Motown didn't react very neighbourly when Mike tried to move
into 2656 West Grand Boulevard
in February '65. After Hitsville USA's staff had quashed his house-deal Mike
retaliated by starting a new record label: Wheelsville USA.
Freddie Butler's self-penned, Northern Soul gem, "Save Your
Love For Me Baby," launched it later that month with a tremendous fizz.
Unfortunately it only made a muffled bang.
It's a standout performance from Freddie and his strong
voice is perfectly harnessed to a slick, in-the-groove production. But Mike
presumably ordered just a small, initial quantity of 45s. No doubt he hoped
customer-demand would fuel a second pressing, but that never happened, which is
a pity, as it deserved to sell by the vanload.
The second disc was Rudy's instrumental version of the
D-Town hit, "I Want You To Have Everything," and these first two releases had
dark blue labels. They were followed by a couple of Don Davis's productions,
which have the more familiar pink one.
Don told me that he never had any dealings with Mike but he
inexplicably co-wrote Lillian Dupree's D-Town song - "Hide & Seek" - with him.
Plus Jimmy Gilford's Wheelsville 45 - "I Wanna Be Your Baby" - was released on
Don's Solid Hit label and his hallmark is also on Steve Mancha's soulful
double-whammies - "Did My Baby Call" and "Whirlpool" - now one of the most
sought after records on the label.
Steve had been languishing as a songwriter and singer of
promos at Motown for around three years before Don got him to join his Solid
Hitbound team. "Melvin Davis introduced me to Don," recalled Steve, "and we
submitted some songs and he said he wanted me to sing them." His Wheelsville
disc was his first solo 45 and hit number 5 on WGPR's chart in July of '65. He
subsequently had a few other tremendous releases on Don's own Groovesville
label, making Billboard with "I Don't Want To Lose You" and "Don't Make Me a
Story Teller."
I'm guessing Willie Garrett dusted-off the masters of his 1963 Debra
Healy and the Magictones' recordings and got Mike to re-release them on
Wheelsville USA.
That was about two years after they came out on the Chrysler label.
The songs had been cut at United Sound and feature key Funk Brothers,
James Jamerson, Joe Hunter, Uriel Jones and Eddie Willis, with the then Magic
Tones line-up of Willie "Gut" Allison, Bob Finch, Calvin "Doc" Stephenson, and
Richard "Dickie" Thompson. The Wheelsville release, shown above, simply credits
Debora Healey.
Conny Van Dyke covered the group's "Don't Do Nothing I Wouldn't Do,"
after a brief one-record stint at Motown and it's her version that's popular at
Northern Soul clubs: thanks to McKinley Jackson's vibe-laden, up-tempo
arrangement.
Willie Garrett produced "Me and My Baby" on The Magic Tones: a
tune that embodies the effervescent spirit found in Wheelsville's charismatic
recordings. It was released around March 1966 and by then the group was Paul
Willis, mainstay Calvin "Doc" Stephenson and Albert Singleterry. Joe Connors
then replaced Albert on "How Can I Forget," which came out that August.
Mike hired renowned jazz drummer Hindal Butts to write lead sheets and
play on sessions, which netted Hindal one Wheelsville 45, "Back Up Baby."
He later did a deal with the local Kool Kat label to get his song
"Gigin" released - a tune recorded at the Pig Pen during his one year with Mike.
"I was on staff with Mike," Hindal told me. "We cut it at the Pig Pen. We had it
going on over there. Then Mike Hanks and Pete Hall got to squabbling. Pete
wanted to do what Mike was doing, but he couldn't do it."
This was a sign of things to come, spelling the beginning of the end of
Mike's involvement in Wheelsville.
This Wheelsville Revue was in August 1966
The label had released about twenty records by late '66 and
musically it carried on where D-Town left off.
The Fabulous Peps' great dancer, "Love Of My Life," is an in-demand
example of Wheelsville's uncomplicated, fired up, horn-driven sound. Others
include Lee Rogers' maelstrom of a song, "How Are You Fixed For Love" and his
storming "Cracked Up Over You" - two recordings that sounded just too black to
have made the pop charts.
It's hard to decide which is the best side of Silky Hargreaves' 45:
"I'll Keep On Trying" or "Love, Let's Try it Again." Perhaps I should say the
most fantastic, as "Trying" has a wonderfully atmospheric track with Silky
pleading as soulfully as it gets while his self-penned "Love" has a punchy,
Funk-Brother arrangement courtesy of trumpeter Floyd Jones. Both these songs
have a higher fidelity sound than most of the label's recordings and were
possibly cut at Golden World's nice studio on Davidson - Cody Black mentioned
Silky did some sessions there.
Accomplished arrangers like Floyd Jones, McKinley
Jackson and Dale Warren started working for Wheelsville, while Rudy Robinson's
involvement waned. His name isn't credited on the labels and Ziggy Johnson
reported in his weekly Michigan Chronicle column that Dale Warren was Pete
Hall's musical director.
That was in August 1966 and Mike had probably backed
out of the D-Town subsidiary. His MAH'S publishing disappears from the labels -
replaced by "Group Four" or "Premium Stuff" - and indicates he'd handed control
to Pete.
As well as appearing on big reviews - like the one at
the 20 Grand shown above - D-Town and Wheelsville's roster of talented singers
would also gig at some of the Motor City's smaller nightspots. There were lots
of them.
Pete and Mike had been running the Stadium Lounge - a
cozy club close to the Pig Pen - since '65-ish. And Mike also managed the
Webbwood Inn, which was located on
Woodward Avenue and Webb.
This popular place boasted a massive dance floor and
Cody Black helped to keep the joint swinging, telling me:
"The Webbwood days. those were great days. I had a
job there. I was the stockman. I handled all the liquor, took the inventory,
made sure all the machines were emptied, counted the money. There were some
great clubs back then, the Webbwood was one. Lee's Sensation was another; it's
gone. The Casino Royale; gone. The Parrot, that's gone. And the Chit Chat on 12th.they
had some nice clubs on 12th. They're all gone."
Melvin Davis also had fond memories gigging for Mike
at the Webbwood: "It was big. That's where he'd put on most of his shows. He'd
have a band there from Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But at
the Stadium it was just weekends. In the Club Stadium we'd have a regular band,
about five to six pieces, but at the Webbwood sometimes there'd be maybe eight
pieces. maybe ten. sometimes a horn section."
The very last Wheelsville
USA 45 was a re-issue of Buddy
Lamp's dancer, "I Wanna Go Home," and came out in the summer of '67. And Mike's
key men - Rudy, Cody, Sam the engineer, plus The Magic Tones - had started
Ram-Brock Records. But Detroit hadn't heard the last of Mike Hanks.
Singer-songwriter Melvin Davis, and three rare 45s
As if running his various enterprises wasn't enough to cope with, Mike
also opened a record store called
Music City around 1965. It was
located on Grand River Avenue - a couple of blocks from Joy Road - and would
have been the best place to pick up some of the rare and valuable records that
Mike was releasing back then.
Melvin Davis's "Find
A Quiet Place" is the most sought-after of Wheel City's eight 45s and typifies
Mike's Pig Pen sessions with its beating rhythm and unbridled Detroit verve. It
was Melvin's only single with Mike and he told me about his spell at D-Town:
"I wasn't getting my money for one thing and songs weren't being
recorded fast enough. I didn't really have a contract with Mike Hanks. I was
doing some production for Carrie Records at the same time I was at D-Town. The
reason for that was D-Town didn't open up until like two or
three o'clock in the
afternoon. They always started real late and stayed real late. So from nine
o'clock in the morning until like around eleven - twelve o'clock I would work at
Carrie Records. They put me on salary. I think I was getting something like
seventy-five bucks a week. Sometimes I'd have to pick up Edward Hamilton (and
the Arabians). I'd work with them till about eleven-thirty, and then that's when
Edward Hamilton had to go to work. So then I would bowl at a little place
between 14th and Linwood, which the Pig Pen was like about maybe a
mile away. So I'd bowl maybe twelve or fourteen games then I'd go to the Pig Pen
and stay there the rest of the day. It'd fill in my day. Then at night I'd go
around the clubs and sit in and create as much of a ruckus as I could."
Harmonica-man Little Sonny had "Let's Have a Good Time" released on both
Wheelsville USA and
Wheel City. Other instrumentals include Rudy Robinson's "The Mustang" and The
Twiners' "Twine Baby," - which is probably Rudy using a different name for his
group.
Like Wheelsville
USA, the Wheel City label also
dates from '65, although its illogical catalogue numbering system makes it hard
to be 100% sure: Mike was never meant be a librarian.
Three of the 45s were pressed at
Columbia's plant in Indiana
and consequently have ZTSC matrix numbers, but many of Mike's discs were pressed
at Sheldon's plant in Chicago. And some have a catalogue number prefixed with
"MW," which stands for another Chicago company called Mid West. It would send
master tapes to Sheldon's for it to cut a lacquer - the initial stage of
pressing a vinyl record - and then they or Mid West would make the 45s.
U.S.D. only put out two 45s; one is an instrumental of Sam and
Dave's 1967 Stax hit, "Soul Man," credited to John R and featuring "Tony Newton
on Bass" - a rare occasion when a musician is credited on the record label.
The other U.S.D. record is Toby Lark's seductive, mid-tempo song, "Lots
of Heart," that was probably cut in '66: the year she appeared on Wheelsville's
Review.
With a name like "HOG" and production credited to "Four Pigs" it appears
someone was making fun of Mike's Pig Pen. The one known HOG label release is an
ultra-rare and expensive piece of vinyl by The Moments. This isn't the
Detroit
group that had a single on the Hit label and probably came from
Washington; the record was also released with an orange label bearing a DC
address.
Cody Black's "It's Our Time To Fall In Love" was the
only GIG 45 and he had no idea why it didn't come out on either D-Town or
Wheelsville. It could be because Mike found a new financial backer to fund this
pressing, and they started a new label: but it's anybody's guess.
Copies of Melvin's, Cody's and Toby's 45s now change hands for
four-figure sums, and in July 2004 a copy of The Moments' disc sold on Ebay for
a staggering $5,500!
The
Premium Stuff label was named after Martha Jean "The Queen", a popular
DJ on WCHB. The Wee 3 label put out just three 45's, all in 1967.
During 1967 Mike Hanks got
involved in Rudy and Cody's setup at Ram-Brock records and doesn't appear to
have had any direct involvement in the Wee 3 and Premium Stuff labels. Many -
perhaps all - of the Premium Stuff tracks were cut in Memphis with Willie
Mitchell's taking care of the sessions. The vocals were then overdubbed in
Detroit, although Lee Rogers and The Peps actually travelled south to record.
Two young
brothers, Curtis and Moses Boone, had had "What Can It Be" as the last disc on
D-Town and it was also released on Wheelsville USA. It was then re-released with
a different flip - "Been So Long" - as the first one on Wee 3, but unfortunately
it wasn't third time lucky for the high-pitched duo: The Lil' Soul Brothers.
Buddy Lamp's two Wee 3
songs - "Confusion," and "I Wanna Go Home" - were from his Wheelsville days and
could possibly have been Pete Hall's attempt to recoup some of his investment:
it didn't happen.
By this time Pete had
developed a close relationship with Martha Jean Steinberg, who used "The Queen"
as her radio name in Detroit. She hailed from Memphis where her deejaying title
had been "Premium Stuff" and the pair tried to strike it rich with this label
towards the end of '67.
Premium Stuff's ten-record
lifespan started out with a couple of vinyl platters by The Fabulous Peps and
recordings by other ex-D-Towners and Wheelsvillers soon followed. And The Peps
later had a third 45, their version of The Impressions' classic song, "Gypsy
Woman."
Lee Rogers's "Jack The
Playboy" and "Sweet Baby Talk" are in the same punchy mould as his earthy D-Town
recordings. The A-side was later put on the flip of "I Need Your Love," a tune
that has a distinct echo of The Temptations' 1966 hit, "I Know I'm Losing You."
That's possibly because Lee's song was produced by one of Motown's Funk
Brothers, Jack Ashford, who'd started his own independent company: Just
Productions.
Lee's other Premium Stuff
record is his must-hear "Sock Some Love Power To Me," which has a tambourine and
guitar dominating a vibrant, must-dance track.
Another former D-Towner,
Dee Edwards, recorded a couple of songs that were arranged by Sonny Sanders. And
the Godmother of Detroit Soul, Johnnie Mae Matthews, was behind Timmy Shaw and
Little Melvin's impassioned deep soul disc, "Can't We Make This Love Last." This
is one my personal favorites, with the two singers soulfully intertwining their
voices over a simple, southern-flavored guitar session.
The last Premium Stuff 45
was released in February '69 and by then Mike had been busy re-launching his
MAH'S label and scoring a hit with The Magic Tones.
The Magic Tones on these recordings were Calvin "Doc"
Stephenson, Tyrone Barkley, Tyrone Douglas and Paul Willis. This
bring-your-own-bottle gig was in March '68.
The Magic Tones rejoined forces with Mike and resuscitated
his MAH'S label with a breath of well-timed opportunism. Their song, "Together,
We Shall Overcome," was uncannily recorded just before the tragic assassination
of Dr. Martin Luther King, in April 1968, and thus coincided with the sense of
despair and outrage that swept across
America and around the world.
It's
difficult to ascertain just how many copies sold, but it was a lot. Even though
it doesn't have the dubious distinction of making Billboard's chart it was a
red-hot song and lead singer Calvin Stephenson told me about his group's claim
to fame: "We cut it at Magic City (studio on Grand River Avenue) on four track.
We'd finished working on the tune, and the next day, that's when Martin got
killed. I called Mike Hanks and said, 'Look, man, we got the perfect record
for this situation.' He sent me down to United Sound and I mastered it. At
the time Archer on Davidson was pressing 'em. We put it out the next day and
(record store owner) Coachman was the first one to play it on his amplification
(system) on the street. That's how the record got going. He called Mike and
said,
'Man, I'm selling 'em as fast as I can get 'em!' My understanding is it sold
100,000 in the Detroit
metropolitan area. Mike was making money distributing them himself."
Mr. Ed Wingate, the wealthy
owner of Ric-Tic Records, had the song re-pressed in the hope of making it an
even bigger hit. But things didn't live up to expectations, chiefly because Mike
didn't do the deal until a couple of months after Dr King's death, by which time
the tune was effectively out-of-date.
Although the
chance of a coast-to-coast smash had gone the incredible local popularity of
"Together, We Shall Overcome" guaranteed the group a prime spot on the Ric-Tic
Review at the 20 Grand that summer. Long queues lined up to get in to the famed
club and the event broke Chuck Jackson's three-year-old attendance record.
The Ric-Tic
distributed pressing has a different B-side to the poignant and beautiful
balled, "Fun To Be Young," which has Calvin Stephenson leading soulfully on the
deceivingly jaunty title. This second release has a Northern Soul flavored song
- "It's Better To Love" - on the flip, and these two songs were originally
released on each side of a Solid Hit label 45 in 1967: a super-rare piece of
Detroit vinyl.
The Magictones on
all these sessions were Calvin Stephenson - who later joined the Undisputed
Truth, Tyrone Barkley - who went on to cut a thumping record on the local
Midsong label, ex-Baron Tyrone Douglas and Paul Willis.
They followed up
their MAH'S hit with another 45, "Let's Let Our Love Roll On." This record
preceded Mr. Wingate's sell-out to Motown later in 1968, at which point the
group then opted to join Armen Boladian's fledgling Westbound label; a venture
that Mike had instigated.
Music
: "Troubles" - Lee Rogers (Mah's 000.9b)
Continued
