SOLAR discography

[tsull1]

One of my favorite labels of all time is SOLAR. I really love The Whispers, Lakeside, and Shalamar. An internet search gave me this, which I can't tell if it's someone selling discs or not and it's not in order by date of release. My other searches came up with weird stuff. If anyone can get me a complete list [[preferably in order by date) please post it. Thanks:

http://www.discogs.com/label/Solar?page=1

[soulster]

What do you think is missing from that list?

It's obviously a Canadian who created the list, because at the top it says that Unidisc is the parent company. Well, Solar was an independent label who used RCA, Elektra, and EMI Capitol, as distributed domestically here in the U.S.. In Canada it was Unidisc.

And, by the way, if you look at the right upper corner of that list on the Discogs page, you will see a little "sort" tab. Too bad it isn't working.

[tsull1]

Thanks for the info soulster, I was drooling as I was going through that list ... lots of great albums and lots of music I don't have.

[soulster]

Except in the R&B world, Solar Records was quite overlooked despite many crossover top 10 hits by artists like The Whispers, Shalamar, The Deele, and Klymaxx. Most of the albums released by that company during it's lifespan were amazing!

[roger]

Except in the R&B world, Solar Records was quite overlooked despite many crossover top 10 hits by artists like The Whispers, Shalamar, The Deele, and Klymaxx. Most of the albums released by that company during it's lifespan were amazing!

The label was big in the UK as well soulster, SHALAMAR in particular were HUGE in 1982/3 .. with both their "Friends" and "The Look" LPs being very big sellers.

Roger

[soulster]

The label was big in the UK as well soulster, SHALAMAR in particular were HUGE in 1982/3 .. with both their "Friends" and "The Look" LPs being very big sellers.

Roger

Well, here in the U.S. in the 70s and 80s, you had the pop/rock [[predominantly White) market, and then everything else. R&B is often totally ignored here, even to this day.

When the average music fan talks about the music they like, they will say anything from ska, jazz, rock, metal, blues, country, even rap, but will hardly, if ever, mention R&B, funk, or...gasp!...disco! It's like the stuff never existed, especially when talking about the 70s. It's frustrating! In that reality, Solar's music may as well have not existed. Unless one is into 80s R&B specifically, hits by Shalamar, Klymaxx, or The Whispers, just aren't remembered. Is that how it is in the U.K.? I know the Brits, Germans, and Japanese like and respect the music more than it's natives do.

[tsull1]

Well, here in the U.S. in the 70s and 80s, you had the pop/rock [[predominantly White) market, and then everything else. R&B is often totally ignored here, even to this day. When the average music fan talks about the music they like, they will say anything from ska, jazz, rock, metal, blues, country, even rap, but will hardly, if ever, mention R&B, funk, or...gasp!...disco! It's like the stuff never existed, especially when talking about the 70s. It's frustrating! In that reality, Solar's music may as well have been invisible. Unless one is into 80s R&B specifically, hits by Shalamar, Klymaxx, or The Whispers, just isn't remembered. Is that how it is in the U.K.? I know the Brits, Germans, and Japanese like and respect the music more than it's natives do.

Agree 100 percent, great post soulster. I like The Rolling Stones OK, but they could release an album of their bathroom farts and the U.S. fans and media would go nuts. Meanwhile some unreal soul groups [[Whispers for example) are playing the casino circuit and trying to produce and sell their own albums with not much respect outside the tight-knit, small soul community. Note: I saw The Whispers two years ago at a casino show and they were flat-out unreal.

Even worse is people somehow group today's rap with classic soul and R & B -- huh? I don't group death metal with classic rock or folk rock. I could go on.

Nevertheless, back to the original topic, SOLAR was an unreal label, loved the groups and the sound.

[soulster]

Agree 100 percent, great post soulster. I like The Rolling Stones OK, but they could release an album of their bathroom farts and the U.S. fans and media would go nuts. Meanwhile some unreal soul groups [[Whispers for example) are playing the casino circuit and trying to produce and sell their own albums with not much respect outside the tight-knit, small soul community. Note: I saw The Whispers two years ago at a casino show and they were flat-out unreal.

Even worse is people somehow group today's rap with classic soul and R & B -- huh? I don't group death metal with classic rock or folk rock. I could go on.

Maybe R&B fans from the 70s and 80s just haven't been vocal or forceful enough.

[tsull1]

I would agree that classic soul fans haven't been forceful enough. I go to casino shows, sometimes they sell out, sometimes they don't, and these places are usually 2,000 or less. I saw The O'Jays in Portland, Oregon [[metro population of 1.7 million or so) and there were maybe 200-300 people in a ballroom. Yes, the freaking O'Jays. Then again the newspaper [[where I used to work) did absolutely no pre-concert pub. A week before the show I wrote their music critic and said he should do an advance story on the legends coming to Portland. He said he didn't have time, he put a one-sentence blurb in. [[Note: Critic at the time was African American.) Yet, the paper will turn around and write very long, gushing stories about bad groups coming to town.

[roger]

Well, here in the U.S. in the 70s and 80s, you had the pop/rock [[predominantly White) market, and then everything else. R&B is often totally ignored here, even to this day.

When the average music fan talks about the music they like, they will say anything from ska, jazz, rock, metal, blues, country, even rap, but will hardly, if ever, mention R&B, funk, or...gasp!...disco! It's like the stuff never existed, especially when talking about the 70s. It's frustrating! In that reality, Solar's music may as well have not existed. Unless one is into 80s R&B specifically, hits by Shalamar, Klymaxx, or The Whispers, just aren't remembered. Is that how it is in the U.K.? I know the Brits, Germans, and Japanese like and respect the music more than it's natives do.

Well then soulster, hard-core "Soul/R&B" fans in Britain are a relatively small minority, but going back to the '50s at least there has always been an undercurrent of appreciation for the contemporary U.S. "Black music" amongst the urban/suburban working/lower-middle-class [[and predominantly white) youth. In the '80s this was definitely the case and a lot of U.S. Soul/R&B acts had very big sellers here, some of which meant very little back in their homelands. In fact I would say that in the '80s R&B [[or "Soul" as we would call it here) was even more popular than it was in the height of the Motown era in 1966/67.

What you need to consider is that we didn't have much of that "anti-disco" nonsense that you had in the U.S. in 1979/80. There was a tendancy amongst some to stop referring to "clubs" as "discos" and some people started to talk about "dance music" as opposed to "disco music" but that was about it. Those people who liked to go out dancing still went out dancing and bought a lot of "Soul/R&B" music.

Another thing to consider is the radio situation, we had a lot less radio stations in Britain in the 1980s than the U.S. had, in London in 1985 officially there were 4 national and 3 local stations to listen to. With a decent radio you could probably get another 6 or 8 stations from outlying towns. Plus there were a couple of offshore "Pop Pirates" in the North Sea and a few low-power illegal land-based "pirates".

Generally, throughout the '80s, records that became popular dance floor fillers could sell well enough to get into the charts with little or no airplay, and once they were seen to be popular they would get picked up by the mainstream radio stations and could become major "Pop" hits. Most of the music stations based their playlists on what was in the charts and we didn't have any [[legal) genre-specific stations.

The funny thing is that if I think back to acceptance of "Soul/R&B" in the 60's and early '70s the U.K. Pop charts were fairly dull and predictable and it was the U.S. ones that had lots of surprise hits by relatively obscure "R&B/Soul" acts. In the 1980s it was exactly the other way around.

As to today, we have our fair share of unimaginitive "oldies" radio stations that rotate the same old "favourites", but I seldom listen to them.

With Solar, if I'm listening to one of these "oldies" stations, or in a bar or shopping mall, it doesn't surprise me at all if I hear "And The Beat Goes On" [[#2 UK) or "Its A Love Thing" [[#9 UK) by THE WHISPERS being played, or if it comes to SHALAMAR I wouldn't raise my eyebrows if I heard "Night To Remember" [[#5 UK), "There It Is" [[#5 UK) or "I Can Make You Feel Good" [[#7 UK). Other, lesser, hits by these acts I seldom hear, but then it is exactly the same with '60s R&B/Soul acts like THE SUPREMES/MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS/FOUR TOPS/ARETHA FRANKLIN/WILSON PICKETT etc. or '70s hitmakers like AL GREEN/BARRY WHITE/GEORGE McRAE etc. in that everything seems to be concentrated on 4 or 5 of their recordings. For that matter it's not too different with THE ROLLING STONES or ROD STEWART or QUEEN!!

KLYMAXX never meant much here, the only one of their records that I remember looking like being a hit was "The Man In My Life", "I Miss You" was much too M.O.R. for me [[and the rest of the Great British Public it would seem).

Roger

[soulster]

I would agree that classic soul fans haven't been forceful enough. I go to casino shows, sometimes they sell out, sometimes they don't, and these places are usually 2,000 or less. I saw The O'Jays in Portland, Oregon [[metro population of 1.7 million or so) and there were maybe 200-300 people in a ballroom. Yes, the freaking O'Jays. Then again the newspaper [[where I used to work) did absolutely no pre-concert pub. A week before the show I wrote their music critic and said he should do an advance story on the legends coming to Portland. He said he didn't have time, he put a one-sentence blurb in. [[Note: Critic at the time was African American.) Yet, the paper will turn around and write very long, gushing stories about bad groups coming to town.

Well, Portland, OR is a bit too White anyway. He probably decided it just wasn't important.

[soulster]

Well then soulster, hard-core "Soul/R&B" fans in Britain are a relatively small minority, but going back to the '50s at least there has always been an undercurrent of appreciation for the contemporary U.S. "Black music" amongst the urban/suburban working/lower-middle-class [[and predominantly white) youth. In the '80s this was definitely the case and a lot of U.S. Soul/R&B acts had very big sellers here, some of which meant very little back in their homelands. In fact I would say that in the '80s R&B [[or "Soul" as we would call it here) was even more popular than it was in the height of the Motown era in 1966/67.

What you need to consider is that we didn't have much of that "anti-disco" nonsense that you had in the U.S. in 1979/80. There was a tendancy amongst some to stop referring to "clubs" as "discos" and some people started to talk about "dance music" as opposed to "disco music" but that was about it. Those people who liked to go out dancing still went out dancing and bought a lot of "Soul/R&B" music.

Another thing to consider is the radio situation, we had a lot less radio stations in Britain in the 1980s than the U.S. had, in London in 1985 officially there were 4 national and 3 local stations to listen to. With a decent radio you could probably get another 6 or 8 stations from outlying towns. Plus there were a couple of offshore "Pop Pirates" in the North Sea and a few low-power illegal land-based "pirates".

Generally, throughout the '80s, records that became popular dance floor fillers could sell well enough to get into the charts with little or no airplay, and once they were seen to be popular they would get picked up by the mainstream radio stations and could become major "Pop" hits. Most of the music stations based their playlists on what was in the charts and we didn't have any [[legal) genre-specific stations.

The funny thing is that if I think back to acceptance of "Soul/R&B" in the 60's and early '70s the U.K. Pop charts were fairly dull and predictable and it was the U.S. ones that had lots of surprise hits by relatively obscure "R&B/Soul" acts. In the 1980s it was exactly the other way around.

As to today, we have our fair share of unimaginitive "oldies" radio stations that rotate the same old "favourites", but I seldom listen to them.

With Solar, if I'm listening to one of these "oldies" stations, or in a bar or shopping mall, it doesn't surprise me at all if I hear "And The Beat Goes On" [[#2 UK) or "Its A Love Thing" [[#9 UK) by THE WHISPERS being played, or if it comes to SHALAMAR I wouldn't raise my eyebrows if I heard "Night To Remember" [[#5 UK), "There It Is" [[#5 UK) or "I Can Make You Feel Good" [[#7 UK). Other, lesser, hits by these acts I seldom hear, but then it is exactly the same with '60s R&B/Soul acts like THE SUPREMES/MARTHA & THE VANDELLAS/FOUR TOPS/ARETHA FRANKLIN/WILSON PICKETT etc. or '70s hitmakers like AL GREEN/BARRY WHITE/GEORGE McRAE etc. in that everything seems to be concentrated on 4 or 5 of their recordings. For that matter it's not too different with THE ROLLING STONES or ROD STEWART or QUEEN!!

KLYMAXX never meant much here, the only one of their records that I remember looking like being a hit was "The Man In My Life", "I Miss You" was much too M.O.R. for me [[and the rest of the Great British Public it would seem).

Roger

Heh! MOR is exactly the reason Klymaxx, DeBarge, and other MOR acts made it so big here. At least those particular songs didn't sound so "Black". Yup. Racism played a major role in why the music just didn't continue to be as big as it was in the 60s or 70s here.


I'm not saying no R&B from the 80s made it big here, quite of a bit of it did. The Mary Jane Girls "In My House", Junior's "Mama Used To Say", "My Guy" by Sister Sledge", "I Like It" by Debarge, and especially "Let's Groove" by Earth, Wind & Fire. But, they were far and few in between, and you never hear the stuff today. If you're talking about the 70s, no one seems to remember all those huge hits and albums by Ohio Players and AWB, for example.

[roger]

Heh! MOR is exactly the reason Klymaxx, DeBarge, and other MOR acts made it so big here. At least those particular songs didn't sound so "Black". Yup. Racism played a major role in why the music just didn't continue to be as big as it was in the 60s or 70s here.


I'm not saying no R&B from the 80s made it big here, quite of a bit of it did. The Mary Jane Girls "In My House", Junior's "Mama Used To Say", "My Guy" by Sister Sledge", "I Like It" by Debarge, and especially "Let's Groove" by Earth, Wind & Fire. But, they were far and few in between, and you never hear the stuff today. If you're talking about the 70s, no one seems to remember all those huge hits and albums by Ohio Players and AWB, for example.

Well we did have our fair share of M.O.R. flavoured R&B hits in Britain in the '80s Soulster, notably Stevies "I Just Called To Say I Heard You Were Suffering From Insomnia So Here Is Something To Put You To Sleep", which apparently is by far the biggest selling Motown 45 ever in the UK.

Other notable big M.O.R. flavoured "80s Soul" hits here included DEBARGE "Rhythm Of The Night", COMMODORES "Night Shift", KOOL & THE GANG "Cherish", MICHAEL JACKSON "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "All Night Long" and "Hello" by LIONEL RITCHIE, not to mention the unbearably twee "Frankie" by SISTER SLEDGE which got to #1 in 1985. So maybe with a bit of a push "I Miss You" by KLYMAXX could have made that list.

Most of the big U.S. '80s "R&B/Pop" crossover hits were big here too and the KLYMAXX one is a bit of an exception. British acts such as JUNIOR and FIVE STAR also were very big.

However if you look at any U.K. chart rundown from the '80s you will always also come across a few earthier dancefloor-friendly "R&B/Soul" efforts in there that would mean little to the U.S. "pop" market. Many stalled in the 20s or 30s but some of them were surprisingly big hits such as ..

ODYSSEY - "Inside Out" .. #3 in 1982 ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41fhNaJDCE

ALEXANDER O'NEAL ... "Criticize" .. #4 in 1987 ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CySYwZNH65I

GRANDMASTER FLASH & MELLIE MELL .. "White Lines" .. #7 in 1984 early hip-hop and on the charts for an amazing 43 weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFQzSJCs_ss

COLONEL ABRAMS .. "Trapped" .. #3 in 1985 and got a gold disc for selling over 500000 copies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=915a1F-PTck

PHYLLIS NELSON .. "Move Closer" .. #1 in 1985

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2jp42eCqew

ROCKERS REVENGE .. "Walking On Sunshine" .. #4 in 1982

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG0kCUPp3LU

SHALAMAR .. "There It Is" .. #5 in 1982

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X7Rnsb3YnY

BOOKER NEWBERRY III .. "Love Town" ..#6 in 1983

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWxXd...eature=related

ODYSSEY .. "Use It Up And Wear It Out" .. #1 in 1980

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VemW5i69Yfw

MIDNIGHT STAR .. "Midas Touch" .. #8 in 1986

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REASiyWLjMU

GARY BYRD .. "The Crown" .. #6 in 1983

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYzKnsMcQ2w

Roger

[tsull1]

Roger wrote: "Stevies "I Just Called To Say I Heard You Were Suffering From Insomnia So Here Is Something To Put You To Sleep", .... LOL!!!!!!!

One of my least favorite songs of all time, and sadly, by one of my favorite artists. Don't worry, it also sold a zillion here in the U.S. just like Great Britain. What in the world do people hear in that schlock? God, it's bad. I don't know anyone who likes it, yet apparently a lot of people do or did.

[soulster]

Well, Roger, almost none of those songs hit anywhere on the pop chart here in the U.S.. In fact, they didn't do that great on the Black music chart, either. "Midas Touch" might be one exception. I don't feel like loking right now, though.

[roger]

Well, Roger, almost none of those songs hit anywhere on the pop chart here in the U.S.. In fact, they didn't do that great on the Black music chart, either. "Midas Touch" might be one exception. I don't feel like loking right now, though.

I know Soulster .. that is why I chose them and excluded songs like "Forget Me Nots" by PATRICE RUSHEN [[#8 in 1982) or "Ain't Nobody" by RUFUS & CHAKA KHAN [[#8 in 1984)!!

Incidentally in the U.S. "Midas Touch" got to #7 R&B and #42 "Pop" on the Billboard listings.

Roger