Rob Jones reviews soul records from his vinyl collection.
Kenny Williams - You're Fabulous Babe (1977)
I think it would be fair to say this is a record which somehow lost its true stature when it was hammered to death as the soundtrack of a seemingly endless TV advertising campaign for Fabergé Babe perfume back in the late 1970s.
Take all that away though and you have a very classy, high-quality soul tune which has often been championed by UK broadcaster Pete Schofield in numerous radio shows.
Ketty Lester - West Coast (1965)
Ketty Lester was born Revoyda Frierson on August 16th 1934 in Hope, Arkansas. She was the youngest of 15 children in a family of farmers and spent her early years harvesting cotton and cucumbers. First finding her voice in church and school choirs, her exceptional vocal range eventually won her a scholarship to study music at San Francisco City College. By the early 1950s she had reinvented herself as Ketty Lester and commanded the stage at San Francisco’s legendary Purple Onion nightclub. Her powerful, velvety vocals soon caught the attention of jazz titan Cab Calloway, who immediately asked her to tour Europe and South America with his orchestra, but it was a December 1957 appearance as a contestant on Groucho Marx’s game show 'You Bet Your Life' which indicated what was to come. After delivering a stunning rendition of 'You Do Something to Me', a mesmerised Marx gave her a standing ovation, boldly predicting that she would become a major singing star - and he was right. In 1962 Ketty signed with Era Records and released a soulful cover of Dick Edward and Edward Heyman's 'Love Letters'. Driven by a haunting piano arrangement and Ketty's achingly intimate delivery, the track became an overnight international sensation which soared to number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, eventually selling well a over a million copies. Although the song earned her a prestigious Grammy nomination in 1963, because of management gaps and distribution anomalies between independent labels and RCA Victor, Ketty was completely unaware of the nomination until a fan informed her about it in 2017 - over 54 years later.
As the music industry changed, Ketty transitioned into acting. In 1976, she joined the cast of the TV show 'Days of Our Lives', making history as the first woman of colour to appear in the daytime soap opera. For millions of television viewers worldwide though, her defining role came in 1977 when Michael Landon cast her in 'Little House on the Prairie' as Hester-Sue Terhune, the fiercely dedicated teacher at the blind school. Ketty remained a beloved anchor character of the series until it wrapped in 1983. In 2020, Elite Publishing House released her 232-page official autobiography, 'Ketty Lester: From Arkansas to Grammy Nominated Love Letters to Little House on the Prairie' - highly recommended reading.
Written and produced by Ed Cobb of the Four Preps, the powerhouse dancer 'West Coast' was originally released on the Capitol subsidiary Tower Records label (Tower 166) as the flipside to 'I'll Be Looking Back', but was released as the A-side on Capitol Records (CL 15427) here in the UK as you can see from the red A demo I've included in the video, which highlights how different British ears were when it came to evaluating a track's dance floor potential. While the US Tower Records release completely buried the song on the flip of a slower ballad, 'West Coast' still secured US pop culture exposure when Ketty performed the track live on major 1965 network television music shows such as ABC’s legendary teen programs Shindig! and Shivaree. 'West Coast' is a great classic which can be often be quite difficult to locate nowadays on either label, but I get the feeling it will eventually have a new lease of life at some point. I noticed Ketty's Shivaree performance of the song has survived and you can find it on the AI-riddled YouTube platform - you might have to watch a few ads first though.😄
Ketty Lester lives in Los Angeles and is still doing well at the age of 92.
Kurtis Scott - No, No Baby (1966)
A brilliant old 100mph (161km/h) dancer with its instrumental counterpart "I'm Doing My Thing" by Soft Summer Soul Strings on Columbia circa 1969. Kurtis Scott was actually Kurt Harris, probably best remembered for his 1964 tune "Emperor Of My Baby's Heart" on Diamond - another song well worth a listen.
Liberty Belles - Shing-a-Ling Time (1967)
Jay Boy was the go-to label for tunes like this when I was around 13 or 14 years old, which has always made them impossible to part with later in life as they hold so many great memories of those early years, so I've often ended up with two copies of the same tune having later tracked down the originals when we all got a bit more clued up. I know of three different Shout demos of this one and at least a couple of different Shout issues. Also released on the Bang label in France and the Philippines, it's a great old dancer with the excellent 'Just Try Me' on the flip side. The Liberty Belles were Dianne Christian, Terry Whittier and Marva Sasso. Dianne Christian had previously been a singer with the Darlettes and the Chic-Lets before helping to form the Liberty Belles in 1967.
Loading Zone - Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead (1968)
Although this particular tune may not be familiar to you at first, it's certainly worth a listen as you will hear from the video.
Released back in March 1968, this obscure and relatively unknown version of the old Marvelettes classic can be found lurking on the flip side of 'Don't Lose Control (Of Your Soul)'. The band came from Oakland, California and consisted of Paul Fauerso (keyboards and vocals), Linda Tillery (vocals), Peter Shapiro (guitar), Steve Dowler (guitar), Bob Kridle (bass) and George Newcom (drums).
Lovettes – Little Miss Soul (1966)
Hailing from New Jersey, the all-female Lovettes consisted of Lois Joyner, Margie Godbolt, Lily Hammond and Lorraine Robinson. The band originally got together in high school to form the Tiaras, shortly after which they began to compete in local talent shows with friends Phil Terrell and Kool & the Flames - the first incarnation of Kool & the Gang. They later secured a recording deal with MGM and changed their name to the Pets under the supervision of Abner Spector. The relatively brief MGM era resulted in the release of just one single, 'What Kind of Girl (Does He Think I Am)'. Unfortunately, MGM didn't bother to promote the record and the Pets were axed from the label. Phil Terrell later introduced the band to Winnie Lovett of the Manhattans who renamed them the Lovettes (see the connection?) and wrote their songs, in turn introducing them to Joe Evans who signed them to Carnival Records.
There are a couple of different Carnival label designs of 'Little Miss Soul' - one has a clown on the logo and the other has the more simple lettered design as seen on this demo. Come to think of it, I've never seen a demo with the clown logo design. Beware though, the demo was bootlegged in 1972, but you can easily identify the 1966 original from the bootleg, as the original was mastered at Bell Sound Studios in New York and has the Bell Sound stamp in the dead wax.