SIXTIES

In April 1964, the same month that Hamilton and Gorman first feature on a Golden World disc, they hit it big time with The Reflections "Just Like Romeo And Juliet", which reached number 6 in the U.S. Pop Charts (Billboard), and was arranged by Sonny Sanders.

Lead singer, Tony Micale, confirmed to me that the song's vocals were cut in RCA's studio on North Lake Shore, Chicago while the band tracks were cut in United Sound in Detroit.

The group at that time consisted of Tony (lead), John Dean (bass), Phil Castrodale (first tenor), Dan Bennie (second tenor), Ray Steinber (baritone).

It has always intrigued Scottish soul fans that Dan was born in the town of Johnstone, not far from Glasgow.

A further eight Reflection's 45's would be released by Golden World; the next one, "Like Columbus Did" being almost a carbon copy of their big hit.

Of those releases, "Poor Man's Son" would perform the best by reaching no. 55 in Billboard on March 8th 1965.

Lead singer Tony Micale would also have an excellent solo outing on the label in July 1966 with "Picture Me And You"/"I Love The Life I live", under the alias Tony Michaels.

The Reflections would move on to ABC with another "Juliet" type release, in "Like Adam And Eve"; a 45 which was huge on the Northern Soul scene.

In 1966 they also appeared in a movie by the name of "Winter A-Go-Go" where they sang "I'm Sweet On You".

Around the time of the Reflections hit another Golden World label emerged in J&W Records, which was listed at 4031 Glendale; again in North West Detroit.

4031 Glendale

"It was just another label name" says JoAnne.

I am unsure of the meaning of the abbreviation myself but it is surely "Jackson and Wingate", Jackson being JoAnne's maiden name.

This may also have been the home, or one of the homes of Ed Wingate. It is still a beautiful building 35 years later.

J&W is one of those intriguing labels that is difficult to list and also to date.

The first releases on the label may even be around the end of 1962, as there is clearly an attempt to re-launch Sue Perrin's "I wonder" which had originally been Golden World's first release. The label number is J&W101. This follows J&W100 which was by prolific blues artist Willie Morganfield, who had many releases on the Jewel label. There was also another release by Sue Perrin on J&W104 with "Ring Bells Ring".

The best of the J&W batch would come from Stewart Ames however with a great double sider in "King For A Day" and "Angelina Oh Angelina". Definitely released in 1964, it would surprisingly sell very few copies, leaving it to be picked up by the Northern Soul Scene where today it changes hands for large sums. Stewart also recorded under the name Stewart Avig.

The final release on the label appears to be another Sue Perrin song, "I Can't Let Go".

Continued