{"id":6384,"date":"2016-05-22T11:32:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T16:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6384"},"modified":"2016-05-22T11:32:56","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T16:32:56","slug":"the-apollas-mr-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6384","title":{"rendered":"The Apollas – Mr Creator"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Apollas <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Listen\/Download – The Apollas – Mr Creator MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

I was driving around this past week, working my way through one of a couple of huge Northern Soul playlists I have stacked up in the iPod, and found myself replaying today\u2019s selection several times.<\/p>\n

The Apollas are one of those soul groups that despite laying down a collection of demonstrably amazing 45s, were met with utter indifference on the charts.<\/p>\n

Composed of three singers – Leola Jiles, Ella Jamerson and Dorothy Ramsey<\/strong> \u2013 the Apollas worked for a short time in New York with Lieber and Stoller<\/strong> before moving on to do most of their recording for Loma and Warner Brothers out on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

The bulk of their 45s were produced by Dick Glasser<\/strong>, and arranged by cats like HB Barnum<\/strong> and Gene Page.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s 45 is \u2013 at least in my opinion \u2013 the finest thing they ever did, and that has a lot to do with the fact that the song in question was penned by no less a duo than Nick Ashford<\/strong> and Valerie Simpson.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Mr Creator\u2019 was released in early 1967, and though it made little to no impact on its release, it went on to be a huge favorite in the soul clubs of the UK.<\/p>\n

The record is in many ways the perfect intersection of talents, with stellar vocals by the Apollas, booming production by Glasser, a punchy, danceable arrangement by HB Barnum (dig the way the horns and vibes come in and out of the mix) and a great, hook filled tune by Ashford and Simpson.<\/p>\n

As with any great Northern Soul anthem, \u201cMr Creator\u2019 is a masterpiece of dynamic\/daramatic shifts. The way the song lifts at the bridge (around 1:05) and then again when the horns come in at around 1:35 is a thing to behold.<\/p>\n

It kind of boggles the mind that a record this perfect went nowhere. The Apollas never made the R&B charts, and as far as I can tell they didn\u2019t find any regional Pop or R&B success either. They were lucky enough to have access to great material and a dedicated producer, and fortunately soul fans have embraced them retroactively.<\/p>\n

Their records are now in demand, and I\u2019m lucky that I was able to score a copy that plays well in spite of it\u2019s less than stellar visual condition.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it, and I\u2019ll see you all on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Apollas Listen\/Download – The Apollas – Mr Creator MP3 Greetings all. I was driving around this past week, working my way through one of a couple of huge Northern Soul playlists I have stacked up in the iPod, and found myself replaying today\u2019s selection several times. The Apollas are one of those soul groups […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,24,12,18],"tags":[166,169,164],"class_list":["post-6384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funky16corners","category-northern-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-northern-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1EY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384","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=6384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6432,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384\/revisions\/6432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}