Yvonne Baker and The Sensations recorded one of their earliest collaborations in Ashford’s home city of Philadelphia in 1965. “ Jack and I went down there with our own songs. We had ‘I can’t change’ and ‘Mend the torn pieces’ which we recorded on one of Kay Williams’ acts. Kay was a local DJ who Jack already knew. A couple of years later Jack re recorded both songs on Lorraine Chandler.

We also had a song called ‘Crazy things’ which we cut on one of Bobby Martin’s artists (Joe Douglas).We played on them too but I can’t remember the name of the other tune (‘Something to brag about’).”

This wasn’t Terry’s only visit to Philadelphia however. He would record in the city on several more occasions over the mid 1960s, adding classics like The Volcanos ‘(It’s against) The laws of love’, Moses Smith’s ‘Girl across the street’, The Rotations’ ‘Put a dime on D9’ and Cliff Nobles’ ‘The horse’, plus many more, to his record of accomplishment, and would return in the early 1970s to work with Jesse James, Dave Crawford and Ivy Hunter, amongst others, on many more projects.

Ashford/Terry compositions would form the basis of a more formal arrangement between the two when Pied Piper Productions came into play in 1966, after they had both left Motown permanently. The division of labour worked out amicably.

According to Ashford “Mike knew more about producing and taught me a lot. I was more comfortable writing songs. He had a lot of patience and was a tremendous teacher.”  Their material appeared on a wide variety of different labels and usually featured local artists like Tony Hestor, Freddy Butler, The Hesitations and Lorraine Chandler.

The Hesitations and Freddie Butler had releases on the Kapp label

Separate deals were done for individual projects, which explains the wide variety of release logos. Lorraine Chandler and the Sandpipers appeared on their own Giant label for instance, whereas Hestor came out on Karate and Butler and the Hesitations cropped up on Kapp, and there were many more.

As their reputation grew, groups like The O’Jays came to record in Detroit with Ashford and Terry too, but with limited success. “I remember I got taken ill on that session which was a real disappointment to me. They’d come all the way from Philly and I got taken sick. But we did the ‘I’ll never forget you’ session anyway. That was the first time I got to work with the O’Jays. It was right at the start of their career.”

National distribution, and the promotion advantages that a ‘major’ label could provide, proved to be elusive to Pied Piper until Ashford met local ‘businessman’ Shelly Haims … and then everything changed.

Through contacts he had in New York, Haims was able to negotiate a deal with RCA records which would result in Pied Piper product being released nationally on their label, recordings being made at their studios in Chicago and nationwide distribution through their contacts and outlets. In return, Ashford was forced to give him a much greater share of decision-making and, naturally, a more generous proportion of the profits.

This impacted directly onto Mike Terry. “Just after this, Jack told me that from then on I would only be paid for my arrangements, not as a partner. So I quit.” Sadly, their relationship soured and they never worked together again. This also explains why very few of the RCA records featured his baritone or writing contributions – only those songs written or recorded before his exit.

The RCA sessions did feature Detroit musicians, but only those who stayed faithful to Ashford. From the established pool of session players active at the time, of which there were many, only bassist Bob Babbitt, drummer George McGregor, pianist Joe Hunter, guitarist Raymond Monette and trumpeter Herbie Williams figured prominently on the Pied Piper sessions for RCA.

music: I'll Never Forget You - The O'Jays (Imperial 66162a)

Continued