By david, glasgow, scotland (62.252.128.5 - 62.252.128.5) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 06:50 pm:

does anyone out there remember bob d'orleans who worked on some ric tic 45's?

By Ralph Terrana (209.240.222.130 - 209.240.222.130) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 07:08 pm:

David,
Bob was Golden World's principal engineer.
He was still there when my brother Russ first started working there as a very " green " engineer. Bob was known to spend quite a bit of time at the horse races.
One day he did not make it back for a scheduled session leaving Russ, who did not have a whole lot of experience yet, to do the date. The rest is history as they say.

By Bob Olhsson (68.53.120.100 - 68.53.120.100) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 07:43 pm:

Danny Dallas or Bill Beltz told me that Bob left Bell Sound in New York to build and run Golden World studio for Ed Wingate. I visited the studio once and d'Orleans took me into the control room where I heard the most painfully loud monitors I can remember to this day.

I remember that a lot of people in the Detroit popular music scene spent a great deal of time at those horse races...

By Ian W (213.122.169.88 - 213.122.169.88) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 10:13 pm:

Ralph and Bob

I read somewhere that 'Golden World' was the name of a racehorse that Ed Wingate (maybe) owned. Perhaps that's how he and Bob d'Orleans got acquainted?

'All Turned On' is one of my favourite instrumentals of all time. It's got everything! Does anyone know who were the Sam Remo Quartet?

Ian

By Ritchie Hardin (62.254.0.6 - 62.254.0.6) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 10:19 pm:

Ian -

good question. And while we're on the subject, why "San Remo" Strings... (and why "Golden"?)

By Ian W (213.122.169.88 - 213.122.169.88) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 10:47 pm:

Ritchie

...and why didn't they record any more tracks?

I found a strange album recently - Sam Remo Strings on the British Marble Arch label. All the songs were cover versions of 60's love songs and didn't look at all 'Detroit'. Perhaps Manuel Of The Mountains? I suppose I've got to go back and listen to the thing!

By Ritchie Hardin (62.254.0.6 - 62.254.0.6) on Thursday, February 21, 2002 - 10:56 pm:

Hi Ian

I gather they recorded quite a few tracks, in truth... There is a CD on the M*rgin*l label (which shall be nameless!) and it includes all of these:

San Remo Golden Strings - Hungry For Love

Hungry For Love / Downtown / Festival Time / A Child's Prayer / Lonely One / Blueberry Hill / I'm Satisfied / People / Old Man River / Joy Road / Everybody Loves A Lover / Some Things You Never Get Used To / I Second That Emotion / I'm Leaving This Old Town / Reach Out I'll Be There / Day By Day Or Never / It's Not Unusual / I Was Made To Love Her / Born Free / Up, Up And Away / To Sir With Love / Alfie / My Girl / Home Coming / Quanto Sei Bella (You Are So Beautiful / All Turned On / Still Hungry.

Rather a lot of easy-listening amongst the Motor City killers -eh?

BTW - check that Marble Arch elpee. Sure it's not "101 Strings"...? (Old Pye Records/Golden Guinea chestnuts!)

By Bob Olhsson (68.53.120.100 - 68.53.120.100) on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 02:29 am:

I'm pretty sure I heard (from Babbitt?) that Harry Balk connected Wingate with deOrleans.

On a Motown note Guy Costa, the original head of west coast engineering, also came from Bell Sound in New York. I'm pretty sure Bell Sound also mastered some of the very first Motown singles.

By Ralph Terrana (209.240.222.130 - 209.240.222.130) on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 02:51 am:

Bob,
That could very well be. Harry did a lot of recording at Bell Sound. The next time I talk to him I will ask.

By acooolcat (61.222.95.58 - 61.222.95.58) on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 06:27 am:

I'm sure those first Golden World recordings were done in New York but nobody seems to know much about those eight 45s (Joyce Webb, Sue Perrin etc.)
Wingate was taking his artists to New York to record the familiar yellow label GW releases and I guess that's where he met Bob. Wingate then built his own place on Davidson in Detroit around 1964.
Bob D'Orleans also did a few things at Sidra around 1967.
Graham

By jack ashford (216.78.129.131 - 216.78.129.131) on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 07:27 am:

The San Remo strings was just a name that was picked in place of an artist. The album consisted of songs that Ed liked so he cut them .Mike Terry and I wrote and produced the song Lonly One and Gil Askey did the chart on the song . Jack Ashford

By Davie G (213.251.162.249 - 213.251.162.249) on Friday, February 22, 2002 - 05:41 pm:

I thought I'd posted this but it doesn't seem to have reached you - anyway ...

Bob seems to have moved back to New York,
probably after the Motown takeover of Ric Tic.

He became a partner in a production firm called
Windfall Productions - their main act was
heavy band Mountain. You might recall them as the band fronted by guitarist Leslie West and Cream's
producer Felix Pappalardi who ws the band's bass player. Pappalardi gets the producer credits on
their albums, all of which charted, Bob got the
engineering credits. He also worked on albums
for people like Canadian folkie David Rea but
none of this stuff is really relevant to soul.

He seems to have had an early production company
called D'Orleans Productions who did a single
by the Chosen Lot issued on Sidra.

The Chosen Lot are a mystery - I'll do a separate
post on them so that it'll be easier to find
later.

By Ian W (213.122.41.248 - 213.122.41.248) on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 10:54 pm:

Ritchie

Get out your slippers and pipe, and r-e-l-a-x! I finally got round to visiting the record shop again. Album in question is:

San Remo Strings - The Sounds Of Romance - Marble Arch MAR 642

Misty/Til There Was You/Catch A Falling Star/I Believe/Be My Love
Serenade In Blue/It's Magic/A Blossom Fell/Jealous Heart/Young At Heart

There are no Detroit connections in the writers/producers/arrangers and the songs all seem to be MOR standards. It could possibly be some British orch. masquerading as SRS!

The Marginal album seems to be both Gordy albums strung (all puns intended) together. I've never heard 'Still Hungry' though.

A pal of mine mentioned that 'Festival Time' sounds to be a different arrangement on Gordy/Tamla Motown than the original Ric-Tic single and album. I had a listen - I think the track is the same but has been re-mixed to bring up the rhythm and quieten the woodwind bits.

Ian

By Ritchie Hardin (62.254.0.6 - 62.254.0.6) on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 11:32 pm:

Ian

I sincerely hope I'm not bound for the slippers & pipe routine yet!

But thanks for the update. That album is quite intriguing, though I'd bet money this is a totally different "San Remo Strings" - and the name may just be a coincidence. The tracks don't give any clues as to the age of the recordings either - the songs all date from the fifties.

Marble Arch was one of Pye's budget labels and most of the catalogue was reissued material, so maybe this was just a late 50s/early 60s album pulled out of the vaults...?

By the way, back to the "real" SRS...
Their Ric Tic album listing is as follows:

Hungry for Love - The San Remo Golden Strings
LP-901 (mono) SLP-901 (stereo)
Hungry For Love /Downtown /Joy Road /A Child's Prayer /Some Things You Never Get Used To /Blueberry Hill //I'm Satisfied /People /Old Man River /Lonely One /Everybody Loves A Lover

You could be right about the different mix of Festival Time. Of course, the original 45 would have been a mono mix. And - as I've mentioned before, there's a serious drop-out on the stereo master!

Still Hungry is OK.. not all that special in my opinion.

By Ralph Terrana (209.240.222.130 - 209.240.222.130) on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 12:23 am:

A little bit of trivia....the session that Russ did for D'Orleans when he failed to show was an Edwin Starr session. Russ doesn't remember the songs though.All he remembers is Edwin asking him if he could handle it. Russ went ( gulp ) of course...no problem!! and apparently it wasn't.

By acooolcat (211.78.0.219 - 211.78.0.219) on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 09:47 am:

Ralph - It might have been Edwin's "You're My Mellow" - it was his last Ric-Tic release before he joined Motown.
Graham

By Ian W (213.122.151.185 - 213.122.151.185) on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 11:05 pm:

Thanks Ritchie! OK I'll accept high heel sneakers then!

Pity 'Lonely One' isn't the Steptones' song.

By BOB BABBITT (205.188.192.41 - 205.188.192.41) on Friday, March 01, 2002 - 06:37 am:

HEY MO-FU�S........BEEN OUT OF POCKET FOR AWHILE..........SO HAS FORUM FROM WHAT I HAVE HEARD............BOB D�ORLEANS........I FIRST MET HIM AT GOLDEN WORLD WHEN I DID MY FIRST SESSION FOR ED WINGATE......... THAT WAS THE EDWIN STARR RECORD...�AGENT OO SOUL�.......HE ALSO WAS THE ENGINEER ON THE CAPITOLS �COOL JERK� ALSO RECORDED AT GOLDEN WORLD.........I DO REMEMBER HIM BEING THE MAIN ENGINEER ON A LOT OF PROJECTS THERE, I ALSO REMEMBER DON DAVIS AND RUSS TERRANA ENGINEERING QUITE A FEW RECORDS.........I THINK BOB ALSO DID THE SAN REMO STRING�S ALBUMS, THE MUSICIANS WERE THE SAME FUNK BROTHERS ALONG WITH THE SAME HORN AND STRING PLAYERS THAT WERE ON ALL OF THE RECORDS, AT TIMES THERE WOULD BE ONE OR TWO DIFFERENT PLAYERS, BUT MOST OF THE TIME YOU WOULD SEE THE SAME PLAYERS .........I REMEMBER PERSONALLY PLAYING ON SOME OF THE SAN REMO RECORDINGS, AND I AM NOT EXACTLY SURE, BUT I THINK JAMERSON WAS ALSO ON SOME OF THE RECORDINGS............BOB D�ORLEANS MOVED TO NEW YORK WHERE I THINK HE WAS ORIGINALLY FROM, AND GOT INVOLVED WITH THE MOUNTAIN GROUP AND OTHER GROUPS HE ALSO PRODUCED AS WELL AS ENGINEERED....WHEN I MOVED TO THE EAST COAST I CONTACTED BOB, BUT OUR SCHEDULES TOOK US IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS AND WE NEVER DID HOOK UP AND EVENTUALLY LOST CONTACT..... ..
MORE LATER MO- FU�S.........
BOB BABBITT

By John Rhys (63.198.70.120 - 63.198.70.120) on Monday, March 18, 2002 - 12:34 am:

Ed Wingate and JoAnn Bratton created The San Remo "Golden" Strings after some success with a song called "Hungry For Love". Ed and JoAnne had recently returned from a trip to San Remo and thought that would be a good name for an instrumental group. The Marble Arch record is "not" The San Remo Golden Strings of Detroit fame.

By Ian W (194.75.128.2 - 194.75.128.2) on Monday, March 18, 2002 - 07:52 am:

John

Thanks, you've cleared up a couple of mysteries there! And you saved me a few quid!

Ian