Caroline Crawford's career started by recording for Motown in the 60's. Smokey Robinson wrote a minor R&B hit for her with ''My Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down)," but after three singles her contract was not renewed. Her next recording project was as part of the group Hodges, James, Smith and Crawford, but after two single releases, she left the group. Carolyn later joined the Detroit group Chapter 8 (before Anita Baker), but left after a short time to start her solo career up again in 1976. She was the featured vocalist on several of Hamilton Bohannon's singles and six of his albums, including his biggest US single hit "Let's Start the Dance" & also "Me and the Gang." She also recorded for Philadelphia International records in 1975. Bohannon produced her first two solo albums. ''I'll Be Here For You'' was included on her second 1979 solo album, Nice And Soulful'. The title of the album really describes this track, which is our latest SoulTracks Lost Gem. Check it out below and tell us what you think!
Birthday remembrance to Tammi Terrell (born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery- April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970). Tammi spent nearly two years as a member of James Brown's Revue, recording for Brown's Try Me label, recording the song "I Cried". She signed with Motown records in 1965, she was spotted by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, during a performance at the Twenty Grand Club in Detroit. Gordy suggested a name change. Figuring "Tammy Montgomery" was too long of a name to put on a single, Gordy changed it to "Tammi Terrell". He felt this name screamed "sex appeal". "I Can't Believe You Love Me" became Terrell's first US R&B/Soul top forty single, followed almost immediately by "Come On and See Me". In 1966, Terrell recorded two future classics, Stevie Wonder's "All I Do (Is Think About You)" (which were not released until fairly recently) and The Isley Brothers' "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)". In early 1967, Motown hired Terrell to sing duets with Marvin Gaye, who had achieved duet success with Mary Wells and Kim Weston. This was perfection, like a duet marriage that you could feel the love coming from the songs they recorded together, but at first the duets were recorded separately. The sessions of their first recording, the Ashford & Simpson composition, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", both Gaye and Terrell recorded separate versions. Motown remixed the vocals and edited out the background vocals, giving just Gaye and Terrell vocal dominance. The song became a crossover pop hit in 1967, "Your Precious Love" became a US follow up hit in 1967, along with, "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You", "If This World Were Mine" 1968, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", "You're All I Need to Get By" & "You Ain't Livin' till You're Lovin'" (UK top 20). Migraines and headaches that she suffered with as a child were becoming more constant. While she complained of pains, she insisted to people close to her that she was well enough to perform. However, on October 14, 1967, while performing with Gaye at Hampden-Sydney College, just outside the town of Farmville, Virginia, Terrell fell and buckled onstage; Gaye quickly responded by grabbing her by the arms and helping her offstage. Shortly after returning from Virginia, doctors diagnosed a malignant tumor on the right side of her brain. Terrell made her final public appearance at the Apollo Theater where Marvin Gaye was headlining the bill in 1969. "The Onion Song" featured, Valerie Simpson as a guide vocal. In David Ritz's biography of Gaye, Divided Soul, Gaye alleged that Simpson sung on the record because Terrell was "too ill to record". Terrell was in the studio, it was claimed, but was using a wheelchair. By early 1970 Terrell was confined to a wheelchair, suffered from blindness and hair loss, and weighed a scant 93 lb. Following her eighth and final operation on January 25, 1970, Terrell went into a coma for the remaining month and a half of her life. On March 16, Terrell died of complications from brain cancer. She passed six weeks short of her 25th birthday. Gone Too Soon for sure, her music will live forever & she will always be in our heart. GARY Van den Bussche
In the real world identity fraud would be a jail term, but on Facebook & Twitter people get away with it.
Billy Griffin ex lead singer of The Miracles has often highlighted his concern over fake profiles & expressed his dislike for it on his Facebook page. Tribute pages to our favorite artists is nice thing, but to try & be the artist is another.
A recent Tweeting incident on Twitter via The Cheryl Lynn twitter page really brought this to home. I have been a fan of Cheryl Lynn's music ever since her debut album & hit single, ''Got To Be Real'', so it was quite shock to see the Twitter account posting...
It's a shame that we have to wait until we die to get recognized for our work. And many years of music @BET and other networks.
In our Disco ,Soul, Gold Facebook & Twitter page we asked everybody to pray & our friends at Soul Tracks did the same (but later changed it, in view of below).
I just got off the phone with Cheryl and her Manager. She's fine!!! She didn't I repeat Did not have a stroke!!! She's in great health and dropping new music very soon!!!!
Soul tracks wrote Cheryl was happily shopping at the mall when the word of the Twitter posts hit her. She has no Twitter page and no son posting messages. It was all a lie, but for what twisted reason we can't even guess. Many thanks to our good friend, singer Will Downing, who connected us with Cheryl's manager, who set the record straight. We are ecstatic that Cheryl is 100% healthy, but are scratching our heads about what kind of person creates such a hoax. And we are sorry for any role we played in assisting those who were trying to fool Cheryl's fans.
So at the end of the day, Miss Lynn is in good health, which is the main thing, but for our peace of mind, its always best to get these stories verified. Do fake Facebook / Twitter accounts upset fans & damage the real artists credibility ? For the record -This @itsCherylLynn has now unfollowed us on Twittter.
Cheryl Lynn stroke story a cruel internet hoax Cheryl Lynn
Birthday Remembrance to Valorie Jones (17 April 1956- December 2, 2001). Valorie was the youngest sister of The Jones Girls (Shirley, Brenda). They are best known for their hit songs " You Gonna' Make Me Love Somebody Else" and "Nights Over Egypt.". Thanks to Brenda Jones for writing... I celebrate the birthday of my baby sister and dearest friend Valorie Denise Jones. Valorie, was a very warm, loving, caring person, who loved life! She was full of laughter, endless jokes and could imitate ANYONE! But for me there was one gift that I always held dear. From childhood to adulthood--she had my back. We had each other's backs.
We were blessed enough to share our passion of singing with fans around the world, but what many don't know, is as much as she loved performing, off stage, she was a perpetual student who loved to learn, studying everything from foreign languages to law and politics. But her best role wasn't sister, singer or student. It was mother, and she would pour her love and attention on her son, Phelton. All her skills came together in one perfect role. Her love escalated with him. The songs she wrote to soothe him, were sweeter than any song she ever sang. And the perpetual student became a teacher, helping Phelton to discover and hone his musical talents. It's no mistaking that her legacy lives on in him. Don't believe me? You can check him out on Facebook: Phelton Phelpz Jones and/or Fans Of Phelpz Productions. Over the twelve and a half years, that she's been gone, there are times when the feeling of Val not being here still kills me. But I always remember that she's right here in my heart. So today I touch my heart and say, "I Love You, Val and I miss you so much!" Happy Birthday, Sweetie!! Brenda Jones
" Success Is Getting What You Want, Happiness Is Wanting What You Get." ~ Valorie D. Jones
Lisa Stansfield opening song was, ''Set Your Loving Free'' for her first UK concert in years which started in Bexhill On Sea East Sussex, England . All though the wet, windy & damp weather outside, you could feel the warmth of her walking on to the stage inside singing, ''Set Your Loving Free''. She had a great 8 piece band & one backing singer with a cool new brassy sound. Most of the hits were featured, '' Change'' with a Latin / salsa ending, ''All Woman'' was done with an acoustic arrangement, ''People Hold On'', ''Someday'', Barry White's ''Never gonna give Ya up,'' ''Time to make You Mine'' plus a new song about killing your husband, where she said she had not killed hers yet!! looking at him on the keyboard. There was a nice kinda Stax sound going around in the horn section, which came through nicely on her new tracks. She liked, Bexhill - She joked, she expected to see, '' Poirot'' on the stage. The encore was ,'' All around the world'' & before you knew it, the one & half hours had flown past. Thank you Lisa & come back again soon.
In Loving Memory of Edwin Starr (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003). He was most famous for his Motown records hits such as, ''War'', ''25 Miles'', "S.O.S. (Stop Her on Sight)", ''Agent Double-O-Soul'', "Headline News", ''Time'', "There You Go", plus many others that went from 1965, through to the early 70's. He was so popular in the UK, that he moved here. He was not just a great singer, but excellent live performer with his reputation always gave him a good following. The Disco period was great for Edwin Starr, as he got himself another run of hit singles such as, ''Happy Radio'', ''Contact'' & "It's Called The Rock". I was lucky to have met him in 1983, when he rang me, at first he asked if i could support him playing his music in a concert he had planned, because i could not do this on that day, i made him a cassette tape of his songs, which he played instead, he was so delighted, that he invited me to meet & watch him record a song he was recording in, ''Camden's Roundhouse'', called ''Smooth''. His voice was outstanding, he was very funny & great fun, he let me in at a young age join in with the production of the, ''Sexual Healing'' inspired song. For all those of us that knew him, or even fans of his still sadly miss him. His music will be remembered forever. In 1984 he recorded his tribute to Marvin Gaye called, "Marvin", strange coincidence that he should die oh his birthday. He was only 61 when he had a heart attack, while taking a bath at his home in Bramcote near Nottingham. GARY
Frankie Knuckles (Jan. 18, 1955 - Mar. 31, 2014)
It's with greatest sadness that we've been reported about the passing of Frankie Knuckles, 59, at home, yesterday afternoon, living the whole House scene like some orphan. In these tragic circumstances, our deepest thoughts go to his family, his colleagues at Def Mix (David Morales, Satoshi Tomiie, Hector Romero, Bobby D'Ambrosio, Eric Kupper, not to mention Judy Weinstein) and countless friends...
The news has been confirmed by his longtime business partner, Frederick Dunson, who said in an email this Mon. Mar. 31, 2014 that Frankie "died unexpectedly this afternoon at home". In addition to developing the sound and culture of House Music, Knuckles would go on to mix records by major artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Depeche Mode.
Born in the Bronx, NYC on Jan. 18, 1955, Frankie learnt his craft as a DJ in the Big Apple, playing Soul, Disco, and R&B at The Continental Baths with fellow DJ Larry Levan during the second half of the seventies - "We would spend entire afternoons working up ideas on how to present a record so that people would hear it in a new way and fall in love with it. To us it was an art form.", he explained - , eventually spinning at Chicago the Warehouse on a regular basis, prior movin' to the Windy City just when Disco was loosing steam...
"I witnessed that caper that Steve Dahl pulled at Disco Demolition Night - it took place on Jul. 12 1979, at Cosmikey Park in Chicago - and it didn't mean a thing to me or my crowd", Knuckles told the Tribune. "But it scared the record companies, so they stopped signing Disco artists and making Disco records. So we created our own thing in Chicago to fill the gap."
Knuckles got his first drum machine from a young Derrick May, who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see him back then at the Warehouse and Ron Hardy at the Music Box, both in Chicago. Frankie also had a musical partnership with Chicago artist Jamie Principle, and helped put 'Your Love' and 'Baby Wants To Ride' out on vinyl after these tunes had been regulars on his reel-to-reel player at the Warehouse for a year. Meanwhile, he would DJ at the Warehouse until 1983, when he started his own club, The Power Plant...
He became known as "the Godfather of Chicago House Music". He would extend mixes of Soul and R&B records and turn them into Dance tracks, introduce new singles being produced by fledgling House artists and incorporate drum machines to emphasize the beat. In addition to building dynamic ebb-and-flow sets that would keep his dancefloor filled from midnight to noon on weekends, he would create theater-of-the-mind scenarios with inventive sound and lighting. "Sometimes I’d shut down all the lights and set up a record where it would sound like a speeding train was about to crash into the club. People would lose their minds."
He made numerous popular Def Classic Mixes with John Poppo as sound engineer, and partnered with David Morales on Def Mix Productions. With several important original productions and remixes to his name, by the early 90's, Knuckles was becoming a well-known name in the increasingly popular House Music genre.
As a reviewer and the editor of a magazine dedicated to Dance Music, I've had the pleasure of meeting Frankie countless times, beginning in Miami at the Winter Music Conference. Just as David Morales who I also met very often, Frankie always managed to be accessible and so friendly, not loosing any opportunity to spread love and respect around him, be he behind the decks or in the streets.
The last time I met him would be on Broadway, NYC, alongside the whole Def Mix family and Judy Weinstein at their HQ back in the first half of the 2000's...
Ironically, but how could have it been otherwise, he was a part of our A Day in the life of... series here on facebook.com/indamixworldwide just a couple of days ago.
So long, Frankie and R.I.P. The news of your death leaves us, music lovers, speechless...
With eternal Love & Respect,
MFSB
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