R.I.P. Levi Stubbs / Four Tops - Still Waters...

Sad news yet again, Levi Stubbs, former lead singer of the mighty Motown vocal group, The Four Tops has passed away.

Levi, born June 6, 1936 as "Levi Stubbles", began his professional singing career with friends Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton to form the Four Aims in 1954. Two years later, the group changed their name to the Four Tops. The group began as a supper-club act before finally signing to Motown Records in 1963; by the end of the decade, the Four Tops had over a dozen hits to their name. The most popular of the Four Tops hits, all of which featured Stubbs on lead vocals, include "Baby I Need Your Loving", "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song", "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Standing in the Shadows of Love", "Bernadette", "Still Water (Love)", and "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)".

Although Stubbs was a natural baritone, most of the Four Tops' hits were written in a tenor range to give the lead vocals a sense of urgency.

As an actor, credited as Levi Stubbs, Jr., he provided the voice of the carnivorous plant "Audrey II" in the movie version of the musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and the voice of Mother Brain in the animated TV series Captain N: The Game Master (1989). Stubbs has also guest starred in a number of TV shows as himself.

Stubbs and his wife Clineice were married from 1960 until his death, and had five children.

::- Four Tops - Still Waters Run Deep -::

The Four Tops began life in 1953 (some accounts say 1954), when all of the members were attending Detroit-area high schools. Levi Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir went to Pershing, and met Northern students Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton at a friend's birthday party, where the quartet first sang together. Sensing an immediate chemistry, they began rehearsing together and dubbed themselves the Four Aims.

Payton's cousin Roquel Davis, a budding songwriter who sometimes sang with the group during its early days, helped them get an audition with Chess Records in 1956. Although Chess was more interested in Davis, who went on to become Berry Gordy's songwriting partner, they also signed the Four Aims, who became the Four Tops to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers. The Four Tops' lone Chess single, "Kiss Me Baby," was an unequivocal flop, and the group moved on to similarly brief stints at Red Top and Riverside. They signed with Columbia in 1960 and were steered in a more upscale supper-club direction, singing jazz and pop standards. This too failed to break them, although they did tour with Billy Eckstine during this period.

In 1963, the Four Tops signed with longtime friend Berry Gordy's new label, specifically the jazz-oriented Workshop subsidiary. They completed a debut LP, to be called Breaking Through, but Gordy scrapped it and switched their style back to R&B, placing them on Motown with the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team. After a full decade in existence, the Four Tops finally notched their first hit in 1964 with "Baby I Need Your Loving," which just missed the pop Top Ten.

Early 1965 brought the follow-up ballad hit "Ask the Lonely," and from then on there was no stopping them. "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" went all the way to number one that spring, and the follow-up "It's the Same Old Song" reached the Top Five. The hits continued into 1966, with "Something About You" "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," and "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" all coming in succession.

The fall of 1966 brought the group's masterpiece in the form of the virtual soul symphony "Reach Out, I'll Be There"; not only did it become their second number one pop hit, it also wound up ranking as the creative peak of the group's career and one of Motown's finest singles ever. During this period, the Tops also earned a reputation as one of Motown's best live acts, having previously honed their performances for years before hitting the big time.

The Four Tops kicked off 1967 with the dramatic Top Ten smash "Standing in the Shadows of Love," which was followed by the high charter; "Bernadette," "7-Rooms of Gloom" & "You Keep Running Away". Toward the end of the year, Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown over a financial dispute, which didn't bode well for the Four Tops' impressive hit streak.

Their next two hits, 1968's "Walk Away Renee" and "If I Were a Carpenter," were both covers of well-known recent songs (by the Left Banke and Tim Hardin, respectively), and while both made the Top 20, they heralded a rough couple of years where top-drawer material was in short supply. The Tops enjoyed a resurgence in 1970 under producer Frank Wilson, who helmed a hit cover of the Tommy Edwards pop standard "It's All in the Game" and a ballad co-written by Smokey Robinson, "Still Water (Love)." The Tops also recorded with the post-Diana Ross Supremes, scoring a duet hit with a cover of "River Deep-Mountain High" in 1971.

When Motown moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in 1972, the Four Tops parted ways with the company, choosing to remain in their hometown of Detroit. They signed with ABC-Dunhill and were teamed with producers/songwriters Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who did their best to re-create the group's trademark Motown sound. The immediate result was Keeper of the Castle, the Four Tops' first Top Ten hit in several years. They followed it in early 1973 with "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)," a gold-selling smash that proved to be their final Top Five pop hit. That year they also recorded the theme song to the film Shaft in Africa, "Are You Man Enough."

Several more R&B chart hits followed over the next few years, with the last being 1976's Catfish; after a final ABC album in 1978, the Tops largely disappeared from sight before resurfacing on Casablanca in 1981. Incredibly, their first single, "When She Was My Girl," went all the way to number one on the R&B charts, just missing the pop Top Ten. The accompanying album, Tonight!, became their last to hit the Top 40.

The Four Tops rejoined Motown in 1983, the year of the company's 25th anniversary, and toured extensively with the Temptations. They also recorded a couple albums of new material that failed to sell well, and wound up leaving Motown amid confusion over proper musical direction. Meanwhile, Levi Stubbs provided the voice for Audrey the man-eating plant in the film version of Little Shop of Horrors. The Four Tops next caught on with Arista, where in 1988 they scored their last Top 40 pop hit, the aptly titled "Indestructible." The Four Tops were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and continued to tour the oldies circuit. In 1995, Stubbs was diagnosed with cancer, and later, suffered a stroke and stopped touring. In 1997, Lawrence Payton passed away due to cancer of the liver, which proved to be the only thing that could break up the Four Tops. After some consideration, the remaining members hired Theo Peoples to take Payton's place on tour. In 2000, Theo Peoples took Stubbs' place as the lead singer of the Four Tops, with Ronnie McNeir taking the place that Payton originally held. Benson died on July 1, 2005 and Levi Stubbs died in his sleep on October 17, 2008 at his home in Detroit from his ailments. He was 72.

I'm sure y'all know the routine by now, the vinyl LP is, of course, long out of print but you can fetch one here for little to nothing. Don't have a turntable?? No worries!!! If you prefer your Tops in a digital way, you can find Still Waters Run Deep on CD right here.

Featured cut: "It's All In The Game"

Listen to the full album here.

Quickie: The Temptations - Mother Nature

Time has been kinda tight lately and I haven't had the time to pull togther my next full-length post. So in the meantime, I thought I'd throw up a track that's been on heavy rotation with me lately. From The Tempts' 1972 All Directions LP comes the single, "Mother Nature" penned by Rare Earth bandmates Nick Zesses and Dino Fekaris. Fekaris would later team up with Freddie Perren to write the anthemic "I Will Survive" for Gloria Gaynor in 1978.

You can find your own copy of "Mother Nature" as a 45 here, or here as an LP cut, or here on CD.

N-joi!

G.C. Cameron - s/t

Soul singer G.C. Cameron is a veteran of more than 30 years in the music business and is still kickin'. He was born in a small township in Franklin Country, MS, but his family moved to Detroit in 1955 when he was young. The Camerons were a large brood; Cameron had nine siblings, but there was always room for more, as Philippe Wynne (Cameron' s cousin) grew up in the household too. The two ran Detroit's mean streets together but never formed a singing group.

Fast forward to the 1960s when Harvey Fuqua and Gwen Gordy sold their Tri-Phi label to Motown. The vocal group The Spinners came as part of the deal and quickly became basement dwellers at their new home. During much of the decade, The Spinners were given shoddy treatement at Motown--used as road managers, chaperones, chauffeurs for other groups, and even as shipping clerks.

After a Marine stint, which included service in Vietnam, Cameron was chosen by the Spinners to replace Edgar "Chico" Edwards, adding a new lead voice to the group. In 1969, the group switched to the Motown-owned V.I.P. imprint.

With Cameron now in the fold, Motown's producers found the Spinners more interesting, and heavyweights like Stevie Wonder started writing and producing for them. A remake of the standard "In My Diary" (1969), made popular to R&B fans by the Moonglows, was their first recording with Cameron. The flip side was "(She's Gonna Love Me) At Sundown," which features Bobby Smith on lead. What should have been a two-sided smash wasn't, due to Motown's lackadaisical attitude toward the Spinners. Stevie Wonder cut "It's a Shame," only to have it put on ice by Motown for a whole year after it was recorded. A remake of the Temptations' popular album cut "Message to the Blackman" (1970) was their second single featuring Cameron. The Spinners' version was good, albeit shorter, but stiffed from lack of support.

Motown finally released "It's A Shame" on June 6, 1970, and watched it rise to number 14 on the Pop chart, becoming the Spinners' biggest hit to date. But the group was fed up with Motown's treatment. Indeed, these frustrations came to a head when the follow-up, "We'll Have It Made," didn't come close to duplicating its predecessor. It was apparent Motown wasn't ever going to take them seriously, so the Spinners made plans to leave the label. Cameron, however, had become romantically involved with Gwen Gordy (Berry Gordy's sister) and stayed with Motown; but he didn't leave the Spinners in a lurch. His cousin, Philippe Wynne, who had been rehearsing with the group, was brought in to take his place. The master improviser had previously worked with the Pacesetters, a band that included Bootsy and Catfish Collins, in the Cincinnati area. Philippe "Soul" Wynne stayed on for five years enjoying chart-busting success on Atlantic Records with producer Thom Bell.

But Cameron wasn't concerned. Motown was going to make him a star--or so he thought. The company placed him on its Mowest label for a series of singles that went nowhere, including "Act Like a Shotgun" (1971) and a tentative follow-up, "I'm Gonna Get You Pts. 1 & 2," scheduled for release but pulled in the 12th hour. Instead, Mowest dropped "What It Is, What It Is" (1972) with scarcely any promotion. Going for broke, they tried a duet with Willie Hutch, entitled "Come Get This Thing," but shelved it in favor of Cameron's interesting "Don't Wanna Play Pajama Games," written and produced by Smokey Robinson, in which Cameron mimics Robinson to a T.

At this juncture, uneasiness reared. The Spinners, with Wynne, were making an unprecedented run with Top Ten hits and good-selling albums, yet Cameron couldn't make the charts. He was switched to the Motown label for his other recordings, including "No Matter Where" (1973) and "Let Me Down Easy" (1973), neither of which sold well. His first solo LP, Love Songs and Other Tragedies (1974), followed; a second LP, the self-titled G.C. Cameron (1976), was preceded by 45 "If You're Ever Gonna Love Me" (1975). The next single, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," proved to be a minor hit and served as the the theme song of the 1975 film "Cooley High". The tune became a chartbuster sixteen years later when it was covered by Boyz II Men on their debut album, Cooleyhighharmony.

Cameron's third full-length release, You're What's Missing In My Life, was issued in 1977 and sadly suffered the same dismal fate as his previous efforts.

Later in '77, Motown issued the duet album, Rich Love, Poor Love by G.C. & Syreeta in 1977, and put out one single from the album, "Let's Make A Deal." Two years later, Syreeta scored with Billy Preston on "With You I'm Born Again." Cameron, however, left the company after the pairing with Syreeta failed and his romance with Gwen Gordy soured. By the time "I've Got My Second Wind," a duet with Tata Vega off her Givin' All My Love album, came out in 1981, Cameron was long gone.

G.C. recorded off and on for a bunch of little labels from 1977 on. His most significant recording was 1983's Give Me Your Love, on Malaco Records.

A year later, Ian Levine included Cameron on his Motorcity label as a singer, writer and producer. The association with Levine may have been creatively lucrative, but not financially, as Cameron claims he has yet to receive a royalty check from any recording company he was ever involved with--and that includes the single he cut with the Tams, entitled "Walking Dr. Bill," in the late '90s. The "shag" hit did secure him some dates on the Carolinas' beach music set with the Tams and his own group, The G.C. Cameron Band. The Motorcity recordings, which included a duet with Martha Reeves, were compiled on Right or Wrong (Motorcity 1991) and later on The Very Best of G.C. Cameron (1996, Hot Productions).

In 2000, G.C. returned to the Spinners to fill as 2nd lead for an ill John Edwards. He stayed with the group for two years then left to work on the solo album Shadows which was released in 2004 on Cameron's own Deqajacc label. In 2003, while working on Shadows, G.C. replaced Barrington "Bo" Henderson as lead singer of The Temptations. Cameron left The Tempts in June of 2007 to focus on his group, The G.C. Cameron Review.

Source: edited & tweaked from Wikipedia. Special thanks to WilkyNY ;)

As of this writing, the G.C. Cameron album is still OOP but you can sometimes catch one for a decent price here or here.

Featured cut: "The Joy You Bring"


Listen to the full album here

Renee Geyer - At Her Very Best

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Geyer's singing career began in the early 1970s as a vocalist with Dry Red though she soon left for the more accomplished jazz-rock band Sun. The group released one album before Geyer departed in 1972. She next joined Mother Earth whose R & B/soul music style was more in keeping with the style Renee wanted to pursue.

RCA, who had released Sun's album, then signed Renee to a solo contract; however, when it came time to record her first solo album, Renee, already showing signs of her self proclaimed "Difficult Woman" tag, insisted that Mother Earth back her on the album. This first release mainly consisted of R & B/Soul cover versions of overseas hits but Renee and the band nonetheless excelled, stamping them as their own in most cases.

Her follow-up album It's A Man's Man's World was released in 1974 and became Renee's first charting record. The title track, her classic rendition of the James Brown hit from 1965, also became her first hit single. She then formed her own band, Sanctuary, to promote the album. At the time Renee had become disenchanted with RCA and their refusal to let her record more original material. She was prepared to wait out her contract if necessary but Australia's up and coming and most respected independent Mushroom Records, were able to strike a deal where they would record her and RCA would release the albums and singles with a Mushroom logo stamped on the label.

The arrangement led to what some believe is the finest soul album ever released in Australia, Ready To Deal. By this stage Sanctuary, who co-wrote most of the material for the album with Renee, was renamed "The Renee Geyer Band" which was the credit on the album cover. It spawned another of Renee's signature songs "Heading In The Right Direction" which reached the Aussie top twenty in 1976.

Shortly after Deal's release, Renee signed a recording contract with Polydor Records as a solo artist. Before departing for the US however, the Renee Geyer Band released the live album Really Really Love You, recorded at the band's farewell concert at Melbourne's Dallas Brooks Hall.

Renee's first US-recorded album Moving Along was produced by famed Motown Records producer Frank Wilson and saw her own musicians supplemented by members of Stevie Wonder's band, as well as Ray Parker Jr. and other noted US session musicians. Released in late 1976, it provided her with her biggest Australian hit to date with the single "Stares and Whispers". It also attracted considerable attention in the United States when radio stations began playing several of the album's tracks, in particular a re-recorded version of her Australian hit "Heading In The Right Direction" which was issued as the first US & UK Single. Renee's new label was aware that her vocal style had led many listeners to incorrectly assume that she was black, and they urged her to keep a low profile until her popularity had grown, even suggesting that the American release of the album should not include her photograph. Known for her uncompromising and direct personal manner, Geyer refused to allow this deception and insisted on marketing the album complete with a cover photograph of what she later referred to as "my big pink face". With the album's release, interest in Geyer subsided in the United States, an event that Geyer would later blame on her headstrong decision in regard to her marketing. The album garnered Renee a great deal of respect within the recording industry and for several years she worked in Los Angeles as a session vocalist.

Meanwhile, back in Australia, RCA/Mushroom released At Her Very Best, a collection of Geyer's first three albums. The comp also contained the original versions of some songs that were re-produced and re-recorded for her Moving Along album including the non-LP 1976, Band version of "Be There In The Morning".

[Sidebar: I kinda need a late pass for this one. I first got hip to Renee Geyer a few years back while listening to a replay of Gilles Peterson's BBC Radio show. He played the cut "Be There In The Morning" and I was instantly intrigued. Why had I never heard of this woman before? Why haven’t I seen her records in the field? More importantly, what would I have to do to get my hands on this song??? He mentioned that we, the listeners, could probably find the record in Australia... DAMN!! I did some research and hunting around and found the track appeared on her stateside debut album produced by former Motown hit-maker Frank Wilson. I got lucky and nabbed a copy of the LP only to find it was a completely different recording than the one Gilles played!!! DAMN AGAIN!!! After buying a few collections along with a good portion of her catalog I still couldn't find the song he played. I even went so far as to reach out to Renee herself hoping to shed some light on the matter. One of her people said they didn't know of a different version existing and said they’d ask her and get back to me... they never did. Months later, I came across an Aussie-only 45 of the song with different production credits and the song was credited to "The Renee Geyer Band". I took a shot and grabbed it. Glad I did, the search was finally over. Years later, I found out the song was also featured on the equally hard-to-find 1977 At Her Very Best LP which I now share with you.]

Polydor felt there was enough interest in the US for a second album, again recorded with Frank Wilson but this time Renee was not entirely happy either with the mix or the support from the record company. So she negotiated a release from her contract but managed to bring the album tapes home to Australia where it was remixed and released as Winner. Though Renee herself, perhaps a little unfairly, says it should have been called "Loser" as much of the material was not up to standard. She toured the country promoting it but neither the album nor the two singles released from it enjoyed the same success as her previous releases.

In 1979, Renee teamed up with Australian guitarist Kevin Borich to record her next release, Blues License. The album was made up of straight blues material and featured backing from Borich's band Express and other Aussie notables of the genre.

In 1980, now finally free of her original RCA contract, Renee signed directly with Mushroom Records in Australia and they released her next album So Lucky, as well as re-issuing all her previous albums on the Mushroom label. The album was slight departure from the soul style she'd been so closely identified with and added a slightly tougher, more rootsy Rock/R&B style, while incorporating a bit of Salsa and Reggae. The single "Say I Love You" became the biggest hit of her career when it reached number 5 on the Australian singles charts. It also spawned two further Australian hits and was issued in the US on the Portrait Records label.

By this time, Renee was at the peak of her Australian popularity and headlined Mushroom's 10th Anniversary Concert celebration, the "Mushroom Evolution Concert" in 1982. The following year she released a second live album Renee Live, which produced the hit with "Goin' Back" a remake of the Dusty Springfield tune featuring male vocals by Glenn Shorrock. Back in the US, Renee formed the band Easy Pieces with Hamish Stuart and Steve Ferrone, both former members of The Average White Band. They signed to A&M Records and the band's self-titled album was released in 1988 to excellent reviews, but the label changed distributors just as it was released. Therefore music stores couldn't order copies in, and with no copies on the shelves unfortunately the Easy Pieces album sank without a trace.

Geyer continued as an in-demand session vocalist working with artists like Sting, Joe Cocker, Neil Diamond, Julio Iglesias, Buddy Guy and longtime friend Bonnie Raitt. She headed back to Australia in 1993 to record songs for the ABC-TV mini series "The Seven Deadly Sins." While there, she met one of Australia's most respected songwriters, Paul Kelly, who offered to produce and help write a new album for her. Difficult Woman, would be Geyer's first solo studio album in 9 years and was heralded as one of her very best. While the LP wasn't a hit at the time, the renewed respect and exposure it brought Renee encouraged her to move back to Australia permanently. She later named her autobiography "Confessions of a Difficult Woman" nodding to the album.

Following the release of the Difficult Woman, Geyer then spent time re-establishing herself on the live circuit. She then re-signed with Mushroom Records for a new single which was included on the excellent retrospective The Best of Renee Geyer 1973-1998. The album served to introduce Renee to a new, younger audience due to a bonus disc included with initial copies. The disc featured some of her earlier singles and album tracks, remixed by some of the best up and coming DJs at the time.

The compilation's success led to the recording of her next full length project, Sweet Life. Renee was surrounded by the cream of Australian musicians, the album showed that she was also at the very peak of her exceptional vocal abilities and sold respectably well. The album is also noteworthy for containing many original Geyer-cowrites. However it was to be her last for Mushroom as the company was sold soon after.

In 2001 Australian label, Rajon issued the retrospective 3-Disc set The Great Renee Geyer. Since then, has continued released a steady stream of releases with her latest effort to date being 2007's Dedicated.

Source: edited & tweaked from Wikipedia

At Her Very Best has never officially been issued on CD, but if you're looking for your own vinyl copy, you can sometimes find one here or here.

Featured cut: "Be There In The Morning"


Listen to the full album here.

Jackie Jackson - s/t

In October 1973, big brother Jackie decided to step up to the plate to release his own solo project following the lead of siblings Michael & Jermaine. The outcome resulted in one of the most overlooked and undervalued soul albums of all time. When most folks mention The Jackson 5 the first thing that comes to most folks' mind is "bubblegum soul". Anyone who may have written Jackie's self-titled debut off as just another teeny-bopper disc clearly missed the boat. What the album turned out to be was a glimpse at a maturing Jackie stepping out to try his hand at a more adult style. Listening to the album, paying attention close to its production and vocal delivery, you might find it easy to make comparisons between Jackson and many of the falsetto-fueled acts of the day like The Delfonics, Eddie Holman or The Stylistics. Who knows, maybe that's part of the reason the LP stalled before reaching the status it deserves. My theories (yes, I have more than one about what could've gone awry) go like this...

[Sidebar: Bear in mind, I was still in diapers when this all happened so this is all speculation and I could be totally off-base here.]

For your consideration...

Theorem 1) Too Much of a Good Thing?
In 1973, Motown issued Jackie's album along with the three other Jackson-Motown projects that year; Michael's Music & Me, Jermaine's Come Into My Life, and the group's LP Skywriter. One can see that Motown was really trying to flood the market with Jackson product and repeat the successes it had doing the same just the year before. Now the Jackson 5 was basically marketed towards a pre- to mid-teen audience and while that age group is statistically shown to have the most disposable income, maybe expecting a 12 year old girl to go out & scarf up 4 albums with her hard-earned baby-sitting money was a bit too unrealistic.

Theorem 2) For Whom was this Album Truly Intended?
If someone in 1973 looking for the average "Jackson 5 sound" were to buy Jackie's album and realize they'd wound up with a ballad-heavy, Delfonics-sound-alike record instead, that might make for some disappointed listeners. Perhaps this new direction Jackie's producers decided to take strayed too far from what their core audience was used to. On the other side of the coin, coming right after hits like "Little Bitty Pretty One", "Got To Be There" & "Rockin' Robin" perhaps the freshly reinforced stigma of "bubblegum" was firmly stuck in the minds of the post-teen to adult record buying public and seeing the name Jackie Jackson emblazoned across the front of an album cover coupled with little to no promotion from the label to help showcase this new side of Jackson wasn't doing the trick to attract an older ear who might be more appreciative of and receptive to a more sophisticated sound.

While an argument could be made that Jermaine's debut solo album issued one year prior seemed to go for a more adult sound, yet still sold well; there are major difference between each projects that invalidate the point. Jermaine already had an excellent head start as a solo act since he was already being viewed as a strong secondary lead within the group. Jackie never had a solo number or sang more than one or two lead lines at best. Another thing to keep in mind was that Jermaine's solo project had the magnificent Motown Marketing Machine behind it. Promotion for his album was well orchestrated and played a key role in it's market performance. At radio, Jermaine had two singles generating a buzz, Jackie never even got one. In concerts and appearances, Jermaine was given a spotlight to perform songs from his album. Heck, the family was featured in an entire episode of Soul Train where Jermaine was featured in his own segment to promote his set complete with a short film and an extra interview with Don Cornelius.

Theories aside, the fact remains, that due very little promotion and no single releases, Jackson's sole Motown solo album quickly became rack job fodder. My sister nabbed her copy (now mine) for a whopping 88 cents at Mays department store in NY back in '76 or '77.

[Sidebar: C'mon you remember rack jobs right?? Those record racks you used to see at your local drug store, car wash or supermarket that had the albums with the corners chopped off or had saw marks or holes cut thru the jackets??... No??.... Never mind, I think just dated myself.]

Even though no official singles were issued, the cut, "Love Don't Wanna Leave" has popped up on several Jackson 5 comps over the years. Three times to be exact. The first being 1976's Anthology set, the second appearance was on the original CD reissue of the same set again in 1986 (it was left off the 2000 re-reissue). The third and final chance to get the track was on the 1995 25th Anniversary boxed set, Soulsation. All three compilations are currently out of print. Way to go Motown!!!

This album hasn't been reissued in any format as far as I know but if you're in the market for your own copy, you can usually find one pretty reasonably priced here or even here.

Featured cut: "Love Don't Want To Leave"

Quickie: Michael Jackson - Euphoria

While noone can argue that Michael Jackson is in any way an overlooked or underappreciated artist, he's still got a few solid, slept-on tracks that scream for a good dusting off every now and then and "Euphoria" is definitely one of 'em. Taken from his 1973 Music & Me set, the tune was a team effort penned by Jacqueline Hilliard and soul legend Leon Ware.

[Sidebar: You might be wondering, if the song was so good, then why didn't it make any noise? Good question. Could be lots of answers to that. Maybe it was because "Euphoria" was left as an album cut and never got serviced to radio. Who knows? In the end, the LP didn't fare well commercially and that too could be due to any number of things. One factor might be that the only singles released were the sugary-sweet title track and a cover of the song, "Morning Glow" from the Broadway musical 'Pippin'. What??? A showtune??? A showtune as the lead single from a 15 year-old pop star's new album?? WTF were they thinking?? *Sigh*]

As labels often do, Motown too made the occasional bad decision in the single-choosing department, and those same bad decisions kept reveberating through the years as countless repackaged "hit" compilations were cobbled together with single releases and not much else. As a result, some of his best work lived and died solely as album cuts that have fallen through the cracks and remain unheard to anyone who only has those stale "best of" collections as a point of reference.

While it was still OOP in all formats when I ripped my LP copy to CD years ago, this album has since been reissued on CD a few times over but never officially in the U.S.; so what else is new?

[Sidebar: Far too many record companies have a tendency to neglect black music here in the states. I could rant on for days about it but since this "quickie" post is already gettin' kinda wordy, I'll get into that some other time.]

Anyway, Music & Me is pretty easy to track down and well worth the small investment. If the CD reissue (available here) isn't to your liking, you can easily find an original vinyl copy on the cheap both here and here.

Listen (password req'd)

Johnny Bristol - Bristol's Creme

Johnny Bristol first came to local fame in the Detroit area as a member of the soul duo "Johnny & Jackey" with Jackey Beavers, an associate he met while in the U.S. Air Force. The pair recorded two singles in 1959 for Anna label owned by Gwen Gordy and Billy Davis and four more for Gwen Gordy and Harvey Fuqua's Tri-Phi record label, none of which were successes beyond the Midwest US.

In the mid 1960s, Tri-Phi was absorbed by Motown Records, and Bristol began working with Fuqua as a songwriter and producer. Among Fuqua and Bristol's successes as producers were hit singles such as Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (1967), "Your Precious Love" (1967), and "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You" (1968); Edwin Starr's "Twenty-Five Miles" (1969); and David Ruffin's "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" (1969). On his own, Bristol co-wrote and produced Gladys Knight & the Pips' "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" (1971) and "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare" (1972), and several singles by Jr. Walker & the All-Stars such as "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" (1969)

Notably, Bristol was the producer and co-writer of the final singles for both Diana Ross & the Supremes and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, before each group lost its namesake lead singer. While the Miracles' "We've Come Too Far to End It Now" (1972) was an original, the Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together" (1969) was a cover version of a Johnny & Jackey single from 1961 (pictured above). The song was written as an ode to their wives who they'd miss whilst on the road touring. Bristol is the male voice on the Supremes' version, singing response to Diana Ross' lead vocal.

Dig the original version!!!

[Sidebar: As the story goes, towards the end of the session for 'Someday', Ross was getting tired and not delivering as strong a performance as she was at the start. Bristol decided to step into the vocal booth and sing along with Diana in an effort to provide some soulful inspiration that might help Ross complete the take. Johnny's vocals were supposed to be edited out of the final version but when Berry Gordy heard the session results, he wound up liking them so much that he decided to keep them in. Incidentally, the song was initially meant to be Ross' first solo single so she recorded the song with session singers instead of fellow Supremes Cindy Birdsong & Mary Wilson.]

Bristol left Motown in 1973 to resume his singing career, joining first with CBS Records and almost immediately moving to MGM Records. In 1974 he successfully re-launched his career as a performer with the hit, "Hang On In There Baby". The album of the same name also yielded the classic single "You and I". But when 1975's follow-up set for MGM, Feeling The Magic, didn't fare as well as it's predecessor, Bristol left MGM for Atlantic Records.

Bristol's Creme was the first of two albums he'd record for the label; best known for its first single, "Do It to My Mind" and the other gem, "I Sho Like Groovin' With Ya". Chartwise this album didn't do very well but despite it poor positioning, "Creme" is still regarded as a sought-after, solid body of work.

In 1982 Bristol released the single "Love No Longer Has A Hold on Me" and album, Free To Be Me on Handshake Records in the US. By the mid eighties Johnny's core audience was based primarily in Europe, so it's not surprising that in 1989 he signed to the UK label Motor City, where he delivered one of his most popular releases "Man Up in the Sky" and later, his own reading of "What Does it Take to Win Your Love".


Johnny's last releases were a 12" single in 1991 for Whichway Records "Come To Me"' and the 1993 album, entitled Life & Love released solely in Japan.

Johnny Bristol passed away at his home in Brighton Township, Michigan March 21, 2004 due to natural causes, he was sixty-five.

Featured cut: "Do It To My Mind"

It's fairly easy to track down an original vinyl pressing of Bristol's Creme. You can probably grab one for under $20 right here. As for the CD reissue, you can pick that up here or here.


Listen to my crispy vinyl rip right here