Herman Willis - "Come On"

[mysterysinger]

How could it be that this track was mistaken for The Miracles "Mama Done Told Me" and released on the UK edition of "From The Beginning" [[TML11031) ? DFTMC states as much....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOizOtPG7gI

[keith_hughes]

[QUOTE=mysterysinger;615956]How could it be that this track was mistaken for The Miracles "Mama Done Told Me" and released on the UK edition of "From The Beginning" [[TML11031) ? DFTMC states as much....

This track [[and two others by Willis) are in the Motown Vaults; I found it by searching on YouTube. So it looks like the engineer just sent the wrong tape to the UK, and as no-one there had ever heard it, or the Miracles track, it didn't get flagged and was released. Doesn't mean it was a Motown recording, though, and even if it was, it doesn't mean Willis got a contract. I've never tried to clear it for release on a CD. But I thought I might as well set the record straight in DFTMC, for the curious.

Keith

[mysterysinger]

Thanks Keith. I find it fascinating - I'm sure it'll prompt folks to listen to their UK copy of "From The Beginning" again. Assuming fans had already spotted it wasn't The Miracles how would anyone know what it actually was back then? This is where you work your magic. Another Motown curiosity.

[robb_k]

18916
I'd bet the farm that that and Willis' other cuts found in The Vaults were just recordings that were made at Motown's recording studio when it was rented to outsiders. Mike McLean showed me several Blues, R&B, and even C&W 45s which he said were left at their recording studio by people who rented time there between 1959 and late 1963. The music publisher wasn't Jobete, and the pressing plant label wasn't like any early Motown design. No known Motown names were on it. I'd bet that was recorded in Motown's first studio in 1959 [[using Bristoe [[Bristol) Bryant's old equipment, before The Snakepit was built. Either that, or a production taken to RayBer Music, that Berry couldn't place with a major, so he and Willis' group's manager put out, the "B" standing for Berry, and the C for the project's financier [[similar to what RayBer Music did with Mike Power's, The Biscaynes', and Don MacKenzie's records).

[mysterysinger]

Such a wealth of information, thanks Robb.

[keith_hughes]

I'm sure your farm is safe, Robb! There are innumerable [[well, I'm not going to count them) tapes of stuff in the Vaults that are there simply because Motown owned the tapes on which they're stored, nothing more. They will never be cleared for release. Universal [[now) own the physical media on which they're stored, but they don't have the right to publish them.

[144man]

[QUOTE=mysterysinger;615956]How could it be that this track was mistaken for The Miracles "Mama Done Told Me" and released on the UK edition of "From The Beginning" [[TML11031) ? DFTMC states as much....

This track [[and two others by Willis) are in the Motown Vaults; I found it by searching on YouTube. So it looks like the engineer just sent the wrong tape to the UK, and as no-one there had ever heard it, or the Miracles track, it didn't get flagged and was released. Doesn't mean it was a Motown recording, though, and even if it was, it doesn't mean Willis got a contract. I've never tried to clear it for release on a CD. But I thought I might as well set the record straight in DFTMC, for the curious.

Keith

I'm glad we got these wrong tapes though like the alternative lyrics to the Velvelettes' "These Things Will Keep Me Loving You" or the long version of Mary Wells' "Oh Little Boy".

[robb_k]

18917
That C & B record was re-issued in 1961 as by The Five Blacks:
18918

[144man]

Thanks Keith. I find it fascinating - I'm sure it'll prompt folks to listen to their UK copy of "From The Beginning" again. Assuming fans had already spotted it wasn't The Miracles how would anyone know what it actually was back then? This is where you work your magic. Another Motown curiosity.

I remember Dave Godin commenting about it in print at the time, but without identifying it.

[mysterysinger]

Dave is sadly missed.

[paul_nixon]

I remember Dave Godin commenting about it in print at the time, but without identifying it.

The actual real reason for the mistake is very simple and was not in truth the complete fault of EMI in the UK although their final checks of the masters must have been lacking some.

The true fact is that when the UK called for the master of the Mama Done Told Me from the US - somebody back then pulled the master tapes and run down the tape from the wrong song on the tape which was the next track on from the correct song.

The actual song at that position on the tape was Come On the first of two Herman Willis tracks stored at the end of that tape, which is marked unknown on the tape box.
So it was a simple case of a non checked run down mistake in the US and a final check mistake by the UK before or at release date.

[mysterysinger]

Thanks Paul.

I kinda wonder if the compiler at EMI would know the difference between the tracks. I also wonder how they decided which tracks to leave off the UK version.