music : "You'll never Change" - Betty Lavette (Atlantic 6585a)

The route to Detroit for most African Americans was via the Deep South. For Betty Haskins it was straight East from the Michigan port of Muskegon, which lies 200 miles from Detroit.

Taking her artist surname from a close friend, her first audition was for Johnnie Mae Matthews who had recently gained a foothold on the Detroit music scene with her Northern label.

Recording a Lupine Published song in May 1962, Betty got a real break when when it was leased to Atlantic Records in New York City.

That song was "My man - he's a lovin' man" and it was written by Johnnie Mae  and her chief songwriter James Bennett. It was recorded in Bristoe Bryant's studio on East Alexandrine in August 1962 and gave Betty a blistering start going R&B #7, Pop #101.

The follow up was the equally brilliant "You'll never change" which was co-written by Robert West and Willie Schofield. For some reason, the song flopped, leaving Betty with no future at Atlantic.

Betty's contract now fell to her manager, Robert West, who recorded "Witchcraft in the air"/"You killed the love". The song was co-written by Jack Thomas who provided a significant slice of the song base at Lupine.

Sadly that record flopped too and Betty opted to find more work in Manhattan, this time turning up at Calla records on Broadway.

That partnership provided Soul Music fans with one of the classic songs of the era in "Let me down easy" which reached #20 in the R&B charts in April 1965. 

When the Falcons broke up in 1963, Robert West brought in another Detroit group in their place.

Starting out as the Ramblers on Federal, they later became known as the Fabulous Playboys who had discs on Contour and  Daco.

As the Falcons on Lu Pine, and with Carlis Monroe aka Sonny Monroe on lead, "Has it happened to you yet" was one of West's best 45's. The rest of the group was made up of Johnny Alvin, Frank Holt and James Gibson.

A couple of years later this new version of the Falcons had a fair sized local hit for Big Wheel records, "Standing on guard".

The Falcons. Carlis Monroe is on the right

As West's tenure in Detroit was coming to an end towards the end of 1964 his penultimate recording was another Mack Rice song, "The whip".

Lu Pine126 was to be West's swan song, and one of his finest. It was by Benny McCain of the Ohio Untouchables called "I don't want no part time love", a fabulous blues/soul ballad written by Schofield, Pickett and West himself. Robert Ward's guitar featured prominently complementing a beautiful vocal performance.

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