Here is a nice one by the Velvelettes that I have not heard before:
Here is a nice one by the Velvelettes that I have not heard before:
That was the B side of These Things Will Keep Me Loving You. Could have been a two-sided hit with stronger promotion. These girls definitely deserved more push from Motown at the time.
I played this B-side a lot more than I played the A-side, although both were wonderful, quite different, songs.
I suspect a lot of what held the Velvs back might have been due to the personnel shake-up, with all the members except Cal jumping ship and her having to rebuild the group from the ground up [[similarly to what Mary had to do with The Supremes some years later). I’ve never known the exact reasons for Bert, Norma and Milly hanging it up [[beyond the official “wanting to start families”), but it might also have been a matter of most of their songs after the first two not charting, and/or a perceived lack of promotion from the label. It certainly wasn’t for lack of talent. Throughout their tenure at Hitsville they remained relegated to fourth place among the female groups, never given an album, which of course would have been disheartening.
I believe this 45 was their first [[only?) on the more prestigious Soul label after being moved from VIP, which would have indicated, perhaps, that the company saw some potential in the new lineup, but I guess that didn’t work out, either. More’s the pity. The group ended up looking more like a pool for replacement Vandellas.
Last edited by BigAl; 05-05-2019 at 08:50 AM.
I doubt that THIS was the reason for the move to Soul Records. I seem to remember that VIP was planned to be shut down, and they stopped pressing LPs on VIP a fair amount of time before closing down their 45 releases. The Monitors' and Velvelettes' LPs which, otherwise would have been pressed on VIP, were transferred to Soul. I believe that The Elgins had their VIP LP released before that decision was made. I'm not sure why The Spinners' 2nd VIP LP was not transferred to Soul.
Now, that is interesting about VIP being shut down- there was an album slick for Chris Clark's "Soul Sounds" LP with the VIP imprint, which, of course ended up on Motown. But then the Spinners had their singles busted "down" to VIP by 1970 as well as their album and Chuck Jackson had his 1970 LP "Teardrops Keep Fallin' On My Heart" also issued on VIP, not to mention the King Floyd "Heart Of The Matter" LP. So maybe Motown reversed its decision or postponed the shuttering of VIP.
Maybe Motown released the odd album on VIP as a precaution against losing the legal right to the name.
And best of all The Abbey Tavern Singers
R Dean Taylor moved to Rare Earth.
Bookmarks