Quote Originally Posted by mysterysinger View Post
Great historical notes Gary.


Worth noting that "I Keep Forgettin' " [[my favourite of The Checkmates tracks) was released as a single in the UK backed with "Do You Love Your Baby" on A&M AMS780.

AMS747 "Love Is All I Have To Give" bw "Never Should Have Lied" - The Checkmates Ltd

AMS752 "Black Pearl" bw "Lazy Susan" - Sonny Charles and Checkmates Ltd

AMS769 "Proud Mary" bw "Spanish Harlem" - The Checkmates Ltd. featuring Sonny Charles

AMS780 "I Keep Forgettin' " bw "Do You Love Your Baby" - The Checkmates Ltd. featuring Sonny Charles

Are these B sides available on a CD?


In the UK The Checkmates lost out on "Black Pearl" to Horace Faith who took a great reggae version to number 13 [[that's the version I bought at the time and I think the one I still prefer too). Had a great B' side too "Help Me Help Myself". Anyhow here's Horace Faith.

Thanks, Mystery. To my knowledge, those Checkmates B-sides are not available on any CD releases -- at least not on any Spector-related CDs which are what I collect.

I had no idea that any other artist had covered The Checkmates' "Black Pearl" -- let alone beat The Checkmates' version to the punch. If you recall, the same thing happened when Nella Dodd nearly beat Motown and The Supremes to the punch with "Come See About Me". At the time, I never understood how another record company could beat Motown at releasing a Motown song. Why would Motown give away one of their own songs to a competing record company? Then, it hit me! Apparently, once a song is published, it becomes fair game for any record company to release -- even when they're published by Motown's own Jobete, BMI, or Stein And Van Stock. [[To my knowledge, the only other time that happened to Motown was when The Fifth Dimension released Diana's "Love Hangover".) You'd think that other record companies would know better than to try to out-do Motown. After all, nobody can do Motown like Motown themselves!