The Tempests – Would You Believe b/w You (Are the Star I Wish On)

By , February 26, 2015 1:25 pm

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The Tempests

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Greetings all.

The end of the week is at hand, and so is this week’s episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show, which takes to the shimmering airwaves of the interwebs each and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you can’t join me at airtime, you can subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, or grab an MP3 here at the blog.

The disc I bring you today is yet another fine example of the largely blue-eyed soul/R&B movement know as “beach music”.

Starting in the Carolinas and southern Virginia in the 1960s, and based around the dance known as the Shag, the sounds were provided by a vast array of R&B/soul show bands, most of which were mostly (or more often completely) white.

The racial aspect of the scene is relatively complicated, in that it arose from music recorded by black artists (Tams, Showmen, Drifters etc), yet the live bands on the scene (Swingin’ Medallions, O’Kaysions, Bill Deal and the Rhondells etc.) – due, no doubt to the fact that this was all happening in the segregated South – were mostly white.

There is of course a long history of white R&B/soul artists in the south, many of them, in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, and Atlanta, collaborating with black performers, either in the background, as composers and producers (Joe South, Dan Penn, Chips Moman, Spooner Oldham etc) or as backing musicians (in the studio or on the road).

The heyday of beach music was in the 1960s (the term came into use midway through the decade) and there are many excellent recorded examples of the sound.

The Tempests – a white band fronted by a series of black singers – recorded a grip of 45s and an LP for Smash in 1967 and 1968. The group’s original lead singer was Mike Williams, who went on to record ‘Lonely Soldier’ for Atlantic in 1967. He was replaced by vocalist Hazel Martin who appears on the two tracks I bring you today.

The uptempo ‘Would You Believe’ was the Tempests highest charting number, stalling just outside the Hot 100 in 1967. It features some great organ, hard charging horns and a solid vocal by Martin. It has lots of dance-floor appeal, which is why it has grown in popularity in the soul clubs of the UK (along with ‘Someday’ a track from their LP).

The flipside, ‘You (Are the Star I Wish On)’ is a great, pleading, southern soul ballad, with a killer vocal by Martin.

After leaving Smash, the Tempests recorded two 45s for Polydor in the early 70s, before breaking up later in the decade.

Some of the Tempests would go on to form and record as the Backyard Heavies.

The ‘Would You Believe’ LP has been reissued on CD and is fairly easy to find.

To learn more about the beach music scene (and its bands) I will refer to you the “Heeey Baby Days’ website. A companion piece to a huge, comprehensive book (which sadly looks to be out of print and quite expensive) the site is still a valuable resource (click on the ‘bands’ and ‘photos’ links on the front page).

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).

 

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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

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