Funky16Corners

Some News b/w the Royalettes – Out of Sight Out of Mind

By Larry, August 31, 2011 6:16 pm

The Royalettes

~~Listen/Download – The Royalettes – Out of Sight Out of Mind~~

Greetings all.

I have returned unexpectedly to bring some news, as well as some music.

I just learned that I’ll be spinning some tunes during the annual Point Pleasant Lions Seafood 5K and 1 Mile FUN Run/Walk on Saturday, September 17th in Pt Pleasant Beach, NJ. The run benefits the JT Foundation for Autism Awareness and runs right before the Seafood Fest (which starts at 10AM). I’ll be spinning all of the funk soul and disco you’d expect, so if you’re in the area, come on down and run, sit and watch people run while listening to music, or get your groove on before hunting down some delicious seafood. It’s a great cause and there’ll be good music, good people and good food, so what else do you need to know?

As mentioned last Monday (before we were knocked on our asses by the deaths of Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford) , with the sweet, soulful reggae of Ken Boothe and his take on the Royalettes ‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’I was reminded that I had the most excellent flip side of that very Royalettes record sitting in the to-be-blogged vault, ready and raring to go.

I don’t recall where I first heard ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’, but I suspect it was via a friend’s Facebook post, and I knew as soon as I heard it that I had to have a copy for my record box.

We last discussed the Royalettes in this space roughly two years ago, right after I scored myself a copy of their brilliant cover of Barbara Banks’ ‘River of Tears’ (1967).

‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ came out in 1965 on the flipside of the group’s biggest hit, the Teddy Randazzo-penned ‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’. The record hit the R&B Top 40 and just missed the Pop Top 40 (#41?!?).

The Royalettes hailed from Baltimore, MD, and recorded their earliest 45s for Chancellor and Warner Brothers before signing with MGM where they had a run of two LPs and nine 45s.

While ‘It’s Gonna Take a Miracle’ is a soul ballad classic, ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ is a powerful, fast-moving dance floor killer with a slightly dark edge to it.

The group trades off call and response vocals, over a forceful rhythm track, punctuated with a rumbling horn section (the trombones are nuts) and a sharp guitar solo.

If you have the opportunity, slap on the headphones and crank up the volume. There’s a crazy rhythm guitar track scratching around underneath all the power that’s really interesting.

It’s not unusual to have a ballad backed with an upbeat dancer, but is exceedingly rare to have both sides rise to such a high level of quality.

The Royalettes would have one more minor hit in 1965, and would eventually part ways with MGM in 1966, moving on to Roulette for that one last, incredible single (‘River of Tears’ you can hear the Royalettes version in the mix F16C Soul Club Presents – Funky16Corners Live at Master Groove 9/19/10 ).

There are a couple of comps of their stuff out there, one exclusively MGM material, as well as a singles comp that appears to include the indispensible ‘River of Tears’.

I hope you dig the tunes, and I’ll be back on Monday with a most excellent guest mix that I know you’ll all dig!

Make sure to tune into Friday’s edition of the Funky16Corners Radio Show over at Viva Radio, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.