SIXTIES

The Little Ann discoveries don’t even end with the tracks featured here. After Ace Records purchased the recordings and publishing from Dave’s widow Alice, it was left to myself and the slaves in the basement at Sound Mastering to sort out the 13 crate loads of master tapes. A couple of all night headphones-on sessions revealed more good tapes and at about 1.30am one Friday night, when I should rightly have been slurring over the bar of some God-forsaken nightclub, a box labelled Chico and Buddy ‘Party Time’ in fact contained an unmarked vintage up-tempo female 60s dance track.

There were six takes of the song (one of which was pure instrumental) and the vocalist really gave it some stick on the chorus, just about puncturing my eardrums. The title seemed to be either ‘Who Are You Trying To Fool’ or ‘You Can’t Fool Me’, neither of which were registered on BMI or in Dave’s file of copyrights. Cassette copies to Gilly and Andy Rix brought the same conclusion: “It’s Little Ann; and it’s brilliant.” A couple of weeks later, my detective work for once bearing fruit, Ann confirmed it was a song she had written with Darrell and Dave (this just from the suggested title, not even hearing it!). Darrell concurred when I got him on the phone, going one better by singing the verse to me with no prompting. He specifically remembered writing it with Ann while Dave was out at a gig and the three of them completed it when Dave returned, cutting it in one session soon after. Cruelly we’ve only included the instrumental take here, but it stands as a recording in its own right. The tapes need some work on them to get the vocal levels right, so I’m afraid you’ll have to hang on for volume two before Ann’s stunning vocal and lyrics hit you; unless you fancy a trip to the 100 Club that is!

By late 1968 the trio had some wonderful material in the can (a potential LP is listed on one of the tape boxes!) but no releases of their own. The Ric Tic release hadn’t worked, Topper had already folded and Dave only put out sporadic releases on his Demoristic label. Darrell was managing Ann by then and when the chance of some well paid cabaret in Canada came in from the obliging Tobi Lark, the two of them decided to go for it; sadly leaving Dave behind. He continued with his live and session work and closed down the studios, reverting to his original base in the basement of 2538, Philadelphia Street.

Tobi had performed frequently in Canada since her jazz days and was then appearing as the lead role in Hair in Toronto. She had more work than she could handle (also continuing her recording career with some fine records on Cotillion) and was happy to pass on a good engagement through Dave to Ann, who ironically had never met Dave Hamilton’s original female star.

Work went well for Darrell and Ann and they got plenty of dates; Ann was a great live entertainer and during her stay in Canada cut a couple of 45s for Quality Records’ subsidiary label Celebration. One was entitled ‘Lost A Lover, Need A Friend’ coupled with one of Ann’s own compositions, ‘Stand Together’ on one release, and ‘I’m Doing Alright’ on the other. She then met up with a white rock group called Fat Chance who had a single released by Capitol in 1970 called ‘Every Single Day’. Ann gave the group a whole new soulful aspect and they toured together extensively over the following three years. Ann then resumed her solo career working in Canada and Detroit until 1977 when she quit show business. She returned to Mt Clemens where she eventually got a job with the Chrysler Motor Corporation and forgot about her musical past - until the Northern Soul scene rudely interrupted her.

Continued