Why didn't the Satintones achieve any commercial success?

[Tamla Junkie]

The Satintones: they seem to be among the "red-headed step-children" of the early, some might say primordial, Motown era. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

That 1959-1962 period was an odd one at Motown, and in music in general. Doo-Wop was just starting to die, R&B was evolving into something very different, and the Motown sound, that distinct "brand" of R&B was starting to emerge.


I can't help but feel that if the Satintones had only recorded later, they may have achieved some lasting commerical success. Instead they recorded a handful of singles, some dismal, some phenomenal, a bunch of stellar material for a shelved LP, and then faded off into obscurity...

Any ideas as to why they weren't successful? The earliest Temptations material is fundamentally no better or worse than a lot of the Satintones material, yet they managed to crack the charts.

[honest man]

The Satintones: they seem to be among the "red-headed step-children" of the early, some might say primordial, Motown era. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

That 1959-1962 period was an odd one at Motown, and in music in general. Doo-Wop was just starting to die, R&B was evolving into something very different, and the Motown sound, that distinct "brand" of R&B was starting to emerge.


I can't help but feel that if the Satintones had only recorded later, they may have achieved some lasting commerical success. Instead they recorded a handful of singles, some dismal, some phenomenal, a bunch of stellar material for a shelved LP, and then faded off into obscurity...

Any ideas as to why they weren't successful? The earliest Temptations material is fundamentally no better or worse than a lot of the Satintones material, yet they managed to crack the charts.
DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS CD,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Cheers
1. MOTOR CITY
2. GOING TO THE HOP
3. MY BELOVED
4. SUGAR DADDY
5. TOMORROW AND ALWAYS
6. A LOVE THAT CAN NEVER BE
7. HUNGRY HENRY
8. YOU'D MAKE A FINE SON-IN-LAW
9. FOOT STOMPING TIME
10. ANGEL
11. I KNOW HOW IT FEELS
12. MY KIND OF LOVE
13. ZING WENT THE STRINGS OF MY HEART
14. FADED LETTER
15. YOU CAST A SPELL ON ME
16. YOUR SWEET LOVE
17. ANGEL
18. YOU'D MAKE A FINE SON-IN-LAW
19. MY BELOVED
20. TOMORROW AND ALWAYS
21. BOOGIE WOOGIE HEART
22. BECAUSE I LOVE YOU
23. THE FEELING IS SO FINE
24. YOU CAN'T BEAT MY LOVIN'
25. SOLID SENDER-Chico Leverett - Vocal Accompaniment By The Rayber Voices Of Detroit

[Motown Eddie]

The Satintones: they seem to be among the "red-headed step-children" of the early, some might say primordial, Motown era. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

That 1959-1962 period was an odd one at Motown, and in music in general. Doo-Wop was just starting to die, R&B was evolving into something very different, and the Motown sound, that distinct "brand" of R&B was starting to emerge.


I can't help but feel that if the Satintones had only recorded later, they may have achieved some lasting commerical success. Instead they recorded a handful of singles, some dismal, some phenomenal, a bunch of stellar material for a shelved LP, and then faded off into obscurity...

Any ideas as to why they weren't successful? The earliest Temptations material is fundamentally no better or worse than a lot of the Satintones material, yet they managed to crack the charts.

Some ideas on that; Motown was just beginning to find it's feet when The Satintones were recording so their songs may not have gotten the big push they needed for a national hit. Also, one of their best shots at a national hit was the answer record to The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Tomorrow And Always" and it was hit with a cease at desist order from The Shirelles label, Scepter Records. And when it comes to The Temptations, remember that most of their pre-1964 songs failed to become big hits [[only "Dream Come True" made the R&B charts in 1962).

[woodward]

http://acerecords.co.uk/sing-the-complete-tamla-and-motown-singles-plus

[woodward]

26. I'll Never Love Again - Chico Leverett - Vocal accompaniment by The Rayber Voices of Detroit.

[TomatoTom123]

The Satintones: they seem to be among the "red-headed step-children" of the early, some might say primordial, Motown era. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

That 1959-1962 period was an odd one at Motown, and in music in general. Doo-Wop was just starting to die, R&B was evolving into something very different, and the Motown sound, that distinct "brand" of R&B was starting to emerge.


I can't help but feel that if the Satintones had only recorded later, they may have achieved some lasting commerical success. Instead they recorded a handful of singles, some dismal, some phenomenal, a bunch of stellar material for a shelved LP, and then faded off into obscurity...

Any ideas as to why they weren't successful? The earliest Temptations material is fundamentally no better or worse than a lot of the Satintones material, yet they managed to crack the charts.

Hi Ben... yes, this is interesting. I completely agree with you that, had The Satintones stayed recording at Motown for just that little bit longer, they would have had a hit from the Motown hit-making machine! They were definitely talented and no worse than The Tempts or Contours at that point. Perhaps they just weren't meant to last it out?

I know that "Angel" and "My Beloved" are superb doo-woo cuts [[I am not a huge fan of doo-wop) but my favourite Satintones song is probably "Your Sweet Love", one of their later [[and recently released) recordings. To me, none of their songs are particularly Motown-ish, but that one is a hint of what might have been had they stayed with the company a bit longer!

[TomatoTom123]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVsPxtsOAIo&list=PLglHO1ThfNpb9tPgaUgFryNKSywBPCylT&index=4

This is Vernon Williams singing, who clearly had a great voice and great potential!! He later wrote a couple of songs for Motown.

[[Sorry if the video doesn't work)

[TomatoTom123]

And this is what would have happened if The Satintones had stayed at Motown and worked with the almighty Holland-Dozier-Holland...!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITQ2nXa7DVs&app=desktop1

[Tamla Junkie]

And this is what would have happened if The Satintones had stayed at Motown and worked with the almighty Holland-Dozier-Holland...!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITQ2nXa7DVs&app=desktop1

Ugh. Popular music would be in a much better place if Ian Levine had gone into any other field. I have some tepid respect for his Motor City Records project though.

The Satintones sound wonderful here though, when you ignore the mid-80s synth garbage.

[marv2]

The Satintones: they seem to be among the "red-headed step-children" of the early, some might say primordial, Motown era. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

That 1959-1962 period was an odd one at Motown, and in music in general. Doo-Wop was just starting to die, R&B was evolving into something very different, and the Motown sound, that distinct "brand" of R&B was starting to emerge.


I can't help but feel that if the Satintones had only recorded later, they may have achieved some lasting commerical success. Instead they recorded a handful of singles, some dismal, some phenomenal, a bunch of stellar material for a shelved LP, and then faded off into obscurity...

Any ideas as to why they weren't successful? The earliest Temptations material is fundamentally no better or worse than a lot of the Satintones material, yet they managed to crack the charts.

Well it wasn't for a lack of talent, because they could sing!
I think it had more to do with being so early with Motown. Motown was not established well enough to serve them.

[TomatoTom123]

Ugh. Popular music would be in a much better place if Ian Levine had gone into any other field.

OUCH!! Poor Ian! Lol


I have some tepid respect for his Motor City Records project though.

The Satintones sound wonderful here though, when you ignore the mid-80s synth garbage.

Yes, I have great respect for what he did with the Motorcity project. Not a big fan of the synths but I can look past them... some of the Motorcity songs are actually really good.

Although... that remake of "Shake Me" is actually quite low on synth use by Motorcity standards. :)

[BayouMotownMan]

Motown was just finding its way when the Satintones were there. When you have such a limited budget to promote, yet you are recording dozens of artists in factory-line method, it leads to a high quality of music but also a higher degree of failure with only a few artists surfacing at the top. They were clearly Mary Wells, The Miracles and The Marvelettes in this period.

I feel the group didn't have a distinctive sound and imitated a lot of the soul male groups of that period. They made better backing vocalists IMHO

[snakepit]

Wouldn't have helped their cause to have a group member......err..."friendly" with Berry's wife
just saying

[TomatoTom123]

Wow... forgive my ignorance, which one was that?

[Tamla Junkie]

Wouldn't have helped their cause to have a group member......err..."friendly" with Berry's wife
just saying
Alright, I've heard a lot of stories about the members of the Satintones, but this one is news to me. Care to elaborate more?

In this individual's defense, Berry wasn't exactly known for keeping his pants zipped.... and his numerous children prove the man couldn't pull out of a driveway, much less anything else...

[snakepit]

It's all in the autobiographies of Berry and Raynoma...

[robb_k]

12638

Had they just lasted to the end of 1962, or early 1963, they'd probably have been on their way. Just bad timing and bad luck. James Ellis was a great lead, and they were a talented enough group. But Robert Bateman and Sonny Sanders wanting to produce records was part of the reason. Their leaving Motown, and going to work for Wilbur Golden and his new, Correc-Tone Records sealed their doom. But, they might have not been available even if they had stayed with Motown, as Bateman and Sanders were already working in production, and the group had already stopped recording. They might have become a great team of Motown producers, rather than Bateman being an independent in New York, and Sanders joining Carl Davis in Chicago, and The Satintones still being defunct.

[snakepit]

Indeed very talented producers/arrangers.
For an example of their work, check out my radio show special on them
soulful shack no 121
Www.mixcloud.com/snakepit2648/

Online/anytime.....

[mysterysinger]

I can't get excited about any of The Satintones stuff at all. Generally I do like doo-wop though. Wouldn't have bought their singles back in the day but then again the UK didn't have that option.

[keith_hughes]

During the early days, Robert Bateman was really the only real recording engineer on the Motown team - and even he was self-taught! Mr Gordy didn't let the group perform far from Detroit, so he could always call Robert back in quickly if he needed him. So the Satintones were never well-known outside the local area.

I got the impression when interviewing Robert that when he and Sonny realised that the group was never going to get any real exposure because of his commitments in the studio, and they got the offer from Correc-Tone, they decided to take it. Back in the summer of 1961, there was no reason to suppose that with Motown's top engineer and arranger on board, the new label couldn't be more successful than Motown.