Comments (2)

By Larry, January 21, 2015 11:09 am

NOTE: As a result of my hospital stay and lots of lost blogging time, I’m going to dip back into the archives for some groovy things to hold you over until I get back up to full speed.

This blue-eyed Southern soul burner became an instant favorite of mine when I first heard it.

So dig it, and Keep the Faith
Larry

Listen/Download The Chitlins – Sugar Woman

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another groovy week.

The track I bring you today is both a fairly recent discovery for me and a major fave.

It is also something of a mystery.

A few months back I was perusing a new (to me) record site on the intertubes, and a glimpse of the Pala records label caught my eye.

One half of the York-Pala construct, it was run by two cats named Charlie Greene and Brian Stone. These operators are best known as music managers who came to prominence in mid-60s LA working with acts like Sonny and Cher, the Buffalo Springfield, the Poor and a cat you may have heard of named Dr John.

I had always seen the York/Pala credit on many records, but it was only in the last few years that I actually found a record on either label.

I have two 45s by The Poor (LA-based folk rock) but the Chitlins ‘Sugar Woman’ was the first Pala disc I’d ever encountered.

The label appears to have been very short-lived, with only one other release (by Larry Marks).

The Chitlins appear to have gotten their start – and spent much of their existence – as a white show band called the Soul Brothers, in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The first time I heard ‘Sugar Woman’, what grabbed me was the New Orleans guitar (sounds like George Davis to me).

As it turns out the band did in fact record their sole 45 in New Orleans for Stanley Chaisson’s Chase Records imprint.

I have not been able to confirm whether or not there was actually a Chitlins 45 released on Chase, or if it was a production deal that was licensed to Pala.

My suspicion – without any hard evidence, mind you – is that Green and Stone happened upon the Chitlins via one of the many New Orleans connections in their orbit. Harold Battiste was Sonny and Cher’s musical director, and both Mac ‘Dr John’ Rebennack and Alvin Robinson were both working on the West Coast during this period.

That said, ‘Sugar Woman’ is a positively scorching bit of garagey soul with fantastic lyrics like

Let her know she’s a real Jim Dandy, feed her candy!

And

Let her know she’s a ring-dang-doo sir, don’t lose her!

The guitar, bass and drums are in a deep, deep groove, and the horns and backing vocalists are spot on.

I don’t know who the lead vocalist is but he’s killing it!

Via some cross-referencing (and following a few hunches) I’m led to believe that the band included guys named Chris Miller, Sam Roe, Pete Killingsworth, Sonny Tanner, having had some crossover with a group called the New Grooves.

As I mentioned earlier, I hear the distinct guitar stylings of George Davis, but the entire record has such a New Orleans feel to it, I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that this was the Soul Brothers/Chitlins singer fronting an entire studio full of NOLA pros.

In another interesting twist, the song is credited to country songwriter/producer Billy Sherrill, but I can’t find any instance of anyone else having recorded the tune.

The flip side, ‘The Next Time You See Me’ is an upbeat, bluesy shuffle.

“Sugar Woman’ was a local Top 40 hit in New Orleans in the Spring of 1967.

It is a truly remarkable tune, and one that I wish I’d had in my crates a long time ago.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, November 16, 2014 12:32 pm

Flavor, on the cover of their comp

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Greetings all.

Welcome to the new week.

It’s ony fair to warn you, that as soon as you download today’s selection and pull the trigger, your ears are gonna jump up off of your head and do the double bump.

‘Sally Had a Party’ by Flavor, is one of the finest examples of what collector types might call ‘bubblegum soul’, i.e. all the trappings of a soul party number strained through the filter of a loud, somewhat cheesy (in only the finest sense) pop/rock band.

Previous examples would include burners like ‘Shake’ by the Shadows of Knight (a 45 that I have spun at soul parties many a time), in which you get the soul-a-go-go thing with a little extra fuzz and amplification around the edges.

Flavor was a Maryland-based band that started out as the Bad Boys, a group that recorded some excellent 45s for Paula, including ‘Black Olives’ (see Funky16Corners Radio v.9).

‘Sally Had a Party’ is a positively explosive record, in which Flavor take the Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Gimme Some Lovin’, strip it down to its borrowed frame (see ‘A Lot of Love’ by Homer Banks) and then strap on a case or two of dynamite, a couple of go go dancers, and a bunch of day-glo paint, and then light the fuse.

Kaboom.

Seriously. Turn up the volume and drop the needle on this one in a room full of good-to-go party people and watch them blow the fuck up.

In addition to all that goodness, you get a quote from the Fantastic Johnny C’s ‘Boogaloo Down Broadway’, too.

‘Sally Had a Party’ was a regional Top 40 hit in the summer of 1968 (the cover of ‘Shop Around’ on the flip is pretty cool, too) , after which Flavor glanced the charts a few more times and then disappeared.

The band’s guitarist, Demetri Callas later went on to tour with the Four Seasons.

There’s a compilation on Collectables which includes the tracks from their three 45s and a grip of previously unreleased material.

Dig it, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 23, 2014 11:12 am

Ross D Wyllie

Listen/Download Ross D Wyllie – Do the Uptight

Greetings all

I picked up today’s selection a while back at a record show, because, in all honesty, how would I ever pass by a 45 called ‘Do the Uptight’?

Good thing I didn’t, because in addition to being a tasty dance floor hitter, ‘Do the Uptight’ has an interesting little back story to it as well.

When I first gave the 45 a spin, my assumption was that the singer was white, but I had no idea that he was also the host of an Australian dance party show!

Ross D Wyllie was a pop singer and host of the popular, 1967-1969 Australian TV show called (what else…) Uptight.

Wyllie had recorded a series of chart hits through the 60s for the Sunshine and Festival labels, eventually hosting Uptight, and then following the cancellation of that show, ‘Happening ‘70’.

Nothing Wyllie had recorded prior to (or after, for that matter) would indicate that he had something like ‘Do the Uptight’ up his sleeve.

The powers that be were probably impressed as well, since ‘Do the Uptight’ managed to get released in the US and the UK as well.

It is a fast moving, soul dancer, cut from a fairly standard pattern but infectiously energetic.

The tune was written by Aussie pop singer Johnny Young, who was also responsible for penning Russell Morris’s psych classic ‘The Real Thing’.

Ross D Wyllie continued to record, as well as working through the years as a TV personality Down Under.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (0)

By Larry, September 16, 2014 11:03 am

Bob Brady and the Con Chords

Listen/Download Bob Brady and the Con Chords – Everybody’s Goin’ To the Love In

Greetings all

The tune I have selected to start out the week is a long time favorite, party-starter and dance floor annihilator.

Possessed of one of the great blue eyed soul voices of the classic era (though it was largely ‘borrowed’ from Mr. William Robinson of Detroit, MI…) Bob Brady led the Con Chords through a half-dozen stellar 45s on the Chariot label between 1967 and 1969.

Based in the Baltimore, MD area (check out my interview with Con Chords trombonist Larry Sprigg in the old F16C web zine), the Con Chords were popular up and down the East Coast, having their biggest success with 1967’s ‘More More More of Your Love’ which was a big regional hit in Philadelphia.

The record you see before you today was a minor local hit in 1968.

‘Everybody’s Goin’ To the Love In’ – co-written by Brady and Con Chords keyboard player Jim Samuel – is an absolutely brilliant 45, that is guaranteed to set any dance floor on fire (thus its popularity with the Northern Soul folks).

Opening deceptively quietly, with a muted trumpet and piano, it soon builds up to an explosive, pounding opening (dig those piano chords), followed by Brady’s trademark falsetto vocal.

The lyrics are all 1968-heavy peace and love (‘Everybody’s going to see the guru!’) but the arrangement is solid soul, and the record builds the excitement over and over again.

I LOVE this 45 and have played it out many a time.

I hope you dig it as much as I do.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, August 10, 2014 10:05 am

Jo Ann Campbell and Troy Seals

Listen/Download Jo Ann and Troy – Who Do You Love

Greetings all

One of the great pleasures of my lifelong music collecting (if I may be so bold) odyssey, is the thrill of discovering a record that is both groovy, and manages to carry with it an interesting story.

Today’s selection is just such a disc.

A while back, I was wandering around the vinyl depositories of the interwebs and happened upon the record you see before you today.

The names Jo Ann and Troy meant nothing to me, but as soon as I saw that they were covering one of my favorite Bo Diddley songs, my curiosity was piqued.

I threw down a couple of bucks, took a chance and was very happy indeed when I finally put the needle on the record.

The Jo Ann and Troy version of ‘Who Do You Love’ was a slamming, uptempo raver with some very tasty guitar and some crazy duet action between the singers.

What blew my mind, was when I started doing some digging and discovered that Jo Ann and Troy were not only white, but had roots in the rockabilly/country side of things.

Jo Ann was Jo Ann Campbell, who had herself quite a little career as a rocker/rockabilly in the late 50s and early 60s, her biggest hit being the answer record ‘I’m the Girl From Wolverton Mountain’ in 1961. Campbell also appeared in a few rock’n’roll movies.

Troy was Troy Seals, cousin to Jim and Dan Seals (of Seals & Crofts and the Southwest F.O.B.) was a guitarist, and at the time Campbell’s husband.

They recorded over a dozen tracks in 1964 for Atlantic in an R&B/soul style, with the A-side of ‘Who Do You Love’, ‘I Found a Love, Oh What a Love’ making a minor hit at the end of 1964.

The record was successful enough that the duo became regulars on ‘Where the Action is’ in 1965.

They also recorded a fantastic version of the Ashford/Simpson/Armstead tune, ‘Same Old Feeling’.

A few years later, Seals went on to play guitar in the Dapps, recording with none other than James Brown.

Troy Seals later had a very successful career as a country songwriter, penning hits for Ronnie Milsap (‘Lost In the Fifties Tonight’) and George Jones (‘Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes’) among others.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, April 8, 2014 12:50 pm

Miss Dusty Springfield

Listen/Download Dusty Springfield – Live It Up

Listen/Download Dusty Springfield – Go Ahead On

Greetings all

I have something exceptionally groovy for you today.

A while back,my friend Gail Smith, proprietress of the most excellent ‘Work Your Soul’ podcast (go ahead and take a minute to subscribe, if you haven’t already) turned me on to the record you see before you today.

Dusty Springfield is thought of today as one of the premiere ‘blue-eyed’ soul singers of the classic era.

This is something that I grappled with quite a bit over the years.

The concept of ‘blue-eyed soul’ i.e. soul music made by white singers, is a very flexible one, often expanded to include one-off ‘soul’ records recorded by decidedly non-soul performers.

I have come to the point where I feel that the term ought to be disposed of, since there was a lot of ‘bleed’ if you will from both sides of the racial divide, with black, soul-identified singers recording pop music and a fair amount of white singers spending a lot of their time making excellent, soulful music.

Monday’s selection was by the mighty Ray Charles, one of the most stylistically flexible performers ever, who basically made whatever kind of music he felt like, each record succeeding by virtue of its excellence, categories be damned.

Dusty Springfield’s reputation as a soul singer is usually tied to her late-60s recordings, especially the 1969 ‘Dusty In Memphis’ LP which included her most enduring hit ‘Son of a Preacher Man’.

Oddly enough – and I was stunned by this – Dusty Springfield never hit the Billboard R&B charts!

A look at her chart success reveals that here in the US, until ‘Son Of a Preacher Man’, her hits were almost exclusively pop songs and big ballads.

My surprise had a lot to do with my perception of Springfield, and had me raising an eyebrow every time someone called her a ‘soul singer’ (many of these commenters never having heard of singers like Linda Lyndell, Lydia Pense, Bonnie Bramlett or Chris Clark)

It was only fairly recently – thanks to some direction by Gail – that I dug deeper into the Springfield canon and discovered a very prominent vein of R&B and soul material.

The first track I bring you today appeared on Springfield’s first US LP, 1964’s ‘Dusty’.

Though the bulk of the LP’s tracks (including excellent versions of ‘Can I Get a Witness’ and ‘Do Re Me (Forget About the Do and Think About Me)’) was recorded in the UK with Ivor Raymonde, it also includes material from a session recorded in New York.

What is especially interesting about this session – other than the fact that it produced the excellent ‘Live It Up’ – was that it was produced by Shelby Singleton and arranged by Ray Stevens.

While both of these guys were doing heavy work in the 60s, they were doing most of it in Nashville, and I don’t know what the impetus was for bringing them to New York to record with Springfield.

‘Live It Up’ is a stomper, with a blazing vocal by Springfield and some great, gospel-inflected backing vocals. The tune was released as a single but only had some small amount of regional chart success.

The second track I bring you today is an especially tasty one.

‘Go Ahead On’ was the B-side of a UK-only 45 (the A-side, ‘All I See Is You’ was a UK Top 10 hit in September of 1966). It was co-written by Springfield and none other than the great US-born but UK-based singer Madeline Bell! Bell, along with Kiki Dee, had spent time working as a backing vocalist for Springfield.

‘Go Ahead On’ is a record that – had it been released in the US – might have changed the direction of Dusty Springfield’s career a few years earlier. It is without any question a ‘soul’ record, with a Chicago/Curtis Mayfield edge to it and an outstanding lead vocal.

Aside from her biggest pop hits, her discography is filled with R&B/soul covers, including tunes by Lee Dorsey, Marvin Gaye, Margie Hendricks, the Sand Pebbles, Laura Lee, Garnet Mimms and Mitty Collier among others.

If – like me – you had your reservations about Dusty Springfield, especially in regard to her soulful side, the time is ripe for reappraisal.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (3)

By Larry, March 16, 2014 12:56 pm

Jimmy Holiday

Listen/Download Jimmy Holiday – The New Breed

Listen/Download Jimmy Holiday – Love Me One More Time

Listen/Download Ron Moody and the Centaurs – The New Breed

Greetings all

I hope the new week finds you all welland in rapt anticipation of the oncoming Spring (despite all meteorological evidence to the contrary).

Today’s selections come to you well in advance of my original plans, thanks to a special request from a reader.

Naturally the story of how I got this record is quite convoluted (aren’t they all?).

A while back, a friend on Facebook posted a clip of a song called ‘The New Breed’ by a band called Ron Moody and the Centaurs.

It was a very groovy song indeed, and a little bit of research revealed that they were a white R&B band from Richmond, Virginia who recorded one 45, ‘The New Breed’ b/w ‘If I Didn’t Have a Dime’.

I wanted a copy of the 45, so I added it to my watch list and grabbed it when it popped up.

This is where things move into the ‘easier said than done’ category.

The package arrived, and I opened it to find…the wrong record.

I contact the seller who says that he must have sent the Ron Moody 45 to some guy in Germany (who was supposed to get the record that I got) and as soon as he gets it back from him, he’ll send it to me.

I figured I was never going to see the 45, but after going back and forth with the seller for a few months, it finally showed up!

I’m glad it did because the Centaurs version swings in a Beach Music stylee (the group had a following on that scene) and is very cool.

So I dig a little deeper and discover that ‘The New Breed’ was in fact a cover, having been originally recorded by a singer named Jimmy Holiday.

While the Centaurs version was cool, it paled (no pun intended) in comparison to Holiday’s original.

So I figured (as I always do…) that I ought to find myself a copy of the OG.

I checked Ebay (usually a good, basic gauge of whether or not a record is readily available), found a copy (graded VG) for five bucks and pulled the trigger.

When the record arrived, I discovered that the seller had under-graded the 45 (always cool) and also that the flip-side, ‘Love Me One More Time’ was a killer as well.

As it turns out, Jimmy Holiday was an interesting cat, indeed.

He recorded frequently through the 60s and early 70s, waxing more than two dozen 45s (and at least one LP) for labels like Everest, Diplomacy and Minit, all the while working as a songwriter, co-writing ‘Put A Little Love In your Heart’ for Jackie DeShannon, and working as a staff writer for Ray Charles’s Tangerine label.

He had a Top 10 R&B hit with “How Can I Forget’ in 1963 and placed one record a year into the R&B Top 40 in 1966, 1967 and 1968, as well as scoring a minor regional hit in a duet with Clydie King on ‘Ready, Willing and Able’ in 1967.

‘The New Breed’ b/w ‘Love Me One More Time’ was the first of his two 45s for the Diplomacy label in 1965*.

‘The New Breed’ is a hard charging floor-filler, with propulsive rhythm guitar and piano and a powerful horn section.

‘Love Me One More Time’ has a slightly heavier R&B edge, with a wailing vocal by Holiday.

The arrangements are by Jimmy Long who did a lot of work for Motown (Temptations, Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips).

Sadly, Jimmy Holiday passed away in 1989, at the age of only 52.

I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

*’The New Breed’ was also issued on Kent in 1967 but replacing ‘Love Me One More Time’ with a tune called ‘I Can’t Stand It’

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, November 17, 2013 1:20 pm

Robert John

Listen/Download Robert John – Raindrops, Love and Sunshine

Greetings all

Welcome to another groovy week here at Funky16Corners.

Today’s entry is yet another chapter in the sometimes strange world of Northern Soul.

There was a period some years back where it seems a new book about Northern Soul – reference or otherwise – was coming out every month or so, and I think I bought them all.

In addition to countless familiar soul artists, I was turned on to tons of new ones.

What I also kept finding were seemingly incongruous artists, who one would never (at first glance) consider soulful (Paul Anka, Joey Heatherton, Bobby Goldsboro etc), yet who all recorded great, soulful 45s.

Northern Soul playlists have always been a home to records that in one way or another, fit the mold whether it was a one-off record that was recorded/performed in a soul style, or a wide variety of instrumentals that provided enough of that powerful, four on the floor beat.

The record I bring you today is a great example of the former.

When I saw the name Robert John pop up in a soul playlist, my brain had a brief short circuit, during which I was unable to reconcile the singer of the 70s AM hit ‘Sad Eyes’ with anything remotely soulful. I figured it had to be someone else with the same name.

As it turns out, the Robert John of ‘Raindrops, Love and Sunshine’ is the very same guy who had a number of hits in the 70s.

John – born Robert John Pedrick – had been recording since he was 12 years old, first charting in 1958 (as ‘Bobby Pedrick’), and then continuing to record through the 60s for a variety of labels.

He recorded ‘Raindrops, Love and Sunshine’ in 1970, featuring his powerful (nearly ear-shattering) falsetto, and an arrangement that owes a huge debt to the previous year’s mega-hit ‘More Today Than Yesterday’ by the Spiral Starecase.

If you are at all familiar with Northern Soul, it is immediately obvious why this record became popular on the scene.
It has both the solid, propulsive beat, and an anthemic, nearly explosive chorus.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some folks thought they were hearing a female singer the first time they heard the song.

Interestingly enough, the record’s A-side ‘When the Party Is Over’ was a minor hit (Pop #71).

John went on to have a number of hits in the 70s and 80s, including the aforementioned ‘Sad Eyes’ (#1 1979) and even and putting that falsetto to use again in 1983 with a remake of the Newbeats ‘Bread and Butter’ (#68 1983), which came out on Motown.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, October 29, 2013 11:33 am

Soul City (above) Little Caesar (below)

Listen/Download The Soul City – Everybody Dance Now

Listen/Download Little Caesar and the Empire – Everybody Dance Now (Vocal)

Listen/Download Little Caesar and the Empire – Everybody Dance Now (Instrumental)

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of the week.

The tune(s) I bring to you this fine day bring with them something of a mystery.

The world of soul is filled with re-used/repurposed backing tracks (check out the recent copycats/covers edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show for some examples).

‘Everybody Dance Now’ by the Soul City is one of those explosive party-starters that soul collectors and DJs are always on the lookout for.

The first time I heard it (via Kris Holmes Sunday Shuffle show) I knew I had to have a copy for my box, and it didn’t take too long to score one.

I know nothing of the group, or the label, though the comments on the Youtube video of the flipside ‘Who Knows’ seem to indicate that the Soul City may have also recorded under the name The Royal Robins on the Tru-Glo-Town label.

Where it gets (more) interesting, is that while I was trying to track down info on the Soul City, I discovered that that there was another version of the song (employing the same backing track) by Little Caesar and the Empire on Cameo/Parkway.

It took me a little bit longer to track down a copy of that disc, but when I did I got a pleasant surprise indeed.

The Little Caesar and the Empire disc included an instrumental dub of the song on its b-side, making it a fantastic companion piece for DJs that might want to mix the vocal and instrumental together for the dance floor.

As it turns out, Little Caesar and the Empire were led by Robert ‘Bocky’ Di Pasquale, who had been the leader of the Ohio-based white R&B group Bocky and the Visions.

While I dig the vocal on the Soul City version a little bit more, Bocky acquits himself nicely, and I think either version would go over on the dance floor equally well.

The Soul City 45 was popular on the UK soul scene, being a popular spin at the Twisted Wheel in Manchester.

While these 45s don’t turn up that often, when they do they aren’t particularly expensive (though the UK issue of the Soul City 45 can get up there in price).

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, October 3, 2013 11:02 am

Roy Head

Listen/Download Roy Head – Don’t Cry No More

Greetings all

The end of the week is finally upon us, and so that means that it’s Funky16Corners Radio Show time again. You can dial in this and every Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio to lend your ears to the finest in funk, soul, jazz and rare groove, all on original vinyl. If you can’t be there at the time of broadcast, you can always subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes or grab yourself and MP3 here at the blog.

I thought it would be nice to close out the week with something upbeat and groovy.

Most of you will already be familiar with Roy Head and the Traits ‘Treat Her Right’, whether via the original hit (#2 R&B and Pop in 1965) or in any of the countless cover versions. That particular song is one of the finest, grooviest pieces of classic-era blue eyed soul ever committed to wax, and I’m here to tell you that it was far from a fluke.

Head who hailed from the burgh of San Marcos, Texas was recording with his group the Traits as early as the late 50s, laying down rockabilly, R&B and soul.

Though he only hit the national charts with the Traits that one time, the group had a number of regional hits, and Head himself popped back up in the Country charts in the 1970s.

The tune I bring you today is a very nice slice of R&B rave up, in which Roy and the boys re-channel the sound of the mighty Bobby Blue Bland, who first laid this number down in Nineteen and Sixty One.

‘Don’t Cry No More’ is a fast moving, horn-driven number with a great vocal by Head.

Extra credit goes out to whoever was laying down the superb guitar lines on this one.

The only downer is that the song fades out too soon, with Roy and the Traits sounding like they could have gone for another couple of rounds.

If you get the chance (and you haven’t seen them already) check out some of the vintage videos of Roy Head performances on Youtube. He was quite the mover in his day.

As always, I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (2)

By Larry, September 29, 2013 1:50 pm

Kin Vassy (top) and at left with the First Edition

John Randolph Marr

Listen/Download Kin Vassy – Hello L.A. Bye Bye Birmingham

Listen/Download The First Edition – Hello L.A. Bye Bye Birmingham (Live)

Listen/Download John Randolph Marr – Hello L.A. Bye Bye Birmingham

Greetings all

I have something very special for you today.

A short time ago I met up with someone on Facebook with whom I had a mutual friend.

While perusing his timeline I saw that he had posted a video by the First Edition doing a song I’d never heard before called ‘Hello LA Bye Bye Birmingham’.

If the name of that group is vaguely familiar, it was the spawning ground of none other than Kenny Rogers, and a band that had a couple of major hits, including their 1968 cover of Mickey Newbury’s ‘I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)’, which is featured prominently in ‘The Big Lebowski’.

Anyway…I gave the aforementioned video a spin and was blown away.

First off, while I own (and dig) a couple of First Edition singles, I had never heard them do anything like ‘Hello LA…’, and the live performance – from their early 70s TV variety show (included below) – is absolutely smoking.

The real revelation was the lead singer of the song, a cat named Kin Vassy.

Vassy (Kin was a truncated version of his middle name, Kindred) was the singer/guitarist with the First Edition, replacing Mike Settle in 1969.

He had been a member of the 60s folk group the Back Porch Majority, and had recorded a couple of solo singles before hooking up (and apparently during his tenure) with the First Edition.

One of these is today’s selection, ‘Hello LA Bye Bye Birmingham’.

When I started digging around I was surprised that I hadn’t encountered the song before.

Co-written by Mac Davis and Delaney Bramlett, it was recorded by a wide variety of artists, including Blue Cheer, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band,  Juicy Lucy, and even Nancy Sinatra (you can seek out many of these on YouTube).

The popularity of the song doesn’t surprise me, since it has the kind of funky framework that works well at just about any speed, as well as a fantastic lyric about a cat that bags his home turf and goes on the road to seek success as a songwriter.

Though Mac Davis did record it. I haven’t been able to nail down who did the original version, since most of the ones I’ve found seem to pop up around the same time.

One other excellent version of the song (also included here) was recorded in 1969 by John Randolph Marr. It is in fact his version that was recently comped by Light In the Attic on their excellent ‘Country Funk’ collection, which brings me to the point I’ve been wanting to make.

There was something in the air (and the recording studios) of the South in the mid-to-late 60s and onward wherein (mostly) white musicians with a taste for gospel, R&B, soul and funk began to stir up a (if you’ll forgive the term) gumbo of those sounds with country, swamp pop and rock.

The most well-known and successful proponents of this sound were guys like Tony Joe White and Joe South, but you can also include folks like Bobbie Gentry and Davis in the mix as well.

While there’s a temptation to affix the term ‘blue eyed soul’ to some of these sounds, I think what we’re dealing with is something else entirely.

There were plenty of white soul singers working during this time period, including guys like Wayne Cochran and Roy Head, but they were by and large working solely in black styles.

The country funkers (for lack of a better term) were coming into their sound by creating an organic mixture of white and black styles, in the end creating something less than a movement but still a recognizable sound.

Little of the music made by these artists is out and out funk, but it is undeniably funky.

Kin Vassy’s studio version of ‘Hello LA Bye Bye Birmingham’ works a mid-tempo funky beat, adding in twangy lead guitar (dobro, too) and Vassy’s hard-edged, soulful vocals. Hearing Vassy sing, with the First Edition and solo was something of a revelation. He was a mighty singer, and in an age where every leather-lunged, longhaired shouter was trying to approximate Wilson Pickett (who would have done a spectacular version of this song), Vassy was able to soar as well as work the quiet passages.

The First Edition manages (surprisingly enough) to toughen the song up even more. Vassy is wailing and drummer Mickey Jones dials up the funk a bit.

I decided to include John Randolph Marr’s take on the song for contrast. Though he takes things a slightly slower pace, the drums and bass are killing it, and Marr had cool, whiskey-tinged voice (I hear a bit of David Clayton Thomas in there). The rest of the album – co-produced by Harry Nilsson under the aegis of his Nilsson House Productions – is an odd mix of country soul and chamber pop.

Interestingly enough, after the dissolution of the First Edition, Kin Vassy spent a short time recording and touring with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. He’s featured on the ‘Overnight Sensation’ LP.

He went on to work as a session singer/musician, eventually settling in Nashville and having some success as a performer and songwriter.

Sadly, Kin Vassy succumbed to cancer in 1994 at the age of 50.

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

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

Comments (1)

By Larry, September 10, 2013 1:33 pm

Listen/Download The Chitlins – Sugar Woman

Greetings all

Welcome to the middle of another groovy week.

The track I bring you today is both a fairly recent discovery for me and a major fave.

It is also something of a mystery.

A few months back I was perusing a new (to me) record site on the intertubes, and a glimpse of the Pala records label caught my eye.

One half of the York-Pala construct, it was run by two cats named Charlie Greene and Brian Stone. These operators are best known as music managers who came to prominence in mid-60s LA working with acts like Sonny and Cher, the Buffalo Springfield, the Poor and a cat you may have heard of named Dr John.

I had always seen the York/Pala credit on many records, but it was only in the last few years that I actually found a record on either label.

I have two 45s by The Poor (LA-based folk rock) but the Chitlins ‘Sugar Woman’ was the first Pala disc I’d ever encountered.

The label appears to have been very short-lived, with only one other release (by Larry Marks).

The Chitlins appear to have gotten their start – and spent much of their existence – as a white show band called the Soul Brothers, in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The first time I heard ‘Sugar Woman’, what grabbed me was the New Orleans guitar (sounds like George Davis to me).

As it turns out the band did in fact record their sole 45 in New Orleans for Stanley Chaisson’s Chase Records imprint.

I have not been able to confirm whether or not there was actually a Chitlins 45 released on Chase, or if it was a production deal that was licensed to Pala.

My suspicion – without any hard evidence, mind you – is that Green and Stone happened upon the Chitlins via one of the many New Orleans connections in their orbit. Harold Battiste was Sonny and Cher’s musical director, and both Mac ‘Dr John’ Rebennack and Alvin Robinson were both working on the West Coast during this period.

That said, ‘Sugar Woman’ is a positively scorching bit of garagey soul with fantastic lyrics like

Let her know she’s a real Jim Dandy, feed her candy!

And

Let her know she’s a ring-dang-doo sir, don’t lose her!

The guitar, bass and drums are in a deep, deep groove, and the horns and backing vocalists are spot on.

I don’t know who the lead vocalist is but he’s killing it!

Via some cross-referencing (and following a few hunches) I’m led to believe that the band included guys named Chris Miller, Sam Roe, Pete Killingsworth, Sonny Tanner, having had some crossover with a group called the New Grooves.

As I mentioned earlier, I hear the distinct guitar stylings of George Davis, but the entire record has such a New Orleans feel to it, I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that this was the Soul Brothers/Chitlins singer fronting an entire studio full of NOLA pros.

In another interesting twist, the song is credited to country songwriter/producer Billy Sherrill, but I can’t find any instance of anyone else having recorded the tune.

The flip side, ‘The Next Time You See Me’ is an upbeat, bluesy shuffle.

“Sugar Woman’ was a local Top 40 hit in New Orleans in the Spring of 1967.

It is a truly remarkable tune, and one that I wish I’d had in my crates a long time ago.

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

Keep the faith

Larry

___________________________________________________________________________________________

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).

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.