LeBaron

 If you’re beginning to think this is all getting a little complex and confusing, the next part might tax your comprehension abilities. Please bear with me. The Holidays on this later Revilot 45 have nothing to do with The Holidays that had the previous two releases on the label.

The novelty of imitating Harry Belafonte in the Chicago had worn thin for Jimmy Holland. And while he’d been singing “Matilda” in the nightclubs on Rush Street, his younger brother Jack had got himself another baritone sax and become part of the house band at the 20 Grand, playing with the likes of McKinley Jackson and Bobby Franklyn. Jim:

“I came back to Detroit and then got with my brother - Jack. He was so talented. He could play the piano, the baritone sax, he could sing and dance and had already started singing with a guy called Maurice.”

Jimmy formed a new group of Holidays with Jack and Maurice Wise and the trio got a deal with LeBaron Taylor’s fast-fading Solid Hitbound Productions:

“We went over there because we were looking for a label. And this is how we ended up doing George Clinton’s track. LeBaron says, ‘Jim, I’ve got no producers here – I’ve got this label. If you want to produce your own record, fine, I’ll help you… let’s go in the studio’.”

 George Clinton and his Parliaments had already left LeBaron – who had kept the group’s name - for Westbound Records and renamed themselves Funkadelic. Although Jack Holland penned “All That Is Required Is You”, the existing track that Clinton had written and cut inevitably gives the recording a Clinton-esque sound. It was released with an instrumental on the flip – one that had already been on the Solid Hit label called “I’ll Keep Coming Back” - a sign of how little cash was left for cutting new material. LeBaron had financial problems and this 45’s failure to sell was one of the last nails in Solid Hitbound’s coffin.

It was during Jim’s stint with LeBaron that Don Davis released Steve Mancha’s record on the Groove City label, credited to The Hollidays. Jim:

“LeBaron recognized there was two groups running around here, so there was a lawsuit and we won, we meaning LeBaron Taylor’s side: because we had the oldest hits.”

No long after, LeBaron left for ABC Records in New York and offered Jimmy a producer’s job there, but he respectfully declined:

“At that time I’d recorded ‘Maybe So Maybe No’ with Popcorn and I felt a certain amount of loyalty. I loved that record; I just knew it was a hit.”

Jimmy stayed in Detroit.

Continued