James “Shorty” Shorter cut this solo 45 for the LaBeat label after singing with The Four Hollidays – he led on “Happy Young Man”, which is on the B-side of this Holliday label 45.

Holliday

Johnny Mitchell left The Four Hollidays in ‘64 to team up with the re-formed Majestics – a group that now included Richard Street – which Motown renamed The Monitors after signing them up.

Once sales of the Master 45 had petered out – which didn’t take long - Jimmy and the Barksdale brothers decided they should take charge of their recordings and start a business. A sign went up outside 11706 Livernois, at the corner of Webb, and The Holliday Recording Company was born. Jimmy:

“It was Holliday Records and it was Holliday Recording Company and Holliday singing group. Dale Warren – he was doing my arranging and I actually had Dale on salary. We sold records retail at the front and had an office and a little rehearsal room at the back.”

They were all full of ideas and energy but short on cash: the group needed $200 to pay the studio and musicians, which Robert Barksdale recalled “was a lot of money back then”. Robert approached his neighbors - Sam McClure and his wife Hedye Boy - for some investment as the couple had a decent income from Hedye’s two wig shops - and they both loved music.

As Johnny Mitchell had left the group, James Shorter was recruited as the new fourth Holliday. The group had met him at the Master studio where his friend Don Heart had recorded a couple of songs. It wasn’t long before the foursome was ready to cut the tunes. Jimmy:

“Joe Hunter arranged the music with Dale Warren, who was at Motown. I used the Motown band: Eddie Willis, the horn section, you name the musicians - they played for me - so some of our stuff has a similar sound. It was cut at United Sound and James Shorter sang lead on the ballad, “Happy Young Man”.

 Sam McClure’s name appears on the Holliday label as one of the writers, although BMI credits guitarist John Glover and Robert Barksdale as the actual tunesmiths. Both sides capture the 60’s sound: the pulsating “Set Me On My Feet” is the dance-floor side while the flip is a nice slowy. White DJ copies have a much better sound quality than the yellow issues, which for some unexplained reason have a distorted sound. This obviously didn’t help sales, but without hardheaded promotion and slick marketing the company wasn’t able to push the first and what proved to be last 45 on the Holliday label. It’s now a collector’s item.

Another sought-after 45 that Jim produced around this time was Ray Redmond’s “You Don’t Know” backed with “You Say You Love Me”, which Sam Motley put out on his Sa-Mo label.

Now here’s a bizarre twist to this Holidays story: Edwin Starr - who would soon have a big hit with “Agent Double-O-Soul” on Golden World’s Ric-Tic label and later sing on a Holidays’ 45 – had initially signed for the Holliday Recording Company. Jim told me how Don used to use his Holliday Store on Livernois and what transpired:

“Don Davis would use the studio when he didn’t have anywhere to go. Then next thing I know, Don Davis puts out a record on “The Holidays”. I can’t believe why he would ever do that. The lead singer wasn’t even a Holiday: Edwin Starr, who I actually had a management contract on at the time. He came in from Cleveland and my partner (Hedye Boy) said, ‘I got this guy - sings real good. I heard him at the 20 Grand’. So I said ‘well sign him up’. I could have caused all kinds of havoc, ‘cause when he came here, we signed him up. But as he got with Golden World, we just never interfered. I just didn’t.”

Edwin Starr appeared with Bill Doggett in the 20 Grand’s prestigious Driftwood Lounge in May 1965. His “Agent Double-0-Soul” record was released a month later on Golden World’s Ric-Tic label.

Researched and written by Graham Finch