Listen: Love Being Your Fool / Charlie Whitehead
Love

Given that Charlie Whitehead was discovered and signed to Musicor by Charlie Foxx, well that’s all I ever needed to know. I was in.

At Musicor, a long musical partnership resulted with Jerry Williams. And when he, as Swamp Dogg, moved to Island, so too did Charlie Whitehead.

And for a change, a switch to Island meant a hit record. Yes, ‘Love Being Your Fool’ made the BILLBOARD RnB chart in ’75.

I never did find out who at Island was responsible for the label’s mid 70′s infatuation with the strain of Delta soul that brought, not only Charlie Whitehead and Swamo Dogg to the roster, but also Robert Parker, The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Jay Dee Bryant and Tyrone Taylor.

Listen: Standing Ovation For Love / Jay Dee Bryant
Standing

Swamp Dogg has been a sign of dependable endorsement for years now, to these ears that is. Coincidentally, as time passes, I found a solid handful of Jay Dee Bryant singles had moved into the house uninvited. Glad they did though.

During ’74, Jerry Williams aka Swamp Dogg was doing his usual co-writes and productions for others. In this case, ‘Standing Ovation For Love’ was born. Thank you sweet Lord.

‘Standing Ovation For Love’ was picked up by Island UK, and issued on their short lived USA series, identified by it’s own prefix (USA) and numbers, and given unique label art. Well sort of issued that is. Reading the press release above, the company manufactured copies to test the waters. Not having seen a stock copy ever, my guess is it never got issued commercially. Plus given there were four other USA prefixed releases, all of which I do have retail copies of, it’s hard to verify.

Come ’76, another DJ run was pressed up as you can see above. Again, never saw a stock. Plus, I can’t find anyone from Island during either period that remembers. Therefore, no idea what happened, but can tell you something for sure. I play this constantly.