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

[woodward]

Just curious if anyone has any knowledge of why You're My Mellow is so rare and scarce. It is the only Edwin 45 I do not have in my collection. I just checked on eBay and there is only one copy for sale for ONLY $300. It is a promotional copy only and not in a top shelf condition.

Do any other members have this in their collection, maybe you can explain why it is so scarce.

Thanks.

[TomatoTom123]

I don't have the single Bill but I do have the expanded edition of Soul Master with "You're My Mellow" on it. Haven't listened to it in ages. What a fantastic track it is. I'd definitely want it in my collection if I were collecting!! Unfortunately I have no idea why it is so rare and expensive. That seems to happen sometimes with certain records.

[robb_k]

"You're My Mellow" was not as catchy a tune as Edwin's first 3 releases, and was released during a time when other Golden World/Ric Tic releases were doing well, and needed to be pushed. So, there was probably no national release. It probably got only the initial Detroit "test marketing release". And when it didn't sell well early, the company didn't bother to have it pressed in big numbers for national release. I never saw it in shops in Chicago, and didn't even see it in Detroit shops, or even in Detroit thrift stores. Nor did I see it in any of my Detroit Soul collector friends' collections. I didn't get my own copy until 1971, from my friend [[and original member here on SDF), Ron Murphy, who had recently acquired the remaining stock of Golden World's records. He had a few boxes of it [[in pristine condition). Before then, it was a virtually unknown record. Naturally, it became a Northern Soul favourite, which made it almost impossible to find in USA [[for Americans), as The Brit NS dealers brought them all to The UK.

[robb_k]

Here it is:

[144man]

I don't remember having any trouble getting it.

[robb_k]

I don't remember having any trouble getting it.

As I stated above, Ron Murphy got several boxes of it, when he bought Golden World/RicTic's left over stock. Much of that [[that was Northern Soul-oriented) was bought by Brits [[perhaps John Anderson?) in the mid-to-late 1970s. Did you buy it from Anderson, or another UK dealer between 1974 and 1978 or so? The guy who bought them from Murphy probably bought all the boxes [[probably at least 100. Maybe more?). So, the price was probably not all that high, and so many appeared at that time in The UK, that NS collectors didn't realize that it was fairly rare.

I'm sure that record didn't get any push outside Detroit. So, it was tough for Americans to find it, unless they lived in Detroit, and bought it during that test marketing run. It certainly was rare to us North Americans. I looked through literally millions of US Soul 45s between 1966 and 1984, and never saw it once [[other than those boxes Ron had). I used to Drive from Chicago to Detroit 2 Saturdays a month, for 3 months a year during 1966-70, just to look through record shops, record shop bargain bins, discount stores bargain records sales [[Woolworths, etc.), record distributors, used furniture stores which carried used records, thrift stores, junk stores and even record swap meets. I never found it even at Cappy's or anywhere in Detroit.

Enough beat-up copies have shown up, that I have to believe there was a local, test marketing press run in Detroit, maybe the run was 300, and maybe Ron got 100-200 of those, that didn't get to shops. But, probably a few hundred got into Detroit shops. So, some people bought it. But, I'm convinced it was a reasonably rare [["scarce") record, MUCH more difficult to find than most of the Golden World/RicTic/Wingate releases [[but not as rare as cancelled and pulled back issues, which are extremely rare).

I wish Carl Pelagrino were still posting here. I'd ask him if he has a copy. I don't remember any of my Detroit collector friends buying it new during the '60s. Maybe a few of them bought it from Ron, or on auction from a UK list, later, during the 1970s. Unfortunately, many of the Detroit-based Detroit Soul collectors who used to post on this forum are deceased [[like Ron, The Kount, and some others), and others, like Carl, and Stu Bass, and others, no longer post here. That's what I miss most about this form's Golden Era [[2001-2007). I'd like to find out what they remember about when this record was out [[if they saw it in shops).

[motownjohnny]

Woodward, I wonder if the lack of copies of this Edwin Starr 45 has anything to do with changes that were happening to Golden World and Ric-Tic around the time when this was released i.e. Mid '66.

It's possible that at that time Ed Wingate was already contemplating selling out maybe to Berry Gordy Jr. or perhaps someone else and Edwin Starr, one of Ed's most successful acts on the company roster, may have featured as a bargaining chip in those negotiations. One further release was scheduled by Ric-Tic for Edwin in Mid-'67, RT-126 [["Meet Me Halfway" / "Throw In The Towel"), but that was never materialized and I'm not aware that either side, if they were actually recorded by Edwin, has since been released. Interestingly a version of "Meet Me Halfway" was released in June '67 on Ric-Tic 125 by Willie "G" [[William Garrett) who was one of the song's co-writers.

Back on the subject of Edwin Starr obscure singles, perhaps the rarest of all of his is the "alternative" promo only release of S.O.S called "Scotts On Swingers [[S.O.S.)" with the cat. no. RT-109X. It was never made available commercially and only a few hundred of these white label copies exist. As with "Your My Mellow" copies, when they do come up for sale, sell for mega-big bucks.

[honest man]

EDWIN,CHUCK JACKSON,DENNIS EDWARDS Kings of Motown,love these guys,cheers,

[144man]

Robb,
you must be right as to the source. I can't remember where I bought it, but checking back, it was as late as 1977, and I bought Pat Lewis's "Look at What I Almost Missed", the Royal Jokers' "Love Games [[From A to Z)" and the Holidays' "I'll Love You Forever" at the same time.

[Quinn]

"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.

[WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance]

"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 ...

I hadn't thought about it until you brought it up, but you're right about there being as sort of melancholy chording to this. My attraction to it was its amazing rapid-fire drumming. Something I read somewhere has me thinking that the Who's drummer, Keith Moon influenced the drumming on Stevie Wonder's "Uptight" and it seems that song in turn initiated quite a few other tunes featuring that kind of take-no-prisoners drumming on a few other Detroit tunes. Whether or not that's true, "You're My Mellow" is one of my top favorites.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jf1ZFU6CoH0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/jf1ZFU6CoH0

[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.