Testify!

The Parliaments - Testify!: The Best Of The Early Years
CONNOISSEUR COLLECTION - VSOP CD 286

Tracks:
01 - (I Wanna) Testify
02 - I Can Feel The Ice Melting
03 - All Your Goodies Are Gone
04 - Don't Be Sore At Me
05 - Little Man
06 - The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg
07 - Look At What I Almost Missed
08 - What You Been Growing
09 - Good Old Music
10 - Time
11 - A New Day Begins
12 - I'll Wait
13 - I'll Wait (inst.)
14 - All Your Goodies Are Gone (inst.)
15 - Baby I Owe You Something (inst.)
16 - Lets Make It Last - The Fellows
17 - She's Always There - The Fellows
18 - Heart Trouble
19 - That Was My Girl

The roots of George Clinton's Parliaments stretch back to the mid 1950's and a barber shop in New Jersey, where a group of teenagers formed a doo-wop group named after Parliament cigarettes. As a doo-wop group they released 'Poor Willie/Party Boys' on Apt Records in 1958 and 'Lonely Island/You Make Me Wanna Cry' on Flipp Records in 1960, without much success. In 1962 George got a job as a songwriter and producer for Motown in their New York office. Obviously George pitched The Parliaments to Motown, but a 1964 session in Detroit was rejected. That same year George teamed up with two other Motown employees, Sidney Barnes and Andrew 'Mike' Terry to form GEO-SI-MIK Productions. They sold their services to the newly formed Golden World/Ric-Tic/Wingate record labels of Detroit. As well as production and song writing duties, this resulted in a single for The Parliaments. 'Heart Trouble/That Was My Girl' was released in 1965 on Golden World and is included on this CD, although it says the tracks are demo versions I can't tell the difference. For me 'Heart Trouble' was the first Parliaments track I heard and is one of my all time favourite soul songs.

In 1966 GEO-SI-MIK began working for Revilot/Solid Hit Records, also in Detroit. While contributing to many numbers on this label, George and the latest version of The Parliaments recorded '(I Wanna) Testify/I Can Feel The Ice Melting' in 1966. This single spent so long on the shelf before it's release in 1967, that George went back to barbering in Newark for a while. When it was finally released it was a hit, reaching No.3 in the R&B charts. The band rushed back to Detroit and recorded the rest of The Parliaments tracks on this CD, allegedly in one mammoth session. The Parliaments released a total of six singles on Revilot between 1967 and 1969, none doing quite as well as '(I Wanna) Testify' but all great (in my opinion). The instrumental tracks were used as B-sides for other artists on Revilot/Solid Hit and the two tracks by The Fellows were recorded by a Temptations sounding group produced by George.

Unfortunately George got caught in a contractual dispute surrounding the bankruptcy of Revilot/Solid Hit and was no longer able to use the name The Parliaments. In order to keep recording for other labels George renamed the band Funkadelic and headed off in a whole other direction. But that's another story for another day, in the mean time enjoy some top notch vocal group soul from The Parliaments....

Dangerous Doo-Wop

Various Artists - Dangerous Doo-Wop - DDW 801

Side A
King Odom 4 - All Of Me - LISTEN
Flairs - My Hearts Crying - LISTEN
Crowns - Hey Pretty Baby - LISTEN
Chords - Sh-boom - LISTEN
Robins - White Cliffs Of Dover - LISTEN
Larks - Lucy Brown - LISTEN
Eldoradoes - Go Little Susie - LISTEN
Artie Wilkins - Darling Patricia - LISTEN
Velvet Angels - I'm In Love - LISTEN

Side B
Bachelors - Baby - LISTEN
El Tones - Lovin' With A Beat - LISTEN
Flairs - Love Me Girl - LISTEN
Hearts - Girl Around The Corner - LISTEN
Poets - Vowels Of Love - LISTEN
Blisters - Shortnin' Bread - LISTEN
Del Chords - Say That You Love Me - LISTEN
Monograms - My Baby Dearest Darling - LISTEN
Flamingos - Let's Make Up - LISTEN

This is volume one of this amazing series (4 LPs) that feature some of the best doo-wop to be found. No filler in this album, every track is great and to prove it there's a link to a YouTube clip next to each track listed above. Being a bootleg however, there is no information on any of the tracks and in fact not all of the artists or tracks are listed correctly. I've done some research and compiled a very brief history of the groups and tracks listed.

The King Odom Quartet from New York formed in 1947 and recorded under a variety of variations of their name until 1953. 'All Of Me' was recorded for the Derby label in 1950 as the King Odom Four.

The Flairs were the in-house vocal group for the Bihari brothers' Flair label of Los Angeles. They recorded under many names and had within their ranks Richard 'Louie Louie' Berry and Young Jessie. Both tracks included here were released in 1954, 'My Heart's Crying' was released as the Chimes and 'Love Me Girl' as the Flairs.

Arthur Lee Maye had a dual career, not only was he a singer he was also a professional baseball player. 'Hey Little Girl' was recorded in 1957 with the Crowns for the Bihari brothers' RPM label.

'Sh-boom' is probably the most famous song on this compilation. Recorded by the Chords in 1954 for Atlantic subsidiary Cat, the record was quickly covered by the clean-cut white vocal group the Crew Cuts who had a big pop hit with it. This is the best version.

The prolific Robins hailed from Los Angeles, their best known recordings were made for Savoy and Spark Records. This fantastic, upbeat version of 'White Cliffs Of Dover' was recorded in 1961 for Lavender Records and was one of their last releases.

Recorded for The Apollo label of New York in 1951, 'Miss Lucy Brown' was originally recorded as 'Suntan Brown Baby' by the Norfolk Jazz Quartet in 1938. The Larks got national exposure for the song, singing it on the Perry Como TV show.

The Eldoradoes are the El Dorados of  'At My Front Door' fame but with a different lead singer. 'Go Little Susie' was recorded by Those Four Eldoradoes for the Academy label in 1958.

Artie Wilkins and the Palms from Chicago released only three singles. The excellent 'Darling Patricia' was their first, released on the States label in 1956.

'I'm In Love' by the Velvet Angels is the only acappella song on this album. The Velvet Angels were the Diablos of Detroit moonlighting from Fortune Records. 'I'm In Love' was released in 1963 on the Medieval label.

Dean Barlow and the Bachelors recorded only two singles for the New York label Earl in 1956. 'Baby' was their second and last release.

The El Tones are the possibly only white vocal group on this album. Formed in Brooklyn, 'Lovin' With A Beat' was the B side of their only single 'Like Mattie', released on the Cub label in 1958. A little bit more about the El Tones can be found here.

Lee Andrews and the Hearts are probably best remembered for 'Long Lonely Nights' on Chess from 1957. 'Girl Around The Corner' is the B side to their follow up single 'Tear Drops' and features Thomas 'Butch' Curry on lead.

The Poets were from L.A. and featured, future jazz vibraphonist, Roy Ayers in their line up. Released in 1958 on the Flash label, 'Vowels Of Love' is the B side to their only single, the Halloween themed 'Dead'.

'Shortnin' Bread' released in 1963 on Liberty may be the only release by the Blisters, no other info can be found.

The Del Chords' 'Say That You Love Me' is the B side to 'Help Me' which was issued by Louisiana label Jin in 1960. I can't find anything out about the group.

The Monograms from Indianapolis only released one single under that name, and one as the Turbans. 'My Baby Dearest Darling' was the B side of 'Please Baby Please' released on the Saga label in 1957.

The Flamingos are easily the most famous and prolific group on this album and surely need no introduction, even if doo-wop is not your bag you will know 'I Only Have Eyes For You'. 'Let's Make Up' is the B side of 'The Ladder Of Love' released by Decca in 1957.

Denise

Randy And The Rainbows - Denise / The Four Pennies - My Block
LAURIE DOUBLE GOLD - LDG 110
Both originally released on RUST records 1963

Randy and the Rainbows may have been one hit wonders, but what a hit. This Italian-American vocal group from Queens, New York got to number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1963 with 'Denise'. Alas they never repeated the success and only recorded a couple more singles. The song is an all time classic though and has provided the group (in one form or another) with a career on the oldies circuit. They were still performing as of last year! The song went on to be a European smash hit in 1978 when Blondie covered it as 'Denis'.

'My Block' by the Four Pennies is a classic girl group ballad. The Four Pennies were in fact the Chiffons. In 1963 the girls were recording as both the Four Pennies and the Chiffons but when 'He's So Fine' became a smash hit and 'My Block', both released about the same time, went nowhere they abandoned the name the Four Pennies and the rest is history.

Go, Go Go, Go Gorilla Go......

The Ideals - The Gorilla / Mo Gorilla - 1963

The Ideals were a vocal group from Chicago who may or may not have included Major Lance in their line up at one time. When this song was recorded the line up was Reggie Jackson, Leonard Mitchell, Robert Tharp and Sam Stewart with the lead vocals of Eddie Williams, the backing band was the Outlaws. Released to cash in on the monkey dance craze by local label Concord, it was soon picked up for national distribution by the Cortland label. It never troubled any nation charts but it did earn the group their first national tour. The version I have (shown above) is a reissue by Norton Records on banana yellow vinyl and backed with their follow up single 'Mo Gorilla'.

So put on your dancing shoes and dance the Gorilla.......