Archive for the ‘Sandi Sheldon’ Category

The Presidents

Tuesday, November 19th, 2013

Listen: 5-10-15-20 (25-30 Years Of Love) / The Presidents
5-10-15-20

Given I’d previously owned only Dennis Coffey and Bill Withers records on Sussex, I assumed the best when this came along. Turns out it’s a one listen song, simple.

Seemed like no time passed before the record was literally all over the air. You almost couldn’t escape it. Logically both the Top 40′s and the RnB locals were playing it, but so too were the college stations. Everyone loved it, hands down. For me, just knowing a Sussex single was spinning on some 16″ industrial Gates radio station turntable made it sound that much better.

Within a few years though, producer Van McCoy got tarnished with the disco curse, simply for having too big of a hit, ‘The Hustle’. But truth be told, the fellow wrote some perfect songs: ‘Baby I’m Yours’ for Barbara Lewis, ‘Getting Mighty Crowded’ by Betty Everett, ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Love You’, the Northern Soul holy grail recorded by Sandi Sheldon and ‘I Get the Sweetest Feeling’ for Jackie Wilson.

LARRY WILLIAMS & JOHNNY GUITAR WATSON

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Two For The Price Of One / Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson

Listen: Two For The Price Of One / Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson 01 Two For The Price Of One 1.mp3

These guys teamed up around ’66 and reportedly invented the term ‘party animal’ Hollywood style. Fantastic stories of cocaine and sexual escapades surround the myth. The whole time, they were contracted to the Okeh label, as both solo artists and a duo; as well writers and producers. That label’s output in the the mid 60′s is pretty flawless, and feeds the Northern Soul fetish solidly: Little Richard, Cookie Jackson, Billy Butler & The Enchanters, Sandi Sheldon, The Vibrations etc. The singles and the LP they did together, TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE, are all musts for a proper record collection. The autobiographical 7″ of the same name tells you the story.

Mercy Mercy Mercy / Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson

Listen: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy / Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson Mercy Mercy Mercy.mp3

Then it’s their East LA/Watts version of ‘Mercy Mercy Mercy’ which packs soul grease (as the DISC & MUSIC ECHO review described it) into the otherwise bland Pat Boone style rendition The Buckinghams bravely brought to US Top 40. Not surprisingly, Larry Williams & Johnny Guitar Watson’s version went unheard. Ahh – American radio.