SIXTIES

The first recording to be made in the new studios was actually the last Temple release, the haunting ‘Love, Friends and Money’ delicately sung by James Lately. The single was lost among the excitement of the new venture and label, and the combination of the single’s rarity and its excellence has led to it fetching several hundreds of pounds between collectors today.

Dave taught Darrell the basics of record production and used him as co-writer and co-producer of the B-side of the first Topper release (his name was changed to the hipper sounding Rony Darrell for professional purposes), Priscilla Page’s ‘Throw The Poor Dog A Bone’.

This was a novelty song on which Priscilla shared credits with Pepe The Poodle but it is a surprisingly good record. The A-side was an excellent Detroit dance track called ‘I’m Pretending’. Both this and the flip were co-produced by Ted Sheely, the local pianist who was involved in the early days. The company was not happy with the first mix of the single, so a remix was done and re-issued with the new matrix number T-101/102 RM; a nice oddity for collectors.

By the time of the third release Darrell had ousted Pepe and shared the singing with Priscilla on the up-tempo ‘You Did’, which like the flip, ‘Shoo Bee Doo Bee (Now That You’re Gone), was a Hamilton/Darrell song and production.

James Lately and his recording contract

Dave was still working all hours on sessions and live gigs, bringing in money to keep the operation going and to feed his family in the process. Notable outside work from this period includes his arrangement of the Chalfontes’ ‘It’s The Right Kind of Guy’ Mercury session and Willie Kendrick’s ‘You Can’t Bypass Love’ and ‘Watch Yourself (She’s Foolin’ You)’ session where he played guitar. Meanwhile Darrell had been working at the Ford Motor Company and virtually living in the studios for the rest of the time. Eventually he quit the production line and remembers spending 1965 to 1967 “holding down the fort” at Highland, while Dave wheeled and dealed for them.

Dave brought the label its classiest singer yet in the form of Tobi Lark. Tobi had just recorded a single with the production team of Joe Hunter and Frank Brown called ‘I’ll Steal Your Heart’ / ‘Talk To An Angel’ on Palmer Records, but had gained little success from it.

Tobi, originally named Bessie Watson, had had a successful jazz career singing with Cannonball Adderley with whom she cut a single for Riverside in 1963 called ‘Deed I Do’ / ‘Cottage For Sale’. Seeing the success of so many soul singers, particularly in Detroit where she frequently performed in cabaret, she decided to go for stardom herself. Unfortunately she was still contracted as a jazz singer, so her name was changed to Tobi Lark, simply because “she sang like a lark” as Joe remembers. Joe took her to see his friend Dave Hamilton who needed singers for his new label and they got to work on a great George McGregor song called ‘Happiness Is Here’.

Dave must have thought the song exceptional as it is one of the very few cases where he didn’t use a number written by one of his Demoristic writing team (Demoristic was his main publishing company). George McGregor also wrote the Northern Soul classic ‘Hit And Run’ for Rose Battiste on Revilot Records and was heavily involved in the Drew and Sidra labels. Like most independent Detroit producers, Dave and George occasionally worked at United Sound Studios at 5840 2nd Boulevard, a studio with a multi-track recording facility where more complex productions were taken to overdub horns, strings etc. As ‘Happiness’ was to be a special project for Topper no expense was spared. McGregor produced the record himself and Tobi’s jazz-trained voice was invaluable in giving a powerful yet controlled performance to a magnificent song. The flip, ‘Talking ‘Bout Love’ was a slightly jazz-flavoured, very catchy Dave Hamilton song and production.

Continued