Clarence Paul

[jsmith]

What was the road that eventually led Clarence Paul [[Pauling) to Motown ?
I know he was handling A&R duties for the company from the early 1960's & then went on to work closely with Stevie Wonder [[after having introduced him to the label) and to co-write numerous top songs
..... but how did a guy from North Carolina who had progressed from gospel group to the 5 Royales end up in Detroit working behind-the-scenes for a fledgling indie record company [[after all, the 5 Royales recording connections were with New York & Cincinnati).

[Roger Polhill]

Clarence was introduced to Motown by his friend and recording partner, Mickey Stevenson to handle A & R.He had been recording for Roulette without much success. The 5 Royales were one of the finest R & B groups around with hits like "Think" which James Brown covered.

[jsmith]

But how did he meet up with & become friends with Mickey Stevenson ?
I know he started out in gospel [[groups name ?) and then progressed to doowop with the likes of the Melodeers [[who became the Love-Tones -- cutting for Tamla & backing up Mary Wells on Motown in 1962).
He seems to have commenced work with the Motown team in the late 50's. But just about everything I know about him happened in Detroit [[until after he left Motown); where was he born and where was his gospel group based out of ?
....... ALSO, just when did Clarence quit the 5 Royales, that was in the early 50's wasn't it [[before the group started having their hits).

[ralpht]

While in The Sunliners, Clarence produced a couple of records for us. He was with Motown at the time but it seems it was okay for him to take on extra curricular work at that time. He was quite a guy.

[robb_k]

Here's a link to a biography of Clarence Paul: http://music.aol.com/artist/clarence-paul/biography

He was born in Winston-Salem NC in 1928. He and his brother Lowman Pauling were members of a Gospel group[[The Royal Sons), which turned to secular music [[as The Five Royales) in 1952 signing with New York's Apollo Records. At that time, Clarence, recently returning from serving in the Korean War, left the group. He shortened his last name to "Paul" to differentiate himself from his brother [[lead singer of The Five Royales). Clarence now located in New York, wrote secular songs for various NY artists [[including Roy Hamilton), and recorded, himself, for NY labels [[unsuccessfully-Federal, Hannover, Roulette).

He relocated to Detroit in late 1960. He may have met members of The Mello-Dees, who were Mickey Stevenson's male background singing group [[for his own Stepp Records, and his productions for House of Beauty and Anna Records). He was never a member of that group's earlier incarnation [[The Teardrops-1954-1956 or Mello-Dees 1958-1960), nor was he a member of there subsequent group [[name), The Love-Tones [[at Motown) starting in late 1960. He may have been brought into Motown by Mickey Stevenson in late 1960 [[but I don't know that to be true). And, I don't know what connection led Paul to Detroit in 1960. Clearly, he must have met some Detroiter while in New York.

[jsmith]

Thanks, Ralph & Robb.

[robb_k]

We do know that there were several Detroiters working in New York in the late 1950s who still had connections with Detroit. One of them was Derek Martin of The Five Jets [[who later morphed into The Five Stars and The Voice Masters and The Originals). Another was Kenny Martin, who worked for Federal Records [[out of Detroit) , but may have met Paul in Cincinnati, when Paul and he went there to record for Federal. Or perhaps they met in New York, when Martin worked for Hanover/Signature Records as a songwriter, and Paul recorded for them. Both Martins could have convinced Paul to try Detroit, as the latter was a songwriter, and The Detroit music industry was booming with new, talented singers in 1960. The competition in New York was fierce. Detroit seemed to have several new artists pop up each day, looking for writers to write new songs for them, and producers to produce their recording sessions and get their songs out to a record label and release them to the public.

This is only surmising using some knowledge of things happening at the time, and logic. I really have no idea of what actually happened.

[bankhousedave]

Also Mickey was all over the place and had mighty fine ears. Maybe Clarence played Detroit. Maybe Mickey picked him up in NY, like he did some of ther arrangers. Mickey had business cards and a total belief in Motown in those days. If he told you turn up, you turned up.