Gene Chandler-Nothing Can Stop Me

[marv2]

This song always epitomized the "Sound of Chicago" to me. Check it out:

[soulster]

I just wish I could find a good mastering of it on CD.

[marv2]

I just wish I could find a good mastering of it on CD.

Wouldn't that be great? Another thing I wished is if there were such a thing as a Box set that featured the most loved recordings that came out of Chicago from the late 50's to roughly the 70's. It would include even the one hit wonders along with the superstars.

[paladin]

Great post Marv, I've seen this clip before but never noticed three of the Four Tops jamming in the end ! At least thats what it looks like to these tired eyes. Written [[as many of his tunes were) by Curtis Mayfield and arranged by Riley Hampton. We discuss these artists on a daily basis on another forum. Walter Jackson, Curtis, Impressions, Etta James, Howlin Wolf and many others............ thanks for the big ups........

[marv2]

Great post Marv, I've seen this clip before but never noticed three of the Four Tops jamming in the end ! At least thats what it looks like to these tired eyes. Written [[as many of his tunes were) by Curtis Mayfield and arranged by Riley Hampton. We discuss these artists on a daily basis on another forum. Walter Jackson, Curtis, Impressions, Etta James, Howlin Wolf and many others............ thanks for the big ups........

Oh thanks Paladin. I hadn't see it before today and was probably too young to remember when it was on TV. I do clearly remember this song and it is very identifiable with Curtis Mayfield and the "Chicago Sound" of the 60's. Gene Chandler was as popular with us kids as James Brown was at one time.

I like the list of performers you mentioned a LOT. I would add Tyrone Davis, Barbara Acklin and of course Jerry, Jerry Butler.

[marv2]

Ah, ha! That was Obie, Duke and Lawrence up there at the end! They must have made a guest appearance the same day.

[marv2]

I just also noticed another Detroit group, The Reflections [["Just Like Romeo & Juliet") as Gene was making is way down the stairs! Wow!

[paladin]

There is another you tube clip[[ better quality) of him doing the same song on another show. Hell I was old enough to remember them, all of those Hullaboo's , Shindigs, Where The Action Is, Lloyd Thaxton, Mike Douglas....lol......etc.

Marv I would have listed more but I'd need a whole dam page........if you hadn't posted it I would have not seen those guys, I take time when I'm on this site and really pay attention to whats being posted and said....you never know.......ooops maybe you do.....

[marv2]

There is another you tube clip[[ better quality) of him doing the same song on another show. Hell I was old enough to remember them, all of those Hullaboo's , Shindigs, Where The Action Is, Lloyd Thaxton, Mike Douglas....lol......etc.

Marv I would have listed more but I'd need a whole dam page........if you hadn't posted it I would have not seen those guys, I take time when I'm on this site and really pay attention to whats being posted and said....you never know.......ooops maybe you do.....

Oh come on Kev! We were probably in high school at the same time. I remember all of those shows plus a few more that you didn't mention like Shivaree where that clip came from. I was in Grade School, so it has been a little bit of time,hehehehehehehehehehe........

I would have spotted Tony of the Reflections anywhere with his trademark pompadour! Probably the biggest one outside of the Detroit LOL!

There are so, so many great artists who's work I really liked that NEVER get discussed on the forum it seems while some divas get new threads daily LOL!

I know so much sometimes it makes my head hurt! LOL!

[paladin]

Oh come on KW ! We were probably in high school at the same time. I remember all of those shows plus a few more that you didn't mention like Shivaree where that clip came from. I was in Grade School, so it has been a little bit of time,hehehehehehehehehehe........

You're probably right, yet I remember well. That's why they stand out in my mind because these folk were artists that I liked that were not named Sammy Davis, Roy Hamilton, Della Reese, Sarah Vaughn, Basie, Ink Spots, Ellington or Satchmo........lol......

[marv2]

You're probably right, yet I remember well. That's why they stand out in my mind because these folk were artists that I liked that were not named Sammy Davis, Roy Hamilton, Della Reese, Sarah Vaughn, Basie, Ink Spots, Ellington or Satchmo........lol......

MOR Artists! [[that's how they were referred to) Ugh! Yuk! LOL! That is what they use to call people like Sammy,Ella, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Mathis, Leslie Uggams, etc,etc.! They were square to me when I was a kid, but they were on television all the time. Della Reese of Detroit was my Grandmothers favorite! LOL!

I wished I had collections on DVD of all of those sixties music shows including our local one "Swingin' Time/ Teen Town". I have clips from those shows here and there, but I'm talking complete episodes. I believe Classic Master was starting to collect them.

[jsmith]

This is the the track that heralded the arrival of Northern Soul as a commercial force in the UK !!!
Dave Godin had just started up his Soul City Record label in 1968 & selected this to be the 2nd 45 on the label.
The record entered the UK National Top 50 POP Chart in June 68 and rose to No.41 during its 4 week long stay.

....... FOOTNOTE: Most NS 45's sold in small specialist record shops in the north of England back then.
...... the majority of UK 'chart return' shops were shops in national chains with huge numbers of these being in the south.
... SO REALLY this 45 sold enough copies to make the Top 20 & doing so would have meant more BBC radio & TV airplay
...... it was therefore a much bigger hit than the charts reflected & if it had garnered more BBC plays, would no doubt have made the Top 10 of the Pop Chart.

[nosey]

Marv, I frequently play his greatest hits cd at work. This is one of my all time favorites and for years, I couldn't understand a lyric and then one day it hit me......"when all the others laughed and squalled". LOL! I used to do a comedy skit using "Just be True". The skit depicts me and a girl at a house party feuding over this guy named Binky. Finally Binky asks me to dance and we end the feud with Binky and I slow dragging off of Just be True with me rolling my eyes smugly at the other girl. I must say that skit goes over really well with the 60+ crowd.

[paladin]

This is the the track that heralded the arrival of Northern Soul as a commercial force in the UK !!!
Dave Godin had just started up his Soul City Record label in 1968 & selected this to be the 2nd 45 on the label.
The record entered the UK National Top 50 POP Chart in June 68 and rose to No.41 during its 4 week long stay.

Excellent post Jsmith, I am often amazed at how this process worked over there, yet I must admit at the time of this records release, I was deep into Motown and Chicago Soul and was happy to see a local artist with a hit record. Gene was one of those artists who was all over Chicago [[still is) and you could see him almost anywhere. I was about to become aware of the British invasion and thought if the Beatles were all you guys had......we weren't gonna have a problem in the states, I honesty thought groups like that were sort of effete and silly compared to what was coming out of the motor and second city......

[marv2]

This is the the track that heralded the arrival of Northern Soul as a commercial force in the UK !!!
Dave Godin had just started up his Soul City Record label in 1968 & selected this to be the 2nd 45 on the label.
The record entered the UK National Top 50 POP Chart in June 68 and rose to No.41 during its 4 week long stay.

....... FOOTNOTE: Most NS 45's sold in small specialist record shops in the north of England back then.
...... the majority of UK 'chart return' shops were shops in national chains with huge numbers of these being in the south.
... SO REALLY this 45 sold enough copies to make the Top 20 & doing so would have meant more BBC radio & TV airplay
...... it was therefore a much bigger hit than the charts reflected & if it had garnered more BBC plays, would no doubt have made the Top 10 of the Pop Chart.

Thank you Jsmith for that additional information. I never knew any of this.

[marv2]

Marv, I frequently play his greatest hits cd at work. This is one of my all time favorites and for years, I couldn't understand a lyric and then one day it hit me......"when all the others laughed and squalled". LOL! I used to do a comedy skit using "Just be True". The skit depicts me and a girl at a house party feuding over this guy named Binky. Finally Binky asks me to dance and we end the feud with Binky and I slow dragging off of Just be True with me rolling my eyes smugly at the other girl. I must say that skit goes over really well with the 60+ crowd.

"Binky"? LOL!!!! I'd love to see this skit Nosey, hehehehehehehe.......

[keith_h]

Great post Marv, I've seen this clip before but never noticed three of the Four Tops jamming in the end ! At least thats what it looks like to these tired eyes. Written [[as many of his tunes were) by Curtis Mayfield and arranged by Riley Hampton. We discuss these artists on a daily basis on another forum. Walter Jackson, Curtis, Impressions, Etta James, Howlin Wolf and many others............ thanks for the big ups........

Could you please give a link to the site you speak of

[the_classic_master]

great one marv! how are you? i played this and major lance version on my 60's show today, marv, check it out!

[marv2]

great one marv! how are you? i played this and major lance version on my 60's show today, marv, check it out!

I'm good CM, thanks. How are you doing buddy? Can you believe how we escaped Winter this year? Sun is shining on LI today so it has to be the same over in Bklyn! I'll check today's show out. Thanks man
'

[the_classic_master]

yes, after last winter, mother nature owed us one! lol. i'm loving this weather!

[arrr&bee]

They didn't call him[clean]gene chandler for nothing..[the man could dress]he's the only artist i've ever seen wear a[triple breasted]hot pink[in the sixties]silk suit with white pinstripes...heck even the mighty temps in all thier splendor never did that,gene chandler is one of our greatest tresures.

[jsmith]

RE: Thank you Jsmith for that additional information. I never knew any of this.
...... There were much worse examples of NS 45 releases getting terrible treatment at the end of the 60's & in the 70's.
The NS [[Northern Soul) scene in the UK in the early 70's was totally underground.
Dave Godin made mention of it in B&S around 1970 when he visited the Twisted Wheel Club 'up north'. He noted that most of the tracks being played were 'oldies' from the 60's and were totally different to what was then getting played in London clubs -- James Brown & N.W. produced Temptations cuts). So Dave coined the term 'Northern Soul'.
Anyway back to the real tale here ............... UK record labels were realising that they could make money just putting out 60's soul dance tracks on 45, so they had started to do this.
Lots of the acts involved [[Fascinations, Artistics, Jerry Williams, Wally Cox, Johnny Wyatt, Belles, Sharpees, Donald Height, Richard Temple, Jackie Lee) were total unknowns to the Brit music press & general record buying public.
None of these 45's had any money spent on their promotion [[no trade mag or general music biz mag ads were taken out) and none [[initially) received any radio airplay.
But the tracks inolved were in-demand with the UK soul crowd who danced to them every week.
So off went Johnny, Bill & Vera to their local 'specialist' record shop & they purchased copies. As these 45's were new releases, if you were lucky you could also get them at the major chain stores, so some sales were via 'chart return' shops.
At times, a 45 was SSSOOOO popular, that it sold in the 1st weeks at a major rate. Enough sales were via 'chart return 'shops, so lots of these 45's started to crop up a 'sellers' in returns to the Chart compilers.
BUT HANG ON ........ these chart compiler guys knew their stuff & they's never heard of these acts & they knew the cuts weren't being played on main stream radio. So these tracks JUST HAD TO BE 45's that were being hyped up by the record label !!! So to check out they weren't having the 'wool pulled over their eyes' they were good workers & rang around a few record shops.
Of course, they were London based, so rang people they knew in London shops. "Was this 45 selling" they's ask. Yep it was but in that shop not in sufficient quantities to make the Top 20 national POP chart. Being good guys the chart compilers had discovered a probable fraud, so a NS 45 that should have charted at No. 19 was totally removed from that week's chart. The guys had truly done their job well that week & went home happy!!!
OF COURSE, they didn't ring up any shops up north where they would have been told that the 45 inquestion was that shop's top seller that week & therefore should be at No.1.
By the way, the chart compilers had also failed to ask the London Record Shop assistants what the actual sales pattern of the 45 had been. If they had asked they would have discovered that the shop had sold 10 copies of that 45 in the last 7 days BUT that they had only stocked 10 copies & these had flown off the shelves by day 2.
BUT these guys knew best. They KNEW the record game better than everyone else yet they had never even heard of Bobby Sheen, Joy Lovejoy and Willie Tee, so how could records they had made be selling so well in the UK.

Many a top selling NS 45 was 'pulled' from the charts in this way. So the 45's never garnered BBC radio airplay & after a couple of weeks [[when all the soul fans had bought copies), the record died a death commercially.
LUCKILY, some 45's survived this 'trial by fire', made the lower reaches of the Top 40, got BBC radio airplay nd ended up as Top 10 Pop chart hits [[the Tams in 71; Edwin Starr twice in 69; Jackie Wilson in 69 & 72; Tammi Lynn in 71 & 75, ETC, ETC).

[roger]

these chart compiler guys knew their stuff & they's never heard of these acts & they knew the cuts weren't being played on main stream radio. So these tracks JUST HAD TO BE 45's that were being hyped up by the record label !!!

I'm sure that a lot of what you say is true about that 1969/70/71 period JSmith, and I can remember the buzz that used to go around where I lived at the time [[Sheffield) when songs like "Baby Do The Philly Dog" or "With this Ring" got reissued.

However I think that something you need to add into the mix is that "main stream radio" .. at that time BBC Radio One and [[at night) Radio Luxembourg-208 .. seemed to operate a "quota" system when it came to their playlists and tried to achieve a "balanced playlist" .. w% "superstar acts" [[Beatles, Stones, Tom Jones etc. etc. etc.) .. x% "bubblegum-pop" .. y% "progressive rock" .. z% "soul" etc. and these proportions didn't quite equate to what was selling .. the U.K. L.P. charts at that time were pretty much dominated by the "Superstar acts" and "progressive rock" .. the 45 market veered more towards Soul [[and to a lesser extent Reggae). As you may recall, Radio One tried to appeal to both trends [[what with all that prog-rock in the late afternoon/evening) whereas Luxembourg kept to a more singles based chart format.

There were times in that period when well over a quarter of the 45s in the UK singles chart were "Soul" and that seemed to exceed the "quota" .. if I look in my reference books I see that "Boogaloo Party" by THE FLAMINGOS made #26 in the U.K. chart in the summer of 1969 .. yet I don't recall hearing it played on either Radio One or Luxembourg at all. Similarly I don't remember "I Spy For The FBI" by JAMO THOMAS getting played outside of Rosko's Saturday lunchime show, though it got to #44 in 1969, and similarly with "25 Miles" by EDWIN STARR [[#36 in 1969) or "Just A Little Misunderstanding" by THE CONTOURS [[#31 in 1969).

In 1969 there were a few Soul 45s that got played a lot on Luxembourg but ignored by Radio One .. "Happy" by WILLIAM BELL, "Moody Woman" by JERRY BUTLER and "Don't Tell Your Mama" by EDDIE FLOYD come to mind .. [[ none of these charted ) .. though on Luxembourg it was [[I believe) still possible to "buy" airplay at that time.

And .. although we may moan about the shoddy way in which "Soul" may have been treated it was quite well catered for compared with Reggae .. outside of the chart run-down shows I don't recall "Liquidator" by HARRY J [[#9 at the end of 1969) or "Long shot Kick The Bucket" by THE PIONEERS [[#21 around the same time) getting airplay at all. [[due to the lyrical content I think we can excuse them for not airing "Wet Dream" by MAX ROMEO [[#11 in 1969) ). I think that they weren't played simply because, as Reggae records, they had exceeded the radio stations' self-imposed "quotas".

Roger

[mr_june]

Great post Marv, I've seen this clip before but never noticed three of the Four Tops jamming in the end ! At least thats what it looks like to these tired eyes. Written [[as many of his tunes were) by Curtis Mayfield and arranged by Riley Hampton. We discuss these artists on a daily basis on another forum. Walter Jackson, Curtis, Impressions, Etta James, Howlin Wolf and many others............ thanks for the big ups........

Paladin where does this "another forum" roam? Please post a link?

[jsmith]

RE: I can remember the buzz that used to go around where I lived at the time [[Sheffield) when songs like "Baby Do The Philly Dog" or "With this Ring" got reissued.
Roger, I wasn't a million miles away myself ....... back then I was usually to be found around Pond Street as I was attending Sheffield Polytechnic. Mind you, I spent a lot of the time in the record shops along & near to Fargate & Pinstone St.

[roger]

Roger, I wasn't a million miles away myself ....... back then I was usually to be found around Pond Street as I was attending Sheffield Polytechnic. Mind you, I spent a lot of the time in the record shops along & near to Fargate & Pinstone St.

Well then JSmith ..

Did you ever go into "Violet May's" on Matilda Street .. off The Moor, roughly at the back of Woolworths? It was run by an old lady [[Violet May?) who must have been well into her '70s and chain smoked. She was very knowledgable about what she had in stock.

She used to do a roaring trade in Soul releases on "reissue" labels like Jay Boy, Mojo and President and always had 100s of second-hand [[used) and imported Soul records in boxes at the back of the counter. I used to spend hours in the place .. She was also the first person I ever heard use the term "Disco" to describe a record, when I asked to hear "Philly Freeze" by ALVIN CASH .. at that time I only knew "Twine Time" .. she announced that it was a real "Disco Record" and started boogieing away waving her cigarette .. this must have been around 1971 .. LOL!!

Of course NOTHING that she sold would ever have counted towards any "chart returns".

Roger

[jsmith]

Roger, I was always in Violet Mays back then.
In her boxes of import 45's, you could come across a bootleg version of the Virginia Wolves take on "Stay" right next to a real US copy !!!
No idea where she sourced her records from [[the imports & boots) but she certainly could get em.

[jsmith]

Attachment 4674
I found a piece in Billboard [[April 69) about the old soul 45's getting released & those already in the UK Top 40 Pop charts back then .......
Can't say I know which all the top soul oldies were that were on the charts then, but they included :-
Bob & Earl - Harlem Shuffle; Martha & Vans - Dancing In The Street; Isley Bros - Guess I'll Always Love You & Behind A Painted Smile; Temptations - Get Ready; Jnr Walker & A Stars - Road Runner; Jackie Wilson - Higher & Higher; Smokey & Miracles - Tracks of My Tears.
New soul releases from Temps & Supremes, Marv Johnson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder , Sam & Dave, Johnny Nash, 5th Dimension , D R & Supremes, Booker T & MGs & Edwin Hawkins Singers were also on the pop charts at that time.