Listen/Download – Marie Franklin – You Ain’t Changed MP3

Greetings all.

The end of the week is near, and so then is the latest episode of the Funky16Corners Radio Show podcast.You can (and should, really..) subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes, listen on your mobile device via the TuneIn app, listen on Mixcloud, or grab yourselves an MP3 right here at the blog.

The tune I bring you today is a hard-hitting, funky number by a singer that I don’t know much about.

Marie Franklin only recorded a few 45s during her short career, two for Tangerine, one duet with Vernon Garrett for Venture (more on that in a sec..) the disc you see before you today and a couple of rarer items on small labels.
The duet with Garrett is important, because it ties into the provenance of today’s selection (both records having been released in 1968).

Venture was a relatively short-lived imprint formed when the husband and wife team of Kim Weston and Mickey Stevenson left Motown in Detroit and made their way to California.

If you look closely at the label of ‘You Ain’t Changed’ you’ll notice the presence of Clarence Paul (another ex-Motown mover) and the publishing credit of Mikim music, Weston’s publishing company.

The tune itself, (written by Willie Cooper and Ernie Shelby who also wrote I Don’t Want to Discuss it for Little Richard and Nobody for Williams and Watson) ‘You Ain’t Changed’ manages to encapsulate a Motown-like production, while cozying up to the early vibrations of funk. Franklin had a hell of a voice, sounding to me a lot like Tina Turner (interesting since one of her TRC 45s was a cover of Ike and Tina’s ‘Anything You Wasn’t Born With’).

It kind of blows my mind that a singer this talented and powerful (you have to check out her duet with Garrett) didn’t see more success.

This 45 (which was also released in the UK on MGM) isn’t an easy pull, but if you dig it you ought to be able to put one in your box for 25 or 30 bucks.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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