45

Gay Jamison – Stay Another Day – Turntable 714

August 20, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

Surfing round some Belgian popcorn sites listening to tracks, my jaw hit the ground when I heard this one. An absolutely awesome, haunting mid-tempo tune.

Gay Jamison - Stay Another Day - Turntable 714

Obviously I’d never heard it before and in my ignorance knew nothing about it. Knowing my unfailing ability to go for expensive records I reluctantly reached foe JM’s guide to see what the damage would be. Oh dear! He books it at £200 and also has it in his “Rarest of the Rare” section of his web site. I had a quick search on eBay with no results and without much expectation I saved the search.

Less than a week later one came up, I set up a snipe on it, crossed my fingers and waited. A week later it was mine! and for the princely sum of only $49! I would grade it about VG+ as although very shiny it does have a couple of marks that cause clicks every so often, the label is a bit marked too. But at $49 – who cares? I think my snipe was about 3 times that.

Anyway you are probably wanting to hear this stunning piece of music so here it is:

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From the very little information I could find it is possible that Gay Jamison is actually the Gladys that recorded on the O-Gee Records Label. The writing credits for that tune (Love) have the same name as one of those on this tune – O. D. Jamison – so there may be some truth in this.

It seems a really tough one to pick up and if you want a mint one I reckon its going to cost you £150 to £200. They don’t seem to come up too often though and if the big dealers get their hands on one they also slap a hefty price on it. So if you see one in a sales box- don’t hesitate!

Gay Jamison on eBay:

GAY JAMISON: Stay Another Day (rare soul vinyl 45)

US $275.00
End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 8:03:55 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $275.00
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Gay Jamison Balmy Breezes / Friendly Hand 45 Spark 901 vg+ 196? Popcorn

US $9.99
End Date: Friday Mar-02-2012 11:15:40 PST
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Filed Under: Featured 45's, Ramblings Tagged With: 45, northern soul, popcorn

The Diplomats – Honest To Goodness – Minit 32006

March 16, 2010 By paulsrecords 1 Comment

An in-demand record at the moment, this is a proper uptempo piece of Northern Soul, it has a suggestion of latin with just a hint of R&B. In fact it sounds almost garage-like!

The Diplomats - Honest To Goodness - Minit 32006

The diplomats were a group from Washington DC who had a number of label changes and group line-ups. This is essentially the same group that put out “Cards On The Table” on the Arock label. Eventually they became the Skull Snaps.

I was fortunate enough to meet them when Ady Croasdell brought them down to “These Old Shoes” when they were across for a visit. Unfortunately I couldn’t play any of their records that night as I didn’t have this at the time and I’d sold my copy if “Cards On The Table” the week before – doh! They didn’t seem too bothered, in fact they were more interested in talking dirty to Jo.

Anyway, have a listen to it and see what you think:

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If you want to get hold of a copy, the book price is £85 and VG+ copies go on ebay for £40 – £50. However, Butch is now including it in his sets so I’m sure the price will only rise.

The Diplomats on eBay:

DIPLOMATS-LOVE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE Rare Soul HEAR

US $9.99 (0 Bid)
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 12:16:18 PST
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The Diplomats Diplomatic Immunity 2

US $31.58
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 14:39:33 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $31.58
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( NORTHERN SOUL ) THE DIPLOMATS / HERE’S A HEART

US $3.00 (0 Bid)
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 17:10:55 PST
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Here’s the details of the group at the time they recorded this, they are taken from the knowledgeable Dave Rimmer’s excellent Soulfulkindamusic website:

The Diplomats (members Sam Culley, Ervin Waters, Bill Collier and Thomas Price)

Arock – I Really Love You
Arock – Forever
Arock – Don’t Ever Go
Arock – Walk With Me
(Above four tracks unissued until they appeared in the U. K. on a 2004 Kent CD “The Diplomats Greatest Recordings” CDKEND 232.)
Wand 174 – There’s Still A Tomorrow / So Far Away – 1965
Wand 195 – Love Ain’t What It Used To Be / I’ve Got A Feeling – 1965
Minit 32006 – Honest To Goodness / Don’t Bug Me – 1966

He has The Diplomats whole history on his site [here]. And as he mentions, those stalwarts at Kent records put out a CD called The Diplomats Greatest Recordings which is available on Amazon.

Filed Under: Featured 45's, Ramblings Tagged With: 45, northern soul, R&B, These Old Shoes

Frank Howard – Judy – Excello 2291

March 5, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

A record that is right up my street; mid-tempo, male voice, great vocal, great backing and so, sooo soulful.

Frank Howard - Judy - Excello 2291

Yet another Stafford play (Oh for a time machine!) that just oozes soul. Frank didn’t think a dream could happen, then one came along – Judy – He loves her and he’s going to keep her. His life is just one sweet song …..

Pass the bucket Frank!

Click [here] to hear the tune.

Frank and the Commanders were a house band at The Stealaway club in Nashville according to an article on the Brown Eyed Handsome Man blog. This is a good article that gives a great background on Frank and what he is doing now, but unfortunately the video and sound links no longer work.

Update 13 Apr 2010: found the video on youtube and put it up on the blog [here]

So what would this cost you? It books at £100 but if you get a mint copy for that you are doing well, I would say about £100 to £150 at the moment though there are a lot of VG+ copies about (like mine) which would come in at about £50 to £75. It doesn’t turn up that often but mid-tempo seems to be out of favour at the moment so you might be lucky.

Alternatively, it is included on Kent’s fantastic CD; Uptown, Down South
which showcases tunes from the Ecello, A-bet, Mankind and Nasco labels.

Filed Under: Featured 45's, Ramblings Tagged With: 45, northern soul, stafford

Sonny Daye – Long Long Road To Happiness – Power 008

February 20, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

A piece of Detroit magic that hails from Hollywood, LA. At least that’s my take on Sonny Daye’s beautiful tune “Long Long Road To Happiness” on Power 008.

Sonny Daye - Long Long Road To Happiness - Power 008

Just listen to that introduction; it sounds just like Mike terry on saxaphone and the whole record has a Detroit “feel” to it.

Click here to listen

The probable reason for this is that Sonny Daye is really none other than Frank Wilson of “Dee-Da-Doo” fame. Frank had teamed up with Sherlie Matthews and they wrote some songs together. This one they released on the Power Records label with Frank also credited as the producer. Presumably he recorded under a pseudoynm so as not to harm his reputation as a writer and producer. Frank went to work at Motown, introducing Sherlie who later moved to Mirwood to write and also perform with her group The Belles.

I heard this on the Goldmine CD On Top Of The World – The Stafford Story (which is quite hard to find now) and it was instantly a must have tune, although it wasn’t easy to get instantly!

Eventually one came along on ebay and I shelled out for it, a lot of moola but much less than the book price of £250. This is one of those records that isn’t mega-rare but is really hard to turn up as people don’t let go of them when they find one. Mine’s safely in my play box!

Filed Under: Featured 45's, Ramblings Tagged With: 45, detroit, Motown, northern soul

Little Anthony – Hurts So Bad – DCP 1128

February 16, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

The gorgeous Voice of Little Anthony to gether with the Imperials. This obviously isn’t one of his run-to-the-dancefloor-and-backdrop tunes and it can’t really be called rare as it reached #10 in the charts but it is sooooo good!

I am a sucker for mid-tempo and ballads to be honest and this is one of a host of similar tunes put out by this group in the 60′s, Many of them on the DCP label and in conjunction with Teddy Randazzo (as this one is.

Little Anthony and The Imperials - Hurt So Bad (Picture sleeve)

The best copy to get is of course the picture sleeve which you can see on the right, for no better reason than picture sleeves are cool!

A bonus on this record is the equally beautiful b-side “Reputation” which is a guilty story told in song. You can hear this [here] from my extremely crackly copy – I must get a new one as they are plentiful and (without picture sleeve) only cost about $5.

Little Anthony on eBay:

Little Anthony & The Imperials Out Of Sight 45 1969

US $4.99
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 8:00:39 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $4.99
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LITTLE ANTHONY & IMPERIALS: Formula Of Love

US $15.00
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 8:30:08 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $15.00
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LITTLE ANTHONY: The Diary / Two People In The Worl

US $5.00
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 9:35:29 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $5.00
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“Little” Louie & Marc Anthony – Ride On The Rhythm

US $7.51
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 11:07:48 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $7.51
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Filed Under: Featured Videos Tagged With: 45, northern soul, video

Lonely You’ll Be – How Many Versions?

February 7, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

Received a record the other day that I knew the title of but hadn’t seen this version before: Johnnie Mae Matthews – Lonely You’ll Be – Jam 103.
Johnnie Mae Matthews - Lonely You'll Be - Jam 103
Turns out it’s quite a rare one (books at £150) but mine is not exactly mint (the seller described it as a filler copy!) but it only cost me just short of £25 quid (thanks again )

Click here to listen.

Now, Johnnie Mae released this at least 2 more times; first on Art 002 and then on a national release on Atco 6528. The Jam and Art labels are both local Detroit labels so they may well be different versions, if so it begs the question which version got the national release on Atco? (If you know please add a comment below.)

Calvin Williams also released the tune twice. First up on the Northern Del-La Record Co label (501) and then on a national release on Atco 6399. Calvin Williams - Lonely You'll Be - Northern Del-La Record Co 501

I have both these versions (in fact 2 copies of the Del-La version so one is on my sales list) and to my ears they are different versions.

Click here to listen to Calvin on Del-La.

Click here to listen to Calvin on Atco.

This is born out by the credits on the label; the writer is obviously the same (Melvin Davis) but the producer credits are different. The Del-La copy credits it as a “Matthews and Marshall production” but on the Atco label this changes to “Produced by J. Hunter Marshall – Matthews”. I’m assuming J Hunter is an extra person and it looks like Mr Marshall has been demoted.

The Detroit music scene at the time was a pretty incestuous place and this looks like a tune that got bounced around a number of artists. Calvin Williams worked as a writer on some of Johnnie Mae Matthews labels so that’s probably how he got to record this tune after her.

On a lighter note (anorak off), All the versions I know are all excellent and I’m really please to get a copy of the Jam one as they don’t come up very often. If anyone knows of any other versions or can comment on the others by JMM please let me know.

“Lonely You’ll Be” on eBay:

JOHNNIE MAE MATTHEWS northern soul 45 LONELY YOU’LL BE ~JAM VG to VG+

US $45.00 (0 Bid)
End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 10:28:20 PST
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Jim Dawson-you’ll Never Be Lonely With Me-lp-vg+

US $9.99
End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 10:40:05 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $9.99
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CALVIN WILLIAMS lonely you’ll be 7″ WLP 6399 Northern

US $100.00
End Date: Tuesday Feb-21-2012 17:18:01 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $100.00
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Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: 45, detroit, northern soul

Willie Small – How High Can You Fly – Jessica 401

January 27, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

Something a little bit different for today’s featured 45; this is Willie Small – How High Can You Fly – Jessica 401, evidently this was a Stafford spin in the 80′s for Keb Darge. The Stafford connection is probably why I like it; although I never went, nearly all the tunes I hear that are known Stafford sounds seem to be really good.

Willie Small - How High Can You Fly - Jessica 401

It’s hard to find out much about the label or the artist, but the track is written by Eddie Silvers; presumably the well known Chicago R&B personality who was involved in One-Der-Ful records. The label says it was distributed by Dot Record Dist of St Louis, Missouri. I wondered if Willie Small is a pseudonym of Little Willie John but maybe I’m reading too much into the name!

Anyway, its a really good uptempo dancer that has been a mod favourite as well as a Stafford play. Thin on lyrics but with an urgent drum beat and a great horn break I reckon it would suit both an R&B room or a main room playing other than oldies.

Click here to listen

Price wise it books at £25 but it has been seen recently between £30 and £50. It isn’t an uncommon record but with a few plays it could be popular again.

Willie Small on eBay:

Filed Under: Featured 45's Tagged With: 45, northern soul

Record Cleaning – From VG to VG++

January 21, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

So someone asked on one of the Soul-Source forums recently if skimming records was a good thing to do. This is the practice of taking a very thin layer of vinyl off a record in an attempt to reduce surface noise by removing scratches. It does do this but it can also introduce more noise because it reduces the depth of the grooves.

A couple of people (including me) shared our methods of cleaning records as an alternative to making them thinner! One way was to purchase a machine for £2K, mine is a bit cheaper. I’m going to demonstrate by using a sound clip from a record I cleaned recently

I bought a copy of “Gerri Taylor – Empty Arms And Bitter Tears – Constellation 154″ off ebay and when it turned up it looked disgusting. I checked the listing and the seller had graded it VG which was fair enough, but it had some rough looking scratches and was covered in some sort of grimy film

Gerri Taylor - Empty Arms And Bitter Tears - Constellation 154

So here is what I do:

Put a small amount of washing up liquid in fairly warm (but not hot) water.
Immerse the vinyl (not the label) and watch the sh*te float off.
Hold record in water and slowly turn. (Mind that label!)
Wet a record cleaning cloth (a proper one!) in the soapy water and wipe the record in a circular motion to get the soapy water into the grooves.
Immerse the vinyl (not the label!) in clean warm water and slowly turn to get most of the soapy water off.
Rinse the soapy cloth in clean warm water and wipe the recod again.
Dry with a different (dry) record cleaning cloth.
Repeat if necessary

The immersion takes any gritty muck off and loosens the grime, getting the soapy water into the grooves helps get the grime out and wiping with a wet cloth gets the water into the grooves clearing the soap. Drying with a record cleaning cloth gets the last of the grime and the water off.

Cleaning obviously doesn’t remove scratches but it does seem to remove a lot of the static and noise. If the scratches are not deep they generally can’t be heard over the music anyway.

To hear a sound file of the cleaned record click here, I don’t have a before because I wouldn’t risk my stylus on the record before cleaning it.

As always, you do this at your own risk. Don’t boil your records!

Record Cleaning Products on eBay:

AVS Record Cleaner Vinyl Cleaning Fluid – 2-Step Kit

US $65.00
End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 13:29:10 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $65.00
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Groovmaster Label Saver 45 & LP Vinyl Record Cleaner

US $47.00 (0 Bid)
End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 9:48:10 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $59.00
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VINYL RECORD CLEANER – Cleaning Fluid LINT FREE Cloth

US $8.99
End Date: Wednesday Feb-08-2012 3:11:06 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $8.99
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VELVET ANTISTATIC CLEANER & STYLUS BRUSH FOR RECORD S

US $7.88
End Date: Wednesday Feb-08-2012 6:22:00 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $7.88
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Filed Under: How To ..., Ramblings Tagged With: 45, northern soul

This weeks ebay bargains …..

January 17, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

As normal on a Sunday, I added a few records to my sales section, packaged up the ones to post out tomorrow and then spent some time rummaging round eBay.

I still haven’t worked out if people start records low because they don’t know that they are normally expensive or because they believe that they will eventually reach their true price.

Anyway, here are some things that are starting cheap and may get lost in the thousands of rubbish records en ebay:

Zu Zu Blues Band – Zu Zu Man – A&M 790 Probably one of the biggest R&B records of 2009, I’ve normally seen this on demo but this is an issue. The seller states it is VG+ to NM- (US sellers don’t have an Ex) and has started it at $9.95, which isn’t bad for a record that books at £250 and I’ve seen go for more than £300. There’s a demo on ebay already over $300 with a couple of days or so to go and this is only a 5 day auction so don’t hang about!

Next is one of the best Motown records ever; Carolyn Crawford – My Smile Is Just A Frown – Motown. This is rated VG but looks really clean, I have a trashed copy that plays perfectly ($2 well spent!) so it should be OK. Anyway $9.99 start for a record that books at £125 and is hard to turn up must be worth a punt?

An all time classic next; Bobby Paris – I Walked Away – Capitol 5929 Demo Booking at £200 and sometimes going for more, this one sits at a start price of $29.99.

Last up, not too rare but always nice to see on a demo; Ike & Tina Turner – Dust My Broom – TRC 1019 a quality classic Northern Soul/R&B tune that is a steal at just $0.99!

As always, these are not my listings so please make up your own mind before diving in.

Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: 45, ebay, northern soul

Finally! The Postie Brings Some Records!

January 14, 2010 By paulsrecords Leave a Comment

Just when I was starting to get that “Oh no, my records are lost in the post!” feeling, the postie arrived today with two brown parcels; one from the states and one from the UK.

It’s my own fault for buying records over the Christmas/New Year break when the country is covered in six inches of snow and temporary posties are slinging parcels in the bin.

I don’t know why I always think they have gone astray, I have only ever lost 2 packets in the post (both from the states). Unfortunately, one of these was Troy Dodds – Try My Love – El Camino DEMO! And it had only cost about two thirds of the price I would have to have paid in the UK for it. The guy definitely sent it but it was on one of those wierd insured systems where it is tracked out of the country of origin and then vanishes until the postie brings it and you sign for it. Never understood the point of this service and I’m sure someone nicked my record in this country once they saw the value of the insurance.

Anyway, enough moaning, back to what arrived today!

First is a record I’ve been trying to find for years: Young Jessie – Big Chief (King Of Love) – Mercury 71985 WLP. A wilder bit of R&B you will not hear, probably not to everyone’s taste. This is a really hard record to find in any condition and is expensive if you want someone to let go of it (£200 – £250 at least). Mine is VG and cost me about a third of that, it crackles and pops but I don’t care! Click [here] to listen.

Next is a record that I first heard on one of the regular CD swaps back in November 2008. I’ve already got a copy but it is getting some plays and I’ve already sold two others this year so this is one for the sales list. It is Carolyn Cooke – I Don’t Mind – RCA 8553 and it is absolutely pristine. I’ll put up a sound file when I list it on the site but there is a snippet [here] from a previous copy.

I’ve got some more on the way too so the postie will be grumbling about me more than usual this week.

Cheers

Paul

Filed Under: Ramblings Tagged With: 45, R&B