A Facebook entry of the record label Disclosure Records drew our attention to an early release – a Blaxploitation soundtrack to a film called Fox Force 5, which may have been made sometime towards the end of the 70s.

On the website of Disclosure Records you will find a newspaper article about this soundtrack and and the movie.

Unfortunately, neither the author of the article nor the magazine it appeared in is known, which would have allowed us to further investigate this film / soundtrack.

 

We therefore contacted the head of Disclosure Records to find out more about this release.

James Hart (CEO of disclosurerecords.com) answered in great detail and recommended talking to Steve Sechi. He was the songwriter (with Janice Dempsey) and arranger of the soundtrack album, and also played several instruments on the album.

We contacted and Steve and met him in his studio in Connecticut.

Steve laughed as we told him about our attempt to get information on this release.

He says “There are people involved in this project and they do not want to talk about it, but will I try to answer your questions as far as I can”

Our first question concerned the musicians on the album, who were called Funk Soul Brothers. Parts of this group have been playing together since the 1970s, said Steve.

“We’ve all known each other for a long time. For instance, I’ve been working in bands with the Conga player, Jary Mall, since I was 18 years old. ”

“As far as my music is concerned, I mainly specialize in 60s / 70s funk, soul and jazz. I have a special connection to the 70s because that was when I started to make music professionally as a saxophone player, and later as a writer.

At the time, I also started looking for obscure albums,  for ideas, because I just found the music very organic, and alive.

Much of what you hear on the radio today was made using computers, and doesn’t have real musicians.

To me, the 70s were musically more interesting. There were so many different types of music, from Motown and Stax to groundbreaking bands with very original sounds.

“One moment you heard Blood, Sweat and Tears, whose style was absolutely new. Then you’d hear an album by Jimi Hendrix, who when I first heard him, I almost fell off the chair. I didn’t know a guitar could sound like that!

Then there was Santana, a band that combined rock and Latin percussion. The music was far more varied than today, as the record labels were different. At the time, you did not know what kind of music you would hear next: Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book album, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, and so many more.

Even the singers were more versatile at that time, today many singers sound the same and have the same style.

Today’s productions are too perfect and pristine for my tastes.

On the older records, you could often hear little mistakes and that’s kind of cool too. Sometimes the musicians or singers were a little out of tune, or they played a little out of time.

There is this James Brown song, I think it was “Superbad”. James “flubs the lyrics in one verse” and simply repeated the verse and left the mistake in. There was no autotune or anything like that back then.

They went more for the “feel” of a song, and didn’t worry so much about the small details.

Blaxploitation movies from the 70s were also a big influence. Though the films themselves weren’t all that good, the music from these movies was great.

I did a lot of research on those soundtracks, and have hundreds of CD’s of music from that era, but unfortunately no vinyl editions.

Fox Force 5 is the only vinyl record I own. ”

When asked how he got involved in the soundtrack to Force Fox 5, there was a long pause.

“I heard about a movie, an unreleased movie with the working title Brother Man. It made me think I would like to do an album like that, so I teamed up with a composer who’d written a lot for various production music libraries. He took me on board, and together we worked on this soundtrack album.

I was given a script, which I also showed to my good friend, the drummer / producer, Joel Rosenblatt. We talked about it, and started recording the project.

I’ve never seen the movie myself, and I don’t know if it really exists.

I believe that the film was never produced. It was the end of the 70s and the era of blaxploitation films was over. Probably the producers simply ran out of money.

Some time later, an animated series called Fox Force 5 was also planned. I don’t know if that project will ever happen, but I hope so.

It’s crazy that Europe has even taken notice of this album.

We would like to perform there. But to play the full soundtrack as it is on the album, we’d probably need a minimum of 16 musicians.

4 singers, 5-6 brass instruments plus bass, drums, 2 guitars, 1-2 keyboards and congas. That would be really expensive!

We may perform the album in New York, where there is an organization that sponsors music projects. But getting everybody together for rehearsals wouldn’t be easy, because the musicians we’d want use are always so busy.

But maybe we will do it. And maybe someday an indie producer will make a B-Movie version of Fox Force 5. That would be nice – and if it happens, we have a soundtrack all ready to go!”

 

There is another video clip next to the trailer called “When the Revolution Comes. The song fits in very well with our time, with the current political situation in the USA. I saw what happened politically here in the 60s and 70s, and experiencing it now again makes me very sad. ”

Steve exclusively provided SoulDisco with a copy of the Fox Force 5 script, which he said was probably not a finished version. We provide this to our readers. Furthermore, he also had material intended for the planned animation series, which we do not want to withhold from you.

If you want to order the album, you can order it at https://www.disclosurerecords.com/product-page/the-funk-soul-brothers-fox-force-5. The album is also available streaming services.

Some time ago, a trailer was introduced to the show, American Soul. In this show, the life of Don Cornelius is portrayed. An important part of this trailer was also the first SoulTrain (national) show from 1971. In the original show appeared next to Gladys Knight & the Pips / Eddie Kendricks / The Honey Cone,Bobby Hutton. However, he did not appear in soul train 40th Anniversary (2011) nor on the TV show American Soul. SoulDisco talked to Bobby in New York why he had no involvement in these events and what happened after his recordings for his only album “Piece of the Action” from 1973.
Bobby Hutton discovered his love of music at the age of 5, his first great love was Christmas songs.
He tried to sound just like the many artists who sang the songs he loved so much. This love of music accompanied him through school.
After 1.5 years he left college, “the music took over”, he began to sing in small clubs.
His role models were Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Jesse Belvin, Little Willie John. He was often compared to Johnny Mathis “but I was never influenced by him,” Nate King Cole is also not missing on his list. The artist who had the greatest influence on him was Jackie Wilson. Mario Lanza could also be found on his turntable.
“I tried to listen to artists who were in the same vocal range as me, but I did not try to copy them, but to develop my style from their style. We were very poor people, so I had no access to instruments, so I tried to use and perfect my voice as an instrument. ”
When asked if he saw his great idol Jackie Wilson live, Bobby says,
“Yes, I did, I was hired by Billy Davis, who spent his time at Chess Records to replace Bobby McClure, who worked with Fontella Bass. Bobby McClur and Fontella had artistic differences. My first job with her was at the Apollo Theater in New York. My name is Herold Hutton, but Billy made me Bobby Hutton. And since then it has stayed with Bobby Hutton. On the single “Lucky Boy” it is still Herald, but then the name does not appear anymore. Jackie Wilson was the headliner of the show. Fontella was the second act, I was very upset when you’re not good they are throwing tomatoes or other stuff at you, I’ve never sung a duet before. To my relief, the show was a success, we sang “Don’t you mess up a good thing” and “Do not jump out of the skill into the fire”, backstage I met my great idol Jackie Wilson. ”

Fontella Bass is known for her monster classic “Rescue Me” and Bobby’s biggest wish would have been to sing that song with her back then. But the Record Company had plans with her, and other plans with Bobby. She got the better song, Bobby says, she got “Rescue Me” and he got “Lucky Boy”.

“My suggestion was to make” Rescue Me “a duet, but this suggestion was unheard. I was very young and was not very experienced in business. You have to imagine, many of us just came from high school or college and were max. 20 years old. It was “learning on the job” that’s what I would call it. ”

But back to the roots, how did Bobby even got into the music business?

He won a talent contest “20 Grand” in Detroit. And William Mickey Stevenson invited him to Motown, where he met Berry Gordy and made friends with everyone there. The Supremes, like him, were there to record almost every day. One of the first he met there was Marv Johnson, and rumors were circulating that Motown was not happy with him and that Bobby should take his place.
“I met Raynoma (Berry Gordy’s first wife) and we started writing songs together, she invited me one night into her apartment were she lived in with Berry Gordy.
She wanted us to play the song we wrote to Berry, I do not remember the title of the songs, “it must be love” or anything like that, but I never recorded the song itself. ”

Looking back, Bobby says that the whole situation was funny to him, he says he suspects that Raynoma and Berry had a problem at the time.
Nevertheless, he left the apartment with a good feeling. He was ready to finally pick up material when he went home to his apartment in Detroit that evening.
Barrett Strong and Bobby were friends, and he took him home to Margaret Norton’s (then Berry Gordy’s lover) home and that encounter was to change his entire career.

“Margaret had a piano and we were playing something and were flirting ” nothing serious “I did not have a clue that Margaret was in a relationship with Berry.
A DJ Convention some time later should change everything. We were all in Berry’s office and suddenly Margaret is in the doorway with Berry. She turns to me and says “Tell Berry you said you love me,” and believe me I never said that to her.
I swear this on a stack of Bibles that it was not like that, I may have flirted with her but I have not seen her either before or after.
I was so embarrassed that I just left. At that time, I shared an apartment with Robert Bateman, who was the recording engineers at Motown.
And he told me one night that Berry was not good at talking to me. I did not have a strong connection to Berry, nor was I able to stand my man and go to Berry to tell him that it was not the way Margaret said.
I just went to build something new in Chicago again. In retrospect, I think everything was a game I fell by the wayside. Raynoma knew about the relationship between Berry and Margaret and wanted to make Berry jealous.
Today I would like to talk to Berry and tell him that it should not walked out of the situation and that I should have acted differently then.
But I was young and naive.
My start at Motown should have warned me. If you went into the building back then, there was a walk to the first office, there was a picture of Berry, it fell off the wall the moment I passed the picture and hurt my arm. Raynoma and Micky had to take me to the hospital so I could be sewn. I just think that it was already an omen then.
The contract with Motown would be very important to me today because Motown wanted all the rights to me, singing, songwriting and management. I’m not sure that this was legal. In my opinion, you cannot have so many parts of an artist. I see it as an experience how not to do things.
These contracts did not bring much money to the artists, but to those who were “in charge”.
Most of these contracts were designed to tie an artist to the label for many years. Since Motown could not take care of everyone due to the large number of artists, many fell by the wayside.

It also means that they could not record for many years with anyone else, as the contract clearly forbid.
I was suggested by Melvin Franklin to become part of the Temptations, at that time the idea was very strange to me. That’s why I turned it off.
After Motown, I tried to my luck with the group “The Capitols” and get a contract with them on the James Brown label Kind Records. ”
When asked how he wanted to work for another label while working for Motown, Bobby says.
“It should not be. “But I would not let anybody stop me,” says Bobby.
“I never got a written release note from Motown”. The tragic thing is, you’re young, you want your music to be heard and move forward.
As you sign these contracts in the belief that everything is in your best interest.
And it happened to so many artists, you need an agent and you have to be careful that it’s fair and honest.
Then there is an agency that wants to have money.
You take in $ 100, your manager charges 15% and the agents charge 30% and then you have to pay the band that works for you.
There is not much left for yourself.

You do not even think about that when signing a contract because you have no idea about the business.
After my time with Fontella, I worked in the local clubs in Chicago, where nobody knew who I was. I worked very hard to feed my family. I sang 6 nights a week except Sundays and learned all kinds of songs. I did that for years until I got a new contract with Philips Records. There I recorded some Northern Soul classics, including “Come See What’s Left of Me” and “You’re My Whole Reason.”
With the last song he was one of the artists who were in the first national broadcast of Soul Train.

 

“After 50 years, you look back on your life and see” the good the bad and the ugly “you have to accept it as it is and also if you wish that many things might have gone differently.

I have a song on YouTube 20 Years later, which will have over a million views in the next few days. And you know, what really bothers me is the fact that this song is never played on the radio, even though it’s so popular.
Today, people come to your music so fast, they hear you and do not even have to pay for it in the case of YouTube. Had the song been released 20 years ago, with the appropriate promotion, it could have become a 2 million seller.
Therefore, the situation today is “bitter sweet” for me.

The song “You’re My Whole Reason”, which I sang on SoulTrain, was recorded in my twenties, and in 2017 I recorded a new version and I can still sing that song in the same key as the original. If you invited me to a talk show, etc., I could sing the song the same way I did in 1971.
I think my appearance on SoulTrain has helped make the show a 7-year contract with CBS.

How did it happen that he was on the show?

It all started in Chicago, I already had some hits here “That’s how heartaches are (1968)”, I never had a real connection to this song, I just did not like the sound, “Come see what left of me (1969) “,” More today than yesterday “, they were all in the top 5. 1970 then followed by a bigger hit” I cannot stand a woman to timing a man, “which was then played throughout Chicago.
You know, SoulTrain has been here in Chicago since 1970. It was a 5-day show, with Jerry Butler, The Emotions and The Shirley’s on the first shows. Since they were on tour a lot, Don needed someone to take the spots in his show. And the only one who came into question at this time from Chicago was me. So, you have to imagine that of the 5 shows in the week, I was at least in 3. Of course, this increased my notoriety in Chicago. I was the “Hottest Act in Chicago” at the time. Unfortunately, there are no more tapes from the time of the local shows. The studio for the local broadcasts was very small “20 by 20”. The program ran 52 weeks a year, 5 days a week. At the time, Donny Hathaway was writing a song for me, as it was clear that I would join the pilot in the first nationwide broadcast on SoulTrain alongside Gladys Knight & the Pips / Eddie Kendricks / The Honey Cone. The song was called “Your my whole reason”.
Live was not sung, all I had to do was lip-sync to the recorded songs.
When we arrived in California, director Mark Warren came to Don and alluding to me, he becomes a big star.
I think Don felt a bit offended at that moment. That did not get any better as Mark stopped by at our hotel “to hang out with me”. I did not do anything behind Don’s back or anything. Basically, I was a victim of the circumstances. I did not want to anything away from Don, I was just so proud to be there.

 

 

 

After the broadcast, the Chicago Defender (October 30, 1971) wrote “Bobby Hutton featured on SoulTrain.” Not a word from Don or Gladys Knight. I did not know anything about the article or anything, but you can imagine that the relationship between Don and I was at its lowest. I never went back to SoulTrain after that and my best-known records came out after that. If I had been on SoulTrain with it, my career would have been different.
This was the second time that interpersonal disagreements have led to me not being able to get started. ”
The recordings after SoulTrain include his only studio album, Piece of Action so far. E. Rodney Jones, was at that time, secretly managing him and brought him to ABC. “He always said that when the right song comes, I would be a superstar, bigger than Johnny Mathis. Unfortunately, E. Rodney had a dark side, dealing with drugs and all these things. And I was very worried about my career. He gave me a release from my contract and at the same time he made sure that my records at the radio station were not played anymore. And that was it then.

“Can`t get enough” and “Until I see you again”, these were the only songs that I influenced on when recording my album. These songs were written by Larry Wade and Terry Callier. Charles Stepney took care of the music of Earth Wind & Fire, and wanted me as an artist. I absolutely wanted him as my arranger for my album, but since ABC did not really know him, they took Dee Ervin.
And these two songs were Charles Basic arrangements that I was able to enforce. And when you hear these songs, you can see in which direction Charles wanted to take me, it was pop and R & B. These two songs were actually written for the Dells. Today I do not have to say anything about Earth Wind and Fire, Charles has made then one of the most famous groups.
It is a pity that at the time that ABC did not trust me about Charles.
I knew Charles because I recorded Coca-Cola advertisements with him, and I earned a lot of money with it for a while. ”

After the first album there was no follow up, why not?

“There were many reasons for that, one of the main reasons was my break with Rodney Jones and then I was on my own. Without a manager, you have trouble getting a new contract and I had a family to feed. And so, the years went by until the UK rediscovered me.

I did have follow up Single by 1974 “loving you, needing you, loving you, wanting you” and “watch where you’re going” as the b side on ABC, but after Rodney stopped all the promotion it went nowhere for me.

I have to say that these songs are great and back then it was a shame that were not promoted/played the way they should have.

https://youtu.be/VYmPGuIMGs0

In Europe, you appreciate good music and there I was rediscovered in the 80’s. Since then I play on soul weekenders. The UK has saved my career. Without the distribution of my music in the Northern Soul scene, we would not speak today. ”

Bobby performs regularly in front of a large audience in Europe and his songs are not only popular in the Northern Soul scene.

Why he was excluded from the 40th Anniversary celebration and the TV series remains a mystery that we will not solve here, because Bobby cannot explain it to himself. But it also remains a bitter taste to exclude an artist of the first hour, who was also able to contribute quite a bit to the local show before the National Soultrain Show was even considered.
Bobby loves his fans and thanks for the long time of loyalty.
Would he do things differently today? Yes, for sure. But at the end of the day he has a conciliatory view of his career, which is characterized by many ups and downs.

Get in touch with Bobby:

https://www.facebook.com/bobby.hutton.125

 

From First Choice to Super Sweet
The Interview

Once a member of Philly-soul group First Choice. In 1979 she recorded a self-titled album with producers John H. Fitch, Jr. and Reuben Cross, who co-wrote Evelyn King’s “Shame”, on Midsong International Records. The album included “Super Sweet,” which went to number 20 on the R&B charts and “Captain Boogie,” which went to number 33 on the R&B charts in early ’79.

Music by Wardell

 

For more Information: https://www.discogs.com/artist/122141-Wardell-Piper

Danny Pearson (January 6, 1953 – August 17, 2018) received attention at the end of the 70s with his only album “Barry White Presents Mr. Danny Pearson”.

SoulDisco conducted a telephone interview with the then 63 year old in 2016. Unfortunately, a final article could never be completed due to Danny’s severe illness. It was very important for us that the story of Danny would be told anyway, by himself in his own words. The recording you hear was made on the occasion of the telephone interview, and was never originally intended for publication. Therefore, the audio quality is not optimal. We are grateful, his family for approving this interview to be released.

The lead single from his only album, “What’s Your Sign Girl?”, peaked at #16 on the U.S. R&B charts and at #106 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hits. At the time of his death, he was in the process of recording a new album. As far as we now these recordings are not supposed to be released any time, soon.

Music by Danny Pearson

and a long awaited comeback

Ivery Bell in his own words

Little is known about the band Moment of Truth, their only album from 1977 enjoys great popularity among soul and disco connoisseurs on both sides of the Atlantic. The group, which unfortunately was to record only one album, consisted of Norris Harris, Ivery “Caprice” Bell, Michael Garrison and Billy Jones. The producer Reid Whitelaw writes in the liner notes “Moment of Truth is an album about the desire for love”. From the introductory song “Chained to Your Love” to the last song of the B-side “So Much for Love”this statement proofs to be true.The label Salsoul Records is better known for their “disco-heavy” releases, but Moment of Truth is more of an “uptempo soul concept” album. Since there is so little information about this group, we located and interviewed one of the lead singers of the group Ivery “Caprice” Bell in New York.

Ivery is not surprised that Moment of Truth are in Europe and even in Japan floor fillers in underground Discos. “I know that the releases of ‘Lovin’ You Is Killin’ Me’,’You got me hummin ‘and a few others have often been played, and what we have always regretted is the fact that we never had a chance to perform in Europe.”   Ivery started singing at the age of 8, his first appearance was at no other location than the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The famous talent competitions that have produced the Jackson 5, among others, are legendary. Among a large number of first-class singers, he won the first place. “That was the wake up call for my family that I had great talent.

“At some point I put together my own group, so to speak my own Jackson 5 version. We then performed at parties and talent competitions.” Devoted to his music career, Ivery quit his job and set off each day for New York City to search for jobs that required singers.”I knew I had talent, but I was not sure if I should do it professionally, but I definitely wanted to try it.”The Village Voice newspaper has always been there to help him find vocal jobs. He discovered a display of the Studio Sound System 6, which was looking for singers. Ivery went to the audition with a friend and was selected for the group that was to be named ACE SPECTRUM. The group later had a hit with “Do not Let Me Be Lonely”. Reid Whitelaw, the auditor in charge, however, alerted Ivery to another group, Moment of Truth. “Moment of Truth was the baby of Reid Whitelaw, he had musicians recording in the studio, but no real group performing. Therefore, he was very interested in finding singers. At this time, Ivery and Norris, who were already working on the Moment of Truth tracks, met.”

“We held auditions ourselves at that time to find more members for the group, we chose Michael Garrison. We invited Billy Jones to get an impression of the group in the hope that he will also become part of the group. He was the ideal cast because we were looking for a singer with a “heavy and rough voice”. Billy, I knew from other groups where we sang together. In this formation, we then sang in front of Reid who took us immediately under contract “. Reid took the group to Ken Cayre, one of the founders of Salsoul Records, and we sang the track “Helplessly” in his apartment. That was the official birth of Moment of Truth, as Ken immediately signed us up for Salsoul Records. This time was terribly exciting for the then 19-year-old Ivery, everything seemed to be possible. “I’ll never forget the moment when I first heard myself sing on tape in the studio. Of course you are still nervous at the beginning, but after the second take, i felt comfortable. The duet between Billy and me “You’re All I Want To Be” will always be remembered as another highlight. To this day I just love this song “.      

 

 

 

He is still in contact with Billy and is thinking about re-recording the song as many people still request this song to him. Ivery does not know why the cover pictures where changed in the European versions of the album as opposed to the US version. He thinks it’s very funny. There are many versions of their songs on the internet, and every time Ivery is surprised how creatively people deal with their music and what new remixes emerge.

When asked if there are still unreleased songs from that time, Ivery says, yes. He remembers the song “Spreading Myself Too Thin”, which he wrote himself. It was a ballad not an uptempo song and was written in 1983. “We’re thinking about finally releasing this song, it would be a good idea to do it as we’re back as part of a very successful disco reunion show. 

Therefore, one can say Moment of Truth are back. I reunited the group for a reunion show, which took place last October at Resorts Casino NY. In addition to Tavaris (which also regularly occur in Holland), France Jolie (Come to me) and many other Well-known artists from the disco area.” We are already talking to some agents in order to continue to make a comeback.

Incidentally, we also learns that Moment of Truth also played in a then-popular Blaxploitation movie, on the soundtrack you will find greats like Gloria Gaynor and Vicki Sue Robinson. NOCTURNA is the name of the vampire movie from 1979. They also contributed two songs to the soundtrack, “Love At First Sight” and “I’m Hopelessly In Love With You”. The in-disco STARSHIP DISCOVERY 1 in Manhattan served as a location for many scenes from the film. (https://sites.google.com/site/cultoddities/home/nocturna/filming-locations) But shortly after the shooting differences within the group and the management stared. “We just wanted to have more influence on our music, also in terms of writing songs. We simply could not agree with the management, so we retreated and everyone moved in a different direction. ” When asked why there was no way for a follow-up album of the first album, Ivery laughs and says “politics” As far as Ivery is aware, producers Joe Cayre, Ken Cayre and Stan Cayre wanted to be involved in the group through a “personal ownership interest”. The inventor of Moment of Truth, Reid Whitelaw was of course not enthusiastic about this proposal. This led to a break from which the group should not recover. We were already in the preparations for a second album, as the label did not want to invest in the group due to these clashes. The debut album also sold very well in Europe and Ivery regrets that they never had the opportunity to perform in Europe.

“One of the big problems we had was that we were approached at concerts by many managers and producers who would have loved to work with us, but unfortunately, because of our contract, our hands were tied”. And it was not just concerts in discos, at the height of their short career, Moment of Truth played at Madison Square Garden.   At the premiere party of the film Saturday Night Fever, whose influence is still present today and characterizes the image of the Disco Area, they performed that evening in the Disco Odyssey 2001 in Brooklyn, which were also the filming location of the film. There they were, next to Sister Sledge one of the “Main Acts”.            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon after, Billy and Michael left the group, and then a new member arrived. Michael later came back to the group, but the moment of the group was just gone. After “Moment of Truth”, Ivery has been very focused on Gospel and released a lot of Gospel material along with O’Jays producer Dennis Williams. He also produced “Spreading myself to thin” in the early ’80s.

One day, Darryl Payne called him to alert him to the group Blue Magic. The group was looking for a new lead singer and they felt that his voice fit best with their material. He accepted the job and was for several years the lead singer of the group Blue Magic. “You must know there are several groups of Blue Magic. In between, I joined the Delfonics to sing again in another Blue Magic group. I did that for about 10 years. ” Since October of this year he is again very successful with his gospel material on tour and he has at least 40 appearances with a Motown revival group a year. Incidentally, he still finds the time to bring Moment of Truth back together. Ivery is a friend of Reid Whitelaw, who helps him to rebuild his plan of Moment of Truth. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to rebuild the original line up. Michael Garrison died a few years ago. Norris Harries is also no longer available, as he has a hotel in the Caribbean. They do not earn money on the album, and Moment of Truth also meets the fate of so many artists who signed contracts that were not in the main interest of the artist. Especially in view of the fact that the album was released in many countries and several times on CD, this fact hurts a lot. “First and foremost, we made money from the concerts. For the Movie we were paid for the shooting days, but we were not involved in either the soundtrack revenue or the box office earnings. Today it would not happen to me anymore, but at the age of 19 you were just very young and very naive.”  For Ivery it is very important that the fans know that Moment of Truth is back and only looking for a promoter, so that they can finally appear in Europe. He thanks the fans for their support over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SoulDisco can exclusively present some snippets of the never released songs from 1983.  

 

Bonus:

The Gwen Owens Story

Before and after HOT 

After some attempts to get in contact with Gwen, we finally got in touch and she was more than surprised that Hot and some songs are still very popular in the soul / disco scene. Especially in the UK, Hot is a perennial favorite. Asked when the fans can expect a release of HOT’s three albums on CD, Gwen says, “The material is at Atlantic and it’s up to them whether the albums are released on CD or not.” Unfortunately, all outtakes and tapes from this session are no longer available. Producer Terry Woodfort eventually decided to destroy them, as the storage of the tapes in the respective rooms was simply too costly. That means, the only remaining master tapes are in the archives of Atlantic, so at least one hopes. Gwen started singing in high school. “There was a sponsorship program in which I sang. Someone who sponsored this program was also recording in a recording studio and asked me what I did after school. I told him nothing and he just said, very well, then you can come to the studio after school. “The first recording was” Mystery of Love “followed by” Mystery Man “(1964). After that there was “Just Say You Wanted (And Needed)” and “I lost a good thing”. All songs are still very popular in the Nothern Soul scene. At the beginning of her career she only sang songs by male singers, like Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding, because she did not want to be compared to other female singers. “Just to avoid anyone telling you, oh your sound is like that of singer X or Y. As female role models, I had Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Etta James, and Gladys Knight. I covered a lot of James Brown, my favorite song was cold sweat.   My cousin and sister were my backup dancers in my performances. We had this one gig in a club and I wore high heels and danced like crazy. Suddenly I slipped and during the next beat I was back up again. Of course, people thought it was part of my performance, why would a woman dance like this with high heels in a very long dress on a slippery floor? It was unbelievably fun for those who knew it was not part of my show. ” The single “Rain” / “Lies”, which is in many lists stated as a single led by Gwen Owens, was not sung by her. “Weldon Mcdougall who has released the song must have made a mistake,” says Gwen. “It’s definitely not my voice, unfortunately now the whole world thinks the single is mine, which it definitely is not. There are so many songs I have recorded over the years and many songs that I can not remember … But I can clearly say that it’s not my voice. I do not know who the woman is and if she is still alive, but I certainly do not want any credit for songs I did not record. ” In 1968 she recorded the singles “Make him mine” and “One more day”. Followed by more singles she recorded until she moved to California in 1971. “That’s where I recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios, where I  also met producers Clayton Ivery and Terry Woodford, who also produced my song” you better watch out “. Clayton tried to sign me with a label when he suddenly got a call from Motown. He asked to build Motown South together with Terry. And when he signed up with Motown, he suggested me as an artist and I was in it. I insisted, however, that my contract only lasted over 6 months. Motown had a habit of contracting artists for 7 years and then doing nothing with them. And you can not record for anyone else, since you have a long-term contract with Motown.  

We did not search for material, but had recorded other songs besides “you better watch out”. The were completely finished and would only have to be published. The problem with Motown, however, was that they had so many artists with so much material that they did not even manage to release my stuff. So, after 6 months I asked to be released from my contract. At that time, Ivery and Terry were still under contract with Motown South. The Motown South Project did not really do anything. When their contracts extradited to Motown, they called me and asked if I did not want to come back and I said to myself, why not. At that time, they brought my songs to Casablanca and Casablanca signed me. Finally Casablanca released “You better watch out”.  When asked what happened to the rest of the songs, Gwen laughs. “I have no idea, you know, I’ve recorded so many songs over the course of my career, eventually you lose track.” Producer Terry Woodford still remembers a title “Cross My Heart” which was also recorded by Gwen but never released.. After the release of “you better watch out” it got quiet, concerned Gwen`s solo recordings. “I worked as a background singer for Ann-Margret, Jose Feliciano, the O’Jays, Lou Rawls, Nancy Sinatra and Raquel Welch, among others. Ivery came back to me in the mid 70’s, so I did the backing vocals on the Wolfman Jack tour with Cathy Carson and Irene Cathaway.

Shortly thereafter, Terry and Ivery called me for a new recording session and I told them right away that there would not be any solo recordings, but that I would bring along two singers. They only said you will never be part of a group. I wanted to prove the opposite, and I did. Therefore they wanted us three in the studio. Just then, Irene decided to go on tour with another singer. That meant Cathy and I were alone in the studio. That proved no challenge for either Ivery or Terry, as they initially only wanted to record with me. So we recorded 4 songs and with these 4 songs we got a contract with Big Tree, which was a sub label of Atlantic. ” As the first single, the label decides not for an up-tempo song, but for “Angle in Arms”. Unfortunately, the demo for “Angel in your Arms” does not exist anymore. As Terry Woodford has a special memory of this demo. “The 16-track Tape of the Country Demo had a crack right in the middle of it. All we had from the demo was the title and a line of lyrics. So what we did was to add a new piano track, guitars and bass section to the song, including rewritten lyrics. Only the drums remained from the original. Gwen asked her producers if they were really sure that “Angel” should be the first single, followed by a unanimous “yes”. Gwen says today that she never expected the song to be such a big hit. “After the song was released, the label wanted to have a finished album as soon as possible. At the same time, we were hoping to find a third member for the group. We had no idea what cultural background the singer should have. Irene was Mexican, but we did not necessarily look for a Mexican again. We were sitting at our manager’s office when we all accidentally looked out the window and watched a woman walking across the street. I also do not remember what she was wearing, but her look was just amazing. Ed our manager just said if she is coming for the audition and sing can sing,  she gets the job, she just looked amazing. You know how the story ends, after we were complete as a trio, we went back to Muscle Shoals to finish the album. Juanita Curiel, who joined as the third member, can not be heard on the original version of “Angel in your Arms” but on the Spanish version of the song. As she was not yet a member of the group when the first version was recorded. I do not remember who had the idea, we learned that Juanita does not speak Spanish because we were hoping she could translate the song. That’s why there were suddenly about 9 translators in the studio who translated the song for us. ” When asked how Terry came to all the translators in Alabama in the 1970s, he said, “We have announced what we are looking for and many people came to the studio. It was exciting for them to be in a recording studio. At the time, HOT had a big hit and was HOT in the truest sense of the word. I still remember that the line “While you’re out of paintin ‘the town” made the most translation problems. Because this is a proverb. We paid everyone who helped $ 50. People did not do it for the money, but because they had a blast. After all the recordings for the first album were completed, we then made the Spanish version. After the release of the album, we went on tour and did some TV shows. We had to record the albums so fast, we did not really have time to enjoy it. Before we knew it, we were back in the studio to record the second album. ” When asked how we can imagine the time in the studio, says Gwen, “You know, there were a lot of songwriters there and everyone was trying to get their songs on our album. We listened to the demos and I talked to Terry and Clayton. It did not matter which songs I chose, because they were all good. I’ve played them and tried to figure out which songs I can feel good with. Then the musicians recorded the backing tracks, we had no influence on the arrangements. The things we could control were the lead and background vocals. We have all made background vocal arrangements for all our albums. At first I just went to the studio and recorded the background without consulting the producers. I thought I would go beyond the limits if I just do it without talking to them first. So there was a difference of opinion and the next day I waited until I should sing. The result was that I just heard, what are you waiting for? Sing the background! From then on, everyone understood that we knew what we were doing. ” As a woman in the 70s it was not easy in the music business. Not only that everyone thought the group would be like many groups and compiled solely for commercial reasons. “No, it was a coincidence how we came together and we were one of the first multicultural groups. And yes, we had to fight for our rights, especially Juanita had a hard time getting her songs on the albums. A few of her songs made it on our albums, but trust me, it was a tough fight to even consider our songs. ” Gwen also has two songs on the first album, including “Why don`t you believe in your man” and “If you don’t love her” (The story behind this song, can be found in Part 1) That’s how we got respect, we showed them that we’re not stupid women who had no idea in which key we had to sing, etc. We were very good educated musically and we knew how to write songs. ” Why was there no follow up after three strong albums? Gwen says, “I do not know if I should tell you this story, but it was so long ago, why not. A singer at Columbia recorded the same song as a singer at our mother label Atlantic. And something happened back then that there was a legal dispute between Columbia and Atlantic and their respective singers. The singer who recorded at Atlantic, it was her first record, we were very sorry, because it would have been a hit. The song was also a hit for the male singer at Columbia. During this dispute, however, everything that stood at promotion etc was stopped by Atlantic. This in turn led to a dispute with our producer and the Executive of Atlantic. The end of the story was that we were released from our contract. Therefore, there was no follow up after the three albums. So, whenever you hear that an artist has quit a contract for some unknown reason, the artist is mostly innocent of that fact, it’s the managers, the record bosses, etc., who decide on your career, not the artist himself. This lawsuit also buried the singer’s career at the same time.” Why did she record solo material in 1979? “Our manager told our producers to record these songs. They did not tell the others girls and I should come to the studio and record my vocals to the songs. I suspect that they wanted to alienate me from the group to make me a solo artist. There was no reason for that. There was never a bad word in the group, or any other problems. Anyway, I recorded the songs, but I did not even know they were released until the day I saw them as a single some years ago. ” When asked what she remembers from the 1980 movie, Gwen says, “I know that the script for the movie was done before we even talked about it. At first, the movie was only about two singers, then they expanded the script to 3 singers when we came into movie. ” Why is there so less video recordings of HOT, Gwen wonders. She remembers being in many TV shows. The next thing you hear from HOT dates back to 1982 and for a long time it was not clear if this was really a HOT single, or if only, as shown on the label, Juanita alone was involved in the recording. This is the single “Tonight” / “The Nights Are Not Enough”. Gwen confirms that this is a Hot single as both she, Cathy and Juanita have recorded this song including the B-side. (There are more demo songs from these sessions, which we have already covered extensively in Part 1 of the Hot Story) Unfortunately, they were also unlucky with the new label Boardwalk. Shortly after signing the new contract, Hot and Neil Bogart’s wife ( Neil Bogart was the owner of Broadwalk ) sat in the briefing room to learn that Neil Bogart had died, but his wife was thrilled with the group. Plans were made, but the New York office stopped everything here, too. They had to figure out, how it should go on without the deceased boss. Because all the contracts with the bank and the lenders were with Neil and not his wife’s. “The next thing we knew was that Broadwalk was closing and we were back without a label, where we could hardly wait to record a new album. Cathy left the group and Juanita and I continued to record songs like “Home Again” by Phyllis Brown and “Woman to Woman”. (The song Woman to Woman is available on the album Hot Uncovered via cdbaby). With these and other songs, we then tried to get a new record deal. We replaced Cathy with Cathy Ornelas.

Shortly thereafter, Juanita moved back to Las Vegas and we put Hot on ice. In 1984, I was back at Muscle Shoals Studio to record new solo songs with Terry. I remember that we recorded 4 songs, I still remember three song titles. It was Hungry for Attention, Be my Baby and Straight for the Heart. Terry tried to get a contract for me with this material. But I never heard of the songs again, I would love to hear them again. But at the time, I did so much backing vocals for so many people that I was not really “pushy” in my solo career. ” Is there hope for a reunion? Gwen says, “I talked to Juanita about it, I’ve been to Europe several times and have performed there with my son and daughter. They are also both singers. They would like to perform together again and gladly in front of a German audience. ” What is her favorite song of all the songs she recorded? “I sang so many songs, I can not tell you. You just gave me two tracks (“Tonight” / “The Nights Are Not Enough”) that I totally forgot about. I can tell you which song I did not like at all and that was Mama’s girl. But meanwhile I have to say, I like the song as well.     Finally, I would like to say how grateful we are for our fans. They transport the music of many groups from the 60s and 70s into a new age. And if there is a chance to get to Europe, we would be very happy. ”   As a highlight we can play snippets of the songs “Hungry for Attention”, “Be My Baby” and “Straight for the Heart”. These tracks been lost for more than 30 years and can only be heard here for the first time. Many thanks to Terry Woodford, who was always on hand for questions and information. I would recommend everyone to visit his site: http://www.heartbeatlullabies.com About the recording studio:

Wishbone Recording Studio

Revealed after 35 Years

The Hot Story begins

  HOT is an American vocal trio that gained success through their mega hit “Angel in your Arms” in 1977. Producer Terry blames the success of the song for the fact that in the late ’70s there were few songs that women could identify with.

At that time, the trio was something out of the ordinary, the group was multicultural. On the one hand there was the African-American lead singer Gwen Owens, the Spaniard Juanita Curiel (later a very successful songwriter) and Kansas native Cathy Carson. All three albums the group released between 1977 and 1980 are still characterized by a very good production and great arrangements. Especially the first album from the year 1977 does not have to hide behind the hit single “Angel in your Arms”.

                        But back to the beginning. The surviving members of the group, Gwen and Juanita, were happy to be available for interviews. Furthermore, we were able to locate their producer Terry Woodford. What surprises we were about to see were quit shacking. Because as the title promises, we were able to bring undiscovered treasures to light.  

Juanita lives in Las Vegas, where she practices as hypnosis therapist. Her beginnings as a singer started long before HOT. In the interview, Juanita tells me that the timing for the interview could not have been better. HOT and Cathy’s former band member Ray Stein are recording a new version of “Angel in your Arms” and Gwen and her will be recording the backing vocals. Juanita still writes songs, in August or September she goes to the studio to record them. “I always had two loves in my life, one was music, the other was mental health. During my time with HOT, I trained as a hypnosis therapist. I practice this profession with greatenthusiasm. ” She is always surprised that many young people are interested in the music of the 70s. “I sang in high school in a choir when I graduated, my then best friend had an uncle who lived in Las Vegas and asked me if I would like to go there with her over the summer. We would look for jobs and have a good time. My mom said that’s okay, since I’m old enough so we drove to Vegas. The Vegas of the 60s is not comparable to today’s Vegas. Downtown was very popular and auditions were held for dancers. In the 60s you could drive through downtown, today you can only walk. At that time everything was designed for the “Young Generation”. The twist was THE song. I participated in an audition for dancers and got the job. We had four appearances every night. A short time later I heard from an audition for Wayne Newton, he had two backing vocalists, one got out and now he was looking for a replacement. I got the job. At that time he was a big star in Las Vegas.     At the same time, I also started writing songs in collaboration with the band’s guitarist. The bands in Las Vegas at that time were almost huge orchestras. We always had two shows a day, a dinner show and a midnight show. Wayne was friends with Elvis and a member of my background group was Melanie Westmoreland, her sister is Kathy Westmoreland, who sang backing vocals for Elvis. This allowed us to see his shows and go to his parties, that must have been in the mid-70s. It was a great experience to work with Wayne, the time itself was great with all the stars performing in Vegas. One song I recorded with Gene the guitarist was Christmas in the USA, which Wayne recorded for one of his Christmas albums. That spurred me on and I wanted to do more, but I also knew that this was limited in Vegas. So I left Wayne and went to LA to get a foothold there as a songwriter. In LA, I participated in two auditions, one for Steve Wonder and the other for my group HOT, which was then called Sugar and Spice. People told me you need at least 5 years to make a name for you in LA. It took me two weeks. I did not get the job as background singer for Stevie Wonder. But the second audition took place in a law firm on Ventura Blvd California.  So I came to this office and the lawyer was also the manager of the Sugar and Spice group and the existing members were Gwen Owens, Cathy Carson and a girl named Irene (Cathaway). I told them what I’ve done so far, then I sang and left.  A few days later, I got the call from Ed Sherman, who was her manager, and he told me I had the job. ”  Gwen says what Juanita did not know. “We could see out of the building onto the street, and Ed told us when he saw Juanita crossing the street, if she can sing she has the job.”  Juanita continues: “They liked the fact that I fit in with their concept of putting together a multicultural band. At that time, the races were clearly separated, there was the easy listing, which was very white. If you had a black singer, you were mostly sorted in the direction of soul. Producer Terry Woodford said, let’s try playing on more radio stations, we want to target a bigger audience. In the beginning, before this concept stood, Terry Woodford produced Gwen Owens. They wanted to open borders. So, they had Cathy and Latina Irene (Cathaway), whom I never met. There had already been recordings in Muscle Shoals Alabama. Irene has never made it to this first session, there were problems, she did not want to go on tour. Therefore, they sought replacement, which they found in me. After the “ok”, I had to decide quickly whether I wanted to be with a group, or continue to visit auditions for my songwriting. And before I knew it, I stood at Muscle Shoes recording our first album. The song “Angel in your Arms” was already recorded only with the vocals of Gwen and Cathy. Gwen always sang the lead vocals, that was never my intention, I wanted to sing the backing vocals and maybe put a few of my own songs on the album. When asked if it was hard for women in the 1970s in the music business, Juanita said: “The record companies were led by men, the producers were men. The singers should look good and sing well, but we surprised our producers. Gwen is a well-trained singer, and my great experience as a singer-songwriter meant that I was more than just a pretty woman who could be sold well on a cover. And yes, there were also fights about putting our self-written songs on the albums. I think the concept was initially meant to place Gwen in the different audiences with Cathy and me in the background. But the better we got to know the producers and they saw that we could do more than just sing songs from a sheet, they started to write songs with us and they made it on the albums too. One of the songs we wrote and which was on the first album was “If you don’t love her”.  Juanita still remembers the moment the song was written.  “While we recorded at Muscle Shoes, we stayed in a hotel. Terry and Clayton were in the studio and edited / prepared the songs. So, we talked about someone and Gwen just said “Gee, if he don’t love her why the hell he doesn’t just leave this woman” and I looked at her and said Gwen we have a song. We immediately started writing. Our producers had many talented songwriters around Nashville, like Tommy, who wrote “Angel in your Arms” among others. When he saw what we had, he got his guitar and said, let’s make a song out of it. In my opinion that’s one of the reasons why the song ended up on the album because he was one of the producers. They did not see us as a singer / songwriter group because they had their own songwriters. ”      

The song “If you don’t love her” was also released in 1978 by Lorraine Johnson on her album “The more you want”. One of Juanita’s favorite songs from all three albums is “Taking my love for granted”. When asked how the name HOT came about, Juanita says, “The producers were no longer satisfied with the name Sugar and Spice and so we sat together and thought about what name could fit to us. It should have three letters and we wanted something hip at the time. There were already groups like Hot Chocolate and at the end of the meeting we said, why do not we call each other HOT and one of the guys said, great, you’re also three hot chicks. “😊

How was it in the studio at the time, how can we imagine a recording session, Juanita says, “We came together in the studio, the producers picked songs for us, and we discussed the material. Our influence in terms of selection and arrangements was very limited. If a selection pleased we got the demos on cassette along with the lyrics. We then took this to the hotel and learned the text. Gwen learned the lyrics and the melody, while Cathy and I took care of the backing vocal arrangements. The next day we got in the studio and Gwen recorded the lead vocal. That was a so-called Rough Vocal, Gwen who is a great singer and could “nail a song” on the first take, wanted to change something in the phrasing or arrangements because she was a perfectionist, Terry our producer did not want it. There were one or two healthy and professional discussions about the way the songs should sound. But all groups go through these phases. After the lead vocal was recorded, Cathy and I went into the booth and recorded our backing vocals. If they were not satisfied with our armaments, we went out and talked about it, as I said, there were constructive discussions and over time, our influence on the recording process grew.  They trusted us that we knew what we were doing.  When the master was finished, we went over to the next song. There was a lot of creative energy. And Gwen, I talked to her yesterday, said to me, you know, I’ve been in many projects after Hot, and even though we did not last long, we had a lot and very good output. And I never had that feeling and energy with another group again.  After recording the album, we all had a meeting to decide which songs were suitable for a single release.  And what can I say, “Angle in your arms” was not exactly our favorite. When we heard the song for the first time as a demo it was very country. But Gwen saw something in this song.  Our producers were also the co-authors of the song and they put their own money into the promotion of the song. There was a radio station in Florida, they were playing our song and slowly something was developing.  Big Tree, our label back then was a sub label of Atlantic, they had so many artists and projects that they eventually decided to close Big Tree. Which meant for us that we were without a label in the early 80s.  They did not put much into the promotion of our second and third albums and I think we were just a victim of the record industry back then.  Even the movie “Running Hot” aka “Smokie and the Judge(1980)” did not change this fact.  

They have also been popular with jazz greats such as Stanley Clarke, and are also featured on his 1979 release of “I Wanna Play For You.” When asked why there was no further release after  “Tonight / The nights are not enough (1982)” on the follow-up label “The Boardwalk Entertainment Co,” Juanita says, “You know, for me it became too political at some point, I wanted to focus more on songwriting. In addition, “The Boardwalk Entertainment Co” also belonged to another record label. These then eventually closed “The Boardwalk Entertainment Co”, so it was the same as at Big Tree. ” And then it was very difficult to keep the group together. There are songs that did not make it onto the album at that time, unfortunately HOT never had the opportunity to record them in a studio. There are also demos made for an album which should be released on “The Boardwalk Entertainment Co.” and Juanita now makes them available to fans after 35 years. So, you’re the first to hear these songs except the people who were there at the time. Who wants to get in touch with Juanita can do that via Facebook or her CDbaby page.    

A song from these demos was very much liked by us. “Could you love me” was written by Juanita and her roommate Karen and sung in Juanita’s living room.

Link to Hot Uncovered with all songs and some more from the preview: