Ronald Holmes funded the mid-70s Rob-Ron and Ron-Hol labels. “The Love We Share” now changes hands for around US $100.

Ron-Hol

 A lot of water passed under the bridge between the Fresandos Star-X record being released in 1956 and the above Holidays 45s coming out in ‘75 and ‘76. The US had entered and lost a war in Vietnam. Berry Gordy had formed Motown, dominated Detroit and gone to LA. Man had landed on the moon. The British invasion had been repelled. Skirts had been mini and maxi. Music had gone from doo-wop past Disco. Dances crazes like the twist, the jerk, the monkey, the boogaloo and the horse had all had their day. But one thing remained constant: Jimmy Holland was still searching for success.

The Holidays continued touring the States, doing gigs every night, which Jimmy recalled with understatement as being “hard work”. It seemed ironic that the most famous song they performed was “I’ll Love You Forever”, but Jimmy remains philosophical:

“I don’t feel sorry for my career. People respected what I did. They probably never got a chance to see what we could really do, ‘cause it seemed to me every time we got the group just right, we never had the right material and not the right combination of outlet for the material - something. There was always something. And that’s okay. I should have made it with LeBaron, who eventually went with Sony - I could have been a big star ‘cause I was his only producer at the time. But like I always say, I could have been rich, bought my own jet, crashed and been dead 20 years ago.”
 

 Ron Holmes, who released The Four Hollidays’ “Deep Down In My Heart” on his Master label in the early 1960s, came back on the music scene with the Ron-Hol and Rob-Ron labels. “This Is Love” was another 3H production and it made WCHB’s chart in October 1975, but nowadays it’s the flip side, “The Love We Share”, that gets played in clubs.

A year later they put out “Procrastinate” on the Ron-Hol label and in 1978 Jim started an auto insurance company, but continued to keep his hand in music. He teamed up with Ron Holmes again in 1980 and remixed “Procrastinate”, but it didn’t sell.

Over 20 years of trying for chart success had come to nothing. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Jim doesn’t have another go.
 

Researched and written by Graham Finch