How about artist who had minor hits before joining motown groups?...cindy birdsong[the blue-belles..i'm still waiting]..richard owens[the vibrations-the sloop dance]..ron tyson[the ethics-sad story]...your turn!
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How about artist who had minor hits before joining motown groups?...cindy birdsong[the blue-belles..i'm still waiting]..richard owens[the vibrations-the sloop dance]..ron tyson[the ethics-sad story]...your turn!
Gladys Knight & the Pips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq_pfEwp45E
Well, that and "Every Beat Of My Heart" was major, not minor, enough, under "hitted before Motown".
Billy Eckstine - "Passing Strangers" w Sarah Vaughan
Gloria Jones - "Tainted Love".
Jose Feliciano - "Light My Fire"
Sammy Davis, Jr.: "Hey There"
The Isley Brothers and "Shout" :)
How about David Ruffin who had minor hits with these singles before joining The Temptations.
https://img.discogs.com/Ce3zvSFc6_ak...-6660.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/2NdwrLX9cuUA...53654.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/Pqo6J_v6inQo...-7962.jpeg.jpg
Bonnie Pointer & The Pointer Sisters - "Yes We Can, Can"
Chuck Jackson - "Any Day Now"
Jerry Butler - "Hey Western Union Man"
Stacy Lattisaw, who started in Atlantic / Cotillion a girl, before Motown further blossomed her into a woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRWOJlf9_Rc
Tammi Terrell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8Y9NsKKlw
Johnny Gill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UwuchLWH_I
Bettye Lavette
Jean Carn[e]
Major Lance - The Monkey Time and Um,Um,Um
Gerald Alston, formely of and later returned to, the Manhattans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2BdTxMmuZI
Thelma Houston. Save the country
https://youtu.be/aKpyrf1q84g
This is an excellent pre-Motown song.
Attachment 16048Quote:
Originally Posted by mysterysinger
Tainted Love, by Gloria Jones sold NOTHING! It got NO radio play. I'd hardly call that a hit. She DID have a giant hit before recording for Motown. That was "Heartbeat".
Albert Finney had several successful movies, and Granny Ryan was big..just sayin'
Frankie Valli
Chuck Jackson
Joe Harnell
Bobby Darin
Tony Martin
Wilson Pickett
Quote:
Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance
Oh this is a great song!!!! Thanks WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance for posting it.
'Heartbeat' was also a flop, failed to chart anywhere so sold NOTHING.Quote:
Originally Posted by robb_k
Edwin Starr
Billy Preston
Ronnie Dove
Bruce Channel
Pretty Things
Dorsey Burnette
Hugh Masekela
Lesley Gore
OC Smith
Pat Boone
Robert John
Shirley Alston
Stephanie Mills
5th Dimension
I think that Billy & Ronnie were the only two artists to succeed after their move to Motown. All the others failed to achieve!
Attachment 16051Quote:
Originally Posted by copley
I was an adult at the time, and listened to radio in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area. "Heartbeat" was played on the radio in ALL those places. It got lots of airplay on WVON in Chicago, KDIA in Oakland, and KGFJ in L.A. I think I even remember it played on Pop WLS in Chicago, and a pop station in L.A. [[KRLA?). It certainly must have charted in Chicago and L.A. Gloria was on TV singing [[lip-sinking) that song. It got her a lot of work. There were hundreds of songs played on the radio without getting on a "rotation", played much less, and which didn't get their artist on TV, and didn't get them local appearances. How was "Heartbeat" NOT a "hit" ?
"Heartbeat" was released in the UK in 1966. That would have been unlikely to have happened without some US chart action.
Attachment 16052Quote:
Originally Posted by 144man
From Wikipedia:
Gloria Richetta Jones [[born October 19, 1945) is an American singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California.
Biography
Early life and career
Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of seven, where she first started singing. Jones' first taste of fame came at the age of 14, when, while still at school, she formed with Frankie Kahrl and Billy Preston the successful gospel group the COGIC Singers, with whom she recorded the album It's a Blessing. Although she remained with the group for some four years, she soon found herself drawn into the Los Angeles pop scene.
In 1964, Jones, in her late teens, was discovered by the songwriter Ed Cobb. Signing with Cobb's Greengrass Productions, she recorded her first hit record, "Heartbeat Pts 1 & 2," which Cobb wrote and produced. She toured the United States, performing on several American television programs, footage of which still exists.
I understand thatWikipedia can be changed by anyone. But I lived through that period, as an adult, I knew Gloria, personally, and heard "Heartbeat" on all those radio stations, saw Gloria on many different TV shows, singing that song, sawall the people buying that record - which ALL my friends bought, along with Motown releases and other Soul hits.Believe me- "Heartbeat" was a hit, and NO ONE bought "Tainted Love" [[except me!) - And I bought that record for the flip [[Plug) side, "My Bad Boy's Comin' Home" - which, incidentally, was also played on WVON and KGFJ [[but "Tainted Love" was not).
Please explain to me how Gloria got on all those TV shows singing "Heartbeat", and how she was able to appear in clubs and went out on the road, if "Heartbeat" wasn't a hit?
You have it right as regards "Tainted Love" as it was a b' side originally. It was a hit on the UK Northern scene but not until Gloria had already left Motown I think. So yes recorded before but a hit after Motown. Is there a thread for that lol?. As for "Heartbeat" I'm not familiar with it I think
That's what I'm saying.Quote:
Originally Posted by robb_k
'Heartbeat' failed on all likely national charts. Local breakouts and being a 'turntable hit' do not amount to anything. 'Tainted Love' was a huge 'turntable' hit in the UK but it never charted. Loads of US singles got a UK release without any chart action at home whatsoever! I never trust Wikipedia but the record books do not lie.
Attachment 16053I knew that. My "Explain to me statement" was for Copley.Quote:
Originally Posted by 144man
"Heartbeat" was an R&B/Soul HIT. Just about everyone I knew on The South Side of Chicago, and in South Chicago bought it, and just about everyone I knew in South L.A. did too. Soul records suffered greatly [[in their ability to "chart") during the mid 1960s, because the old R&B charts were dropped, and the new Soul charts didn't start up until near the end of the '60s. So, the only charts they could make were the Pop charts. So, even when sales were great in the African-American neighbourhoods - enough to get on TV a lot, and lots of club gigs, and to go on national tours, they had a hard time making The Top 40, and even the Top 100 on the national Pop Charts. But, not making The US national top 40 or 50, or even Top 60, didn't mean they didn't have a "hit". Gloria had a hit. She filled venues on The East Coast, and The Midwest, based on the popularity of "Heartbeat", there, regardless of the fact that record didn't make The Pop Chart Top 40, nationally. It sold plenty in Chicago, L.A., Oakland, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and Detroit. I bet it sold a fair amount on The East Coast, too. I'd like Ralph, and others who were around, listening to Soul music stations back then, to add their comments about how popular it was. I worked in a record shop in Chicago [[South Side), and at Dolphin's of Hollywood in South Central L.A. It sold like hotcakes there. We had to keep re-ordering it from the distributor. I wish we still would have Weldon, The Kount, and lots of others who were around during that time. They'd all say the same thing I'm saying. I hope Ralph, Stu, and others chime in here. Her record would have made Top 10 on the national R&B charts. But, on the Pop charts, she ran up against The Beatles, Beach Boys, Four Seasons, other British Invasion groups, Dusty Springfield, Lesley Gore, Girl groups with Brill Building songs, other Surf groups, Peter Paul & Mary, and other Folk singers, and the emergence of Motown at its peak, ALL at their peaks of popularity! No surprise she didn't make a big dent in the national Pop charts. But she sold a LOT of records. I personally saw hundreds of them bought [[just about everyone I knew), plus a lot in the record shops where I worked and hung out.Quote:
Originally Posted by copley
A LOT of records were sold in The African-American neighbourhoods, and their adjacent integrated neighbourhoods. Gloria Jones' record was one of the big ones. It also continued to sell well for 15 years after its release.
To me, and everybody I knew back then, it was a hit.