Rite Records custom pressings Cincinnati, Ohio, 1955-1985
M- GREAT AND RARE!!! Rockin' Country Blues Masterpiece! MB $2000
My hobby was making sound on sound recordings in a method similar to Les Paul's - two recorders bouncing back and forth adding parts to make up a complete recording. I started doing that for fun in l958 using a Berlant Concertone series 30 full track recorder and a borrowed Ampex A 112 1/2 track recorder that belonged to Ted Merthe's dad in Daytona Beach.
I made many recordings with Ted our Senior year at Seabreeze High - 58-59 and some of my recordings were heard by Bob Quimby at the National Songwriter's Guild. Bob offered me a job singing custom demos. I remember the first one I sang called "LIttle Jenney" and will never forget the melody. I also played guitar and bass on the demos in an assembly line fashion. Bob played piano, I played guitar and the vocalist sang the tune. We would typically cut 15 songs in an afternoon. Later, we would play back that tape and overdub - Bob playing a snare drum and cymbol and me playing my Fender Bass VI 6 string bass guitar.
Bob had different names for groups according to the type of song we were demoing. The Surftones was
Chuck Conlon, Marshall "Chuggy" Letter, and myself. The vocal sound was pretty tight and the Surftone demos are memorable. But NOT anything I sang as a solo artist. Anything for a buck ! I got $2 per part I played and $2.50 per song I sang, so if I sang lead AND background, I could make up to $9 a song !
One day, after a conversation with Russ Golding, a young aspiring song writer who had his cleaning done at Grover Barbour shop, he decided to finance B&G Music. The publishing company was formed on March 26, 1957, with Grover as president and Russ as general manager. The whole venture started out with the idea of only being a music publisher. T he plan was to market their songs to established record companies and artists. To do this, it was necessary to record «demos» of their songs. To this end, Grover and Russ assembled a group of teenagers who they called « Candy Heart and the Valentines ». This group rehearsed, but never recorded. Russ recalls : « Talent came to us by word of mouth » Society Cleaners became the beehive, serving as a mukti-purpose business office, reception area, rehearsal studio and occasionally a makeshift recording studio (not to mention a busy dry cleaning establishment.) ........
“I got a new management with a young man named Henry Wynn out of Atlanta. Peachtree was formed by me and Mr. Wynn in 1969 (ed. first releases are from 1967]. When he signed on as a manager for me, I was doing a lot of his tours and he saw that I was different from a lot of acts. I was always trying to cram knowledge of the inner workings of the music industry, because Sam Cooke was one of my heroes and when he expressed that there’s money to be made in publishing – ping! I’m thinking ‘okay, I’ve given all my publishing away. Now let me renegotiate, and get half of the publishing at least’.”
“Henry suggested that he had some opening acts that he was putting on his tour that didn’t have record deals, but they were good acts like Johnny Jones, Jimmy Church and all of those guys. So he said ‘why don’t we form a record label, and you handle the production end and I’ll handle the promotional end’. So I was doing the writing and producing for Peachtree and he was handling the marketing end of it, and we put these acts on tours with us.”
Born in New London, Connecticut, February 1,1932, Shor'ty Billups (pronounced Shor-tay), started at an early age singing and playing the piano . He started traveling and performing for our "Troops" at the age of 15 yrs old with the U.S.O. At the age of 18 years old he set aside his "dancing shoes" for the purpose of serving our Country for the next four years, never losing site of his vision.
Shorty vs Eddie Billups :
According to Shorty Billups, from an interview I did with him in 1991, he and Eddie are brothers. Shorty sings and plays drums, and Eddie plays keyboards. At some point due to "personal reasons" which he wanted to remain off-the-record, Shorty wanted the records issued under Eddie's name, even though Shorty says he is the vocalist on ALL of their records together. There is one possible exception, noted below. I hope some day to speak to Eddie to hear his side and confirm this, but to date I haven't. But this seems reasonable, given that their earliest records (United Artists, Blast, Tri-boro), which seem to be just the
vocalist in front of a studio band, were all issued as by Shorty. The later (mid-60s) 45s, when they were a self-contained unit, go either way. Sometimes the same sides were issued as by Eddie on one label, and by Shorty on another.
According to Shorty, the only possible exception is the B-side "Rap on Alone" which may be Eddie in duet with Mickey Jackson....
Cliff Butler was born on October 17, 1922, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Bobby Jackson was well known around the local clubs. Starting out, Clarence Carter played in his band on the circuit. "We had a lot of fun. One thing about the Chitlin Circuit...you were comfortable, you were in your place," Jackson admitted.
During the '60s Jackson played The Elks Club in Montgomery where recording artists like The Drifters, Joe Tex, Tyrone Davis and The Manhattans would pack the house.
But the road to success did have its down side. "They didn't have business managers to go in and look at the books to know how many records were sold," Dixon said adding, "they didn't really concern themselves with it." Why? "All they wanted to do was perform. It was their life."
It was a journey that's seen many twists and turns. "Now, most everything is more sophisticated..." Long gone are the segregated clubs, and the road so many artists traveled to fame is now history.
The Singing Frauenknecht Family
1. The Old Country Church (J.D. Sumner)
2. How Great Thou Art (Stuart K. Hine)
3. The Lighthouse (Ronnie Hinson)
4. I've Got More To Go To Heaven For (Jack Campbell)
5. The Old Rugged Cross (George Bennard)
1. Ready To Leave (Joel Hemphill)
2. In The Garden (C. Austin Miles)
3. Glory Road (Mosie Lister)
4. I'm Feeling Fine (William J. & Gloria Gaither)
5. Let's Just Praise The Lord
Front (half-kneeled) : Mickey
David M. Frauenknecht tombstone
