|
Meanwhile, Ric-Tic continued to
release quality material, with Rose Battiste's double-sider "That's what he told
me" c/w "Holding hands" being a good example. For more on Rose
see Graham Finch's excellent tribute.
The follow up,
Ric-Tic106, was by local guy J.J. Barnes.
Born Jimmy Jay
Barnes in 1943, J.J. had begun his solo career in 1960 with a
45 on Kable which was ahead of it's time. It was called
"Won't you let me know".
In 1963 he released
the first of four 45's for Fred Brown's Mickay's
label. Mickays was based on 14th street, just south of the
20 Grand, and was a fair sized operation.
The legendary
"Poor unfortunate me" followed on Ring before he
made the move to West Davison.
J.J.'s first outing on
Ric-Tic was another superb song, "Please let me
in" c/w "I think I found a love". Co-arranged
by Richard Parker and Don Davis, it unfortunately
failed to chart.
The follow-up
"Real humdinger" c/w "I ain't gonna do it"
was equally good and eased the earlier disappointment achieving Pop
#80, R&B #18. A cover of the Beatles hit, "Day
tripper" came next before JJ's final outing in
August '66, the excellent "Say it".
When Motown bought
out Golden World a month later, it was the start of a
nightmare period for Barnes. Although he cut many
tracks is the studio, nothing was released, because it was
felt that he sounded too much like Marvin Gaye.
Once his contract
had run it's course, J.J. joined Groovesville in 1967 where "Baby
please come back home" charted Pop #61, R&B #9. The
follow up, "Now that I've got you back" also did
reasonably well, R&B #44.
A move to Revilot
the following year resulted in another four singles
including the classic "Our love is in the pocket".
In the early 70's
J.J.'s recordings, like Edwin Starr, would gain a new lease
of life via England's developing Northern Soul scene. This
led to some new material on John Abbey's Contempo
label, which was based in London.
|
