THE MANHATTANS – part 1
In the words of Bar Mix Master “the blend
of the charred oak, spiciness, of Bourbon; the sweet, herbal, and slight
caramel flavour of Sweet Vermouth; and the indescribable flavour of bitters
combine to make a cocktail like none other.” This cocktail “is said to have
been invented in New York’s Manhattan Club in 1874 at the request of Winston
Churchill’s mother, Lady Randolph Churchill to celebrate a newly
elected governor” (http://barmixmaster.com).
The cocktail still these days is known as the Manhattan.
This is a
multi-part story of one of the greatest and best-loved groups in the history of
soul music, the Manhattans, told by its present end ex-members and many
other music business figures, who have been dealing with the group throughout
the years. As to the origin of the name of the group, there have been
different recollections. One member is in favour of the skyline they could see
right across the water from the Jersey City - “Manhattan was close to New Jersey. It was easy to remember, and we just felt we wanted to represent class” – but another
member, Mr. Winfred “Blue” Lovett, remembers slightly differently: “We
collectively came up with the Manhattans, but we referred ourselves to the
alcoholic drink. Everybody thought the name was from the borough of the New York anyway, so we just grabbed on to that.”
(The pic courtesy of Mrs. Jeanie Scott)
The five singers, who became the first
members of the Manhattans in the early 60s, went to two Jersey City high
schools in the 50s - George Smith and Richard Taylor to Snyder
High and Winfred Lovett, Kenneth Kelly and Edward Bivins to
Lincoln High.
(Sonny Bivins pic taken from www.themanhattans.net)
EDWARD “SONNY” BIVINS
Edward Jessie
Bivins, Jr. (tenor) is the senior member of the group in terms of his age, as
he was born on January 15 in 1936. Still today he’s best known as “Sonny” -
“when I was young, I was always smiling” – but his other nickname used to be
“Dip.” Sonny: “I played baseball. Then I started singing, and I couldn’t sing
and play baseball at the same time.” He played minor league baseball in the
Jersey City All-Stars.
Sonny was born
in Macon, Georgia, to Willie and Edward Bivins. “My father
tap-danced, and I got into music through my father.” Sonny had two brothers,
Donald and James, but no sisters. In Macon he started singing in a school
choir and glee club. “We moved no New Jersey in 1950, and I went to Lincoln
High in 1951. In school I was two years ahead of Kenny Kelly and Blue Lovett,
and we all used to sing around school and on the street corners.”
Sonny’s early
idol was Sam Cooke, and of the later acts he puts the Temptations first,
but thinks highly of the Dells, the Spinners, the O’Jays and B.B.
King, too. His all-time favourite record is To Each His Own by Nat
King Cole. He has five children – Mark, Pam, Doug, Yvette and Kenny – but
they’re not active in music. “They have their own things they wanted to do in
life.”
(On the right: Early Smitty; The pic courtesy of Mrs. Jeanie Scott)
Sonny reminisces
how he met their future lead singer, George Smith, for the first time during a
teen dance night at the YMCA in 1953 in Jersey City. “I heard somebody playing
the piano in the adjacent room from the dance hall. Slowly I opened the door
and peeked my head inside and saw a young, teenage guy about my age playing the
piano and singing I Cried in my Mother’s Arms. I walked over to him and
started to harmonize with him. We looked at each other, smiled and we
introduced ourselves. His name was George “Smitty” Smith. As time went on,
our relationship grew closer and we eventually left high school and went into the
military vowing to complete our high school education once we got out of the
service.”
In 1954 Sonny
joined the NG. “After the National Guard, I was in the Air Force in Germany till 1957.”
(Smitty at the Apollo; The pic courtesy of Mrs. Jeanie Scott)
GEORGE “SMITTY” SMITH
The second
oldest in the first line-up of the Manhattans is George Hoza Smith (tenor), who
was born in Florida on December 18 in 1939. Jeanie Scott: “His mother
couldn’t remember his actual birth date. It was either supposed to be December
the 18th, or December the 28th.” Mrs. Jeanie Scott,
formerly McCarthy, who today is the wife of the legendary Jimmy Scott
and handles his business (www.jimmyscottofficialwebsite.org
), lived with Smitty until his untimely passing in December 1970. “We got
together in 1969, so I was with him maybe a year and a half.”
(On the right: Jimmy Scott, The pic courtesy of Mrs. Jeanie Scott)
“When Smitty was
a toddler, perhaps four years old, his mother and his father separated. The
only thing he could remember about his father is him walking with some dogs
(laughing). His mother moved to Jersey City with Smitty and his oldest sister Marion.
Marion has lived her whole adult life in California. Eventually his mother
married another man, whose last name was Smith, and he became Smitty’s
stepfather, and that’s how he got his name. Smitty’s mother had ten children.
After Marion and Smitty – who they all called ‘Brother’ – she had eight other
children, so Smitty had three half brothers and five half sisters. Tommy was
Smitty’s youngest brother and he had a group called 8 Mile High. The
other brothers, Bobby and Joe, had a group of their own, too, Out of Limits.”
“Smitty had
three children. When Smitty was fifteen years old, his girlfriend got pregnant
with George, Jr., aka ‘Dewberry’, so they got married. George, Jr. looked
exactly like him. After he came back from the service, she had another baby
while he was away, Michelle, which Smitty took as his own. Later he had his
daughter Paula with a girlfriend.”
Through his
mother, Smitty first sang gospel music in church and then joined his newly-found
singing pals, while in Snyder High. “Smitty and Sonny were close at the time,
Blue and Kenny were close”. After
Snyder High, Smitty joined the Air Force and was stationed in California for two
years.
(Smitty & Jeanie; The pic courtesy of Mrs. Jeanie Scott)
Jeanie: “My
first memory of the Manhattans would be hearing their records on the radio - I’m
the one that Love Forgot, Searchin’ for my Baby... I had been going to all
their shows and I kind of had a crush on Smitty, but I was afraid to talk to
him. I had seen him around, and I was peeking around corners at him. Eugene
Pitt of the Jive Five would tease me and say ‘go on and knock on
their dressing room door and talk to Smitty’, but I wouldn’t go over there. It
wasn’t until a couple of years later. They were about to do a show at the
Cheetah in New York on 52nd street. I sent Smitty a message and he
called me up and he came over to my house the next day. We got together, and
we were together ever since, and he moved me in his mother’s house until he
passed. As a matter of fact, I stayed with her for a couple of years after
that and I remained close to the family throughout the years, especially with
Smitty's Mother, brother Bobby - who was like a brother - and Smitty's
children George, Jr., & Paula.”
WINFRED “BLUE “LOVETT
Winfred Lorenzo
Lovett (bass) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on November 16 in 1936 to Lovonia
and William Lovett. “My father was a singer in church, and he made
it mandatory that I sing in church on every Sunday also.” Winfred has two
sisters, Billie and Gwendolyn, and today he resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
Most know this
bass singer extraordinaire best under the simple moniker of “Blue.” “It’s my
so-called nick-name. If you hung out on streets - and you’re not necessarily
bad or are in gangs and nothing like that - you had a nick-name, and because of
my complexion and a long hair and a beard “Blue Jesus” was my name. I
naturally dropped the ’Jesus’ and kept the ‘Blue’.” During his high-school
years he was also called “Bacon” for a short while.
Blue has seven
children: William, Robyn, Tania, Kia, Damon, Marisa and Rico. “None of them do
anything professionally in music, except Rico, who was born in 1986 and who
does rapping. All my kids live on the west coast.”
Some of Blue’s
favourite recordings of all times include Neither One of Us by Gladys
Knight & the Pips and Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye.
“Also Luther Vandross has come up with some magnificent songs that I
like. I think my all-time bass singer would be Melvin Franklin of the
Temptations. The Temptations started us off. We patterned us after the Temptations
and Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions.”
In Lincoln High,
Blue played football and baseball. “Then I couldn’t play sports because of my
asthma. Baseball was out and football was definitely out, so my third choice
was music, and I never thought that I would get an opportunity. If you were
from the New York area, it was very hard back then to get a record deal. You
had to be discovered.”
“I did locally
high school groups, but nothing ever happened. We just sang to entertain our
families, fans, girlfriends... In Lincoln high school Sonny, Kelly and I took
part in a singing contest in a variety show and we won. I forgot the name of
our group in high school.” All five Manhattans boys got to know each other
already in the 50s. “All five of us met during the high school days. Sonny
Bivins, Kenneth Kelly and myself went to Lincoln, and Richard Taylor and George
Smith went to Snyder, which were competing high schools in Jersey City.”
In the late 50s
Blue was drafted. “I was in the Air Force. I was in France, but they closed
that base and I was transferred to Wiesbaden, Germany. I was discharged in
1960...’61. There in Germany I had a group of my own called the Statesmen.
It was me and four other guys, but not Sonny and Richard. They were stationed
in the Air Force in Germany, too, but they were stationed elsewhere.”
KENNETH “WALLY” KELLY
Kenneth Bernard
Kelly (tenor) was born on January 9 in 1941 in Jersey City to Eloise and Lloyd
Kelly. Kenny: “My parents are both deceased. My mother belonged to a chorus,
when she was younger. She sang in a church choir.” Besides one brother,
Adonis, Kenny has three step-brothers and a sister. His two children are
called Kai and Monee.
Kenny’s last
name is spelt both Kelley, and Kelly. “My father spelt his last name Kelly.
There happened a vocabulary error somewhere along the line, and my last name
got changed to Kelley. As I grew older, according to certain situations I ran
in and out of, they assumed it was supposed to be spelt Kelley. I didn’t go
through the corrections, so there exist two spellings of my last name. Most of
my IDs have Kelly, so I mostly use Kelly.”
Kenny’s nickname
is Wally. “We had a guitar player named Charles Reed and he gave it to
me, because I was always telling people different little things and answering
to their questions.” Kenny is the only college graduate among the members of
the group, and he graduated from Morgan State University in Baltimore,
Maryland, in 1963.
“Being in a
group situation, we idolized a lot of groups – the Spaniels, and later
the Temptations and Smokey & the Miracles. Later I had one idol and that
was Ray Charles.” Kenny’s favourite record is Letter Full of Tears by
Gladys Knight & the Pips, and besides singing he plays piano, trumpet and
baritone sax.
“I played in a
high school band in Jersey City. I started messing around with my neighbour
next door, which was Sonny. He played guitar. We just started singing
together, and he introduced me to some guys, who sang. It was just something
we did, because we liked doing it. Group singing was popular at that point of
time. We all would cross each other at some point. We formed different
groups, and from that we eventually came in contact with each other.”
“Sonny belonged
to this one group, and he brought me in to hear what the group sounded like. I
don’t remember the name of the group, but one member kept missing the
rehearsals and I – having been there so frequently and knowing his parts – said
‘okay, I’ll do it’.”
“I grew up with
some of the members of the Manhattans. We met in the 50s. I don’t know what
groups Richard came out of and I don’t remember what groups Blue was with.
Blue was with several groups. A lot of the groups didn’t stay together.
They’d form and break up. One group that I, Sonny, Smitty and somebody else
were part of was called the Socialeers. We sang in local clubs and
talent shows. That group started breaking up, because people had other
commitments.” Right after Lincoln High, Kenny joined the Navy, which was
followed by his three-year college period in Baltimore. He would meet the
other fellows again in 1963.
THE DULCETS
One early
incarnation of the Manhattans was as lucky as to even cut a record in 1961.
Smitty, Blue, Sonny, Ethel Samuels and Buddy Bell had formed
another group and they called themselves the Dulcets. This quintet
under a misspelt name of the Dorsets released a single on a New York
label called Asnes. The plug side, a slowly and heavily swaying post-doowop,
novelty type of a song, was titled Pork Chops (Asnes 101), and in style
and interpretation it owes a lot to the Olympics or the Coasters
of those days. Blue: “yes, that’s the flavour we had on that.”
Smitty is
leading on the song that was written by him, Frennie Brooks and John
Brown (mistakenly printed as Bowden on the label). Blue: “I think the
owner of Asnes was Frennie Brooks, and those guys, Brooks and Brown, worked at
the airport and recorded us. Nobody heard the record – or perhaps twenty-five
people – but nobody bought it. It didn’t do anything.” Sonny: “I was laughing,
when we did it... but it was okay.” Backed by an uptempo ditty called Cool
It, Pork Chops was re-released four years later in the U.K. on the
Sue label (391).
Some of the
other artists on the short-lived Asnes label were Ernie Johnson (You
Need Love) and a “Jamaican doowop” outfit named the Jiving
Juniors (Moonlight Lover). Soon after Pork Chops the Dulcets
disbanded, so there was no follow-up record. Sonny: “Everybody decided to go
their own ways. Ethel and Buddy are still around. I see Buddy every now and
then. They are here in New Jersey.”
THE OTHER MANHATTANS
Blue: “We had a
battle for the name, until I Wanna Be was released. There was another
Manhattans, and the union insisted that whoever came out with the first hit
they would be able to maintain the name, and I Wanna Be (Your Everything) came
out in ’64 and that was the way we won the name over.”
Music history
knows many groups, who have used the name ‘Manhattans’. There are Eli &
the Manhattans, Ronnie & the Manhattans and several plain Manhattanses.
In the 50s and 60s singles by these groups have appeared on such labels as
Dootone, King, Big Mack, Boss, Colpix, Ransom, Web, Piney, Enjoy, Golden World,
Atlantic and Avanti, but not any of them is by our group. Blue: “From ’61
through ’64 we tried desperately to get a recording deal, but it was
impossible.”
There was at
least one occasion, when they actually entered the studio and were ready for Danny
Robinson (Bobby Robinson’s brother) to record them, but nothing came
out of it. Blue: “He never recorded us. He pretended to record us, but he
never did anything with us.”
Kenny: “I became
a Manhattan as a result of the group I was introduced to. The members of that group
started also not making the rehearsals. Sonny was part of that group and
Smitty was already there. We wanted this group to come together. We already
knew who we wanted to have as ideal members. So Sonny brought me in,
introduced me to the group and then one of the other members stopped making
rehearsals. He was a truck driver. Then they brought Richie in. We had to
just get a bass voice, and everybody wanted to see if we could get Blue again.
He agreed and that’s how we got together.”
(The pic courtesy of Mrs. Jeanie Scott)
JOE EVANS
Mr. Joe Evans
is a seasoned musician, to say the least. Throughout decades he has played
with a number of jazz, blues and rhythm & blues luminaries, but for the
Manhattans he was first and foremost the owner of Carnival Records and the
gentleman, who gave them their first record release in 1964.
Joe Evans, Jr,
was born in Pensacola, Florida, on October 7 in 1916, so this year he’ll turn
ninety-four. He started playing the saxophone in the 1930s in the Ray Shep
Band, moved to New York in 1938 and has since played with Jay McShann,
Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel
Hampton, to name a few. All this is documented in a fascinating book
titled Follow Your Heart (ISBN-13978-0-252-03303-2; University of
Illinois Press, http://www.press.uillinois.edu;
180 pages + 22 with photos; 2008), written by Mr. Evans himself and Christopher
Brooks. It’s an interesting read and contains many remarkable stories
starting from Joe’s early days as a musician. He sheds light on touring the
south in the 30s, working with such artists as “Ma” Rainey, Billie Holiday,
Al Hibbler, Ivory Joe Hunter, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke, running
record companies in the 60s and 70s and life after an active and many-sided
career in music.
Mr. Evans, who
today lives in Richmond, Virginia, was kind enough to talk about the
Manhattans, Carnival Records and some other points of his career for this
article, too. In the 50s he belonged to the Apollo Theater house band in New
York. “It was very nice. It wasn’t tough. We played five shows a day, and
one night a week you played a midnight show. On Wednesday night they had an
Amateur Hour. A lot of the stars were discouraged in that show at the Apollo.
The audience was very responsive. On Wednesday night, if you weren’t good,
they would boo you. They had a guy called Porto Rico, who would come
out in different costumes chasing you off the stage, if they didn’t like you.
But the audience was very good to you, if they liked you.”
CEE-JAY, TANGERINE, MOTOWN...
In the late 50s
Joe met with Clarence Johnson, and became a partner with him in running
a record label. “Cee Jay – that was initials for Clarence Johnson. We
called him ‘Jack Rags’. He’s the man that taught me the record business. He
played trombone and had played in several bands. He talked me into going into
the record business. He knew it, because he was already in it.”
The roster at
Cee Jay in 1960 and 1961 included Mike & the Utopians, Sherman Williams,
Jay Dee Bryant & the Magic Knights, Little Roy Little, the Four Kings,
Jimmy Spruill & his Band, the Vines, Delroy Green & the Cool Gents and
Harry Lewis & his Orchestra... but there wasn’t a hit-making unit.
“Most of those artists just gave up. Then some of them continued to try to be
a success, but they never made it. A lot of them joined other groups, and some
of those groups became famous.”
“On that label
we mostly did r&b stuff. One big record we had on Cee Jay was a blues
record, and it was called I’m a Little Mixed Up by Betty James (583).
Leonard Chess of the Chess Records leased it, took it over and made it a
big record.”
Clarence Johnson
passed away in late 1961, the label ceased to exist and Joe proceeded to work
for Ray Charles. “It was very nice. I was working as a promotion
director. Ray had a label that was distributed by ABC-Paramount called
Tangerine. I did a lot of work coast-to-coast. He was a very nice man, very
nice to work with.” Since its start in 1962 Tangerine signed many established
artists – Percy Mayfield, Lula Reed, Louis Jordan etc. – but hit-wise it
wasn’t a very successful company. “I believe that Ray had an idea what was
good, but it was not the same idea what was happening in the business at the
time. This is just my belief. He could make hits, but other artists that
weren’t as strong couldn’t make hits like that. The material wasn’t as strong
as his and they weren’t as dynamic as he was. Then he had a band on the road
for the people to hear him in person and he could influence people that way.
And he was very good at what he did. Other artists couldn’t get away with
that.”
After Ray, Joe
worked for a growing Detroit company called Motown after being approached by another
saxophone player and a band leader named Choker Campbell. “I was
working and travelling with their show, the Motown Review. I was playing
mostly background for the artists, but I did a lot of recording with them,
too. I recorded with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, their
girl groups, several artists...”
CARNIVAL RECORDS
With Cee-Jay
Records Joe had become so attached to the record business that in conjunction
with his work at Tangerine he launched and started running a label of his own
called Carnival, a name he picked up from a billboard ad. Joe formed the label
in 1962 together with Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams, a saxophonist,
bandleader and recording artist in his own right that Joe had met in Detroit
already in the 40s. They also formed Bright Star Publishing Company (with
BMI), and Paul’s home address – 605 West, 156th Street, New York –
became the company and label address.
The first
release, Your Yah-Yah Is Gone (501), was by a girl group called the
Tren-Teens, who were scheduled to cut the record already for Cee-Jay. The
song owes some to Lee Dorsey’s Ya Ya, released a year earlier on
Fury. The Tren-Teens’ debut single was followed by Delores Johnson’s
big-voiced r&b belter titled What Kind Of Man Are You, (502).
You can listen to some mp3’s at www.westwoodmusicgroup.com
-> Carnival Records.
Joe’s and Paul’s
Carnival Records shouldn’t be mixed up with Jerry Moss’ and Herb
Albert’s label by the same name in 1961, which turned into A&M a year
later. Also Atlantic’s Herb Abramson’s Carnival is a different label.
The third artist
for the label was Barbara Brown, who cut in ‘63 a pleading r&b
ballad named Send Him to Me (b/w a cute toe-tapper, Sometimes I
Wonder), but Barbara’s boyfriend wouldn’t allow her to continue show
business career and perform in front of other men, so after one more single a
year later she dropped out. She, however, was an important link in Joe and the
Manhattans hooking up with each other.
THE MANHATTANS TO MOTOWN
Barbara told Joe
Evans about the group, but there are two slightly different stories as to how
the two actually met for the first time. Sonny: “Richard, Smitty, Kenny, Blue
and I felt that we had put in enough time and hard work to compete at Harlem’s
famous Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night, which was held every Wednesday night.
So from Jersey City we went to the Apollo and placed 3rd that
night. But as fate would have it, Joe Evans was in the house that night. And
despite coming third, we really won that night, because he signed us to his
Carnival Record label.”
Blue: “A
gentleman called Joe Evans was the one who saw us and liked us. He played alto
sax in Choker Campbell’s orchestra that travelled with the Motown acts. Joe
Evans’ vision was to start a “Motown” in the New York area, and Barbara Brown
was one of his first artists. Barbara told him about us and he caught us at
the Apollo.”
Joe: “One of the
artists on Carnival, Barbara Brown, was responsible for me meeting them. She
gave them my phone number, they called me and then we set up an appointment at
the Theresa Hotel. I had Paul Williams with me. If I saw them earlier, I
didn’t remember them, but I never met them in person until they came into the
Theresa.”
“The songs that
they sang that day were songs that were made popular by other groups during
that time. They sang two or three songs like that. They sang the songs better
than the groups that had recorded them (laughing). I said to Paul Williams
‘that is a million-dollar group’, and he said ‘oh, you’re crazy’, but later he
said ‘you’re right, you knew what you were talking about’.”
“I asked them
‘do you want a record contract’, and they said ‘yes’, but then they said that
‘everybody promises to record us but they never get around to it’. Then they
told me that they had been approached by Bobby Robinson’s brother, Danny
Robinson. He was in the record business also (Everlast, Enjoy). They tell
them to come to the record session, but when they get there they’re recording
someone else and tell them ‘we’ll get around to you’, and when they would finish
late at night everybody would pack up and go home. They said that happened to
them two or three times. I said ‘well, it won’t happen with me, because if I
promise to record you and sign you, I will record you’.”
“The next day
they signed the contract and brought it back to me. I asked them had they gone
over the contract with their parents or friends, they said ‘no, we don’t need
to do that. We’re over twenty-one and speak for ourselves’. So we started
from there.”
Joe was still
working for Motown, so he took the first two songs he cut on the Manhattans to
Detroit first. “I put them on tape and I took the recording to Berry Gordy.
He liked it, but he wouldn’t go ahead of Mickey Stevenson. He put him
over that, and I would have to talk to him. When I spoke with Mickey
Stevenson, he wanted to take it over and only put perhaps my name on a record
or something like that. I’ve been in the business too long for that and I
wouldn’t go for that, so I didn’t talk to him anymore about them.” Joe soon left
Motown altogether.
MUSICIANS, STUDIOS, MIXING...
Joe put the
Manhattans on his own Carnival label. For his recording sessions he favoured
one particular studio and he used a permanent line-up of rhythm section
players. “For most of the recordings I used Talent Masters in New York,
because I worked very well with the engineer there. His name was Bob Gallo,
and he was also a guitarist.”
“For the rhythm
section I had a regular bunch. There was Bernard Purdie, who was the
drummer, and Jimmy Tyrell was the bass player. Robert Banks was
the pianist. “Snaggs” Allen was the guitarist and Eric Gale was
the other guitarist. They recorded all the Manhattans backgrounds.”
“I did the mix.
I would record the track first. When I record the track, I would let the
vocals sing along with it, just to give the musicians the feel of the song.
They didn’t have to be good. They were not for the record.” As Mr. Evans
tells in the book Follow Your Heart, on four-track tapes that he
used those days “track one was for the lead singer, two was for the background
singers, three was for the rhythm section and the fourth track was for whatever
additional instruments were necessary.”
“When I put the
strings down – I think there were five or six of them – in the mix I would
double them up. If I wanted a light sound, I would double them once, and if I
wanted something heavier, I would record those five or six in one register and
then I make another take of them in another music I wrote. The horns I didn’t
double up much. I used the trumpets and I used the trombone most of the time,
but I would blend the trombone into the bass sound, and that blend had a
different sound to it. When I used the girls in the background, I used the
Lovettes, especially with the Manhattans.”
Kenny: “We used
Talent Masters Studios in Manhattan. Only studios we used in Jersey City was
the rehearsal studios. How many takes we needed? It all depends on the song.
Some of the songs we did once, and that was it. We were always told ‘time was
money’. It was no use in going there and not be prepared to go. So we tried
to prepare ourselves as much as we possibly could, before we went in.”
“FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME”
Those two songs
that Joe first took to Berry Gordy were finally put out on the first Carnival
single (504) by the Manhattans in March 1964. Sonny: “Our first single, For
the Very First Time, was a hit locally in the tri-city area.” George
Smith, their lead singer, also wrote the song, which is a rather typical dancer
of those days and actually sounds like it could have been cut a couple of years
earlier. The flip, a mid-tempo and mellow mover titled I’ve Got Everything
but You, was written by Joe and his newlywed wife, Anna Moore. Anna
took care of the company’s bookkeeping and her sister, Louise, became an assistant
in the firm.
Perhaps a local
hit, but nationally For the Very First Time didn’t make any waves.
According to Joe, their follow-up, There Goes a Fool/Call Somebody Please (506),
did a little better. Released in August 1964, There Goes a Fool was
written by Sonny. “I had written plenty of songs, but that was the first one
recorded.” It’s an uptempo pop song, which undoubtedly was musically
influenced by the British invasion those days. Smitty is again leading, and
you can even hear a short flute solo by the producer himself, Mr. Joe Evans. Call
Somebody Please is a mid-tempo pop ditty, which Blue wrote and he also
leads on this side.
Those days Paul
Williams decided to leave the company to pursue other interests such as
managing artists, so Joe now had the company all to himself. He formed a new
publishing company called Sanavan – the name comes from Anna and Evans – and
the new Carnival address became 350 Chadwick Avenue in Newark, Joe’s home
address.
OTHER MERRYMAKERS
Although the
Manhattans eventually became Carnival’s leading act and breadwinner for the
company, many other interesting artists had releases on the label, too. Curly
Mayes cut a poppy umptempo ditty called Oh Why (b/w I’m Walkin’
On, Carnival 505) in 1964. Joe: “He was out west somewhere. I’m still
looking for him now, because I have a chance to put one of the songs on his
records on a television movie.”
Smitty invited
his friend, Curby Goggins, to the company. Curby also cut only one
single (Come Home to Daddy/Love Me If You Want to; 510) in 1965. Harry
Caldwell sang in his high tenor voice a teenage anguish ballad named Nobody
Loves Me on Carnival 516 in 1966. It was backed with another yearning
song, this time a mid-pacer titled Nobody Loves Me, co-written by Blue
Lovett. Joe: “I haven’t seen Harry for years. He’s down in North Carolina
somewhere. He was from Charlotte, North Carolina. He was also a brick mason,
and he travelled around.” Harry’s second single, a sympathetic “hippie” ballad
called A New World Is Just Beginning (547), was released as late as in
1970.
The Lovettes had
two single releases and both Little Miss Soul (518 in 1966), and I
Need a Guy (530 in 1967) were written by Blue. Blue: “They lived in Jersey
City. We all grew up together wanting to be recording artists, and Joe Evans
loved them. We used them sometimes as female background singers, and we were
looking for that Motown thing that Berry Gordy did. The idea that Joe had was
to record these young ladies and hopefully get a hit on them.” Indeed, Little
Miss Soul is like a standard Motown scorcher, whereas the flip, Lonely
Girl, is a downbeat tender song. I Need a Guy is again a motownish
mid-pacer, while I’m Afraid (to Say I Love you) on the flip is a
poignant beat-ballad.
Norma Jenkins
recorded Blue’s poignant ballad, Need Someone to Love (528; b/w a
stomper called Me, Myself and I) in 1967. Blue had invited Norma to
Carnival. Blue: “She was very good.” Male duos were popular throughout the 60s,
and one single by Carnival’s own Turner Brothers proved that as singers
they were equal to many of their colleagues. I’m the Man For You Baby (535)
is an almost deep soul ballad, while My Love Is Yours Tonight is a more
mid-tempo mover. Joe: “I haven’t seen them recently. These people are hard to
keep up with. They came from someplace down south. They were quite active.
They got around.”
Kenneth
Ruffin stayed at Carnival for one single as well. I’ll Keep Holding On (536)
is a pleading soul ballad with a strong support from the horn section, whereas Cry,
Cry, Cry is a blues romp. Joe: “Kenny was basically a writer, but I
recorded him, because some things he sang quite well. I’ve been searching for
him, too. He wrote several songs that other artists did.”
It’s Too Late
and I’m Just Gonna Be Missing You (539 in 1968) by Rene Bailey
let you know from the opening bars that here we have one big-voiced blues lady.
Joe: “She lives in upstate New York. I call to Rene all the time. She’s
partly retired. She sings on most of the weekends, and she’s teaching the
school.”
In the next part
of the story I’ll still feature two other popular Carnival acts – Phil
Terrell and Lee Williams and the Cymbals - more in detail and with
comments from the artists themselves. In their roster Carnival also had such
familiar names to the fans of genuine soul music as Little Royal, who
cut a fine soul ballad titled I Can Tell, and Jimmy Jules, who
excelled on an Otis type of a slowie named Nothing Will Ever Change. Both
singles were released in ’67.
LET’S DANCE FIRST...
So far on all
four released Manhattans sides on Carnival Records the songs had been dancers,
and we had to wait till the fourth single to hear a ballad. Joe: “Uptempo
things were easier to get played. If you had a name, they’d play anything, but
the best way to get new artists played was play an uptempo record. When you
take it to a deejay, they put it on and they don’t listen to the whole song. They
listen to the introduction and a little bit and tell you ‘I’ll play it’. If
you have a slow song, they don’t listen enough, no matter what it is. So you
had to have a little bit of rhythm to the song for them to give you a break
with.”
The Manhattans’
third Carnival single was also a mover, but it became their first hit and
marked the beginning of a remarkable success story. That song as well as the
rest of the Carnival period and DeLuxe period will be covered in the second
part of the story.
Heikki Suosalo
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS(so far)
INTERVIEWEES:
Gerald Alston, Edward Bivins, Joe Evans, Kenneth Kelly, Winfred Lovett, Jeanie
Scott, Phil Terrell, Lee Williams
MY OTHER HELPERS:
Christopher A. Brooks, Charles Hardy, Vick Kaply, Toye Kates, Jr.
MAGAZINES:
·
Blues & Soul: John
Abbey, David Nathan, Sandra Butler, Dom Foulsham
·
Blues News: Juhani Ritvanen, Osmo Asikainen, Ismo Tenkanen, Aarno Alén
·
Soul Express: Pirkka Kivenheimo
·
Black Music: Denise Hall
·
There’s That Beat!: Dave Moore
·
Vintage Soul: Adrian Croasdell
WEB SITES (besides
those mentioned in the article):
-
www.allmusic.com
-
www.soulfulkindamusic.net
BOOKS:
·
Follow Your Heart
(Evans-Brooks)
·
Top Rhythm & Blues
singles + albums & Pop singles + albums (Whitburn)
·
The R&B Indies,
vol. 1 – 4 (McGrath)
·
Soul Harmony Singles
1960-1990 (Beckman-Hunt-Kline)
·
A Touch of Classic Soul
(Taylor)
·
Soul Music A-Z
(Gregory)
·
The Death of Rhythm
& Blues (George)
·
A House on Fire
(Jackson)
·
King of the Queen City
(Fox)
·
Record Makers and
Breakers (Broven)
·
Stars of Soul and
Rhythm & Blues (Hildebrand)
·
Number One Rhythm &
Blues Hits (White-Bronson)
|
