Reissue CDs Weekly: Brenda Holloway, Era Records Northern Soul, Damon

Brenda Holloway: The Artistry of Brenda Holloway / Various Artists: ERA Records Northern Soul

As the home of the Motown empire, Detroit dominated American soul music in the Sixties. Yet the label’s boss Berry Gordy bowed to the inevitable and opened a Los Angeles office in November 1963. The West Coast’s home of film was taking over as America’s music business hub. Brenda Holloway was among Motown’s first California signings and spent her time with the label shuttling between LA and Detroit, recording in both cities. ERA Records was Los Angeles born, and competed with Motown on its new turf. Holloway even recorded for the label.

These releases represent two faces of Los Angeles soul: the established big-boy and the independent searching for a chink in the Motown armour. The Artistry of Brenda Holloway is a reissue of the 1968 album – actually a compilation – which is supplemented by eight previously unheard exhumations from the vaults. ERA Records Northern Soul is a romp through 24 vastly entertaining cuts.

Holloway is best known for “Every Little Bit Hurts”, the yearning ballad she had recorded before she arrived at Motown’s Tamla imprint. It became her first single for Tamla and also appeared as the title track of her debut album. In 1968, it was again included on The Artistry of Brenda Holloway, a compilation aimed at the British market. The Artistry… drew tracks from her debut album and singles which had failed to click, but collected no new material. “You Made Me So Very Happy”, which she co-wrote and issued as a single in 1967, was included – it became a massive hit for Blood Sweat & Tears in 1969 (listen to her original recordng on the next page).

But the label had no artist to promote The Artistry of Brenda Holloway. As Holloway explains in the liner notes of this fine package, a straw too many had broken her relationship with Motown. Once again, a song she had rehearsed and thought was going to be issued was assigned to another artist for release. She and Motown parted company in 1968.

It seems extraordinary that Motown had no clear idea what to do with Holloway. The album and its essential, no-filler, bonus cuts reveal her as a sensitive vocalist, easily more expressive than Mary Wells. One listen to 1967’s epic “I’ve Got to Find it” is all that’s needed to make the case for her as one of Motown’s greats.

ERA Records never reached Motown’s heights, but the indie had big hits like Jewel Akens’s “The Birds and the Bees” and The Hollywood Argyles’ “Alley Oop”. Ketty Lesters’s “Love Letters” is probably its musical peak. Like many independents, it followed trends and lacked the muscle to develop the acts it had signed. Inevitably, it tried its luck with soul – which is how Holloway found her way there for the 1964 single “I Ain’t Gonna Take You Back”, recorded with The Carrolls.

ERA Records Northern Soul is a winning collection of, mainly, light up-tempo cuts. Carol Connors’s “I Wanna Know” is supremely cheeky, marrying elements of The Ikettes' “I’m Blue” with Betty Everett’s “You’re no Good”. It wasn’t a hit. The collection opens with Billy Watkins’s “The Ice-Man” which is cheeky in a different way. “The ladies buy their ice from me, they dig my fast delivery, they love the way I move about, I don’t make a mess, I get in and out, won’t you buy a piece before it melts away,” he sings. This effervescent set is as irresistible as Watkins clearly thought he was.

Overleaf: Damon's Song of a Gypsy

Damon: Song of a Gypsy

Damon – born David Del Conte – never got a sniff at the charts, but he was on the Los Angeles scene and, according to the annotation here, debuted in 1960 with the single “The Lonely Surfer”, credited to David Del Conte & the Castaways. That may be questionable, as Jack Nitzsche’s single of the same name was issued in 1963, and Dick Dale’s first surf records were issued in 1961. it hardly seems credible that the man who would become Damon pioneered surf music.

Del Conte had been born in New York and tried on surf, doo-wop, the twist and soul. His path crossed with the early Turtles. Inevitably, he went psychedelic which is where his reputation and the album Song of a Gypsy come in. It has often been bootlegged, but this reissue is the first time the master tapes have been used. The album itself is supplemented by demos, non-album tracks and in-depth liner notes. Del Conte has come on board to help with this edition

Song of a Gypsy is wild. It could have sprung from the addled mind of Sky Saxon. Del Conte made it after brushes with LSD and heroin. A meeting with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar in Big Sur inspired him to make the album. He hired Los Angeles’ Hollywood Sound Recorders, and assembled a group of studio musicians with his friend Charlie Carey on fuzz guitar (credited as “singing guitar”). Only 500 copies were pressed.

Imagine an enervated Jim Morrison jamming with Jefferson Airplane to record an album where sitar-like fuzz guitar threads through every song. Melodies are minor key and Asian-influenced. Bells and cymbals tinkle. Backing vocals are euphoric. Overall, the atmosphere is fuggy and ecstatic, yet introspective. Song of a Gypsy sank without a trace. The reappearance of this landmark of outsider psychedelia is to be welcomed.

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Listen to Brenda Holloway's "You've Made me so Very Happy"