Marie Weland on Columbia World Of Music

 Marie Weland

34465 - You Ain't My Lover No More
34466 - Blue, Blue Baby

Wanderers Music, BMI

Engineer J. Gelinas

Columbia World Of Music
1554 Main St. W. Columbia, S.C. 29169
(803) 755-2169

[1975]

Deacon Blakely And The Fantastic Jordanairs

Deacon Blakely And The Fantastic Jordanairs

35623 -  Jesus Is The Only Friend I Have (Raiford Hinton)
35624 - Trouble All About My Soul (Eugene Corley)

No Label 0054J-B

For Bookings: R. Hinton C Graystone Apt. Columbia, S.C. 29210

1975

Jesus Is The Only Friend I Have  

Jackie WHITLEY and The Red Coats

Jackie WHITLEY and The Red Coats

CP-6571 ~ Three Short Days Ago

CP-6572 ~ Mean Man Blues

 

E.D.A. 1743
(October 1961)

Both sides written by Jack Whitley and published by Duride Publishing Co. The Rite custom account (697) doesn't appear on other records pressed by Rite and also this is probably the only recording by Jackie Whitley.

Probably from Greenville, South Carolina (where Duride Publishing Co. were probably located)

E.D.A. 1743

Jim Willingham & The Country Travelers

Jim Willingham & The Country Travelers

17627 - Tears, Coffee And A Ring

17628 - Guitar Split

(Gene Wyatt, Newcastle Pub. Co., BMI)

Marco Records

1966

James Roland Willingham (1934-1982) from Spartanburg County, South Carolina, was the son of Elbert Arthur and Bertha Swofford Willingham, native of Chesnee, SC, employee of Southern Shops in Spartanburg, SC, musically gifted. Husband of Margie (Coggins) Willingham and Elizabeth "Lib" (Pettit) Willingham. Father of Mike, Ronnie, Wayne and Wanda Willingham.

 

One copy now on ebay (auction has sound clip)

The Koon Family

The Koon Family
Gospel Singers

29759 - Build My Mansion
29760 - Walk In Jerusalem Just Like John

Recorded at Mother Cleo Productions Newberry, S.C.
Cub 721

1972

Gospel/bluegrass from Morgantown, West Virginia.   One copy for sale here

Maurice Williams And The Zodiacs on Cole

Maurice Williams

And The Zodiacs

 (Former Gladiolas)

     CP-2466 – Lover (Where Are You)

Williams-Massey, Colehard Music BMI

CP-2467 – She’s Mine

Williams-Gore, Colehard Music BMI

Cole 101

A P. Gernhard And J. Carter Production
Nationally Distributed By National

November 1959

Their second release on the label  (first was as by the Zodiacs ( "  T Town / Golly Gee "  - Cole 100, a RCA custom pressing)

Cole Records, located at 2441 Rigby Dr., Columbia, S. C, was started in the summer of 1959 by Vincent Cole and Phil Bernhardt.    

They were originally named the Royal Charms.   Ernie Young, prexy of Excello Records, changed their name to the Gladiolas after their first recording session in Nashville.  

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In 1958, when the group left Excello Records, and because the Gladiolas name stayed with the label, they have to renamed themselves :

 

The group would undergo yet another name change. “When the contract was up with Ernie, we decided to go more national, because he only distributed in the southeast. We were in West Virginia getting our car fixed, because the station wagon had broken down and we were in this dealership and there was this car called the Zodiac. My bass player Robert Gore saw the car and suggested we think of the name Zodiacs and we liked it, because it was completely different. It was a European car (U.K – Ford). Then our manager said, ‘We will call you Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs and then you do not have to worry about your name anymore.    Interview with Maurice Williams

Their biggest hit came with "Stay",  a song Maurice Williams had written years earlier about that one Lancaster girl and the night she had to leave because she had to be home by 10 :00 pm.  

In 1960, Herald released « Stay », and audiences loved hearing about Williams’s efforts to persuade his girlfriend to remain past her curfew as he assures her that her parents won’t mind if she stays for just on more dance.  By November, the record had reached #1, and at one minute and thirty-seven seconds the record is well known for being at the shortest #1 record in the history of the Billboard charts.  Today it’s estimated that the record has sold more than ten millions copies.    Carolina Beach Music: The Classic Years by  Rick Simmons, book.

The Exciting Sensational Wonders on Impala

The Exciting Sensational Wonders

27361 - Wings Of A Dove
27362 - Ready To Serve The Lord

Impala 1170

Recorded Realtone Recordings
Hwy. 29 South
Blacksburg, S.C.

Black gospel

Sample

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The Brotherhood Singers From Columbia S.C.

The Brotherhood Singers From Columbia S.C.

38359 – Going Back With Jesus
38360 - Time

David Mitchell Custom Recording
Columbia S.C.

1977

Black Gospel
Arr. Deacon Alexander Middleton (left picture)

Sample



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The Barons on Key

The Barons

CP-2555 ~ Jay Walk
(Johnny Cox)

CP-2556 ~ If You Want A Little Lovin'
(Taylor-Christopher-Taylor)

Both sides published by Lock Publishing (BMI)

A Cox-Taylor production

Key Records #1001
Greenville, S.C.
A division of Mojay Enterprises Inc.

[Billboard rev., December 7, 1959]

Much more commonly found label,
which is almost certainly a second pressing
(not Rite?)

Their first record. They also had records on the Midnite label, another imprint of Mojay enterprises. One was leased to V-Tone Records.

Members included Henry L. Taylor (1923-2010) , Milton H. Taylor and Johnny Cox.

At 13, Johnny Cox cut his first record with the Barons. It was called “Jaywalk”, a song he wrote and played on his saxophone. He was recruited by a band called the “Sparkletones”. The group had a hit called “Black Slacks” and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Johnny toured with them in Canada, playing sax, at the age of 14. Upon his return home, his 6-year old sister kissed his hand over and over because it was the hand that shook the hands of Ricky Nelson, Fabian, and Paul Anka!!!

Later he was a member of The Jays, The Swingin’ Medallions, Sassy, Rhythm Brothers, Griff & Johnny, The Out-of-Towners Band, and many more.




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Raymond Fairchild and James Worley on Maggie Valley

Raymond Fairchild
"King of the 5 String Banjo"

James Worley
"King of the Mountain Harmonica"

23889 - James' Fox Chase
23890 - Raymond's Whoa Mule Whoa

Maggie Valley Records
A Clarence Jackson Production
Moncks Corner SC

1969

Clip (both sides)
thanks to eBay the waxman

Note : Not listed in this Raymond Fairchild discography

Raymond Fairchild

During the middle 1960s Raymond Fairchild first attempted to take his music to the public. By this time he had moved from Cherokee to Maggie Valley, North Carolina and had found a receptive audience at "The Hillbilly Campground," located in Maggie. He recorded many albums (most notably on Rural Rhythm), the first was in the early sixties on Sims Records (also available on Kash Records).

Recommended reading is the Wayne Erbsen's article published in March 1982 by "Bluegrass Unlimited" available HERE.

Excerpt :

Completely at home deep in the forest, Raymond the mountain man, knows his way around. In the fall of the year he still goes hunting ginseng, which has a root that is highly valued for its legendary curing properties. Although some ginseng hunters in the mountains take their sack of "sang" to nearby Asheville, North Carolina or Knoxville, Tennessee to sell for over $200 a pound, Raymond keeps all that he digs. Drawing upon lore learned from his mother's people, he combines the ginseng along with eighteen other roots and herbs to produce a medicine which he takes daily as a tonic. Going far into the woods in search of ginseng and other roots, Raymond has been known to stay gone for nearly a month. After one such trip he told of killing more than one dozen deadly rattlesnakes. Besides bringing home a poke full of wild roots, he often returns from the mountains with a fat ground hog in his sack. Claiming that groundhog is the finest wild meat in the world, Raymond also renders the grease from the woodchuck to make a tonic for the croup. "Just a spoonful or two," he cautions.

*

Holly Worth on Plaid

Holly Worth

Plaid Records #1010

CP-6833 – Just For Today
CP-6834 – You Said That You Loved Me

Label out of Greenville, South Carolina, owned by Charles Rush



*

Danny Harris & The Peacemakers

Danny Harris & The Peacemakers

Cleo MC745

33243 - Miss United America

33244 - Never Endings

Recorded at Mother Cleo Productions Studios, Newberry S.C.
Both sides wr. Danny Harris, Sweet Polly Music BMI
Produced by Danny Harris
Arranged by Bruce Wallace

1974

Mother Cleo Productions founder, Hayne Davis

Mother Cleo Productions [ now DaviSound ] was begun, in 1970, by founder, Hayne Davis
as a recording studio/radio production offering "Unique Services from a Unique Location" (Newberry, SC).
In-house record labels included Mother Cleo, Cleo and CUB Records with publishing wing Sweet Polly Music, BMI.


Information below from the DaviSound own website :

We were very active with in-house, worldwide broadcast productions. This was a time when broadcast radio programming and production were considered true art forms. And, as such, stations were individually, creatively programmed and often exciting and entertaining to listen to as opposed to being the predictable, sound alike "jukeboxes", or the conglomerate owned propaganda machines, most have become today.

Amongst a list of over twelve hundred worldwide clients, were such giants as WNBC Radio, New York, The BBC (London and Bristol), Radio Luxembourg WTBS Atlanta and many others.

We were particularly well-known in Canada for our novelty commercials and in England and Europe for our famous "Talking/Singing Moog" Synthesizer radio promo productions with agents operating in Ontario, London and Sweden (One of these agents happened to be Igil Aalvik ... who later became the infamous "Swedish Eagle" on "K-ROCK FM", Los Angeles!).

Among the many talented voices heard on MCP jingles over the years were native Newberrians ...
Kiki Kirkland (former Miss South Carolina/USA) ...
Brantlee Price (former Miss South Carolina and WIS television personality) and ...
Tommy Funderburk (noted professional studio singer in the Los Angeles music scene and composer of the number- one Starship single, "It's Not Enough").

Other talented Newberrians who frequently contributed to in-house recordings over the years were ...
Mary Ann Davis Hayes, Melissa Turbeville Crocker, Lloyd Brigman, Wayne Golden, Ryan Jones and
Bruce Wallace.

In the "Glory Days" of radio promos and jingles, some of our more popular voices were Newberry College Music Department students and they included Margie Fritz, Karen Hull, The Anderson Sisters, George Liebenrood, Gary Griffith, Dean Yates and Michelle Herbin.

Many of the studio musicians over the years were from the neighboring counties of Union, Laurens, Saluda, Spartanburg, Greenville, Lexington and Richland. Some of those included, Mandale "Pickle" Eaves, Ronnie Hayes, Andre' Kerr, Freddie Vanderford, Don Reno, Curt Bradford, James Meadows, Lisa Miller, Sharon Dimmery, Bonnie Glenn and Vanessa Gaye.

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The New Generation on Sonic

The New Generation

Sonic SR 1002

21665 - Because Of Love (It's All Over)
(T.Caldwell-D.Gray, Sonrec Publ.)

21666 - That's the Sun
(T. Caldwell – R. Foster, Sonrec publ.)

A Sonic Production

1968

This Spartanburg, South Carolina band, which covered Motown, R&B and some British Invasion rock, was fronted by Doug Gray (1948- ) and included bassist Tommy Caldwell (1949 -1980), both later members of The Marshall Tucker Band formed in 1971.

Sonic Records (still active today) was formed in 1968 by three college students, Don Adrian Rice; Jim Linsay; and Doug Thurston at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. These students were actively involved in music and had been putting on concerts using local bands in the Western North and South Carolina area.
The New Generation was the first group they put out on record.

.

Because Of Love



That's The Sun

.

Roger Hopkins on Evergreen

Roger Hopkins

Evergreen Records - # EG-620

18813 -Crawling Back to You
(R.Hopkins-B.Cobb,
Clairborne BMI 2:30)

18814 - Ask the Man Who Owns One
(R.Hopkins –F.Hopkins,
Clairborne BMI 2:15)

Country prod. and directed by G.A. and A.R. Hopkins - excl. distr. Little Nashville Enterprises, 1610 Poinsettia Rd., Charleston, S.C. 29407

Roger Hopkins managed The Preludes. See The Preludes feat. Lou Martucci

.

The Preludes feat. Lou Martucci

The Preludes feat. Lou Martucci

17447 ~ On My Lovin (sample)
17446 ~ Would You Believe

Little Nashville LN-0781
1610 Poinsettia Rd., Charleston, S.C.

1965

Lou Martucci

Update [Nov. 27, 2009] : I contacted Lou who kindly answered to my questions :

I was the lead singer, and I also wrote the flip side, 'Would You Believe'. The record was produced in Nashville in 1965 by Dino Productions. I sang lead, and Joe Opatsky played lead guitar, Al Knox played rhythmn guitar, Butch Chevalier played bass, and Al Moreno was our drummer. Although we were signed by London Records, they never recieved the tapes from Dino (Carl Friend). It turns out Carl became a scam artist in those years and didn't promote anyone he recorded, although he charged all of the bands $1,000. each for 'promotion'. We ended up releasing the record on our manager's (Roger Hopkins) independent label Little Nashville based in Charleston, S.C. Roger wrote 'On My Lovin' and Boyd Cobb was his partner who handled the publishing. They weren't members of the band. In recent years I've been recording cd's in my home studio which I post on a couple of internet karaoke sites. We lost our drummer, Al Moreno, in Viet Nam. Roger Hopkins died in a tragic car accident in the late 60's. Al Knox and Joe Opatsky are both living good lives with thier families. I retired from live performing in the early 90's.

Lou Martucci

Gospel Trio (H.G.P. Records)

Gospel Trio

H.G.P. Records
P.O. Box 1364
Orangeburg, South Carolina

34703 - Jesus You've Been Good To Me
(Jerome Loyd)

34704 - If I've Got My Ticket
(Albertha Richburg)

The Villagers on TVU

The Villagers
L-R Larry Carver, Tommy Henderson, Wayne Reed, Larry Williams, Melvin Sinclair, Curt Bradford, Jimmy Kirby, Jim Woods (sitting on ground) Ken Sparks, Kenny Royster

TVU 4016

18801 - Send Down All Your Loving
18802 - Tossin and Turnin

The 'Original' Villagers were an R&B (Beach) band hailing from Union and Whimire in upstate South Carolina between "1965 - 1969". The 8-9 member group enjoyed popularity with the college and high school crowds from Virginia to Florida and as far west as Arkansas. The 'Original' Villagers could often be found backing-up the popular R&B vocal groups touring the south in those days such as The Platters, The Showmen, The Radiants and others in "live” performances in the tri-state area. They were also a front band for the “Pieces of Eight” for a period of time after the “Pieces” rise in popularity with their recording “Lonely Drifter”. The Villagers performed in places like “The Red Rooster” in Panama City, Fla., the Pavilion at Myrtle Beach, and , of course, at fraternities and sororities in every major college and university in the southeast. The group recorded two 45-rpm records. The first was recorded and released in 1966 on the TVU label titled “Send Down All Your Lovin’, b/w Tossin and Turning, their version of the 1961 hit recorded by Bobby Lewis. The second release was an instrumental entitled Bye Bye J. J. b/w Love is the Word on the Emerald Label and recorded in Greenwood under the name “The Townsmen” in 1967. They briefly performed using that name before reclaiming their original name, The ‘Original’ Villagers a few months later. The groups’ final performance was in October, 1969 at a University of Alabama frat party. By that time, the draft and Viet Nam war had taken half of the band, and the remaining members decided to go their separate ways.
Ken Sparks Keyboards, The Original Villagers

Send Down All Your Loving

The Hampton Quartet

The Hampton Quartet
Label : Realtone

LP “Going Home”

Side One

I’ve Been Born Again (Tripp)
Thank You For The Valley (Rambo)
Going Home (Gaither)
I Believe In A Hill (Gaither)
Come Spring (Rambo)
For God So Loved (Hill)

Side Two

O Will Never Turn Back (Rambo)
My Heart Can See (Rambo Davis)
One More Valley (Rambo)
He’s Mine And I’m His (Speer)
Standing By The River (Unknown)
Darkness Comes Before The Dawn (Hatfield)

Recorded and produced by Avon Hampton
Realtone Recordings
Star Route
Blacksburg, South Carolina

Jesse Evatt on Spin-Co

Jesse Evatt
Spin-Co 113
1966

16535 - Try To Figure Why
16536 - Got To Go On

Testimony :
As a teenager, Jesse formed his first country group and performed to capacity crowds with some of America's most popular artists. [...] His burning desire to sing lured him to Nashville, where he pursued his career as an entertainer.

Although achieving many of his goals while climbing the ladder of success, his personal life was being torn apart. In his futile search for happiness, he faced his ultimate crisis with the destruction of his marriage and the loss of his family. He was left literally without a reason to live. At this darkest moment of his life, Jesse accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. His new-found faith brought about a chain reaction of miracles into his life, beginning with the restoration of his marriage and family. His born-again experience also brought a new direction to his music.

The Clicks on Rush

The Clicks
Rush 2004
1961

CP-6831 - You Ran Away From My Heart
CP-6832 - Twisting Saturday Nite

Carolina black vocal group.

Jim Hardin ("High Stepping Woman" on Volcano) and Jim Nesbitt were on the same label, owned by Charles Rush in Greenville, South Carolina. Plaid was another label. he had in Greenville.

You Ran Away From My Heart

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