY and the Howard Theater in Washington. They may have even gotten to London. If you can match a film clip with that act you'll see Linda". I’ve never seen a film clip so have never been able to check that out.

Linda married Alex ‘Sonny’ Campbell, the bass singer in the Vistas, who died in 1973. She never remarried.

Linda told Jim ““I have 2 sons and 5 grandchildren.  It's funny how my "grands" are all instrumentally inclined. I had only run into two of the "Pretenders" several years ago - that is when we were called the Pretenders - there have been many groups by that name since.  As far as I know all of the Pretenders, with the exception of Leonard Mallory, have since died - two from the effects of Agent Orange.  As for the Vistas, I don't know what happened to the other two. My sister has a copy of my original recording of Believe Me - which she will not let me pry out of her hands. I have another copy stashed somewhere.  I can't believe it is selling in rare recordings for such a high price - awesome - I would never sell mine - it is part of my life.

Facing the Vistas photo to your left was my husband, Alex, they called him Sonny. Also shown are "Tenor" and I think James - what a pity - can't quite remember the names as I've had no contact since '64.  All three were not a part of the original Pretenders group since that group began a few years earlier.    

The original Believe Me was sung by the Pretenders (Leonard Mallory, Donald Jones, Neil Stateman and Terry ?)  Terry died immediately after completing his Vietnam tour of duty. Donald died of Agent Orange some years back.  Neil is deceased too.”

As I said more than a year has passed since Linda died but I thought people would want to know

Andy

Edited November 14, 2016 by Andy Rix
typo

[Soulfulsolutions]

Nice touch Andy, another sad loss

[Gointoagogo]

Yes lovely write up thanks Andy.

[Dave Thorley]

Sad new Andy. But so nice that you've been able to shine a light on this lady

[Chalky]

Sad news. Happy that she knew of the admiration held for her.  R.I.P. Linda.

[rodders]

Again sad news,love reading shrine stories (interviews).another soulful legend passes us by. Kudos to you Andy for your painstaking hard work in your love for Washington soul. I still have the Eddie Singleton interview you did on tape. 

[Munchkin]

sad news Andy, but a fitting tribute...

[Andy Rix]

2 hours ago, Dave Thorley said:

But so nice that you've been able to shine a light on this lady

I think you have hit the nail on the head ... it is important to shine the light ... her children might read this one day and if I was one of them it would bring a smile to my face

Andy

[Eddie Hubbard]

Great tribute Andy , a good read about Linda's life and career ,despite the sad circumstances .

[clevesoulie]

I'm glad she knew that you guys across the pond thought highly of her. We really need to reach out to these great singers and musicians while they're still here.

Best,

Mark

[Gilly]

Great, as always you do your homework

[Russ Vickers]

Fantastic stuff Andy, thank you for your hard work as ever....

Best Russ

[Shsdave]

On 13/11/2016 at 22:16, clevesoulie said:

I'm glad she knew that you guys across the pond thought highly of her. We really need to reach out to these great singers and musicians while they're still here.

Best,

Mark

Her family are certainly aware, this was posted on you tube for Believe Me

Lance Campbell5 years ago

This is my mother singing this song! She sounds great here but her voice has gotten even better over the years! Thanks for posting!

I can't find it now but Linda also posted in comments for one of the singles in reply to Jim Reeves the engineers post on you tube. jim said that he still had her autographed copy of She went away + a copy of believe me & they exchanged a couple of messages but only Jims original post remains for some reason. Having said that I've only had a quick search,(I'm at work) it may be a thread on a flip side ?

both tremendous sounds, always hammered Believe me at Solid Hit 

[Andy Rix]

4 hours ago, SHSDave said:

I can't find it now but Linda also posted in comments for one of the singles in reply to Jim Reeves the engineers post on you tube. jim said that he still had her autographed

 

He mentioned that but I couldn't find the comments either

Here's a recent-ish pic of her

Andy

[Angus]

Brilliant read that.....good work that man.....now I must get back to the threads on "what is proper dancing" and "my favourite pair of dancing shoes"....

keep it up andy!!!!!

[Mouldy Old Soul]

Thanks Andy.

Sad news for all Rare Soul fans

As the only Shrine record in my collection  I have always wondered and wanted to know about Linda's history and what happened to her after the Pretenders/ Vista's 

Such a shame so beautiful a voice did not continue to make sweet soul music