Okeh Records Northern Soul 45s

If you are a true R&B and Soul fanatic, there's no way to not know about Okeh Records. Based on Chicago, Okeh Records was founded probably at 1918 by Otto Heinemann who was German and migrated to the States just after the end of the first World War. For many years labeled as a "race" music company (I wanna know who was the originator of this tag to go and piss on his grave..). Of course at first was a jazz label. From early on, Okeh marketed as "black music specialists" and because of this it was a natural thing to expand on other genres like rhythm & blues at first and later on soul. From the label's roster passed many monsters like Louis Armstrong, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Little Richard, Larry Williams, Johnny Watson, Johnny Otis, Jerry McCain, Major Lance, Esquerita, Dave "Baby" Cortez, Billy Butler, the Vibrations, Big Maybelle, Ida Cox, Lavern Baker, Chuck Willis among many equals even Link Wray! Not bad huh?

By the sixties the label created many groove classics and I never really understood why never had the success of the Motown or Stax. A very good sum of the later Rhythm & Soul years written on bbc.co.uk by Bill Brewster :

"In 1958 a record called ‘For Your Precious Love’ was released on Vee-Jay Records that changed the sound in Chicago. Influenced by doo-wop and gospel groups like the Inkspots and the Soul Stirrers, Jerry Butler & The Impressions had a sweet, lilting sound that was in stark contrast to the angular and gritty local blues singers. Jerry Butler and fellow band member Curtis Mayfield had been in bands together for while, beginning with the Quails, followed by the Roosters, then, when they’d finally run out of birds’ names, the Impressions. Vee-Jay, the only black-owned label in Chicago, passed up on the chance of signing the Impressions preferring instead to hold on to Butler, thus allowing Mayfield to go elsewhere (Vee-Jay also released the Beatles’ US debut, ‘She Loves You’ before EMI affiliate Capitol got smart and picked them up for the States). Although the Impressions eventually signed to ABC-Paramount, Mayfield played a key role in the resurgence of OKeh (as a producer and writer) and his unique guitar style was aped by virtually every other Chicago guitarist.

 
In 1962, a Chicago producer, Carl Davis, hot from success with Gene Chandler’s ‘Duke Of Earl’, was brought into Columbia in the A&R department. The effects were immediate and, within a year, he was working full-time for its offshoot OKeh. He gathered around him songwriters like Mayfield, a group of musicians that included Jerry Butler’s younger brother Billy on guitar, Floyd Morris on keyboards, Bernard Reed on bass and Maurice White (who later went on to form Earth, Wind & Fire) on drums, alongside arrangers Johnny Pate and Riley Hampton.

 
The first hit was Major Lance’s ‘Monkey Time’, written by Mayfield and produced by Davis, which showcased a distinct sweet, rhythmic sound with weight lent by percussive brass stabs and the bass accentuated by trombones. It reached number eight in the US and was a club smash in UK clubs like the Twisted Wheel and The Scene. Lance followed this with a string of hits with the same writer and producer, including the onomatopoeic ‘Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um’, ‘Rhythm’ and ‘The Matador’.
 

Many of the artists signed to OKeh, including Lance, Mayfield and Billy Butler were not only local but came from the same housing project, the notorious Cabrini-Green (immortalised in the 1975 comedy movie Cooley High which, significantly, didn’t include any Chicago music on its soundtrack). Other Chicagoans included girl group, the Opals, who began life as backing singers for another Cabrini-Green resident Otis Leavill and the Artistics, who recorded the sublimely daft ‘Patty Cake’. Added to that were Detroit’s answer to Ian Dury, Walter Jackson (well, he had polio as a child) and the Vibrations from LA, who seemed to get through more labels than an early eighties casual.
 
But, like Motown, OKeh was a producer-led label and the artists were, in many ways, interchangeable. Curtis Mayfield went on to produce or write for many of the OKeh stable, Billy Butler & The Enchanters’ ‘Gotta Get Away’ and Walter Jackson’s ‘It’s All Over’, a superb beaty ballad in the Bobby Bland mould.
 
The demise of OKeh shows a conflict that’s been going on with major labels and black music for more than five decades now. For the most part, they still struggle to come to terms with its constantly shifting culture and when Columbia split the company into two, leaving OKeh under the aegis of newly independent Epic, Carl Davis, who had brought them so much success and prestige, was effectively forced out by head Len Levy and left acrimoniously in 1966. OKeh struggled on for the next four years, with Walter Jackson, Larry Williams and others enjoying minor hits, before finally being closed down in 1970. It was sad demise for a label that, thanks to its close affiliation with Curtis Mayfield and, indeed, Davis, had helped define not just the soul sound of Chicago, but had a profound effect on soul generally."

What i got for you guys this time is an EXCELLENT compilation from the cream of the label's Soul 45s! And when I'm saying "cream"  I MEAN IT! I found on my HDD Backups a file of 32 (yes, thirty two!) floor-fillers of the highest quality! I didn't rip them myself. Don't know where i got 'em, maybe by some old torrent download, but i did some work myself here except for re-upload them since they didn't have tags in all songs and on some other i had to make some re-search and put the right artist and title on 'em cause i never heard them before. Listening to these gems you're sure going to understand why Northern Soul-diers around the world still place Okeh beside Motown and Stax giants! Okeh?
320Kbps

 

The Gems:

01. Come Back - Ken Williams

02. Gonna Get Along Without You Now - The Vibrations

03. I'm Coming To Your Rescue - The Triumphs

04. I Still Love You - The Seven Souls

05. Gone But Not Forgotten - Johnny Robinson

06. This Heart Of Mine - The Artistics

07. Your Gonna Make Me Love You - Sandi Sheldon

08. A Quitter Never Wins - Larry Wiliams and Johnny Watson

09. A Little Bit Of Something - Little Richard

10. Let My Heart And Soul Be Free - The Tan-Geers

11. You Don't Want Me No More - Major Lance

12. What's The Use Of Me Trying -  The Tan-Geers

13. I'm So Afraid - The Opals

14. My heart Is Hurtin' - Billy Butler

15. I Dont Want To Discuss It - Little Richard

16. I Can Do It The Autographs

17. So Glad Your Love Don't Change The Little Foxes

18. I'll Leave It Up To You - The Artistics

19. Don't Fight It -  Major Lance

20. The Right Track - Billy Butler

21. It's An Uphill Climb To The Bottom - Walter Jackson

22. Investigate - Major Lance

23. This Old Heart Of Mine - Johnny Watson

24. Finding Out The Hard Way - The Vibrations

25. Taking On Pain - Tommy Tate

26. Nothing Can Stop Me - Major Lance

27. Too Late - Larry Williams and Johnny Watson

28.Everybody Loves A Good Time - Major Lance

29. Call Me Tommorow - Major Harris

30. Ain't No Soul - Major Lance

31. You Can't Take It Away - Azie Mortimer

32. After You - Walter Jackson

Okeh?