LIBERTY

No introduction needed for this EMI distributed label, set up in the UK in 1962, before which it’s releases had come out mainly on London. The Liberty numbering sequence is very confusing and does not run in numerical order. ‘55’ prefixed singles are from the parent US Liberty label; ‘66’ prefixed singles are nearly all from US Minit; ‘12’ prefixes are from a variety of sources including Minit and Soul City; whilst the odd disc that appears with a ‘10’ prefix may well be a British recording. Certainly the ultra rare 1964 Stylos single, Head Over Heels, was the first ever UK production released on UK Liberty. The band were from Manchester and disappeared after this one-off beat single. It’s probably safe to assume that many of P.J. Proby’s singles were also recorded in the UK. Sadly, the labels cannon is pretty low on highlights, though when it’s good, it’s very good!

Homer Banks - Three super singles in a row from US Minit, including the much imitated A Lot Of Love. These three records almost single-handedly sum up the UK rare soul scene of 1967-69.

Al Wilson - Al’s two singles for Liberty are both sought after, though whereas one has long had it’s day, the other is just beginning to get the recognition from collectors. The Snake was one of the biggest records ever on the Northern scene, though exactly why this is has always escaped me. Now I Know What Love Is was given a lot of exposure on the Kent LP Midnight Movers and consequently ‘took off’ in collecting circles.

Timi Yuro - It’ll Never Be Over For Me was recorded in the UK in 1969 and not issued in the USA on a 7", consequently the demand for this on UK Liberty has been astronomical until a reissue a few years back quelled the demand. A beautiful midtempo dancer of the highest quality from a superb vocalist, this has probably been the biggest sound of the last 10 years. All of Timi’s releases are top quality, though you may do well to avoid some of her ‘country’ recordings for Mercury (having said that, her Can’t Stop Running Away on Mercury is a must).

The Fifth Dimension featured vocalists Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr and hit gold with some sappy late 60’s numbers such as Aquarius and Up Up And Away. However, their Train Start Moving comes from another universe when compared to those titles, it’s a 200 mph unstoppable monster of a dancer and it truly is incredible. Betcha can’t stop yourself tapping your feet to this one.

Tommy Sands attempted to revive a flagging career by cutting a dance craze number entitled The Statue - well, the first 10 seconds are excellent, but it’s all downhill after that. Surprisingly, this was big for a few weeks during 1977 before a very dodgy pressing hit it for six - thank God for bootleggers.

Gene McDaniels cut singles a plenty for Liberty including the classic Walk With A Winner on which he gives a truly bad vocal performance that no-one seems to have noticed due to it’s crashing beat ballad backing. While this track is easily Gene’s best known Northern sound, his excellent version of Jimmy Radcliffe’s There Goes The Forgotten Man remains practically unknown on British. Strange.

The O’Jays need no introduction so I’ll just say that their Lipstick Traces is another seminal 60’s soul cut - what a shame they didn’t release I’ll Never Forget You on UK eh? Then there’s Irma Thomas, who’s probably never cut a bad record but neither did she have the success she deserved in the 60’s, usually beaten to the punch by an opportunist cover version. Irma’s biggest UK in-demander is What Are You Trying To Do, another record which shot up in price after it’s inclusion on a Kent LP.

Finally, among the waifs and strays we have the lovely Jackie DeShannon - Find Me Love, a one time biggie which was so popular it was pressed (you can now buy an original for the same price as a pressing), still hard-ish on UK though; Walk by The Fenways which is a headbanging 4/4 garage record; Moment Of Softness by US T-Bones (so called to differentiate them from the UK’s Gary Farr & The T-Bones), which is a simple but quite effective instrumental dominated by chimes; and the obscure Michael Clark Tams soundalike None Of These Girls. Did somebody mention Gary Lewis & The Playboys? Let’s get out of here!

This giant label is perhaps the most important collector’s label of all time, spanning 3 decades and churning out rarity after rarity, with some of the most valuable items from the rock and roll era going way into four figures. London deserves a book to itself (an excellent complete discography was published by Record Information Services in the 80’s and should still be available) so here is just a basic bit of information on the rather confusing prefixing system that the label used. All London singles have the prefix HL. This is then followed by the number, or in many cases, an extra letter before the number e.g. HLK, HLU etc. This third letter is a code for exporting. HL refers to ‘Home London’, whilst the third letter, let’s just say for instance ‘A’ (making the prefix HLA) means that the record could be exported to all countries except the USA, Canada and South America.

London were an early convert to the 7" 45 rpm format and many of their early releases are highly prized. All releases on London featuring gold lettering on a black background should be snapped up immediately, even if it’s by the likes of Pat Boone.

HLU 8853 was probably the first ‘silver top’ release, in April 1959. This sees the top half of the label change from plain black to silver, with the London logo at the top. The last triangular centre release was released in February 1960 (HLU 9050). The silver top label ran until 1967 when, alongside it’s parent company Decca, it reverted to a plain label with a boxed logo at the top. This has thrown up a few anomalies: Charlie Rich’s Love Is After Me is common as a black label, but rare as a silver top, even though it was never officially deleted in silver top format.

In the 50’s, demos were always on two one sided discs, and so consequently over the years many of the pairings have been split up. If you truly want to own a demo of Barrett Strong’s Money, then you’d need to track down two demos instead of one.

This process must have been phased out in 1960 as The Miracles’ Shop Around is a double sided demo. All of the single sided demos are orange and feature a matrix number rather than a catalogue number. The catalogue number is often hand written on the label. 60’s London demos came in a bewildering variety of styles. Very early 60’s demos are usually orange with the ‘Decca’ style outer ring but no indication as to which is the A side. 1961-63 saw yellow, white and orange demos, notable for a large thin A which touches the sides of the label. Often the only information on the label of this type of demo is artist/title/number. Next demo was usually yellow or orange and featured a similar layout to the silver top issue and utilised the Decca style outer ring and featured a small A in the top left corner. This design seems to have been used until late 1969, when it was replaced with a maroon label demo with a box logo.

8856 (Marv Johnson) and 8998 (Paul Gayten) were the first Motown records ever released in the UK. Although the label of the Johnson release credits the source as being United Artists, they licensed the record from Berry Gordy after it had become a local hit. Both of these singles had triangular centres and were also released as 78’s.

Initial copies of Del Shannon’s Runaway (9317) inadvertantly featured 9356 The Snake by Maximillian on the B side. The latter is a popular mod sound.

9291 Al Tousan was, as one might have guessed, Allen Toussaint, though some copies carry the mis-spelling Al Poussan.

Lou Johnson’s London singles list the US label as being both Big Top and Big Hill, depending which single you come across. The UK release of the classic Unsatisfied runs about 5 seconds longer than the US original!

9393 (Bobby Parker), 9410 (Chris Kenner), 9451 (Ike & Tina Turner), 9513 (Barbara George) were all reissued on the Sue label.

9908 Round Robin was a protoge of Chubby Checker and was responsible for a short lived dance craze around the Philadelphia area called The Slauson.

10037 The American Poets had to undergo the name extension to avoid confusion with Scottish beatmeiseters The Poets (see also ‘Manchesters’ Playboys).

10070 Darrell Banks’s magnificent double-sider appeared as a London demo before being swiftly withdrawn and reissued on Stateside three weeks later. The London demo gives the incomplete title to the B side (Our Love instead of Our Love (Is In The Pocket)), while the Stateside red and white demo gets the title of the top side wrong (Open The Door Of Your Heart instead of To). No silver top copies of Open The Door To Your Heart are known to exist - although someone knows someone who’s cousin’s sisters next door neighbour once saw a copy! If a silver top copy were to be found it would surely realise £1000+.

10090 Little Hank’s Mister Bang Bang Man was one of the late 60’s most in-demand items, having been withdrawn after being on sale for a few weeks. Issues would appear to be scarcer than demos, quantity wise. It was eventually reissued on Monument in 1970 to meet with ‘discotheque’ demand.

The 70’s releases by Chubby Checker, Bunny Sigler, Bobby Paris, Yvonne Baker etc were credited to ABKCO Records. These are in fact all Cameo/Parkway recordings, the masters of which are owned by and leased from Alan B. Klein Co.

A handful of American labels had their first UK releases here on exclusively designed labels which incorporated their logo: London Atlantic, London Monument and London Dot being the best known.

During the 60’s Mercury was a massive operation, running not only it’s main label but also subsidiarising Philips, Blue Rock, Smash etc. There are literally hundreds of Northern discs on those labels, but as usual that’s not quite the case with it’s UK outlet. The early years, and by this I mean the years that this book covers, 1960 onwards, are dominated by The Platters, Sarah Vaughan and Brook Benton, but none of those great artists recordings fit into the general scheme of things here. In fact, the first UK Mercury recordings of note in the discography are all by UK artists. British artists feature throughout the Mercury listings, though in truth none of these are anything to write home about with the exception of Lesley Dawson’s Run For Shelter which is a fairly memorable girl vocal effort, and the brilliant relatively recent discovery from Bruce Scott entitled I Made An Angel Cry. Absent from all other discographies, this has to be one of the very best UK label discoveries in years and it’s dramatic stop/start rhythm would/will make it a dance floor packer - once someone manages to get hold of a copy to play!

Even the American recordings are a bit of a motley crew here; for every Timi Yuro, Dee Dee Warwick, Jerry Butler and Prophets, you get a Leslie Gore or Keith. Anyway, here’s a quick guide to UK Mercury, in no particular order of merit:

804 Ethna Campbell - a competent cover of Mary Wells’ What’s Easy For Two.

805 Dave Ventura - The Hurt Stays In The Heart. Hideous beat ballad of no interest whatsoever. Once tipped in Shades Of Soul. Ouch!

859 Timi Yuro - Can’t Stop Running Away. Brilliant Teddy Randazzo production also cut in almost identical form by The Royalettes on an MGM LP.

860/867/890/909/974 Dee Dee Warwick - all top quality soul numbers with Worth Every Tear I Cry currently the en vogue sound with collectors. 974 is the original version of Margo & The Marvettes on Pye.

871 Stevie Lewis - Take Me For A Little While. One of a seemingly endless supply of versions of this song, this is a fairly routine girl version which must have sold a few copies going by the number there are knocking around.

872/889/984 Leslie Gore - Spent the rest of the 60’s trying to match It’s My Party and in doing so cut a few uptempo pop dancers, the best of which is the lesser known I’m Falling Down.

911 Favourite Sons - That Driving Beat. The price of this record - a solid cover of Willie Mitchell’s r’n’b standard - has risen very dramatically since it’s B side was included on a psychedelic compilation a few years back. £10 to £75 in one jump!

The group were British and hailed from Hatfield. This was their only record release.

923 Robbie Royal - Only Me. Thump-thump stomper of the pop variety which had it’s moments in Manchester during ‘78. Now banished from DJ decks forever.

943 Karen Young - Are You Kidding. This isn’t particularly good but I mention it because it was also cut by Vicki Baines as the flip of the mighty Country Girl on US Parkway.

964 Jerry Butler - Some Kinda Magic. Great version of a midtempo number also recorded by Bobby Hebb.

965 Lesley Dawson - Run For Shelter. Frothy girly dancer from an artist who also recorded for CBS.

969 Paul Newman - Ain’t You Got A Heart. probably not the famous American actor, this oft-recorded number was spun by, I think, Messrs. Rhodes and Winstanley in the late 70’s.

973 Les McCann - Bucket O’ Grease. The title may have put a few people off but this is a fast, frantic, brassy instrumental which should really be spun. It’s terrific.

1001 Margie Hendrix - On The Right Track/Restless. Only mentioned here due to the fact that these tracks where so popular at one time that they were bootlegged on the infamous Soul Sounds label back in 69/70. I haven’t heard either for many, many years. On The Right Track is a very fast dancer if my memory serves me well.

1031 Dave Antony - Hide And Seek. This is, believe it or not, a cover version of Eddie Regan’s Playin’ Hide And Seek, released here as a flip side by a none too clever vocalist.

1097 Prophets - I Got The Fever. Now we’re talking, can anyone honestly say they’ve never danced to this at some time in the distant past? It’s catchy, it’s uptempo, I’ve heard it a million times but it still hits the spot. See also Creation on Stateside for the same record. Very desirable as a demo, this one.

1122 Jerry Butler - Moody Woman. For some reason, this went massive as a revived oldie in 1977 and prices went as high as....£5! Lovely record.

6052301 Millionaires - Never For Me. A perfect soul dancer from a very accomplished group. You can dance to it, you can sing along with it, and in the opinion of this writer it’s the best record released on UK Mercury - only on black label, mind!

6052634 Don Covay - It’s Better To Have. I remember buying this one when it charted in 73/74 and was as surprised as anyone when I heard it spun at Northern venues in the 77/78 period. I still don’t class this as ‘Northern Soul’ per se, but there’s no denying it’s a good record, whatever it’s gender or genre.

The label was black with silver lettering throughout it’s lifespan, with a small change in logo being the only alteration circa 1964. Demos were plain white in the early 60’s when the label was distributed by EMI, but once distribution went to Philips there were no demos, just issues with either a demonstration sticker on the label or a yellow stamp on one side saying ‘sample copy not for sale’. White demos returned in 1968 and probably stopped in 1972. Many Mercury singles post 1967 were made without centres.

The MGM label started up in the UK in the mid-50’s and quickly hit the big time with a succession of massive hits by Connie Francis. Material was released from the main US MGM label and subsidiaries such as Verve, and was initially distributed by EMI until it went over to Polydor in 1967. The label was the familiar yellow label with black lettering and the lion’s head MGM trademark as a logo. In 1969 this changed to a split blue and gold label in the Ying/Yang style. Demo’s are slightly more complicated. The EMI demos are pretty straightforward; pre-1962, both sides are white; after 1962 they become red and whites; in late 1966, a few demos slipped out as green and whites, at the same time as all EMI labels changed to green and white; then almost immediately the label moved to Polydor and started to put out stunning looking purple demos with silver A’s. These demos also utilised the cartoon lion holding a record a la US MGM demos. Confusingly, I’ve also spotted a couple of these Polydor MGM demos as purple and white stuck on paper labels!

Most of the MGM releases are pop, with token attempts to cash in on the then soul craze by signing the likes of Kim Weston, but there are some excellent titles to collect, and a handful of very, very rare items.

The two Wanderers singles (1102/1169) both feature Ray Pollard but are of nominal interest only as they are firmly in the ‘pop’ mould.

Jackie Burns & The Bells single I Do The Best I Can (1226) is a stunning more recent discovery which was originally covered up as Jackie & The Gilettes. In the USA this disc was credited to Jackie Burns & The Bo-Bells, but had the artist credit changed on it’s UK release, presumably to avoid confusion with a UK group, The Bow Bells.

Elmer Bernstein’s version of The Rat Race (1238) is an early version of the Righteous Brothers Band Torch monster and is the theme from a 1960 Tony Curtis movie.

The Panic Is On (1251) must surely be the late Roy Hamilton’s finest recording - it’s certainly his rarest in the UK. This superlative beat ballad has headed many collectors’ wants lists for nearly a decade.

All of The Royalettes singles are worth picking up, especially their version of Never Again (1292), popular in the UK recently via Little Anthony & The Imperials. The wonderful production talents of Teddy Randazzo can be found on most of The Royalettes recordings.

Wilson Pickett’s Let Me Be Your Boy (1286) was an early recording for Correc-Tone which got itself a release in 1965 to cash in on Pickett’s Atlantic success. Somewhat surprisingly, this record went very big in the mid-80’s and heralded a wave of early 60’s black pop records which now seem to have been accepted as part of the scene in the same way that the beat ballads have. Wilson, you’ve got a lot to answer for!  The label mis-spells the source as Correo-tone.

Spyder Turner’s You’re Good Enough For Me (1332) is a good uptempo dancer with an amazing version of Stand By Me on the flip in which Spyder impersonated the styles of various soul singers of the day (Billy Stewart, Smokey Robinson, Chuck Jackson etc).

Kim Weston’s I Got What You Need must be the most common import record of all time. They used to give these away at prizes at our local fair in the early 70’s! However, on it’s UK issue (1338) it’s slightly more desirable, as is the moody That’s Groovy (1357) which has picked up a few plays recently.

The April Stevens track Wanting You (1366) is a long time collectable but is pure pop. It was re-pressed due to a Wigan Casino reactivation in 1977 on MGM 2006586.

John Drevar’s Expression were a 6-piece Motown influenced band from Southampton. The Closer She Gets (1367) was composed by the ubiquitous Teddy Randazzo and is good, solid Brit-Northern. Don’t confuse this version with the poor remake issued on Destiny in 1979, which wasn't even by John Drevar!

Along with the Roy Hamilton track mentioned a while ago, The Formations’ At The Top Of The Stairs (1399) is possibly the finest release on MGM. A classic single which MGM picked up from the Bank label, it sold little on it’s original release but made the lower reaches of the charts via a 1971 reissue on Mojo.

Fathers Angels were a real group, but they only performed on the A side of their only single, Don’t Knock It (1459). The B side, a throwaway instrumental intitled Bok To Bach, was performed by a group of session musicians at the disposal of producer Jerry Ross. In typical Northern Soul scene style, it consequently went on to become one of the biggest instrumental sounds of all time, while the vocal A side has been long forgotten. A Simon Soussan produced vocal version of Bok To Back, entitled Dance Of Love and credited to Suzy Parker appeared on the Port label in 1977, having been originally spun from Emidisc in 1975.

Finally, I’m So Glad You’re My Baby by Johnny Nash (1480) was a cash-in re-release which did little chartwise. It is, however, a lovely midtempo dancer and comes highly recommended.

The American MGM label has been a constant source of brilliant Northern Soul for many years. A CD compilation of some of the best of these tracks is available on the Goldmine/Soul Supply label entitled Big City Soul Volume 3 (GSCD 47).

Oriole had been issuing records since the early 50’s but it’s the labels releases from 1962/63 that soul collectors are most interested. During this short period, Oriole became the outlet for Motown product in the UK, issuing 19 highly collectable singles and a handful of very rare albums from the likes of The Contours, Miracles and Mary Wells. You may quite easily come across copies of Fingertips or Do You Love Me as these were both good sellers - but the rest? Well, the Valadiers and Mike & The Modifiers singles are both valued at around £400 these days, and even very familiar items such as Marvin Gaye’s Stubborn Kind Of Fellow won’t leave you with much or any change from £50. Although promoted weekly on Radio Luxemburg, some of Oriole’s Motown releases were very poor sellers, though it does look as if Berry Gordy threw in a couple of clinkers to make up the contract (after all, who in the UK had even heard of the above two bands?)

The Oriole label design is quite neat. Originally it was a striking blue label with silver logo and lettering, but this changed to the familiar black label with a large yellow square in the centre containing the label name in the early 60’s. Demos are very scarce and are often sold as issues as the only difference is a tiny silver A in the centre - so if you’re centre’s been pushed out, you’ll never know if you had a demo or not! Somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind I recall seeing a red and white demo on Oriole but this must have been very late in the labels’ life.

The Oriole label also issued a couple of interesting non-Motown singles, including a stomping instrumental version of The Four Seasons’ Sherry by Hugo Montenegro which was so popular in the early 70’s that it was bootlegged on Out Of The Past, and a great single by Erroll Dixon entitled Rocks In My Pillow which is a kind of soul/ska hybrid. As with CBS, the label which swallowed up Oriole in 1964, most of it’s releases were underpromoted so there’s a good chance that other items may well turn up in the future, especially from beat bands covering soul numbers. Oh, and if you ever come across a number called Little Brown Jug by Ritchie Blackmore on Oriole, you can start planning your holiday abroad now!

(c) 1998 Pete Smith