By 1965 Mr. And Mrs. Coleman had secured the services of two distinctive yet different teams of songwriters.

Don Juan Mancha and Clay McMurray worked as freelancers around the city, usually in separate capacities.

McMurray had formed his own Red Cap label as a teenager and was compiling a CV that would eventually take him to Motown. Mancha was a skilled songwriter who had worked in New York, Chicago and Detroit with a variety of artists and labels.

Together they provided Laskey with his most successful record to date, the sublime ‘Peace loving Man’ and ‘Sweet lies’ (also covered by Martha Star with different lyrics as ‘I’m lonely’). McMurray also contributed to the frenetic ‘I’ve got to run for my life’.

Mancha recalls Laskey’s quiet manner around the studio. “He was a very conscientious young man who worked very hard …easy to work with .. kinda delicate, sensitive, not harsh or rough like lots of others. He had really clear diction too. And he was popular around the city. ‘Peace loving man’ was big in Chicago and New York. He needed better management.”

Joey ‘King Fish’ Stribling and James Goffphine provided songs for many of the Thelma artists, including ‘Don’t lead me on baby’ for Emanuel Laskey.  ‘Kingfish’ reveals how his sessions worked. “We would always record Emanuel early in the morning – sometimes before nine – because his voice was softer then. As the day wore on his voice would kinda cut up and get quite rough. We already had the track ready so it was only overdubbing that needed to be done.”

music: "I'm A Peace Loving Man" - Emanuel Laskey (Thelma 108a)

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