Hitsville Record Review: Alan Pollard

My name is Alan Pollard and I live in Stockport, England and my main love is collecting records 45's, EP's and LP's, I have been collecting records for 38 years and I have amassed many thousands. My main passion is the music of the Motorcity, Detroit, but my collection isn't restricted to that. I DJ whenever I can and I always try to play sets with a difference rather than sticking to the tried and trusted oldies, this restricts me a bit but I prefer that way, the Northern Soul Scene in the UK is very much a retro scene and venues are tending to stick to played out oldies, but there are more venues opening that are playing more varied sets of tunes, which will be the survival of the scene long term. Anyway enough about me let's get into reviewing some tunes but just let me get a couple of thank you's in.

Firstly can I thank Dave for inviting me to help with the Hitsville Soul Club Web Site project. When he asked if I would review 20 records for a page on the web site I jumped at the chance as spreading Soul Music around the globe is something we should all be trying to do not hiding them awesome 45's away or covering the labels up so no one knows what they are.

In choosing the 20 records to review the main criteria was stay away from Detroit recordings not for any other reason other than in doing this I am able to show what other 45's can be found around the USA, hopefully in the future Dave will let me review more records but this time from Detroit which for those who know me will know that the music of Detroit is my main love. Another criteria was that I would mix the hard to find with the not so not so hard to find, but all the 45's I have reviewed will not jump out the record racks into your arms you will have to dig a little deeper but they are all findable and all of them for less than a Kings ransom.

Hope you enjoy the reviews and like the sounds.

Kind Regards
Alan


REVIEW #1 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Azie Mortimer - Put yourself in my place/Bring back your love Swan, S 4158 (1963) Over to Bernie Binnick's Philadelphia based Swan label for the next review, the extremely under-rated Azie Mortimer who over the years recorded for many of the major labels including United Artists, RCA Victor, Okeh and Bloomie. This track has been around the Northern Soul Scene now for probably 20 years and although not a stomper, it is above midtempo, the fact that this record has not had it's day yet is not down to rarity as copies are findable at a reasonable price but of course with the record being 42 years old now, copies in good condition will take a bit of tracking down. This type of dance track is very popular at the moment so demand for this little beauty will almost certainly rise in the coming years so track one down sooner rather than later. Also check out a great version of this song by the great Maxine Brown on Wand from 1964.

REVIEW #2 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Barbara Mason - Bobby is my baby/I need love Artic, 120 (1966) On to Philadelphia for our next review but it could almost be a Detroit recording, the brilliant Barbara Mason who was probably the Artic label's most prolific recording artist having 14 singles released, the most successful being the big hit "Yes I'm ready". "Bobby is my baby" has some of the best sax-playing you will ever hear, it sounds like Mike Terry and it could be him but I suspect the backing track was recorded at 919 Sound, Philadelphia as the same backing track was used for The Rotations "(Put a Dime on) D9" which came out on Frantic (see review for The Rotations info), The Rotations version came a year before Barbara Mason's version. "Bobby is my baby" was written by the label owner Jimmy Bishop. Solid uptempo Northern Soul music at it's very best. "Bobby is my baby" shouldn't prove too much of a problem finding and will cost you about a hundredth the cost of The Rotations "D9" Expect the usual difficulty in finding a copy in good condition as this like nearly all the records I'm reviewing are around 40 years old now and good copies are becoming few and far between.

REVIEW #3 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Bernard Williams & The Original Blue Notes - It's needless to say/Focused on you Harthon, BL136 (1966) Time for a brilliant double sider, this time from the legendary Blue Notes, on this occasion the lead credited to one Bernard Williams, however although a lot of books say that this was an early line up of the group that went on to be Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes it's more than likely that Bernard Williams left the original line up of The Blue Notes to form his own Original Blue Notes. On to the record, the 'A' side "It's needless to say" is uptempo Northern Soul at it's very best, a driving beat and brilliant male harmonies, typical of the Philly sound from that era, written by Eddie Holman for Weldon McDougall's Harthon imprint. The 'B' side is somewhat more laid back, this is my favourite side, written by J. James which I've no doubt is Jesse James again great harmonies which are incredibly infectious, both sides arranged by Luther Randolph whose name you will find on many great Philly recordings. As far as rarity is concerned this record tends to fall into the "I must pick one of them up one day, but I'll wait till I find one at the right price" if you wait for that to happen you'll never get one, it's in demand so it will take some tracking down.

REVIEW #4 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Don Ray Sampson - Baby come back/Take it easy E-Records, 401 (1965) Over to the 'E' label for our next review and a record which for me has all the credentials for being a top sound, perfect harmony, infectious dance beat and those wonderful girl singers backing Don. Produced by George Clements and written by Jim Webb who is not normally associated with stunning dance tracks like this, this is the same Jim Webb who wrote such classics as "Macarthur Park" and "Do what you gotta do". This record has had plays over the years but is still relatively un-known, the pictured issue copy is probably a little harder to find than demo copies, the demo copy will almost certainly be the same colour as the issue (See the review on The Contessas track). Unlike the 'Contessas' track I have never seen either an issue or demo on the red 'E' label but doesn't mean they don't exist. Sub-lime dancer of the highest calibre, find one before they disappear.

REVIEW #5 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Fred Hughes - Walk on back to you/As long as we're together Exodus, 1036 and 2009 (re-issue)(1966) I remember the first time I played this at a venue, people were queuing at the decks to find out what it was. Well the record is by the great Fred Hughes and with names like the legendary Arthur Wright and Richard Parker handling the writing, producing and arranging then you can't really go wrong, I bought it blind just on seeing the names on the label. The record itself is one the most atmospheric records you'll here on the Northern Soul Scene, especially played loud over a nice clear sound system, there's a persistent haunting piano right across the background that just builds and builds. The white demo pictured and black stock copies are fairly easy to find, you definitely won't need to re-mortgage your house for this one. You will note from the numbers above this record did get re-issued in 1967 with the number 2009. Awesome tune that has been a big favourite of mine for along time now. Check out Fred's other recordings on Brunswick "Baby Boy" and the equally haunting "Don't Let Me Down" on Vee Jay.

REVIEW #6 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Johnny Gilliam - Find yourself another/A brokenhearted man's prayer Bo Mar, 5004(1965) Over to the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based Bo Mar label for this brilliant self penned track by Johnny Gilliam. I have personally been featuring this track in my sets now for about 12 years now and it has a really strong underground following now. "Find yourself another" finds Johnny in fine voice, and he has voice which is immediately recognisable if you have heard his other records for the Cancer label. "Find yourself another" is a hard record to track down but with demand being low at present it will be easier to find now than in a few years time. If you get chance to hear it check out his brilliant "Room full of tears" on Cancer which is a very hard record to find. Great male vocal, deserves to go big and will do one day.

REVIEW #7 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Kathy & The Calenders - Please don't go/Back in your arms again Port, 45-3023(1966) Here we have an awesome female group harmony with an incredible dance beat. It starts off with a great piano intro before the girls start pleading "Please don't go". Cut in New York in 1966 for the Port label which released so many other Northern Soul Classics such as Robert Neal "I'm so glad", Big Maybelle "Let me go", The Gee's "It's all over" and the brilliant "Chris Towns Unit - Turn to me". This record has never picked up what I would call regular plays, which is probably more due to the fact that it isn't mega rare. Copies shouldn't prove too much of a problem to find. The pictured copy is a white demo, I have never seen a stock copy but again that doesn't mean they don't exist.

REVIEW #8 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	La Reine La Mar - That's not the way to love/Mama I don't wanna Cloud, 503-B(1965/66) Two reviews in one here but we can hardly ignore the fact that these two awesome female beat ballads share the same backing track, but each having a different set of lyrics. Both records probably came out around 1965/1966. The thing I find really strange about these two releases is that on closer inspection of the labels there is no connection in the writers, producers or arrangers. My personal favourite is Marion Stewart's version but the jury's out on the rest of the Northern soul Scene as I get asked for each of them on a regular basis in just about equal numbers. As far as rarity concerned you definitely see less copies of La Reine La Mar's version but both are hard to find. The scan's show a stock copy of La Reine La Mar and a white demo of Marion Stewart, I have yet to see a demo of La Reine La Mar but pale blue stock copies of Marion Stewart are out there. In my opinion two of the finest female sounds around. (See two records down for the second review).

REVIEW #9 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Linda Jones & The Whatnauts - I'm so glad I found you/World Solution Stang, ST 5039(1972) Here we have a cover version of The O'Jays classic, sung by a combination of probably one of the greatest female soul singers with Baltimore's Whatnauts. Linda as a solo artist is re-known for her Northern Soul Classics that she cut for Warner Brothers 7 Arts, Loma, and Blue Cat, not forgetting that she also cut many memorable ballads for the same labels. Written and produced by George Kerr who as most of you are probably aware put his name to many classic Northern Soul tracks. Towards the end of her life Linda moved to the All Platinum group of labels where she cut a few sides for the Turbo label and this storming piece of Northern Soul for the Stang label in 1972. The white demo pictured here has "I'm so glad I found you" on both sides, whereas if you pick up an issue then you will also have the 'B' side "World Solution" which is just by The Whatnauts. Pounding Northern Soul at it's very best, copies of the demo seem easier to find than the issues.

REVIEW #10 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Marion Stewart - I must be losing you R, R-1516(1965/66) Here's the other half of the double review. My personal favourite is Marion Stewart's version but the jury's out on the rest of the Northern soul Scene as I get asked for each of them on a regular basis in just about equal numbers. As far as rarity concerned you definitely see less copies of La Reine La Mar's version but both are hard to find. The scan's show a stock copy of La Reine La Mar and a white demo of Marion Stewart, I have yet to see a demo of La Reine La Mar but pale blue stock copies of Marion Stewart are out there. In my opinion two of the finest female sounds around.

REVIEW #11 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Ruby (aka as Ruby Sherry & Ruby Jean) - Feminine Ingenuity/Deceived Gold Token, GT-100(1966) Over to the City of Angels, California for this record. How do you separate these two brilliant tracks. "Feminine Ingenuity" is certainly more popular on the dance floors but the uptempo almost ska type backing "Deceived" has a huge underground following and is featured more at venues where they try and stay away from the main line dancers. Both sides are extremely soulful and great dancers. "Feminine Ingenuity" also got released on a label called 'Take 6' but this release didn't have "Deceived" on the flip, it had an equally great record called "Please don't go". The Take 6 release was credited to Ruby Sherry. Ruby also had a release on the Monster Masters label called "Empty Words" b/w "Roving Girl", this release was credited to Ruby Jean. This is with out a doubt the most obscure record out of all the reviews I have done but don't let that put you off trying to track one down, the reward of finding a copy is immense, soul music of the highest calibre. Expect tracking the Gold Token copy to be more difficult than finding the Take 6 copy.

REVIEW #12 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Scotty Williams - Fear/Ain't nobody with you Mona-Lee, 220(1968) If your thing is big orchestral sounds with brilliant, powerful male vocals and a great dance beat then this is for you. Scotty Williams had another Northern Soul biggie called "In the same old way" for Jubilee Records which is another tremendous tune in a similar vein to this recording. "Fear" has never been a really big record and consequently doesn't suffer from being overplayed, however it still appears on sufficient play lists for the demand for it to be there. This song was written by Rose Marie McCoy who over the last few years has come to prominence via some recordings she was responsible for that Rob Thomas and Andy Rix found when they contacted her. Stock copies are harder to find than the white demo pictured here, tough one to find but as with the majority of Amy, Bell, Mala distributed labels the initial pressing volume would have been high especially with this one getting to issue stage but it was obviously a poor seller hence the rarity of stock copies, best place to find one would an old radio station clear out.

REVIEW #13 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Shep - I'm sitting in/Fool to fool TNT, 282(1966) Shep is rumoured to be Don Gardner and I must admit it does sound like him, there are quite a few things on the label to suggest this is so, like the connection of Tru-Glo-Town productions who Don recorded for, also The Don Gardner Orchestra is mentioned on the "Fool to Fool" side. This record has been around now for about 30 years now, "Fool to Fool"" was a popular record at the legendary 'Wigan Casino' in the UK but this is one those records where the other side has become more popular as peoples preferences to the tempo of the music changes. "I'm sitting in" really is an awesome record, one of the most impressive horn sections your likely to hear which with Shep's really deep voice really makes this track really something else. "I'm sitting in" is not quite as uptempo as "Fool to Fool" but just right for today's scene. The white demo is considerably rarer than the stock copies but are definitely findable.

REVIEW #14 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	Soul Brothers Inc. - Pyramid Golden Eye, 1001(1970) Quite a lot of todays big sounds were actually first played at 'The Top of The World' in Stafford, England but because a lot of people on today's Northern Soul Scene weren't attending venues in the 1980's these sounds weren't heard by the masses first time round. Of course some have remained popular over the years and "Pyramid" was one of those sounds, infact it was quite a considerable length of time before we knew the true identity of this record, as a common practice on the Northern Soul Scene is to hide the true identity of records by literally sticking a new label over the old one, carefully of course, and giving the record a new identity. The made up name for this record was "Our love keeps building" by Mel Britt. The record was discovered by Tim Ashibende, he found it in a batch of records he was given or so the story goes. The true identity of the group turned out to be The Soul Brothers Inc., featuring George Brown on lead vocal. George has a wonderful rich voice, somewhere in the region of Lou Rawls. Apparently only 200 records were ever pressed up so this is an obscure record is going to take some finding, the 200 figure I'm not sure about, you know how these stories start but rare it is. Beware of bootlegs but they are easy to identify as they have solid centres.

REVIEW #15 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	The Commands - No time for you/Hey it's love Dynamic, 104 (First Press), Backbeat, 570 (Second Press)(1966) Over to San Antonia, Texas for the next review for Abe Epstein's Dynamic Label. The original version of "No time for you" which was of course also recorded by The O'Jays for the Imperial label also in 1966 and this was indeed a brilliant version. Here with have a really awesome double sider. Over the years both sides have had plenty of action on the decks throughout the Northern Soul Scene. Both sides are male group harmony on a par with The Chandlers and The Imperial Challengers. The two sides were written by group member Dan Henderson. As you can see above the record was released twice; firstly by Dynamic and secondly by Backbeat, which are both Texan labels. The Dynamic copy is difficult to find especially in the picture sleeve it was originally released in. The Backbeat copy will prove a bit easier to find. Well worth tracking down. Two cracking records for the price of one.

REVIEW #16 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	The Blue Jays - (It depends on the) Point of View Jay, 4815(1965) Our next review is of the 'B' side of an obscure record from the Jay label, unfortunately I don't have anymore details of this label or group. The record is typical of the type of sound which was popular at Northern Soul Clubs in late 1980's but many of the records that this was played along side eventually turned up in numbers to partly satisfy demand however "Point of view" has remained extremely rare.

REVIEW #17 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	The Contessas I keep on keeping on/This is where I came in E-Records, 402 (Yellow label) & GCP 1 (Red label) (1965) Staying with the 'E' label and again the combination of Jim Webb and George Clements come up another awesome dancer, again perfect harmony this time the girls taking the lead, infact I sometimes wonder whether it's The Contessas backing Don Ray Sampson on the previous review. This record is starting to appear on many playlists at present, deservedly so, like the previous release reviewed for this label this track also has a very infectious dance beat. It is worth noting that whilst trying to track this record down that there are 4 variants to be found:- Yellow 'E' label demo which is pictured. Yellow 'E' label issue. Red 'E' label demo. Red 'E' label issue. The GCP prefix probably stands for George Clements Productions which would suggest that the red label copies were the first issues, however there doesn't seem to be a great deal of between them all on the rarity front. Expect to dig a little bit deeper to find copies of this one.

REVIEW #18 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	The Flamingos - I know better/Flame of love End, 1121 (1962) Now for this brilliant outing from The Flamingos. I personally love this type of doo wop/soul crossover sound, great male harmony with that big orchestral sound, fully laden with strings. The Flamingos by 1962 didn't have Tommy Hunt in the line up as he had left to pursue a solo career but this didn't seem to affect the group as they went on to be quite successful with records like "I only have eyes for you\" and their other big Northern Soul record "The Boogaloo Party". This record is fairly hard to find but no so expensive when found, the pictured issue is usually around the same cost as the white demo's.

REVIEW #19 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	The Rotations - A changed man/Heartaches Frantic, 202(1967) The Rotations with Richard Parker on lead are probably better known for their extremely rare release "(Put a dime on) D-9" which also came out on the Philadelphia based Frantic record label number 200, this was their follow up release and equally as good as D-9 in my opinion, this release isn't as obscure but will definitely take some tracking down. Frantic was a subsidiary of Jimmy Bishop's Arctic label. After the spoken intro this really builds into a brilliant uptempo dancer complete with all the breaks for spins, backdrops and claps, all the ingredients required for perfection. It was never a massive record and I reckon just right for reactivation. Look out for excellent releases by The Rotations on Mala, Lawton and De-Brossard. I suspect the pictured demo is a touch harder to find than a yellow stock copy, but be careful as this release was bootlegged around 25 years ago on the look a like yellow issue, identification of the original is the original is vinyl and the bootleg is styrene with a stick on label.

REVIEW #20 CLICK on RECORD to LISTEN!	The Uptights - Shy guy/He said Columbia, 4-44243 (1967) Last but not least, this obscure 1967 release has been a strong favourite of mine now for close on 30 years since I first heard belting out of the sound system at the Wigan Casino All-Nighter. I still regularly feature it when I do guest DJ spot even though over the years it has never really reached the popularity it richly deserves. The orchestration, production and arrangement is nothing less than we have come to expect from the Columbia label, like all the other big National labels such as RCA Victor, MGM, Verve and ABC Paramount big sound production was the order of the day in the sixties. The picture is of the white demo, I have yet to see a red issue but someone once told me they do exist. Demand for this track is high, on the odd occasion that it turns up on lists there's always an eager buyer, but copies do turn up.

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