The Stovall Sisters - s/t

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, my 2K9 got off to a hectic start, but I'm not gonna bore you good people with the details. Let's just get into this post.

For a brief moment in 1971, Warner Bros.Records' Reprise imprint took sometime out from promoting Frank Sinatra,Sammy Davis, Jr., and Lola Falana records to spread the gospel via the electrifying music of the Stovall Sisters. Lillian, Netta, and Joyce Stovall were all born in Indianapolis, Indiana. They were the last three of ten children born to Della Stovall. Four older sisters sang as a church group for years until they married and settled into domestic bliss. The three younger girls sang in churches too as the Little Wonder in the 1950s, but by their teens had changed their name to the Valley Wonders. Della managed the group and booked their concerts. She also snagged them a record deal with a small label.

In 1964,the family moved to Oakland,California, where they finished high school, sang in church as the Stovall Sisters, and took on 9-to-5 jobs. They began to see that there was little money to be made in singing gospel, to they added secular music to their repertoire and started getting nightclub work around the city, lying about their ages because they were still underage. "We were with Ike & Tina Turner for a while," Lillian said in a 1971 press release. "I think we were the 18th set of Ikettes. We did a lot of recording sessions, too, but mostly it was club work. We were [known as] the Sisters Three when we did rock and roll, but we'd still record for the gospel label as the Valley Wonders or the Stovall Family."

Things weren't happening fast enough for their careers, so they took out an as in the Oakland Tribune that read, "Three Black Girls Looking for a Caucasian Band to Sing With." They got a lot of weird calls, but the only decent response from the ad was a keyboardist named William Truckaway. "He came right in and sat on the floor like we'd been knowing him for year," Joyce said back then. Through Truckaway, they did background vocals on "Bluegreens." He also introduced them to his musician buddy Erik Jacobsen, who decided to use them as the background singers on Norman Greenbaum's song "Spirit in the Sky." The song went to No. 3 on the pop charts and became the label's bestselling single up to that time.

Everyone enjoyed the sisters so much that Greenbaum's label, Reprise, decided to record a self-titled LP on them. Reprise issued three singles in 1971 including "Hang On in There," "Spirit in the Sky," and "The World Is in a Change," but none of them took off, The sister' sound was gutsy gospel wrapped in a rock music package and should have been a huge seller. Of particular interest was "Yes to the Lord," a brilliant gospel reworking of Martha Reeves & the Vandella's "My Baby Love Me." Also notable were the powerful vocal punches in the ballad "I'm Ready to Serve the Lord" and the sweet " The World is in a Change." Philip Baily briefly served as their music director before he eventually joined Earth, Wind & Fire. In the meantime, they did background vocals on Greenbaum's follow-up albums Back Home Again and Canned Ham. They did the same on Tom Fogerty's Myopia (1975) and Truckaway's LP Breakaway in 1976.
Bio source: Bil Carpenter's "Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia"

To find out what's going on with the Stovall Sisters today, you can visit their MySpace page by clicking here.

Their self-titled LP is long out of print but with some luck and lotsa patience you may be able to find an affordable vinyl copy here or sometimes here...I did.
The album was also reissued on CD back in 2005 and can be found here & here.

With things bein' as rough as they are lately, it's kinda cool to be able to find some solace within the lines of a song. Stay up y'all... Hang On In There.

Featured cut: "Hang On In There"

Listen to the full album here.

Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose - s/t

With the economy being what it is and gas prices being what they are, my wife and I have decided to conserve funds and stick close to home this Summer in the hope of enjoying a series of "staycations". During our most recent weekend trip to nowhere, I found myself down in my basement where I rediscovered a tub full of records, most of which I'd forgotten I had even picked up. Out of the tub I share with all of you the debut album from a family group from Dania Beach, Florida -- Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose. The original members were siblings Carter Cornelius, Eddie Cornelius, and Rose Cornelius but, after awhile, another sister, Billie Jo Cornelius, was added to the fold.

The group hit the pop charts in 1971 with the single "Treat Her Like a Lady" (US R&B Top 20, Billboard Hot 100 #3) and charted again in 1972 with "Too Late to Turn Back Now" (US R&B #5, Hot 100 #2) both written by Eddie Cornelius. Issued on the United Artists label, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose served as the source of two additional chart hits as "Don't Ever Be Lonely" and "I'm Never Gonna Be Alone Anymore" both reached the Billboard Top 40.

Working again with producer Bob Archibald, in 1973 the group relased their second LP, Big Time Lover. While the album did have it's moments, it simply wasn't able to match the success of it's predecessor.

Their final charting single was "Since I Found My Baby" in 1974, from their third and last album -- Greatest Hits.

The group broke up in 1976 when Carter joined a black Hebrew sect in Miami and adopted the name Prince Gideon Israel. He wrote, recorded and mixed the sect's music and videos for the next 15 years. He was working on a comeback song to return to the pop field when he died of a heart attack in November 1991.

As with their other two albums, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose's debut LP is long OOP but, as usual, you can find a reasonably priced copy floatin' around over here.

Featured cut: "Too Late To Turn Back Now"


N-joi!!

Tavares - Hard Core Poetry

The five-brother singing group Tavares may be best known for such up-tempo hits as the million-selling single "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel," "More Than a Woman," and "Whodunit," but they first came to national attention with the luscious ballad "Check It Out." Their crisp vocalizing and clean-cut, young-men-next-door image made them favorites on TV shows starring Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, and Dick Clark's American Bandstand. In 1974, Tavares also had the first hit version (number one R&B) of "She's Gone" written by the then relatively unknown duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates. Hall & Oates scored a number seven pop hit with the song in 1976.

The Tavares brothers — Arthur Tavares, Ralph Vierra Tavares, Perry Lee Tavares, Antone Tavares, and Feliciano Tavares nicknamed "Pooch," "Tiny," "Chubby," and "Butch" — started the group in 1964 as Chubby and the Turnpikes in New Bedford, MA. Their grandparents taught them traditional Cape Verde folk songs, while their older brother John schooled them on doo wop singing. In 1969, the group became Tavares. They began singing in New England clubs and were signed to Capitol Records in 1973.

Their debut album, Check It Out, was issued in early 1974. The title track slow jam single went to number five R&B on Billboard's charts in summer 1973. The next single, the ballad "That's the Sound That Lonely Makes," hit number ten R&B in early 1974.

Check It Out was followed by Hard Core Poetry in the summer of 1974, helmed by songwriting/production duo Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter (the Four Tops' "Aint No Woman Like the One I Got"). It listed the soaring number ten hit "Too Late," the number one hit "She's Gone," and "Remember What I Told You to Forget," which hit number four in 1975.

Lambert & Potter produced the brother's next album, In the City, released during the summer of '75. The set yielded three singles, the number one hit "It Only Takes a Minute," a cover of the Edgar Winter Group's 1973 pop smash, "Free Ride," and "The Love I Never Had."

Tavares' next album, Sky High (spring 1976) was the group's first collaboration with producer Freddie Perren. Perren seemed to have an affinity for family singing groups, having had hits with the Jackson 5 ("I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save") as a member of the Motown arrangers/songwriters/producers collective The Corporation, and would later go to have hits with the Sylvers ("Boogie Fever"). Sky High boasted the sparkling number three R&B hit "Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel (Part 1)" from summer 1976.

Their fifth LP, Love Storm was issued in spring 1977 and included the clever number one R&B hit "Whodunit" in spring 1977. A greatest hits set, The Best of Tavares, was released in the fall of the same year.

"More Than a Woman" was specifically written for Tavares by the Bee Gees and was issued as a single from the blockbuster Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. "More Than a Woman" was also on their Future Bound LP released in spring 1978.

On 1979's Madame Butterfly LP, the group worked with Philly soul arranger/producer Bobby Martin (the Manhattans, LTD). The sweet ballad "Never Had a Love Like This Before" went to number five R&B in early 1979.

At the start of the 1980s, Tavares left Capitol Records, signing with RCA. They had one last major hit, the ballad "A Penny for Your Thoughts", from their 1982 New Directions album. Sadly, subsequent releases failed to match this success.

In 1983, after the release of their Words & Music album, brother Ralph stepped down from the group, and Tiny left in the mid 1990s, but the other three members continued to tour.

In 1994, Canadian label Unidisc released The Best of Tavares Revisited, which had re-recordings by the group of their past hits.

In 2004, Tavares released the EP Old Dawg New Tricks on the indie Eye Candy imprint. For this release, Butch Tavares handled both the production and writing duties. The CD is now available over at CDBaby.com. As of this writing, Butch and his wife Elizabeth are living somewhere in New Hampshire where he produces local talent.

Source: Tweaked from the writings of Ed Hogan, All Music Guide.

Unfortunately, Hard Core Poetry is long out of print but you can still find an original vinyl copy on the cheap right here or here.

Featured cut: "Too Late"


Listen to the full album here