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Having legendary
Detroit
record labels Thelma, Golden World, Ric-Tic and
Revilot on your C.V. is impressive enough. When your
45s include such treasured recordings as Hit And
Run and I Can’t Leave You, you’re
guaranteed cult status.
Born in Detroit in 1947, Rose grew-up on the Motor
City’s east side with her sister and two brothers.
Her mother, who was a frustrated entertainer,
encouraged Rose to try and make it as a professional
entertainer and the first place she took her was
Hitsville, Motown’s HQ on West Grand Boulevard. The
reception was similar to that of most young teens
who ventured down to Motown, as Rose recalls, “I saw
Lamont Dozier, my cousin Freddy Gorman and also
Berry Gordy; he told my mother that I had a lot of
potential, but it didn’t come to anything.”
By the time she was 13 year the Battiste family had
moved across to the west side and consequently Rose
attended North Western High School, on Grand River
Avenue. At 15 she made her recording debut in the
Continental studio on 12th Street, where
Don Mancha produced a song called I’m Yours For A
Lifetime for local entrepreneur Sam Motley. “My
whole family came to the session and my grandmother
took off her shoes and danced across the floor,”
Rose told me. But the song doesn’t seem to have made
it onto vinyl on any of Sam’s various labels, such
as SA-MO or M & M, so it appears there’s yet another
acetate waiting to be found in someone’s basement!
Rose had the recording bug and after school early in
1964 she walked across Grand to 6519 River Avenue
and auditioned at Thelma Records’ lock-up store
front office. After getting a warm reception she
started hanging out at the company’s mom and pop
operation, eventually teaming up with writer –
producer Don Davis and Joey “Kingfish”. She had a
wonderful time and Rose has fond memories of that
period, “Mr. and Mrs. Coleman (the owners) were such
beautiful people, they took really good care of me.”
Rose recalls, “And Kingfish could really get me to
belt out my voice!”
Rose joined Thelma recording artists at revues
around Detroit, notably the famed 20 Grand, where
radio-jock Martha Jean “The Queen” hosted a sock-hop
in the club’s Gold Room titled Monday Night Swing.
With just fifty cents cover charge it soon became a
favorite haunt for the city’s hip teenagers (18+).
They got to see numerous performers lip-syncing to
the latest records, and occasionally the top
headline acts from the club’s Driftwood Lounge would
appear too.
Rose’s two Thelma sides were recorded at Detroit’s
famous United Sound Studios when she was just 16
years old. I Can’t Leave You was penned by
Don Davis and has his customary stamp of quality,
with a watertight production and a strong beat that
typifies the emerging Detroit sound. The flip
Someday belies Rose’s tender age and to overcome
her teenage shyness and deliver such a vocal punch
she told me how it happened. “Mrs. Coleman said to
me, ‘turn around with your back to us and face the
wall,’ and that’s how I did it!” The single didn’t
achieve the success it deserved and once things
began to dissolve at Thelma, Rose followed Don to
the Golden World studios on West Davison, where he’d
established a new base.
Her Ric-Tic sides were co-written by Bob Hamilton
(a.k.a. Rob Reeco) who told Rose to sing Holding
Hands straight, without infusing any passion, or
as he put it, “Bluesing it up.” It certainly
provides a stark contrast to the belting Someday.
Unfortunately the Ric-Tic release followed the
phenomenally successful Hungry for Love and
Agent 0-0-Soul, inevitably shoving Rose’s 45
into promotional oblivion. Her next release,
Sweetheart Darling, sounds Diana Ross-ish, and
even though Rose likes the lyrics, it’s her least
favorite recording. The sound that Golden World
sound was too Motown-esque and understandably Berry
Gordy bought out Mr. Ed Wingate’s company in
September of 1966, leaving most of the artists
searching for a new recording home.
Rose stayed with Don Davis and joined the Solid
Hitbound crew; a production company that’d been
formed by ex-radio DJ LeBaron Taylor and station
manager George White. Their stable of labels
included Groovesville, Revilot and Solid Hit. With
George Clinton, Mike Terry and other talented
Detroit luminaries working there it was inevitable
the company would taste success.
Unfortunately for Rose, her tremendous Revilot
double-sider, I Miss My Baby b/w Hit And
Run, followed in the wake of Darrell Banks’
hugely popular Open The Door To Your Heart (Revilot
201). Steve Mancha’s Don’t Make Me A Storyteller,
on Groovesville, also proved to be a big
regional hit, so it was another case of being in the
right place at the wrong time. The company’s
promotion was focused on those two 45s, leaving hers
to sink without trace. Consequently it’s now a
highly sought after rarity.
Leon Ware wrote and produced Rose’s last 45, but bad
timing continued to blight her career. The
Parliament’s Top-20 smash hit, (I Wanna) Testify
(Revilot 207), was launched simultaneously with
Come Back In Hurry, condemning it to the land of
flops.
Rose started working as a receptionist at Solid
Hitbound’s small office at 8832 Puritan Street for a
while, then moved onto a job in the advertising
department at General Motors, where she also did
some photographic modeling work for the auto giant.
By 1970 she’d switched to working as a typist in
Motown’s corporate offices on Woodward Avenue. Word
soon filtered down the six-story building about her
former singing career and it wasn’t long before she
was recording again, working under the supervision
of “Larry Brown. Rose remembers cutting a handful of
songs, including a remake of Jimmy Ruffin’s LP
track, Our Favorite Melody and considers
these recordings as being some of the most soulful
of her career. Motown moved to California in the
early 70s and nothing from those sessions was
released; they remain buried somewhere in Motown’s
vaults.
After such a frustrating career, with so many “if
only” experiences, most singers would be pulling
their hair out, but Rose remains phlegmatic. When I
asked her how she felt about success always eluding
her, she smiled, shrugged and said, “It just wasn’t
meant to be. And I had such a ball!”
Many thanks Rose Batiste, Don Davis, Joseph
“Kingfish” Stribling and Don Mancha for generously
giving me their time and patiently answering my
esoteric questions.
Graham Finch
Discography
Thelma
102
Rose Battiste I Can’t Leave You /
Someday c.
11/1964
Ric-Tic 105
Rose Batiste That’s What He Told
Me / Holding Hands c.
9/1965
Golden
World 33
Rose Batiste Sweetheart Darling /
That’s What He Told Me c. 3/1966
Revilot 204
Rose Battiste I Miss My Baby / Hit
And Run c.
11/1966
Revilot 206
Rose Battiste I Still Wait For You
/ Come Back In A Hurry c.
6/1967
Text and discography courtesy Graham Finch
Photographs courtesy Graham Finch
Label scans courtesy Graham Finch and Lars G Nillson
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