You're My Mellow - Edwin Starr - Ric Tic 45 RPM #120

[robb_k]

"You're My Mellow" is a pretty good song. It's always been one of the examples of that classic Detroit sound which to me has always carried a sad,but soulful feel. The melancholy chording that made Detroit records so infectious years ago seems to have left the air somehow. I also didn't know the late great Joe Hunter wrote the charts for the song. It does sound like a more commercial Pied Piper record in sound though.

Moreover, I''ve been curious as to who owns the master tape to this tune. When Goldmine included it on their first volume of "Groovesville Review" credits state Don Davis licensed it to them. Made sense at the time as Ed Wingate returned some of his masters to him before the sale of Golden World. I do think it was remastered from vinyl even though there's no proof. Then Big Break Records reissues " Soul Master" with loads of extras and "YMM" is included with a license from Universal. It caused confusion as Goldmine didn't need Polygram to issue it and BBR didn't need Don and Will Davis to issue it. Ownership of the master has always made me curious in addition to liking the song.

I was also always curious about it being "A Solid Hitbound Production". Maybe it was a co-production of Solid Hitbound [[Don Davis and LeBaron Taylor) and Ric Tic [[Ed Wingate and JoAnne Bratton), with the post-initial release rights and master tapes reverting to Don Davis [[e.g. Davis had brought the project to Wingate for co-production, pressing, release and distribution).

The individual production credits don't seem to indicate that Don Davis and LeBaron Taylor produced the session. Al Kent and Richard Morris worked for Golden World/RicTic, and so did Joe Hunter, and J.J. Barnes, before he signed with Solid Hitbound [[Hunter having worked with both). The timing of the record session indicates it was done just before Wingate's first "sell out" to Motown occurred [[or was completed). But the new label style on Ric Tic indicates that the pressing and release occurred after. That means that Barnes' contract was with Motown when that record was issued. Therefore, maybe part of Wingate's agreement with Gordy was that Wingate would only be allowed to release that record on Ric Tic locally, in The Detroit Metro Area, and not nationally? That could explain why there was no national distribution, and the reason for the low pressing count.

This was a minor defeat for Wingate, as it was just a small detail in his sellout of a portion of his sale of his studio and a few artist contracts, and his Golden World/RicTic previous releases masters to Gordy. But Wingate was moderately happy with the large amount of cash he received. But, All this hurt Don Davis' chance to make money with this particular production. However, Davis did avenge that loss, when he signed J.J. Barnes away from Motown, one year later.