{"id":7499,"date":"2018-10-28T10:40:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T15:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2018-10-28T10:40:40","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T15:40:40","slug":"steve-karmen-big-band-breakaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=7499","title":{"rendered":"Steve Karmen Big Band – Breakaway"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Steve Karmen, earlier in the 60s<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Listen\/Download – Steve Karmen Big Band – Breakaway MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Here\u2019s a very groovy one for you all.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite subgenres is Northern Soul instrumentals, and within that, records that are not in any real way \u201csoul\u2019 records, yet manage to pack enough of a punch to light up a dancefloor (which in the world of Northern Soul are legion).<\/p>\n

Steve Karmen<\/strong> was a very successful advertising\/jingle composer in the 60s and 70s, as well as having a sideline recording his own pop records from he 50s on.<\/p>\n

In 1968, he composed a jingle for Pontiac Motors called \u2018Breakaway\u2019.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Radcliffe<\/strong> recorded a wild, freeform vocal over the big, brassy tune, and that single, released on United Artists in 1968 (with the instrumental dub credited to the \u2018Steve Karmen Big Band<\/strong>\u2019) became a huge fave on Northern Soul dance floors.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to see why. The tune has a big, bold sound with lots of dramatic brass stabs, drums and Radcliffe\u2019s feverish vocal really takes off.<\/p>\n

So, going back a few years, I\u2019m wandering around on Ebay, and what do I see but a promotional record with eight different versions (some very short) of the \u2018Breakaway Theme\u2019 on the Pontiac label with writing credit to Steve Karmen.<\/p>\n

If memory serves it was a very inexpensive \u2018buy it now\u2019, so I figured I\u2019d give it a try.<\/p>\n

A week or so later the record slipped through the mail slot and under the needle and it was indeed the same \u2018Breakaway\u2019.<\/p>\n

The information on the label seems to suggest that the different length\/style versions of the theme were meant to be played in the background while the DJ\/announcer read advertising copy over it.<\/p>\n

All in all, a very groovy artifact, especially since it includes the full (actually a few second longer than the UA release) version of the \u2018Breakaway\u2019 instrumental.<\/p>\n

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

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners<\/strong> on Instagram<\/strong><\/a>, Twitter<\/strong><\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

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

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget!\u00a0Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong>
\n_______________________________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Karmen, earlier in the 60s Listen\/Download – Steve Karmen Big Band – Breakaway MP3 Greetings all. Here\u2019s a very groovy one for you all. One of my favorite subgenres is Northern Soul instrumentals, and within that, records that are not in any real way \u201csoul\u2019 records, yet manage to pack enough of a punch […]<\/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-7499","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-1WX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499","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=7499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7500,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499\/revisions\/7500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}