Quin Ivy And His Norala And Quinvy Studios, Part 4:
July ’67 to December ‘67 – Rare Quinvy releases, South Camp, Sledge & Studio Plans

In due course we will pick up the Quinvy story in July 1967 but, before we move any further into the year, we need to mention that a re-think about the Demon Brothers’ “High On The Hog” and “Uh-Huh” Quinvy 168 forty-five (referred to in our last Part as a likely 1967 release) indicates that it could in fact have been a 1968 release, the ‘68’ part of the issue number possibly relating to the year of issue rather than simply indicating that it was the next Quinvy 45 after the Wee Juns’ Quinvy 167 outing (for which, again, the ‘67’ reference probably indicated a 1967 release, as correctly suggested in the last Part). Indeed, it’s even possible that Tony Borders’ unissued-at-the-time April-1968 version of “High On The Hog” (see later Part) may have pre-dated the Demon Brothers’ interpretation – we shall probably never know!

I live in your love - QUINVY 267However, following the Wee Juns’ 45 in 1967 it is likely that the next Quinvy label release that year was in fact one of several little-known non-soul Quinvy label recordings which have kindly been brought to our attention by collector Peter Hoogers, to whom we are most grateful. This is a Quinvy 267 forty-five by the rather exotically-named white duo Zamar & Tyran comprising the pop-ish ListenI Live In Your Love and the slightly more folksy “Steal The Sun”.

Both songs were co-penned by Bruce Gist, one with Grady Smith and one with David Briggs. Willie Bruce Gist had been born in St Joseph, Tennessee but had made his home in Killen, Alabama. Early on he had tried his hand at rock ‘n roll with a song called “Searching For Love” and soon became a writer/friend of Marlin Greene’s, composing Greene’s own 1963 Phillips 40103 release “General Of Broken Hearts”, as well as co-penning its flip “If It Takes A Fool” with David Briggs. Gist and Greene would then combine to write several songs together including 1965’s “Pretty White Dress” and “Rich In Sorrow” while in the same year Chet Atkins produced Gist and Carroll Quillen on their lone country-pop-duo 45 on RCA 8568, on which, as Bruce & Carroll, they featured their self-penned “When I Leave Love” c/w “Her And Him”. At Quinvy in 1966, Gist and Greene came up with “Love Me Like You Mean It” for Percy Sledge’s Destroyed - QUINVY 6704“When A Man Loves A Woman “ LP and then “Heart Of A Child” for Percy’s follow-up “Warm & Tender Soul” set.  Next, in 1967, Gist and Quillen co-penned the Wee Juns’ “I Spy” (see last Part) and, pairing up again with Marlin Greene, Gist co-wrote The Dimensions’ “Only Yesterday” (on Quinvy Custom QC 101, see shortly). Gist became quite a part of the Muscle Shoals songwriting scene and after running an industrial supply business for many years, issued a CD in 2004 on which he sang some of his own mainly pop and rock songs which he’d penned for others. Gist died, aged 71, on 13 April 2010 and, at his funeral in Killen two days later, the pallbearers included Carroll Quillen and Spooner Oldham.

Another 1967 Quinvy release (and here the year is borne out by on-line copyright information) was ListenDestroyed by Bobby Heathcote, a Penn and Oldham song, no less, but still in the pop rather than the soul vein. This appeared on Quinvy 6704 (again the use of ‘67’ apparently denoting the year of issue) and was coupled with “Sadness Is A Puppy In The Rain”, a Marlin Greene, Quin Ivy and William Jenkins pop-tearjerker, the original demo of which Tony Rounce confirms was cut at Fame by Jeanie Greene. Interestingly, both sides of Heathcote’s 45 were produced by Roger Hawkins and Jimmy Johnson with the name ‘FAME’ in capital letters beneath the production reference on the label, so it is even possible that this 45 She's my girl - QUINVY 101was also cut at Fame but issued on Quinvy.

If Heathcote’s 6704 single was part of yet another Quinvy ‘series’ of 1967 releases we have no knowledge as yet of any 6701, 02 or 03 forty-fives pre-dating it. However, thanks again to Peter Hoogers, we do indeed know of three more Quinvy releases on the Quinvy Custom label which used a QC pre-fix. We’ve already mentioned The Dimensions’ Quinvy Custom QC-101 release “Only Yesterday”, although this appears to have been merely the flip-side to “She’s My Girl”, both items being organ-driven group-pop. Quinvy Custom QC-102 featured yet more organ-propelled pop music from The Knight Riders, both “Give In” and “Watch Out” being produced by J. C. Taylor, so possibly these may have been ‘bought-in’ items.

Quinvy Custom QC-103 is a gospel release of “Judgement Day” by The Rev. M.L. Gabriel (flip side unknown at present – it might have been a two-parter). Little is known about the Rev. Gabriel except that he was certainly active in Alabama in 1967 as on 28th May that year he provided the Invocation and Scripture at a Lakeside Baccalaureate Service for the Decatur Alabama High Give in - QUINVY 102School ‘Class Of ‘67’.

One final point before we move on to the more widely-known activity at Quinvy during the second part of 1967. We have mentioned Carroll Quillen above as a country-pop writer and sometime singer but one should not confuse him with the W.C. Quillen (Wilbert Carrell Quillen) who would cut religious material at Quinvy in 1971 (see later Part). In addition to his 1965 RCA country-pop duet with Bruce Gist (see above), Carroll Quillen also had a 1966 solo 45 on Pacemaker 751 produced for him by Penn and Oldham, featuring the self-written “She Wasn’t Born Yesterday” coupled with Dan and Spooner’s “From Where I Stand”.  He went on to co-write “It’s A Long Walk Down” with Eddie Hinton and then to co-pen “Milk And Honey” with Grady Smith for the Hinton-produced group Bleus (recorded on Amy 11038 in 1968) before Cher included Quillen and Smith’s “Please Don’t Tell Me” on her ‘3614 Jackson Highway’ LP (the first album ever to be cut at Muscle Shoals Sound in 1969). As we have already noted, Carroll Quillen was still alive in April 2010 when he was a pallbearer at his friend, Bruce Gist’s funeral.
 
Anyway, in July 1967, Percy Sledge was still selling plenty of singles, with ListenLove Me Tender just entering the R&B chart having already spent three weeks on the Pop chart, and it’s flip “What Am I Living For” was now entering the Pop chart in its own right. There were also plenty of Sledge tracks ‘in the can’ including all of those which made up “The Percy Sledge Way” album (Atlantic 8146 – see Part 3) which was now due for early release and although Percy’s next LP, “Take Time To Know Her” (Atlantic 8180) was not yet even in Ivy’s mind and wouldn’t see release until late April 1968, as it happens only the title track and three others remained to be recorded, the other eight tracks having already been ‘laid down’. Sledge himself was still busy touring, as demonstrated by this photo of Percy with several other soul luminaries taken in July ’67 backstage at the Royal Peacock in Atlanta.Group at Royal Peacock, Atlanta

The South Camp 7000 series, distributed nationally by Atco, was now well under way with probably nos. 7001, 7003, 7004 and 7005 already released. In addition Bill Brandon’s two sides for 7006 and June Edwards’ tracks for 7008 were already ‘in the can’ (see Part 3) and no doubt the Brandon 45 would soon hit the marketplace too. If there had been somewhat poor sales for these initial releases it was still probably too early for Ivy or Atlantic to become overly concerned.

Certainly Atlantic seemed happy for now. An article in Billboard of 17 June 1967 had described both Ivy and Marlin Greene as “important producers” and, by 6 July, Quin  was attending a top Atlantic executives three-day ‘jolly’ (disguised as a sales convention) at the Diplomat Hotel in Miami in the company of the Erteguns, Wexler, Atlantic LP supremo Len Sachs, Rick Hall, Buddy Killen, Jim Stewart, Al Bell, Ollie McLaughlin, Phil Walden and Atlantic’s southern ‘field man’ Joe Galkin. It was quite a  ‘bash’ with even top executives from Atlantic’s Canadian distributors flying in as well as two directors of Polydor, who distributed Atlantic in the UK. One of the intentions was to give a major push to album sales and Sledge’s just-releasing “The Percy Sledge Way” was one of several new LPs given special mention.

Doubtless there was some activity at Sheffield with ‘local talent’ through July and August but no sessions there were noted until the very end of that two-month period. It is possible that during this time, the dollars accrued (and still flowing in) chiefly from Percy Sledge’s success, caused Quin Ivy to consider building a new improved facility on vacant land at 1307 Broadway, well out from Sheffield’s town centre. No-one seems to know exactly when the new studio opened but everything points to 1968 and, if that were the case, the initial plans for its construction would have had to have been drawn up around this time (mainly apparently thanks to Marlin Greene) and duly implemented at some point in 1968. Yes, unlike several southern studio owners who sought to improve by re-locating, Ivy was not looking to re-vamp some existing building but to create a purpose-built 4-track studio from scratch.

Meanwhile, on the last two days of August, the existing studio played host for the first time to a soul-man who would not only cut his finest work at Quinvy but who would become Ivy’s most-recorded artist after Percy Sledge. You really can find out all you want to know about Tony Borders here and this rightly cites him as cutting some of the finest southern-soul to come out of Quinvy, especially one of the tracks recorded at this two day late-August session, namely the gorgeous country-soul of ListenYou’d Better Believe It which, coupled with the great, driving “What Kind Of Spell”, would make for an aesthetically very fine South Camp 7009 release, probably issued either towards the very end of the year along with June Edwards’ 7008 forty-five, or just into 1968. In 1969, after Atlantic had ‘given up’ on distribution of South Camp, Borders’ country-soul winner would also see release on Uni 55180 while his faster-paced item would form one side of a  Revue 11040 single.

David JohnsonNow, although Atlantic should have been ‘pushing’ these South Camp singles, their relatively poor sales was not for the want also of much local and regional promotion by a guy we should really have mentioned much earlier in this piece, David Johnson. Johnson had been and would remain a ‘fixture’ at Ivy’s studio from day one.

A blogger called Steve Sheffield (the latter name may simply refer to the city) recalls:
“when I was 13 or 14, David Johnson and I would sneak out of the house and ride our bikes over to WLAY and sit with Quin Ivy or Jerry Knight or Mitch Self. I remember when Dave Dudley came by and dropped off, "Six Days On The Road" to get some airplay.”

This would have been around the late-Spring of 1963 when Johnson himself (born 28 May 1950) would have been just turning 13. When he was 15, he became an assistant at Quin Ivy’s Tune Town Record store and after also assisting Ivy with his radio work at WLAY, became the station’s youngest-ever DJ at age 16. Once Ivy founded Norala, the young Johnson was always to be found picking up tips from everyone around the place and he would soon become an adept engineer. This would stand him in especially good stead from 1968 onwards at Ivy’s ‘new’ studio but, both before then and afterwards, Johnson was also asked to assist with promotion within a pretty extensive regional area which he and Ivy called “the seven south-eastern States”. Once Atlantic gave up on South Camp, it would be primarily Johnson who would go seeking interest in Ivy’s product from bigger, nationally distributed labels.

Tony BordersHowever, back at Tony Borders’ late-August ’67 session, Marvell Thomas had joined with Eddie Hinton, Junior Lowe, Roger Hawkins and David Hood plus horn-men Bowlegs Miller, James Mitchell and Aaron Varnell to help Borders lay down a total of six sides. In addition to the two already mentioned, the fine Willie Butler-penned country ballad “Love And A Friend” (turned into a country-soul tour-de-force by Borders) would be held over for 1968 release on Revue 11025. “Polly Wally Doodle” would be re-cut over a year later, that later version seeing release on Revue 11054, while both the rocky version of the old Jesse Stone song for Roy Hamilton “Don’t Let Go” and the swampy, funky ListenHeadman (credited to D. Johnson – David?) would have to wait for that 1989 UK Charly “More Power To Ya” album before seeing vinyl release.

Next into the Quinvy studio, on 23 September, was Don Varner, making his second visit of the year. The more regular line-up of Hood, Hawkins, Oldham and Jimmy Johnson plus Eddie Hinton were raring to go and Don didn’t disappoint. With Hinton and Ballenger producing, Don provided a real stormer with his self-penned “Tear Stained Face”, driven along by Roger Hawkins’ powerful drumming. This would see single release, coupled with the also very Don Varnerfine up-tempo Jerry Wexler and Bert Berns’ song “Mojo Mama”, on Ivy’s next Quinvy single, which was given a new type of issue number, namely 8002. This 45 emerged towards the end of ’67 but quite why it was restricted to Quinvy and not afforded national distribution on South Camp is unclear. Certainly it had plenty of potential, with Varner’s version of “Mojo Mama” rivalling even that of Wilson Pickett, who had cut it earlier that year, in February, ‘down the road’ at Fame.

Talking of Fame, Don also cut a strong version of Rick Hall, Oscar Franck and Dan Penn’s ListenYou Left The Water Running, which had been a hit for Barabara Lynn in the fall of ’66 on Tribe 8319, that version entering the R&B chart just one week after Wilson Pickett had recorded it at Fame for his “The Wicked Pickett” album, Pickett having utilised a 1966 Fame-cut demo of the song by Otis Redding which itself finally crept out via a Stone 209 bootleg 45 in 1976, seeing its first authorised release on Rhino/Atlantic’s “The Definitive Otis Redding” CD box set in 1993. However, as Billy Young had cut the song at Fame as early as April 1966 for release on Chess 1961, his is the earliest issued 45 of the song, a song which would soon be cut again at Fame in early 1968 by Chicago’s Maurice & Mac, while, in 1982, James Govan would cut it for David Johnson at 1307 Broadway’s by-then-named Broadway Sound studio.

Cover Me - AdNext by Don Varner at his 23 September ’67 session, he recorded Penn and Oldham’s nicely structured mid-tempo item “Power Of Love”. This track and “You Left…” remained ‘in the can’ until Charly’s 1989 LP “Rainbow Road” (CRB 1225). This later compilation was named after Bill Brandon’s superb version of Dan Penn and Donny Fritts’ semi-biographical song originally penned with Arthur Alexander in mind but, although Bill’s version wasn’t cut until March 1968 (see later), the first-ever version was cut by Don Varner at his 23 September ’67 session. Sadly, this version has never surfaced.

The very next day after Don’s session, Percy Sledge fitted in a visit to Quinvy despite his now crowded schedule. Another good-sized hit was required as his latest release “Just Out Of Reach” coupled with “Hard To Believe” (Atlantic 2434) was already dropping down the pop chart after only three weeks and would disappear altogether by the beginning of October. What’s more, it hadn’t managed to even crack the R&B charts at all, the first such failure in Sledge’s recording career thus far.

In the event just one song was cut at Percy’s 24 September session – but what a song it was! Eddie Hinton and Marlin Greene’s “Cover Me” was a truly beautiful, lay-back, slow-to-mid paced plea to his girl by Percy. Although some of the lyrics were romance personified (“hide me where no other love can find me”), still others were very physical and specific for a sixties track, e.g. “cover me, spread your precious love all over me” and  “stay with me, make it all the way with me”; but Percy’s superbly melodic interpretation in front of Spooner Oldham’s emotive, churchy organ and, ultimately, the not-too-up-front brass, all made for a ‘stone-classic’ piece of top-drawer country-soul. The 45 on Atlantic 2453 (with its flip of “Behind Every Great Man There’s A Woman”, recorded much earlier back on 12 December 1966) would enter the pop charts that November for an 8-week run, peaking at No.42 and the R&B charts the following month, where it would make No.39. “Cover Me” would also see inclusion in 1968’s “Take Time To Know Her” LP.

In their search for rare obscure gems, soul fans sometimes forget to make friends again with better-known songs by better-selling artists and “Cover Me” is surely a very fine, not-to-be-overlooked example of a great performance by a master of the country-soul sub-genre. Sledge’s superb Eddie Hintoninterpretation owed much, however, to a fine demo cut for him at Quinvy by co-writer Eddie Hinton and you can enjoy this track Listenhere (one of many fine Hinton performances, incidentally, on the Zane ZNCD 1016 Hinton compilation entitled “Dear Y’all”).

On 27 October Quinvy ‘went French’ for the second time in 1967 as, further to Eddy Mitchell’s visit in May, another Gallic ex-rock ‘n roller called Dick Rivers duly arrived to cut five songs, including a French version of “Out Of Left Field”. (French sources claim this was a two-day session on 27 and 28 October).

Rivers had been born Hervé Forneri in Villefranche-Sur-Mer, not far from Nice in the South of France on April 24th 1945. His fascination with American rock ‘n roll started after hearing Elvis’ "Heartbreak Hotel". By 1960, in Nice, Forneri, now calling himself Dick Rivers after Deke Rivers, Elvis’ character in the film "Loving You", formed a group named Les Chats Sauvages (The Wild Cats) together with his pals, guitarists Jean-Claude and Gérard Roboly and bassist Gérard Jacquemus. The following year, the group went north to Paris to try and make their name and, after various ups and downs, they eventually got a record deal with Pathé Marconi in 1961. However, by the following year, Rivers had gone solo, with some success, topping a bill at a Paris theatre while backed by the British band, The Krewcats. Rivers also fancied trying out early Beatles ‘covers’ and then had a late-1963 hit with a French version of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou”. The following year saw his first solo album and that November he shared a bill at Paris Olympia with The Beach Boys. In 1965 he successfully covered Bessie Banks/The Moody Blues’ “Go Now” and prior to turning up at Quinvy in October 1967 he had apparently been touring Canada where he had enjoyed a No.1 hit single and where he retained much popularity in the French speaking parts of that country.

Dick RiversFor Rivers’ session, Quin Ivy certainly pulled out all the musical ‘stops’ providing a team comprising Johnson, Hood, Hawkins, Oldham, Hinton and Greene with horn-men Ed Logan, Charles Chalmers, James Mitchell and Wayne Jackson. Two Jerry Ragovoy/Mort Shuman compositions were among the five songs recorded (all in French).  These were versions of Garnet Mimms’ “It’s Been Such A Long Way Home” (from 1966 on Veep 1232) and Howard Tate’s “Shoot ‘Em All Down” (the flip side of “Stop” on Verve 10573). However, it’s interesting to note that Tate’s version of this song wasn’t even recoded when Rivers hit Quinvy, that version being put to wax on 15 November 1967 (some 18 days later). However, co-writer Mort Shuman already had strong French connections having visited there in 1966 and fallen in love with both Paris and the works of Belgian-born poet and songwriter Jacques Brel (as a result Shuman would move to France and live there for 15 years). So it is just possible that he gave the song to Rivers to perform in French at much the same time as his co-writer Jerry Ragovoy was lining it up for Howard Tate. The other songs recorded were “J’en Ai Assez” (“I’m Tired” or “I’ve Had Enough”), “Cinq Heures Sonnent” (Five O’clock Struck”), and ListenJe Suis Triste (“I Am Sad” – which was Dick Rivers’ and Mya Symille’s completely re-written version of “Out Of Left Field”). With the original of this great song relying so heavily on metaphorical baseball lyrics to get across its romantic message, the French version, which tells a completely different story, really fails to even warrant comparison in my opinion. However, for your interest (and to see what you think) why not give it a listen?

Dick Rivers EPA French EP simply titled “Dick Rivers” appeared on Pathe EG 1057 before the year was out, containing 4 of the five Quinvy tracks (the missing one was “J’en Ai Assez”), while, by the Spring of 1968, Pathe would have put out a 12-track LP entitled “The Dick Rivers Story” on STX 1233 which contained all five, plus seven Rivers tracks cut in January/February 1968 in London.

Like his friend Eddy Mitchell, Rivers, despite a few ‘out of favour’ periods, has maintained his position as a significant name in French music circles, has continued to tour and appear on TV specials, has written two autobiographical works, has appeared in feature films and, more recently, also on the theatrical stage.

A few days after Dick Rivers had said a Gallic ‘adieu’ to North West Alabama, a very different kind of singer arrived to cut both sides of his South Camp 7002 single. Quite why this early issue-number was held over for Al Johnson’s two 3rd November tracks is something of a mystery and the date of recording doesn’t easily tie in with other claims that Johnson had known Ivy for some time and, as a friend of Bill Brandon’s on the Huntsville club-scene, had actually introduced Bill to Quin in the first place. As Brandon’s own first recordings for Ivy had been cut nearly 6 months earlier, how come this other clearly talented performer who had supposedly known Ivy for some time had to wait till November to show his own mettle? We shall probably never know – and, in truth, we know very little about this particular Al Johnson, who possessed a nicely expressive tenor (sometimes almost high-tenor) voice and who was not the same guy Bless your little sweet soul - SOUTH CAMP 7002as the New Orleans singer of that name who recorded for Ric, nor the same Al Johnson as the singer associated later with the Marina, Columbia and Akbar logos.

Anyway, Johnson’s self-penned ListenBless Your Little Sweet Soul proved to be an ultimately strongly-building deep winner with some great guitar work in evidence from that other Johnson, Jimmy. Also good was Al’s slightly more uptown reading of Greene and Hinton’s ballad “Love Waits For No Man”, on which his higher register work was almost reminiscent of Jackie Wilson at times.

No doubt Johnson’s South Camp 45 was issued pretty soon after the tracks had been laid down but Johnson would not record at Quinvy again. His only other known recording came in 1969 for Ernest Burt’s Burt label (no.4001), which was distributed by Nashboro and which coupled the punchy mid-paced “Sittin’ Around” with the fast dancer “Soul Time”. These tracks would later appear on the 1994 Japanese P-Vine double-CD “The Excello Soul Story” (PCD 2782/3).

Bringing the activity at Quinvy to a close for 1967, ’main man’ Percy Sledge cut four more tracks on 8 and 9 November with Marvell Thomas and Jimmy Evans augmenting Hinton, Hawkins, Hood and Greene. Three of the sides remained unissued at the time, namely “Set Me Free”, “What Would You Do” and “Peppermint Candy” but the main success was the cutting of Nashville country-writer Bobby Russell’s glorious ListenSudden Stop. For a writer whose other biggest hits Sudden Stopwere the  cloying “Honey” and “Little Green Apples”, this song with its genuinely meaningful lyrics so beautifully interpreted by Sledge is in a completely different league aesthetically. The shadings are so good too, Sledge beginning in very low-key, lay-back mode but more than able to go into contrastingly emotional overdrive both mid-track and towards the song’s conclusion. The track was used as a follow-up single to the song Sledge would next record at Quinvy at the very beginning of 1968, “Take Time To Know Her” (see next Part) and, when linked to “Between These Arms”, which had been recorded back in June 67, it would become a No.49 R&B hit and a No.63 Pop hit on Atlantic 2539 in August ’68 as well as becoming yet another track on the “Take Time To Know Her” LP.

Our next Part will move us into 1968 at Quinvy.

UPDATE ~ New information shows that my suggestion above that the country-pop singer-songwriter Caroll Quillen should not be confused with the W.C. Quillen who cut for Quinvy in 1971 is incorrect. In fact, that particular W.C. Quillen was indeed Carroll Quillen who, in addition to recording at Quinvy in 1971, also earlier cut the two sides of his Quinvy 7005 1970 release there (see later Parts). However we should not confuse this Carroll Quillen with the Rev. W.C. Quillen who was Wilbert Carrell (with an ‘e’ not an ‘o’) Quillen, a local Alabaman preacher who was born in Florence on 11 September 1913 but passed away after several heart attacks on 27 January 1981. I am not aware that he ever recorded any music and you will see from our correct information above that Carroll Quillen was still alive in April 2010. Incidentally, there is also no question that Carroll Quillen might have been the son of the preacher, as the late Reverend’s only three children were all girls.

FURTHER UPDATE ~

a) Regarding Don Varner’s 23rd September 1967 version of Penn & Oldham’s “Power Of Love”, this essentially pop-soul item was first demoed by Dan Penn at Fame as early as 1st April 1965 (see photo left of original Fame tape-box, courtesy of UK Ace’s fine sleeve-notes to their historically important “Dan Penn – The Fame Recordings” CD on Ace 1353, which, of course, features the Penn demo).

However, first to commercially record the song were Double Image, a white girl duo brought to Fame in April 1967 by Papa Don Schroeder, who had them cut the song before leasing it to his main contact at that time, Larry Utal, for release on the latter’s Amy label (#985). Dan Penn himself was also in the studio that day and apparently wrote the ‘B’s side “Say You Love Me” simply in between takes of the ‘A’ side.

Double Image were in fact Charlyne Kilpatrick and Shirley Paris, Charlyne having also been part of a trio called The Sandpipers along with her sister Debbie and their friend Sally Hunt. The girls hailed from Schroeder’s home base of Pensacola, Florida and, as the Sandpipers, had gigged both there and in New York with Gregg and Duane Allman whose group was then the Allman Joys. In the Big Apple they’d even auditioned for Columbia Records but were unsuccessful, cutting just one 1966 forty-five for Trude Heller, Gloria Toote and Ed Townsend’s “Tru-Glo-Town” label (# 502) and then in January 1967 another 45 for a label named after themselves “The Sandpipers”. However, it was probably Charlyne Kilpatrick’s connections with the Allmans rather than any knowledge of Don Varner’s September 1967 recording which brought Penn’s song “Power Of Love” sufficiently to Greg and Duane’s attention to cause them to make it the title-track of their new group Hour Glass’ second studio album for Liberty, issued on #7555 in March 1968. The track was also issued as a single on Liberty 56029.

b) Regarding Bobby Heathcote’s rare Quinvy 6704 forty-five, Tony Rounce advises that this Penn and Oldham song was demoed at Fame by Dan Penn on 10th January 1966 and an unissued recording of the song by the Memphis ‘garage band’ the Yo-Yo’s was also cut at Fame on 23rd October 1966. Both the demo and the Yo Yo’s version are much more uptempo than Bobby Heathcote’s later interpretation for Quinvy.

The Yo Yo’s 23rd October 1966 Fame session was the same one at which they cut Joe South’s “Leanin’ On You” and O.B. McClinton’s “I Can’t Forget You”, issued together by Quinton Claunch on Goldwax 303 (You can hear these two well-sung albeit pop songs on “The Complete Goldwax Singles, Volume 2 on UK Ace CDCH2 1236).

Two other unissued Yo-Yo’s sides were also cut that day, namely their versions of Tommy Tucker’s “Hi-Heel Sneakers” and Irma Thomas’ wonderful crie de coeur “Wish Someone Would Care”. Tony describes the Yo Yo’s versions of these two tracks as “surprisingly good”.

Acknowledgements: John Ridley; Peter Guralnick; Barney Hoskyns; Charles Fuqua; Gilles Petard; Colin Escott; Roben Jones; Peter Hoogers; Tony Rounce; David Cole/In The Basement; Clive Richardson/RPM-Shout; Gary Cape/Paul Mooney Grapevine-Soulscape;  Peter Thompson/Zane Records; Soulful Kinda Music; Vintage Soul fanzine; Billboard; Rick Clark/Lynyrd Skynyrd Boxset Booklet; the websites and blogs of many of the artists/personalities featured. 

Special thanks to

Peter Hoogers for his breathtakingly rare Quinvy 45s.

Peter Thompson for his kind permission to use the Eddie Hinton demo of "Cover Me" here. Peter's Zane label has issued several wonderful CD collections of Eddie's work - buy them.

Paul Mooney - for an image or two. All licensing enquiries for Quinvy / South Camp / Broadway Sound masters should be directed to Selrec Ltd and most of the songs are controlled by Millbrand Music Ltd in all territories outside the US and Canada.

Joseph Wilson for info on the writers of "You Left The Water Running".

 

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