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Beach Bits: We wrote this about Too Much Sylvia's
2MS album in last year's July edition of Beach Buzz : Excellently produced by Rick Lee, with guest appearances
from Tim Clark, John G. Franklin, Tim Gordon and Jeff Swafford, I believe this album
demonstrates the wide vocal and instrumental range that this band possesses. Living up to their billing, the first
big hit from the release, All I Wanna Do Is Dance, is now followed with another charter, Stepped Right
Outta My Dreams..........Steve Edmunds' rendition of I'm Happy Love Has Found You was sitting at #16
recently on 94.9 The Surf's Top 20. Excellent for a song that has not yet been officially released.........The Surf's #20
song was Goodbye Train by Grayson Hugh. Hugh's single Talk It Over made it to #1 on the Beach
charts in 1989, it also reached the Top 10 in Billboard's Adult Contemporary category.......
Larry Moore & The Shag Doctorz from upstate South Carolina
mean business. They have a new song being distributed entitled Always Running Back To You that has that pure
Beach sound of the Carolinas to it, gotta love it!....We don't hear alot of fanfare these days about Band of Oz songs but
two of their tunes, Your Place Or Mine and I Can Never Get Used To Sharing You, are in the most
recent Beach Music Top 40 at beachshag.com..........Uncle Kracker's late 2012 release of the song In Between Disasters
has had sustained staying power on the Smokin' Top 45 Beach chart. Kracker's first tune to hit the Beach was 2000's Follow
Me, from his debut Double Wide solo album........
Donnie Ray's Who's Rockin' You re-appeared
in the Smokin' Top 45 for February. It definitely still works in the clubs even though it has been over two years since it
was first released. It would be good to have Donnie back for a return appearance at this year's Carolina Beach Music Awards.............
Floyd Taylor, second oldest son of Johnnie Taylor, tragically
passed away on February 20th. One of the brightest stars in today's Southern Soul music,
Floyd had a big Beach music hit with his 2002 release of
I'm Crazy 'Bout That in Woman In Red. Check out our next Southern Soul Corner column late next week for a tribute
to the Taylor family........Venues come and go in the music business, and the Beach arena is no exception. It is great to see some new ones crop up. A couple of places not so well known that are now featuring live
Beach music include The Showtime Lounge, Country Club Lanes West, in Burlington, NC and The Electric Blue Saloon
in King, NC.............
Highly anticipated new releases in Beach music include: The
latest compilation from KHP Music, Party On The Ocean, is almost complete with new music from Rhonda, Angel,
Phil Wilson, Blackwater Rhythm & Blues, Carolina Breakers, Oz, and many more. Also in March, look for Paul Craver's new
album, Pyramid, which includes the hit title track as well as Got To Give It Up, Sunshine And You, Good
Rockin' Tonight, twelve tunes in all.............
Music promoters and club owners – when
booking your concerts, club dates and outdoor festival events this year, do not overlook The Carolina Soul Band. This dynamic group
plays the best in classic Soul, R&B and Beach music with years of performing experience. As an official representative
of NASCAR, the band was at the recent Daytona 500 for an outstanding performance with rave reviews in conjunction with Tony
Stewart and the Mobil 1 Racing Team. Based in High Point, NC, Carolina Soul Band is represented by Charlotte's Green Dot Music
Group. To learn more about the band and find out where they will be performing in upcoming weeks, go to Facebook and like
the Carolina Soul Band page.
William Dell & The Wee Jams have had some charting hits in Beach music in recent years
including Most Of The Pretty Young Girls and I'll Always Love You. The retro Doo Wop group, hailing
from Pittsburgh, PA, has a seventeen track Anthology that was released by Ripete Records in 2009. Some great
previously unheard Wee Jams tunes are included on the album. Check out their version of I Want A Man To Dance With Me,
which closely parallels the same song (except the word Shag instead of Dance in the title)
from WJ Moore & The Dynamic Upsetters in 1982. The female lead for the Wee Jams on the tune is sung by the very talented
Laura Rose - the lead vocals soared on the original for the Dynamic Upsetters from the resonating voice of Ms. Vernelle Mack.
One
of the most underrated of the '60's/'70's Soul music soloists has to be Dallas, Texas native Bobby Patterson. Not only a talented
singer, Patterson was a songwriter, arranger, producer as well as a solid drummer and guitar player. His singing style you
might say is a cross between the vocals of James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Bobby 'Blue' Bland. Recording for labels such as
Jetstar, Paula and Granite, Bobby released many outstanding singles in that era, some that were later covered by other artists.
Bobby
has had an influence in the Beach music world - his early '70's tune Everything
Good To You (Don't Have To Be Good For You) was covered by the aforementioned WJ Moore & The Dynamic Upsetters.
His I'm In Love With You was later adopted by both The Entertainers and by Cicero Blake. Another great Patterson
tune for Beach radio airplay is the smooth grooves of What A Wonderful Night For Love. Some of Bobby's (in my
opinion) best tunes that did not get a huge amount of attention when released are I Get My Groove From You, Keeping
It In The Family, The Knock Out Power Of Love, What's Your Problem Baby, Soul Is Our Music and My Baby's Coming
Back To Me. The album pictured above is a two CD set of forty Patterson songs, including several that were previously
unreleased. After years on the sidelines, Bobby recently resumed performing in the Dallas area, revisiting many of his great
classic tunes in his shows.
Noted author Rick Simmons wrote a very good article in the recent first edition of
Beach Music Scene magazine on Northern Soul and the close association it has with Beach music. Wikipedia defines the
genre as: Northern Soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England in the late 1960s from the British
mod scene. Northern Soul mainly consists of a particular style of American Soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo
of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound. The recordings most prized by enthusiasts of the genre are usually by lesser-known artists,
released only in limited numbers.
Rick's article points out that there are Beach music songs found within the Top 500
Northern Soul tunes, as researched and selected by Soul music authoritarian Kev Roberts. Roberts is from the UK and has witnessed
the Northern Soul phenomenon first hand for many years. His Top 500 list includes, for example, such Beach classics as Willie
Tee's Walking Up A One Way Street, The Poets' She Blew A Good Thing, The Tams' Hey Girl
Don't Bother Me as well as some that have gotten radio play in Beach music like Jack Montgomery's Dearly Beloved,
The Sweet Things' I'm In A World Of Trouble and Millie Jackson's My Man Is A Sweet Man. It is
also interesting that the Embers' Watch Out Girl, which was not a big Beach hit, is in Roberts' Top 500 as well as being a prized piece of vinyl by record collectors.
From our Beach Buzz perspective, there certainly were hundreds of '60's/'70's lost
Soul tunes that could be considered to be Northern Soul and some would have possibly ended up being Beach music classics if
they had only been discovered. Last year, in our February and June columns here, we were on that same page by listing twenty
rare tunes in each for Soul music lovers that would be considered Northern Soul with many having a Carolina Beach flavor as
well. So here are twenty more such songs complete with label name and year of release that should qualify. Haven't checked,
but one or two of them may be in that Top 500 list as well!
Marvellos - In The Sunshine
Modern 1965
Dee Dee Warwick - Do It With All Your Heart Blue Rock 1965
Blenders - Your Love Has Got Me Down Mar-V-Lus 1966
Billy T Soul - Way To A Woman's Heart Musicor 1966
Hytones - Bigger And Better A-Bet 1966
Jackie Ross - Keep Your Chin Up Brunswick 1967
Seven Souls - I Still Love You
Okeh 1967
CP Love - Plenty Of Room For More King
Walk 1967
Epitome of Sound - You Don't Love Me Sandbag
1967
George Jackson - I Don't Have The Time
Mercury 1968
Temptones - Say These Words Of Love Artic 1968
Montclairs - Wait For Me Sunburst 1969
Ray Godfrey - I Gotta Get Away (From My Own Self) Spring 1970
Otis Leavill - You Brought Out The Good In Me
Dakar 1971
Radiants - Don't Wanna Face The Truth
Twinight 1971
Barbara Lewis - I'm So Thankful
Reprise 1972
Dynamic Superiors - Don't Give Up On Me Baby
Motown 1975
Debbie Taylor - Just Don't Pay Arista 1975
The Fantastic Puzzles - Come Back Part 1
New Moon 1975
Eloise Laws - I'm Just Warming Up
Liberty 1980
Artists, DJ’s, Club owners etc. send me your latest
news for potential inclusion in Beach Buzz at nealfur@aol.com.
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