JoAnne recalls "Everyone who worked for us that was a Motown musician, you had to get them at 3-4 o'clock in the morning. Berry would have had a fit if he knew what was going on. We couldn't have Holland/Dozier/Holland around or anything like that, however. He wouldn't let them work for Golden World or anywhere else for that matter. They would get fined.

Anyway, Ed would go into the studio and way against Joanne Jackson's wishes dish out booze to the musicians.

I said how do you expect those records to come out right?"

Well, turn out right they did, and this was another simple example of Ed Wingate being one shrewd guy. Not only did he keep the troops sweet, he also paid their fines.

He was also extremely generous as testified by a number of people I have spoken to in Detroit.

Bob Babbitt has fond memories of playing at Golden World, "I met Bob d'Orleans for the first time at Golden World. "Agent Double-O-Soul" was my first session.

One thing that stood out about Golden World's studio, was that you always got a great sound. The bass sound stood up there right next to the Hitsville bass sound. It probably made Berry Gordy nervous."

Dennis Coffey's first recordings may well have been the Volkano items associated with John Rhys. He did however play on some classics, such as "Stop Her On Sight", "Real Humdinger", "Daddy O" and a significant number of Fantastic 4 recordings.

In his excellent book, "Guitars, Bars and Motown superstars" Dennis recalls that sessions were operating on a similar basis to Motown. Three or four songs per session, a session lasting for three hours and pay running at $60 per session. Financially he felt studio work was the way forward.

"Once I got the call from Golden World, I was over there almost everyday playing on sessions. We also did night sessions for Jimmy Bishop and LeBaron Taylor and recorded for the Reflections and other acts. Mike Theodore and I did road arrangements for the Fantastic Four and played on 'The Whole World Is A Stage' amongst others. "

Don Davis was also playing guitar on some Golden World sessions. Apparently Davis's work was paid in studio time which allowed him to work on recordings for his own label.

Drummer George McGregor, who was part of the Don Davis Trio, was a regular feature too. He was also a talented songwriter and producer turning out songs like "Mr Soul Satisfaction" for Timmy Willis on Sidra/Veep after leaving Golden World.

These three guys would also write and produce the San Remo Golden Strings, "I'll Be Satisfied", which was released on Ric-Tic108.

John Rhys recalls that the name San Remo came about as a result of a vacation taken by Ed and JoAnne to the town of the same name.

click to hear "Hungry For Love", once "All Turned On" finishes playing

The first recording by the San Remo Golden Strings was "Hungry For Love" (Pop #27) which was released in August 1965. It was significant in itself because it is the first production by another of the Hamilton brothers, Al Kent. In fact it was co-produced with his brother Bob which suggests a learning curve.

Bob d'Orleans provides some more detail, "We were always cutting tracks which had a good feel and when "Hungry For Love" came out we added "All Turned On" to the flip, as it was a nice number. The musicians on this had to be the people we used a lot such as Babbitt or Jamerson on bass."

Babbitt backs this up, "the musicians were the same Funk Brothers along with the same horn and string players that were on all of the records. At times there would be one or two players. I remember playing on some of the San Remo recordings and I think I remember Jamerson on the others."

It would also appear that some of the musicians in this group came from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and I think this is nicely backed up by the image on this chapter which was extracted from the San Remo's album "Hungry For Love." The arranger on the album was Gil Askey.

It would be six months before another release, "Festival Time" c/w "Joy Road". "Festival Time" is a great uptempo number and was ably turned into a vocal by the great Laura Lee on Ric-Tic111. "To Win Your Heart" has a big following in the UK and was interestingly released around the same time as "Festival Time." The flip "Joy Road" was a celebration of the road which runs for 40 odd miles from the heart of Detroit to the west and Ann Arbor.

The final San Remo release came in August 1966. "Quanto Sei Bella" c/w "International Love Theme" was written by JoAnne and arranged by Mike Terry and Bert Keyes.

Bert was a legendary New York arranger who worked briefly with Golden World way back in 1962.

As mentioned above, the flip side of "Hungry For Love" is the equally excellent "All Turned On" by Bob Wilson and the San Remo Quartet.

Group leader Bob Wilson provided SixtiesDetroit with this fascinating account of the production of this popular record.

"Bob Wilson and the San Remo Quartet were me on Piano, Richie Ries, Drums, Charlie Gabriel, Alto Sax, Wild Bill Emerson, Guitar and Bob Babbitt, Bass. The Engineer and Producer of "All Turned On" was Bob D'Orleans. The Arranger was Sonny Sanders, who at the time, was hot from his Mary Wells hits over at Motown. We cut it several different times, with different versions on different dates over about a one month period, with the arranger, Sonny Sanders making changes each time. Sonny would re-write the charts, then we would go and rehearse the new version with Sonny in a room down the hall from the studio. This room had a little console piano and was where they rehearsed "The Fantastic Four" and "Edwin Starr", etc. before their sessions.

We finally got it the way Sonny and the rest of us (and Ed Wingate) liked it. Edwin Starr played tambourine on several cuts with us, but had to go on the road and by the time we got to the final cut, he had to leave and was gone, so the actual record did not have the tambourine back-beat we originally had on it. I regretted that. It was a smaller tambourine with a skin drum head and really made the back-beat pop. We were using that tambourine on all the Ric Tic hits.

My original Producer was John Rhys, who produced "The Shades Of Blue", but John had a falling out with Ed about something and Ed pulled my project and assigned it to Bob D'Orleans to produce. So, when we got to the final version of it, Bob D'Orleans produced it.

I was 19 at the time and played piano on this side. I had been doing recording session work for Ed Wingate and John Rhys, as did Charlie Gabriel and Bob Babbitt. Charlie was also doing sessions at Motown. Wild Bill Emerson was Mack Vickery's guitarist and had been doing recording sessions for Harry Balk at Big Top Records and was one of Harry's recording artists over there and as a kid, Wild Bill was my musical mentor. Richie Ries was 18 and was the drummer in my band; he was from Toledo.

There was no air conditioning in the Golden World studio and we cut it in August as I recall and we cut it "over and over" till we "really made it cook". By the end, with that constant kicking Bass Drum, Richie Ries was just "dripping with sweat", but he never dragged; he just kept kicking that Detroit beat, "right on the money". Sonny also conducted us during the recording and pointed at the different drums he wanted Richie to roll on, then he danced over to the piano and started pointing at me towards the the end, and into the fade, giving me the "do it; kick out your jam" sign. Needless to say, this was "extremely inspiring".

All was live, with no over-dubs on this record. Sonny put a lot of time into this simple little jam. Later, seeing Ed Wingate, who was a real big man, dancing around in the control room when we played the final version back, wide open on the big overhead speakers, is something I will never forget. He had this wild grin on his face and he kept yelling: "it's a xxxxxxx hit." There always were a lot of music industry people hanging around the studio and when we got my cut done, lots of them approved and when I would see them later at the studio or around town, they all were very friendly and receptive to me; this little cut had brought me acceptance and recognition around Detroit.

As so many people through the years have asked "who, really was on this Ric Tic Record", now they can know.

I played on some other Golden World sessions and later joined Ray Monette and Michael Campbell (aka actor Michael Champion). We played locally in and around Detroit for a short period before Ray and Mike formed the group Scorpion. I later moved to Nashville where I was instrumental in the Joe Simon record productions at Sound Stage 7 and played with Freddie King several years before Freddie's death."

Continued