By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Monday, February 18, 2002 - 08:38 pm:

Ok - here goes with a listing for the Venture
label formed in late 1967 by MGM as an outlet for
their soul acts. The label was run by former Motown A&R director William "Mickey" Stevenson
with help from many other Motown exiles - the
company was based in Los Angeles


605 CALVIN ARNOLD (12/67)
FUNKY WAY TO TREAT SOMEBODY (C Arnold)
SNATCHIN' BACK (C Arnold)

606 THE MAJOR IV (12/67)
SUGAR PIE
WOMAN IN THE GHETTO (Basemore - Relf - Stevenson)

607 NEAL KIMBLE (02/68)
I'VE MADE A RESERVATION (Paul - Basemore)
AIN'T IT THE TRUTH

608 THE MAJOR IV
ALL OF MY LIFE
I DON'T BELIEVE IN LOSING (Leon Ware - Basemore)

609 THE NATURA'ELLES (02/68)
LOVE HAS JOINED US TOGETHER (C Arnold - Tom Nixon)
SHOW ME THE WAY

610 CALVIN ARNOLD (04/68)
SCOOBIE DOO
LOVELY WAY TO GO (C Arnold)

611 DARRYL CARTER (04/68)
L-O-V-E (D Carter- Jimmy Holiday- Bobby Womack)
I KEEP BEGGING YOU TO STAY

612 THE 49TH PARALLEL (05/68)
BLUE BONNIE BLUE
MISSOURI
(not a soul record - this is by a Canadian band
that Venture somehow acquired the U.S.rights to)

613 TOBY BEN
PEACE, WAKE UP TO THE SUNSHINE
???

614 THE SEVEN SOULS (06/68)
GOT TO FIND A WAY
GROOVE ON
Prod : Larry Williams ?

615 THE BALLADS (06/68)
GOD BLESS OUR LOVE
MY BABY KNOWS HOW TO TREAT HER MAN

The biggest hit on the label. Group were from
the Bay Area (San Francisco) and had recorded
for the local Boola-Boola label. MAde the Billboard Hot 100 at # 65 (#48 on Casbbox) -
Peaked at # 8 on Billboard's soul chart

616 SOUTHWIND
GET ON BOARD THE TRAIN (D Brown - Vicki Basemore)
GOT TO GET MYSELF TOGETHER (Brown- Dalton- Hope)
This group were formed by Doug Brown whose earlier
legendary Detroit group The Omens included a
very young Bob Seger

617 UNISSUED ??

618 JAY LEWIS
OH
THHT'S ENOUGH

619 THE MAJOR IV
JUST ANOTHER LONELY NIGHT (Stevenson - Hunter)
THIS LITTLE GIRL IS MINE (Stevenson - Hunter)
"Just.." originally recorded by the Temptations

620 THE JOHNSON THREE PLUS ONE
TESTIFY
???

PART TWO TOMORROW ...

By recordboyusa (208.61.5.193 - 208.61.5.193) on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 12:50 am:

Excellent job! Didn't the 49th Parallel also record on Maverick? Off topic I guess, but I think their best U.S. release was "You Do Things" on RCA.

Definitely some good records on the label!

Jeff Lemlich
http//www.limestonerecords.com

By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 08:36 pm:

Thanks Jeff, MAverick Records will follow on tomorrow. Meantime , here's Venture .. part two

621 SOUTHWIND
YOU'VE BEEN ON MY MIND
?

622 LARRY WILLIAMS
SHAKE YOUR BODY GIRL (Bowden - Paul - Pauling )
LOVE, I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND IT

623 VERNON GARRETT
LOVE HAS CAUGHT ME (Darryl Carter-Curtis Colbert)
SECOND TO NONE (Carter - Cooper - Shelby)
Prod : Clarence Paul

624 EDWARD BINNS
FOR THE PEOPLE
PLEDGE FOR FREEDOM

625 THE BALLADS
I LOVE YOU, YEAH (Willie Hutch)
YOU'RE THE ONE

626 CALVIN ARNOLD
MAMA IN LAW (C Arnold - W Hutch - Maria Tynes)
MINI SKIRT (C Arnold)

627 LARRY WILLIAMS
WAKE UP
?

628 THE CONTRIBUTORS OF SOUL (11/68)
YOU CAN'T HELP BUT FALL IN LOVE (Gerald Dickerson)
WE CAN GET IT ON LATER ON
(this is a Chicago record - originally issued
on Tad 101)

629 UNISSUED ?

630 THE BALLADS (11/68)
GOODNIGHT MY LOVE
HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE

631 NEAL KIMBLE
I CONDISER MYSELF LUCKY (Paul - Basemore)
YOU SURE GOT A FUNNY WAY (Cooper- Carter-E Shelby)

632 VERNON GARRETT and MARIE FRANKLIN
WITHOUT YOU
SECOND TO NONE
("Second To None" uses same backing track as on
Vernon's solo version, the b-side of #623)
Prod : Clarence Paul

633 THE NATURA'ELLES (3/69)
SO MUCH IN NEED (C Paul - L Pauling)
SHOW ME THE WAY (Dick Cooper - Ernie Shelby)

634 CALVIN ARNOLD
A MATTER OF TIME
LIVE FOR YOURSELF

635 VERNON GARRETT
ANGEL DOLL (Paul -Stevie Wonder -Morris Broadnax)
HOP SKIP AND JUMP

636 HANNIBAL
I'M GETTING READY
I'M YOUR MAN

637 THE BALLADS
I WISH I KNEW
GIFT OF LOVE

638 THE NU PEOPLE
I'D BE NOWHERE TODAY
?
Prod : Mike Theodore - Dennis Coffey

639 MADLYN QUEBEC
BETTER THAN MY BEST (C Paul)
THE LOVE I'VE BEEN LOOKIN' FOR(Paul-Cooper-Shelby)

In a number of cases I've been unable to trace b-sides for some releases - it's very probable that
only stereo/mono DJ copies were presed up for these issues

There was one album : -

VTS4002 SOUTHWIND - "Southwind"

What happened to 4001 ? - so far untraced, possibly intended for an unissued Calvin Arnold or Ballads album.

From the credits I've traced so far Venture was
like a West Coast Motown-in -exile as Mickey Stevenson seems to have taken quite a few Motowners with him when he joined MGM not the
least of them being Clarence Paul.

Tom Nixon had been an engineer at Motown and later
worked at Stax.

Darryl Carter developed into a succesful writer
working with Bobby Womack. He also made further
solo releases on Hi, TTC and other labels

Ernie Shelby later made some fine southern soul
single singles for Polydor as well as having many
further writing credits.

Dick Cooper continued writing - he has credits
for Martha and the Vandellas among others.

Stephen Bowden had been a Jobete writer - the
Natura'elles were apparently led by his wife (?)
Loretta Bowden

Maria Tynes had earlier recorded a soloist for
Capitol's soul label, Uptown. She later moved
to New Orleans where she continuing writing for
Jean Knight among others

Hannibal - aka The Mighty Hannibal aka King Hannibal. A fascinating character (real name
JAmes T Shaw) who'd been recording since the fifties and would continue through the seventies.
A career spanning compilation of his work has recently "Hannibalism" was issued recently by
Norton Records.

The Ballads - after their Venture follow-ups failed to sell MGM dropped them from their roster
- the group returned home and continued to issue
the occasional single on the local Boola-Boola
label where started their career

Calvin Arnold - on Venture's collapse he was signed to Dionne Warwick's Sonday label and
re-surfaced in the mid-70's on Brown Dogg, the soul subsidiary of the New York based Mainstream
label.

Marie Franklin and Madlyn Quebec moved to Ray Charles' Tangerine label for a few unsuccesful
singles none of which I've heard yet.

Larry Williams had of course been a huge star in
the fifties with hits on Specialty. He was Okeh's
head of A&R for the West Coast in 1966-67 and later recorded for Fantasy in the late 70's.

Vernon GArrett moved to a succession of small
labels with athe occasional single being picked up for national distribution by labels like Kapp.
Recorded prolifically until the nineties - probably still is for all I know

Edward Binns - a total mystery - possibly related
to Clifford Binns ?

Neal Kimble - also recorded for Fat Fish among others - another ex-Venture refugee at Tangerine

Toby Ben - no idea who he / they (?) were

Southwind - later signed to Blue Thumb where they had an album and a few singles. Basically a white
R&B bar band in the same vein as the Hoodoo Rhythm Devils

Johnson Three Plus One - i suspect they might be
something to do with the Brothers Johnson but
haven't found any evidence yet.

This label seems to been completeley ignored by CD compilers - offhand I can't think of anything
on the label that's turned up yet on CD. Whoever
currently owns MGM (Universal ??) probably don't
even know the label existed.

Reasons for the labels collapse - MGM issued quite a large number of soul records in the mid to late sixties but their main problem was that they had no promotion staff who had experience of
marketing soul. When Stevenson was given the job
of running Venture he basically had to start from
scratch bringing in people who knew the black radio stations - it looks as if running the
administration and promotion side of the business
left him very little time to write or produce hence his notable absence of credits. MGM itself
was in chaos during 68 - 69 with changes of
higher management - it looks as if head office
decided that Venture wasn't worth their time
and pulled the plug on the label after its
short life of around 18 months.

The above is educated guesswork - hopefully somebody on the forum can shed a bit more light on the label.

Any additions / corrections / comments are very welcome

By Soultwine (195.93.48.171 - 195.93.48.171) on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 09:26 pm:

Thanks Davie
As you said, the reissuers have seemingly ignored this label (and MANY others) - some great varied sounds in there and i hope someone out there is nudged into doing something about it.Now is the time to get some liner notes information first hand from the creators of the music and to get them some money & lovelight!.
PHIL

By david, glasgow, scotland (62.252.128.5 - 62.252.128.5) on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 09:38 pm:

davie - you're on the ball tonight!

great stuff!

By phillysoulman (152.163.207.202 - 152.163.207.202) on Tuesday, February 19, 2002 - 10:01 pm:

Hi Davie,

Contact Harry Weinger at Universal Records in NYC.
He is a very nice man and he is responsible for all of the great Motown compilations, like the 4 cd box sets. I am sure that it would be of interest to him as he is an avid Detroit music fan.

harryweinger@umusic.com

By John Lester (213.122.196.145 - 213.122.196.145) on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 11:35 pm:

You know me, flying the Motown flag.

Ernie Shelby worked with Martha and the Vandellas...Love Guess Who, Easily Persuaded, I'm In Love from the Natural Resources album

Just Another Lonely Night.....Fantastic Four had a release but eat your heart out guys, there's a version by Brenda Holloway!

Angel Doll on Vernon Garrett!!!!!! Hey, pass the biscuits PLEASE!!