{"id":6518,"date":"2016-07-05T11:42:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T16:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6518"},"modified":"2016-07-05T11:42:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T16:42:46","slug":"sonny-ross-alakazam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=6518","title":{"rendered":"Sonny Ross – Alakazam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Example\"
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Sonny Ross and a Euro Picture Sleeve for ‘Alakazam’<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"
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Listen\/Download – Sonny Ross – Alakazam MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Every once in a while, no matter how deep your crates, or how jaded you\u2019ve become, a record comes along from out of nowhere and knocks you right on your ass. One of those 45s that explodes from confounding obscurity, a hit, fully formed, that just never happened.<\/p>\n

I forget exactly where I first heard Sonny Ross\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Alakazam\u2019, but it just blew me away. I couldn\u2019t believe that I\u2019d never heard it, or that it hadn\u2019t been a hit when it was released in 1971.<\/p>\n

Opening with what sounds like an overmodulated kick drum, and then vibes accents, the snare and some fantastic fuzz guitar (how has this not been sampled?<\/em>) come in with the main riff. Ross then comes in with a raspy voice, just this side of Teddy Pendergrass.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t been able to find out much about Ross. He appears to have been from Philadelphia and was a member of a mid-60s incarnation of the Flamingos<\/strong> alongside Eddie Edgehill<\/strong> who was connected to the Sweet Delights\/Delights Orchestra<\/strong>, and was brought to Event Records in a licensing deal by Philly singer\/songwriter George Tindley<\/strong> (who co-wrote the song).<\/p>\n

Why \u2018Alakazam\u2019 failed to break through in 1971 is a mystery. It is a great song\/record, well produced and arranged and on a major label. Whether it just didn\u2019t get into the right hands, or there were some other forces at work, I cannot say.<\/p>\n

Aside from two Midwestern markets (Cleveland and Wichita) it didn\u2019t make a dent (though it did get released in the UK on Mojo, and on Polydor in Germany the following year).<\/p>\n

And so, it languished in obscurity, the province of some of your hipper UK collectors (Northern, Funk and Modern) and DJs, waiting to be rediscovered.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t a terribly expensive record \u2013 the highest price I can find is just over 50USD \u2013 but it is hard to put your hands on. I had it as a saved search for a long time before a copy surfaced, so keep your eyes peeled if you want to add it to your playbox.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it as much as I do, and I\u2019ll see you all on Friday.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

____________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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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":"

Sonny Ross and a Euro Picture Sleeve for ‘Alakazam’ Listen\/Download – Sonny Ross – Alakazam MP3 Greetings all. Every once in a while, no matter how deep your crates, or how jaded you\u2019ve become, a record comes along from out of nowhere and knocks you right on your ass. One of those 45s that explodes […]<\/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":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":[11,17,14,74],"tags":[163,166,25,177,164],"class_list":["post-6518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-funk","category-funk-45","category-funky16corners","category-philly-soul","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-philly-funk","tag-philly-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1H8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518","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=6518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6528,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518\/revisions\/6528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}