Clockwise : Sweet James Epps, Pat Lewis, Lois ?, Barbara Mercer
Mr. Kelley's Lounge, 4466 Chene, in July 1966.
Photograph
courtesy of Graham Finch
Don Mancha's
name would crop up again, in July 1965, this time on "Can't stop loving you baby",
which was the flip side to the equally excellent
"Hey", by Barbara Mercer.
"Hey"
is a classic sing-a-long Detroit number and was produced by
the strangely named "Burg and Beans". It
emerged on the forum recently that this was the name of a
restaurant which was situated next door to the studio. Dennis
Coffey recalls, "I used to go that
restaurant before sessions at Golden World, or sometimes on a
long break. Man, they had the best baked beans and oblong
hamburger in a hot dog bun. That kind of meal always made
you want to play some serious funk."
Within
a couple of months Barbara would have two more releases on
Golden World; "The things we do together" on GW27,
which had "Hungry for love" on the flip, and GW28
which was
a reissue of "Things" but with a slight change to the title,
"Doin' things together". Clearly
Wingate liked the song, which is a beautiful number written
by the multi-talented Van McCoy. Barbara's voice is also as
stunning as her looks!
On the flip side of the
re-issue was the
brilliant "Nobody loves you like me", arranged by
Sonny Sanders and written and produced by Popcorn and Ronnie
Savoy. Barbara had formerly been with a group
by the name of the Styletts (sic)
who recorded briefly for the Pillar label.
After Golden World, she would move on to Sidra
Records on Wyoming where she recorded the excellent "Call on me"
which was later picked up by Capitol
Records in Los Angeles.
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