By motown_david (195.93.50.10) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 01:48 pm:

I've just read a thread on the Motown site about Felice Taylor and was able to help out on the discography side.
I guess there's a tenuous Detroit connection as Felice sounded very like Diana Ross!!!
I'm just wondering if anyone knows of her whereabouts these days. Does she know how popular her records still are in the UK?
David.

By Handsome (170.118.157.134) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 02:02 pm:

Her name rings a bell...I never heard her vocally, but I do remember Glodean James talking about her & a song she (Felice) recorded, something about It may be cold outside, but in my heart is spring or something to that effect.

By LG Nilsson (213.89.29.190) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 02:34 pm:

Motown_David,

This is her biggest hit. Written and produced by the late Barry White.



I thought this was a Motown record when I heard it first! Very Motownish. Great track. Felice Taylor was born in California January 29 1948. She also recorded with her sisters Darlene and Norma as the Sweets. I don't think she had any Motown connection at all... but the sound! I don�t know what she is doing now.

Lars

By KevGo (64.115.26.80) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 02:50 pm:

Hey Gang:
This was discussed briefly in the Barry White threads but I will gladly contribute.

When Barry White was hired by Bob Keane in 1966, it was for the full intention of creating a West Coast answer to Motown Records. Since Barry admired the Motown Sound and the work of Holland-Dozier-Holland, this was no problem for him. He & Keane signed Felice Taylor because she sounded a bit like Miss Ross and created songs that were built around the H-D-H formula. The first result was the single Lars scanned above. "It May Be Winter Outside..." made it into the Top 50 and Felice appeared on Dick Clark's "Where The Action Is" lip-synching the song on a motorboat in the ocean! Her next single was "I'm Under The Influence Of Love" while the third "I Feel Love Coming On" was only released in the UK, where she enjoyed greater success because her records charted higher.

Kevin Goins - KevGo

By BankHouseDave (195.93.50.10) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 03:23 pm:

As a callow youth loose in London for the first time in 1967 I bought 'I feel love coming on' in Dobell's for two reasons. One, it sounded like Motown and two, it was the first record I ever came across with the backing track on the B-side. We must've recorded about a hundred different vocal and instrumental takes on my mini reel-to-reel tape recorder (taping over each one, of course).

By melmo (195.93.50.10) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 04:10 pm:

I was lucky enough to have seen Miss Felice Taylor perform her three UK hits at the Orchid Ballroom in Purley Surrey UK in about 1967.
She was very slim with a Vidal Sassoon geometric hairstyle a la Diana Ross.
She was dressed in a sequinned tight short dress.
She looked so much like Diana Ross,and sounded like Diana Ross Perhaps that is why she was so popular at the time.

By Handsome (170.118.157.134) on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 04:31 pm:

Thanks KevGo, Melmo & Lars once again for the knowledge & The Show & Tell.

Handsome

By Jsmith (212.39.231.20) on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 02:03 am:

The above info links in with other work in the 60's by Barry White.
It wasn't till way after the event that I realised that as well as being involved with Felice's 45's (released in the UK on President and popular club anthems at the time), Barry wrote / worked on the road with Jackie Lee. He 1st wrote "Harlem Shuffle" for Jackie & his partner (Bob & Earl) and then the solo hit for Jackie "The Duck".
All these tracks were everyday plays in the Yorkshire mod clubs I started out attending in the mid 60's. It was from this introduction that my longstanding love of soul music was sparked.

By FrankM (81.152.61.80) on Saturday, July 19, 2003 - 06:30 am:

In the mid sixties pirate radio was the key player in breaking R&B singles. And when BBC Radio 1 was launchged the ex pirate DJ's particularly Tony Blackburn and Emperor Rosco continued this trend. I Feel Love coming on was one of the first R&B records to be broken by a BBC radio station.