Dean Parrish - Brooklyn Northern Soul 1964-67 (WTS Soul No.5)

Philip Anastasi was born and raised in the Bronx area of New York City. Dean Parrish was the name that he adopted when trying to be in the same league with Italian-American pretty faced lads such as Frankie Valli, Bobby Rydell or Dion DiMucci. 

He studied at the School of Industrial Design and sang with doo wop bands on the street. He soon frequented the Peppermint Lounge where he befriended the members of the (fabulous) Ronettes. It was apparently Veronica Bennett (Ronnie Spector to her friends and fans), who suggested the young Phil that he should change his stage name. 

He signed a contract with the much loved New York soul label Laurie and set out to become a star. His deep, soulful voice boomed from his mouth every time would open it. Dean achieved some minor success with the singles "I'm On My Way", "Tell Her", "Determination" and "Skate". He performed alongside the likes of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, The Capitols and Lou Christie, hell he even appeared in a Motown revue with the Supremes! The big time beckoned, but his singing career began to fade. In 1967, Dean returned to his original name, abandoned soul and became an actor. 

He remained completely unaware of the Northern Soul scene in England and the legendary status he received over there ("I'm On My Way" was the last record that was played at the Northern Soul all-nighters at the Wigan Casino). Since he had changed his name back to what he was christened when he was born no one had been able to track him. His US labels had long since lost touch with him.

After being rediscovered "I’m on My Way" was reissued in 1975 by Jonathan King’s UK Records label and reached at #38 in the British pop chart, it was even said to have sold more than 200.000 copies! In 2001 Parrish made his first trip to UK, appearing at a northern soul weekend in Prestatyn and Paul Weller's guitarist and Ocean Colour Scene member Steve Craddock hooked up with Dean for new recording of an unreleased Weller song, that The Jam leader had composed at the age of fifteen ("Left Right and Centre") on the Acid Jazz label. 

In 2006 as Philip Anastasia, he appeared in the 5th episode of the 6th season of The Sopranos, playing a suave, silver-haired MC at a lavish wedding reception. While Johnny Sack, the father of the bride, is persuading his fellow mobster Tony Soprano to arrange the murder of a rival, played by Valli, Anastasia serenades the happy couple with a rendering of Daddy’s Little Girl!

Anyway, here's gathered most of the sides I was sitting on or I was able to locate from my downloaded music files in my hard drives and the Brooklyn Soul legend released in the 60s.

Rex Garvin & The Mighty Cravers - I Gotta Go Now: 1961-1968 (WTS Soul No.4)

Rex Garvin was born in Harlem and grew up in the Bronx, where his neighbor Zelma Sanders introduced him to the music business in his early teens. Having one of the coolest band names ever (even though mr. Raw Funky himself was kinda embarrased about it), he has released countless singles especially during the 60s that are undisputed classics today. I thought he would have lived a comfortable life once he decided to leave music business. Unfortunately, his story is another one of the countless of an era with bad contracts and the exploitation of black kids in particular (anyone remembers the episode in The Sopranos first season?). He ended up living his last years of his life as a janitor for fuck's sake! 

[That's why I hate with passion capitalism and racism and I'm sharing thoughts and music. In most cases the artists never had a penny out of them.]

As a teen he wrote and arranged adjective hours of music (Rex’s inspiring intro to "Any Day Now" a song writren by the master of melodies Burt Bacharach that became a hit in 1962 - he got paid just for the session and with no credit even though our guy created it without having much time to plan or compose). 

Garvin’s gritty sound of the early 60s evolved into soul and funk over time, before his recording career waned at the end of the decade. Unlike many fallen stars of its time, he never had any interest in a comeback and remained reclusive until his passing. So here's a gathering of all of his 60s sides and once again as far as I know there's no such compilation around (I really wanted to include the amazing black rock'n'roller "Oh Yeah" but it wasn't in the aforementioned era). To make a long story short what I have to offer is an astonishing output of the most driving raw soul dance party anthems of all time! Bless his beautiful black soul...