SIXTIES

Some freelance work was coming through from Nate Dore's Mutt Records which was based on Michigan Avenue, about fifteen miles west of Detroit. At that time the building was also doubling as a Bail Bondsman's operation.

Several tracks were put together on The Two Fellows and The Majjestees (sic).

Fred remembers The Two Fellows as "Two guys from Inkster who were like brothers. Nice guys, we recorded them in a studio way up in Mt Clemens; It was either called SuperDisc/ProSound or Sound Incorporated, something like that, and I think the La Beat Production Team provided the backing tracks. The songs were 'Stop' and 'Yea yea yea yea'.

The song we did for The Majjestees was called 'Let her go' and was the flip side to 'Take back all those things'. I remember the lead singer was called Michaelo who eventually moved to Motown in LA before hitting with a song called 'Reach for the stars'. The Promo guy at Mutt was also working for Sidra."

Fred recalls his name as Bill Craig and it is possible that it was he who helped get BKE some work at Sidra's new studio on Wyoming.

The owners, Raymond Jackson and Joe Brown, approached BKE with a view to them supplying some new material for their group The Precisions, who were being showcased on Sidra's subsidiary label, Drew.

The result was the release of two songs, some 9 months later, called 'A place' and 'Never let you go'. The 45 was good enough to reach #50 in the R&B charts.

Sidra Studios, 18292 Wyoming. Bill Craig's name is stamped on this promo disc

During the sessions a guy called Ric Williams appeared who was building a reputation in Chicago through his Zodiac label.

This chance meeting would prove to be very significant.

Ricardo Williams had released several Ruby Andrews songs on his Zodiac label before trying his hand in Detroit with a Jo Armstead song called "Casanova" in August 1967.

Impressed by competitive studio time and a seemingly endless flow of talent, Ric's move was about to pay off as 'Casanova' hit R&B # 9 and Pop #51 the following month. It was a classic collaboration between arranger Mike Terry, drummer George McGregor and Chicagoan Joshie.

The song was recorded at Sidra.

During his latest visit to Detroit Ric had watched BKE closely and found that he was impressed by their harmony and creativity.

Bill Craig helped to arrange a meeting between the parties and Ric went round to Fred's house that evening.

However, that first meeting was a tense affair.

Fred recalls, "Ric was a smart dude, short but very confident and street wise. When he came into my house, he commandeered me straight away. His brashness was difficult to take and we soon began to argue."

This didn't deter Williams however, and he asked the group to present him with four songs.

The trio chose to record the songs Tera Shirma Studio A, which had been bought the previous year by Ralph Terrana and Al Sherman.

"We chose Studio A as it had a nice feel to it. It was basically a room within a room and we found that this provided us with a great sound. A very compact set-up which had it's own character. I liked it a lot.

We recorded 'I guess that don't make me a loser', 'Dream', 'Hurry don't linger' and 'Can't get you off my mind'."

Encouraged by the performance of their first recording session, Williams decided to open up another label called Boo, and announced that it would be used to showcase the group on their own.

It didn't quite end that way however as Roy Cortez Butler gained the second and third release with another version of 'Dream' and a new song called 'Mary's house'. A song which would feature a rap by one Russ Terrana.

"Roy was a tall guy with a high pitched voice", recalls Fred. "He came from Inkster and a friend of mine introduced him to me. We cut a few songs on him."

A rear view of Tera Shirma Studio B which would soon feature in BKE's plans

Continued