After The Barons split up Lee Rogers made his solo debut in
'62 with a rousing, up-tempo, bluesy-guitar-led MAH'S' 45 titled "Troubles,"
which was picked up by Seg-Way in
New York.
The identity of the Royal Ravens remains a mystery, but
their "Grand Spanish Lady" is a tremendous doo-wop number. Unfortunately
it was released a few years too late to have had a realistic chance of becoming
a commercial success, and its meager sales make it a very rare disc.
The latter few of the dozen early MAH'S' 45s have Mike's
McGraw address printed on the label. They date from late '62 to the spring of
1963, and include songs by Big Jack Reynolds and Don Heart, plus an instrumental
titled "J.F.K." that's credited to Mike. After these discs the label was
mothballed for five years.
The Exit label was launched in 1962 by another ex-Baron,
Duke Browner, backed The Caravelles on a song titled "Wait." The Paragon's Exit
45 has two wonderful sides - "Pretty Words" and "My Time Is Important To Me"
- with Dee Edwards leading superbly on both songs. The Paragons included
Dee's brother, Albert, who had
sung with The Distants, and ex-Caravelle Tommy Martin and his brother, Freddy.
Funk Brothers Eddie Willis (guitar) and James Jamerson
(bass) had a hand in writing Eddie's instrumental on Exit, "Shake Loose,"
while guitarist and vibe player Dave Hamilton co-wrote "Pretty Words" and a few
of Mike's other songs.
One of them was recorded by Charmaine (Dave Hamilton's
daughter?) and sold to the Serock label in
New York - another enterprise
funded by Carmen Murphy. Another nice Hanks-Hamilton collaboration was "I Let
Myself Go," cut by Geraldine Hunt and released on the Chicago-based
Katron label.
Both these songs have a strong Mary-Wells flavor: she was
riding high at the time with hits like "You Beat Me To The Punch," and it's
quite hard to tell the difference between Mary's Motown releases and Mike's
productions.
The MRC label was also started in '62 and Steve
Mancha (Clyde Wilson) was part of the The Sounds (and The Stars), who backed
Lawrence Faulkon. It's possible that "MRC" refers to Mike, Renaldo and Chuck, as
these three co-wrote the Renaldo Jackson disc that intersects the MAH'S'
catalogue numbers.
With all this recording activity going on, Mike had to
choose between working at Ford's and making music. There are no big-money prizes
on offer for correctly guessing what he opted to do.
Some of the first 45s on the
legendary Detroit label. Dee Edwards told me the label was named for her. She
also had an early D-Town recording released on the Tuba label.
Gracie consented to her husband quitting Ford's in 1963 and
Mike then launched a new recording company: D-Town.
The label's name was more parody than plagiarism of Motown.
And it didn't end there: for
Berry's VIP label, Mike
started USD. And Wheelsville
USA
was Mike's retort to the name of Motown's nearby studio: Hitsville USA.
D-Town heralded a new chapter in Mike's musical career. Many
musicians and singers joined him during the D-Town years, but the most
significant was Rudy Robinson.
Towards the end of '62 an instrumental called "Red Pepper" enjoyed national
success after being released on the local Prince-Adams label. Although credited
to Roosevelt Fountain and Pens of Rhythm, it features Rudy playing organ on his
first recording.
Mike got Rudy to add some lyrics to create "A Telegram With
Love," and then had Don Heart - who'd previously recorded for MAH'S -
record it. It was the second D-Town disc and Rudy was ensconced, becoming the
company's Musical Director and subsequently writing or arranging most of
D-Town's songs.
Mike's recording engineer at D-Town was a guy nicknamed
"Long-head Sam," who also played bass and drums. The main financial backers were
Roger Brown, a Detroit Lion footballer, and Pete Hall, an ex-Giant working for
one of the many distributors on
Detroit's bustling Woodward
Avenue.
Rudy told me about his first years with Mike, explaining, "I
got to know Mike and we put the D-Town thing together. It was Pete Hall, Roger
Brown, Mike Hanks, and me. We had the Pig Pen: that was the studio on McGraw,
which was Mike's house. The kitchen was the control room, the bathroom was where
you dubbed the voices in, the living room was where the piano was - and when you
needed rhythm you'd beat on a pop bottle. We were making records then!"
That's a fact: if you listen to Dee Edwards' ballad, "Too
Careless With My Love," you can actually hear a pop bottle being tapped.
Dee also cut the melodic and
catchy "You Say You Love Me" in '63. But this and Don Heart's "Lover's Hideaway"
were sold to the local Tuba label, part of Music Merchants Record Distributors,
owned by Marv Jacobs.
After these two deals Mike seemed reluctant to lease any
more of his recordings and it's possible that he, like many others, wanted to
emulate Motown and propel his D-Town company to national success.
The first D-Town Review was at
Mr. Kelly's club, in June 1964
The name "C. Bell" appears
on most of Mike's compositions, with BMI files crediting a "Clara Belle
Williams." But the co-writer's actual identity remains a mystery and some people
have said it was simply Mike's way of getting additional royalties.
Mike's voice is heard on a 45 that's credited to Marco
Hammon - "Me Boy You Girl" - a D-Town single that harks back to his HOB days.
And a couple of "garage" recordings were released after Dave Leone did a deal
with Mike shortly before forming his own label: Hideout.
Another key player at D-Town was singer-songwriter, Cody
Black, who joined the fold in '64, soon after arriving from his home in
Cincinnati. He appeared on the
company's first review, held at George Kelly's popular nightclub, where he
undoubtedly plugged his debut D-Town 45: "These Chains of Love."
Cody reminisced about his wonderful stint at D-Town, telling
me, "Mike was straight guy, a good teacher. I became the A & R man and signed
The Precisions. They came up to the door and auditioned, and I heard them sing
and said - yea, you all get a contact."
The Precisions then made
their recording debut with a self-penned gem titled "My Lover Come Back" - a
beautiful ballad that borders on a cappella, although it's the flip, "I Wanna
Tell My Baby," that's preferred by Northern Soul fans. Group-member Arthur
Ashford told me they sang the songs in the bathroom of the Pig Pen, where their
voices resonated off the tiled walls and hard fixtures.
But Mike was always looking for a different kind of sound,
and sometimes used the large basement in Pampa Lanes Bowling Alley. This place
had the acoustics of an aircraft hangar and it's probably where Cody Black cut
his "Too Many Irons In The Fire."
And D-Town's biggest hit, "I Want You To Have Everything,"
was cut in Mickay's record store on
14th Street, an
enterprise owned by Fred Brown. Frank Bryant played guitar on the session and
told me about it, "It was cut in the back of the record shop, where we
rehearsed. Dave Hamilton brought a portable thing in (recorder), and the Magic
Tones were on chairs, singing."
Lee Rogers sang the lead vocal in the bathroom and the song
sold so well it entered Billboard's chart in January 1965, peaking at number 17.
Around that time Mike also produced a couple of songs on
J.J. Barnes that were released on the Mickay's label: "Color Green" and
"These Chains of Love." When I asked J.J. about these he told me, "Mike
co-produced those songs with Mr. Brown, who had a big place at the corner of 14th
and Grand River. Mike
came over one day and said, 'You can record in this place.' He wanted to do a
session on me - that's how those songs came about."
Enthused by the national success of Lee Rogers' hit, Mike
decided to move to a more prominent location and chose a house at 2656 West
Grand Boulevard: literally just a couple of doors east of Motown's Hitsville
studio. Berry Gordy wasn't impressed.
Two of a few 45s that should
have been hits in 1965.
The house purchase fell through and again Cody Black told me
how things unfolded. "Mike tried to buy a building next door to Motown. Him and
Berry didn't get along at all, 'cause Mike always said, 'I was
driving a Cadillac when he was riding a bike.' He shouldn't have been
messing with Berry.
He bought the building and somehow
Berry pre-dated the contract that he had on the building - and
they snatched the building off of Mike. Because it was too close to Motown! You
know what he (Mike) did - he put some dog-doo on the board and he walked around
out in front of Motown with a sign saying, 'What you see on this board is
what's in this building'. That was it for us. Believe it or not that was it
for us! That was the end of that road. Then they (radio stations) started not
playing our product. Somebody had told them not play our stuff, or paid them not
to play it. Mike sincerely believed he was being stepped on."
But Mike was undeterred and
bought a place a little further along, at 3040 East Grand Boulevard, at the
corner of John R. The roomy, detached house became D-Town's main office and was
used for general admin and rehearsals, while most of the recording sessions
still took place at the Pig Pen.
The move gave everyone at D-Town a boost and 1965 saw some
of the company's best recordings released. Sadly, none of them sold as well as
they merited. Lee Rogers had distinctly less success with his follow up disc,
"You're the Cream of The Crop," released around February, and Silky Hargreaves's
catchy debut, "Hurt By Love," was one of a several that should also have made
the national charts.
As you can see from the advert above, D-Town's second review
at Mr. Kelly's featured Silky and various other artists plugging their current
releases. Ronnie Love's "Detroit,
Michigan" was later covered by The Peps, and is found on the flip of their "You
Never Had It So Good." The song is a celebration of everything Detroit: "Talking
about a soulful groove - we got it." Even Hitsville, Mary Wells and The Supremes
get a mention. Ronnie's real name is Ronald Dunbar and although this disc sank
without trace he had success with Holland, Dozier and Holland at their Invictus
label in the 70s.
Other great sides released in '65 include "Hide And Seek" by
Lillian Dupree. She'd split from Jackie and The Tonnetts after the group had
seen their sublime "Steady Boy" bomb, and this and several other D-Town 45s are
now valuable collector's items.
One of them is Cody Black's tremendous "Mr. Blue"
.
Sam (the engineer) kicks it off by walloping the drums to give it one of those
killer-Detroit intros, while Lillian, Silky and Tom Storm of the Peps add
delicious backing vocals to a typically superb performance by Cody.
And The Precisions' wonderful "You're Sweet" is a 45
that somehow also managed not to climb the charts. It's hardly surprising Mike
felt he was being stepped on.
Lee Rogers - pictured - had D Town's biggest hit and has top
spot on this review.
In October of 1965 Mike put on a second D-Town review, this
time at the plush 20 Grand. But his impressive roster of artists were beginning
to feel restless due to their lack of chart success, and singer-songwriter
Melvin Davis, who recorded for Mike's Wheel City label, recalled the situation.
"Mike Hanks was really a devoted person when it came to the
music industry. He loved the music business. He hated Berry Gordy. He didn't
want to give Berry
the credit for being the innovator and the visionary that he really was. Mike
thought he was just as good as Berry - which he wasn't. He was a good guy; don't
get me wrong. He was good for the music business, he gave a lot of people a lot
of opportunity. He gave me an opportunity to develop. He had the biggest heart.
He'd let you come in and try to do what you could do, 'Man! That sounds good,
man. That sounds good! Berry Gordy - that mother fu--er, he ain't shit, man. I
can't stand that mother fu--er.' He would cuss him out every single day!
He'd sneak all the Motown musicians in at night. He'd say, 'That's what it
is! He's got all those damn musicians. If he didn't have Jamerson, he wouldn't
have shit.' He refused to realize that this man (Berry) put together a
recording machine that was second to none. From the songs themselves having such
great content, to the melodies being great, to the production being great, to
the musicians being great, to the promotion. He even had people tell you how to
walk, how to talk. he put the whole package together. That's what Mike didn't
understand. I think he understood it, but I think he thought it was simpler than
what it was. But Mike's stuff was good too! But it wasn't the calibre of Motown.
But it didn't have to be! Everything doesn't have to be Motown. I think that's
what kinda pissed him off."
As well as running D-Town Mike also started other
subsidiary record labels, such as Wheel City, Wheelsville USA, GIG, HOG and USD.
None had any more luck than D-Town though.
Gracie prompted him to also start making gospel recordings,
which were released on a "Devotional Series" label. The label's six releases
include a couple by the Staple Singers and two by The Meditations. And Mike also
produced a gospel LP by The Edward LaNier Gospel Singers, released on the
Hallelujah label.
But by August of '66 D-Town had released the last of its
forty-three records, which left Wheelsville
USA
as the main outlet for Mike's music.
music:
"(I've Got a) Shield Around My Heart"- Lillian
Dupree (D Town 1051a)
Continued
