{"id":1179,"date":"2011-01-04T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T21:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.lunarpages.net\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2013-06-18T10:09:38","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T15:09:38","slug":"vernon-garrett-marie-franklin-second-to-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=1179","title":{"rendered":"Vernon Garrett & Marie Franklin – Second to None"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vernon Garrett <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
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Listen\/Download – Vernon Garrett & Marie Franklin – Second To None <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope all is groovy on your segment of the sphere.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m slowly getting back into the swing of things, following a long and snow-infested Christmas break, during which the fam and I were literally trapped in the house for a few days. It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t enjoys each other\u2019s company, but when the food and beverage choices start moving into crisis mode (what can you make from a can of tomato soup and a pack of instant rice) folk\u2019s nerves start to get on edge.<\/p>\n

Fortunately we were eventually plowed out and took a drive up to visit my in-laws, located much further north, and (oddly enough<\/em>) under a whole lot less snow.<\/p>\n

I did manage to get in a digging session, in what used to be one of my favorite \u2018road\u2019 spots. Unfortunately it looks like the place has changed ownership and I walked out of the store with every good record in the place, all eight of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was mostly unusual rock stuff, but there were a couple of nice soulful selections as well, so all is well.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

I should mention again that I’ll be taking part in the Spindletop<\/strong> night with DJ Perry Lane<\/strong> next Monday night, beginning at 10PM at Botanica, 47 East Houston Street<\/strong> (between Mulberry and Mott) in New York City. Expect all manner of Hammond grooves, Mod soul, International au go go goodies etc.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today is yet another gem from the stash that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in this space many times, some years back my father-in-law came upon a deposit of several thousand 45s, which he was kind enough to procure on my behalf. Though I made several passes through the crates over the last five or six years, there are still a few stacks left that I head back to now and then, and as luck would have it, they still yield some goodies every once in a while (this being one of them).<\/p>\n

I have to admit that before I heard Vernon Garrett and Marie Franklin’s<\/strong> ‘Second To None’ I didn’t know much about the Venture label, other than Calvin Arnold\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Funky Way\u2019 from 1967.<\/p>\n

The label was founded when Mickey Stevenson <\/strong>(and his wife Kim Weston<\/strong>) left Motown and relocated to the West Coast in the mid-60s. The pair hooked up with MGM Records, which established Venture as a soul subsidiary*.<\/p>\n

Though the label didn\u2019t produce many hits, there were a number of solid artists on its roster, including Larry Williams, The Mighty Hannibal <\/strong>and the Ballads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The raging \u2018Second to None\u2019, heard here in a duet with Vernon Garrett and Marie Franklin, was originally recorded as a solo by Garrett in 1968 as the first of his three 45s for the label.<\/p>\n

Garrett had been recording since the early-50s, waxing gospel, R&B, duets with his wife Jewel <\/strong>(who died in the late 60s), and as a solo for a wide variety of labels like Kent, Venture, Watts USA, Gator and ICA.<\/p>\n

Marie Franklin<\/strong> is even more of a mystery. After her duet with Garrett, she recorded at least one 45 for Tangerine, as well as the killer \u2018You Ain\u2019t Changed\u2019 for Maverick.<\/p>\n

\u2018Second To None\u2019 is a rock solid, right on the edge of out and out funk 45, with heavy guitar and fantastic vocal interplay between Garrett and Franklin. Both singers have especially raw, soul-shouting voices and it pains me to think that they didn\u2019t go on to record more as duet partners.<\/p>\n

The tune was written by Darryl Carter, Dick Cooper<\/strong> and Ernie Shelby<\/strong>, with Carter (as a solo) and Shelby (as a member of the Seven Souls<\/strong>) both having recorded for Venture.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the flipside of \u2018Second to None\u2019, \u2018Without You\u2019 hit the R&B Top 40 in 1969.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tune, and I\u2019ll see you on Friday.<\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n


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<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

*There were also a couple of rock bands on the label, including the 49th<\/sup> Parallel and Southwind<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg for a garage cover of a soul classic
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vernon Garrett Listen\/Download – Vernon Garrett & Marie Franklin – Second To None   Greetings all. I hope all is groovy on your segment of the sphere. I\u2019m slowly getting back into the swing of things, following a long and snow-infested Christmas break, during which the fam and I were literally trapped in the house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,46,20,11,17,14,12,18],"tags":[163,166,164],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-digging","category-dj-gigs","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-j1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3965,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}