Junior Brantley

Listen/Download Junior and the Classics – Wise Up

Listen/Download Junior and the Classics – Mix Up (A Go Go)

Greetings all, and welcome to the middle of the week.

I cannot remember when or where I picked up the 45 I bring you this fine day, but I suspect I did grab it because it was on the Magic Touch label (and how in all honesty could I pass on a record called ‘Mix Up a Go Go’???)

Magic Touch was a Milwaukee, WI based imprint operated by a cat named Lenny LaCour. Between the mid-60s and the 80s Magic Touch released a variety of sounds by groups like Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds (the Magic Touch 45s I already had) and Marvelle and the Blue Match, in addition to the occasional garage single.

Junior and the Classics had their first (and only) hit with a raving cover of Rufus Thomas’s ‘The Dog’ on the Groove label in 1964, which was a regional hit in Milwaukee.

They released three 45s on Magic Touch (with Wise Up appearing on two of them), with the last, the funky ‘Kill the Pain’ being picked up for national distribution by Atco.

The band was led by keyboardist Robert ‘Junior’ Brantley who went on to play and record with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Roomful of Blues.

I haven’t been able to find any pictures of the band, but some cross-referencing (and their sound) suggests to me that they were an integrated outfit, racially and stylistically.

‘Wise Up’ (from 1966) is a swinging dancer with pounding bass and rhythm guitar, augmented by handclaps, drums, combo organ and a really interesting saxophone line.

The flip, ‘Mix Up (a Go Go)’, which opens with a groovy drumbreak is one of those great numbers where all the hot dances get namechecked. I really dig the chorus as well as the piano.

If you dig the sounds, and feel the need to file some Junior and the Classics in your record box, know that they fall into that grey area of not-too-expensive b/w not-too-cheap either, running in the $25 to $50 range (with the sought after ‘Kill the Pain’, the most expensive).

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

 

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

2 Responses to “Junior and the Classics – Wise Up b/w Mix Up (A Go Go)”

1. Jeff says:

   August 28, 2013 at 6:11 pm

   The group was indeed racially integrated, according to “Do You Hear That Beat: Wisconsin Pop/Rock in the 50’s and 60’s,” a 1994 book by Gary E. Myers.

   Also according to Myers’ book: The band played clubs around Milwaukee and Chicago and did some studio work as a backing band at Dave Kennedy Studios in Milwaukee.

   Drummer Jerry Sworske, one of the white guys in the group, told Myers that a guy from RCA was to have come and listened to another Milwaukee group, Little Artie and the Pharoahs. But he came on the wrong night and heard Junior and the Classics instead. That led to the release of “The Dog.”

2. Larry says:

   August 29, 2013 at 8:07 am

   Thanks for the info Jeff!