Rev. Milton Bronson and the Thompson Community Singers: "All Power" (HOB, HOB-1303, early 1970s?)

Reverend Milton Bronson (1929-1997) was a Grammy award winning gospel musician and a pastor in Chicago. There's a post office branch in Austin, Chicago named after him.

Bronson's Wikipedia page says he released his first album in 1988, but his Discogs page shows he and the Thompson Community Singers were recording since the early 1970s.

This 45, "I'll Trade A Lifetime" b/w "All Power," doesn't have a date but judging by it's label number, HOB-1303, and where that would fall in the HOB catalog listing on Discogs, I think this was released sometime around 1971 or '72. Both songs are from the album named "I'll Trade A Lifetime."

The label that put out Bronson's 70s work, HOB, released religious recordings from 1959 up to 1999, according to Discogs data. HOB was a subsidiary of Scepter Records, which was founded and ran by New Jersey housewife Florence Greenberg, who put out a lot of hits by the Shirelles ("I Met Him On A Sunday," "Tonight's The Night," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," etc.).

On my copy of this 45, the A side skips, but someone's already put "I'll Trade A Lifetime" on Youtube. Youtube comments on that page reveal the names of a few of the "Tommies," as the Thompson Community Singers were called -- Maggie Bell, Betty Jean Plummer, Mary Jean Adams, and Otis Williams. Apparently Maggie Bell was the lead singer on "I'll Trade A Lifetime."

Both "I'll Trade A Lifetime," and the flip side presented here, "All Power," are great, stirring gospel tracks. I apologize for the hiss and cracks in my recording of "All Power," I cleaned the record the best I could.

Listen by pressing play; right click the embedded player to download:

Download: "All Power"

Click here to listen if the two options above do not work for you: "All Power"

Cliff Richard and the Shadows: "True True Lovin'" (Epic 5-9691, 1964)

It's been too long since I dipped into my 45 collection. Also I figured out how to record better, I think:

According to his Wikipedia entry, Sir Cliff Richard turns 75 this October 14, has sold more than 250 million records worldwide, and is the third-top-selling singles artist in UK Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. How is it I have never heard of this cat, nor ever heard a single song by him? Richard's career has spanned more than 50 years, but he never found much success in the States, which I assume is the answer to my question.

Richard and his band the Shadows were marketed as rebellious rock'n'rollers and were apparently top dogs in the UK pop/rock scene of the late 50s/early 60s, before the Beatles showed up. According to Wikipedia, John Lennon called their 1958 hit "Move It" the first British rock'n'roll record.

The Shadows split in '68 but Richard continued to record. He finally had a hit in the U.S. with "Devil Woman" in 1976. "Devil Woman" is a pretty cool song, with a chorus that ends with "she's gonna get you from behind." Is the Devil Woman going to sodomize me? Geeze, I will stay away from that Devil Woman then. October is approaching so put "Devil Woman" on your Halloween mix for sure.

Richard got religious, got knighted, the Shadows reunited in 2008; there was a sexual assault allegation against Richard after the Jimmy Savile scandal, but no charges were filed and as of June 2015 the investigation has been dropped. Looks like he might've just got caught up in a witch hunt.

This Epic release, 5-9691, has "Bachelor Boy" on the A-side and "True True Lovin'," on the flip. "Bachelor Boy" is from a 1963 movie musical called "Summer Holiday," starring Richard.

"True True Lovin'" was also the B-Side for "Constantly," which doesn't look like it was released in the States. This 45 was put out stateside by Epic in 1964, same year as the Beatles' first world tour. You can certainly hear the Beatles influence on "True True Lovin'." It's a fun, pacey rarity written by Bruce Welch of the Shadows and produced by Norrie Paramor.

As always, this track is presented strictly for educational purposes, and won't be up for very long.

Listen and download:

"True True Lovin'" by Cliff Richard and the Shadows

If the above doesn't work for you, try clicking this: "True True Lovin'" by Cliff Richard and the Shadows

New Tunes Via Bandcamp

A quick blast of cool new sound from some of the bands and labels I follow on Bandcamp. These four songs are courtesy Slovenly Records:

This is from a split with Ausmuteants for No Friends zine #1, which I am eagerly awaiting in the mail:

Great song, cool video from Small Bear Records:

German label and band:

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1993:

A couple of lo-fi pop tracks to finish off the post. From Japan:

From Kentucky:

New Texan hip-hop y noise rock; HC punk from Italy, Chicago, and New York; a new 70s funk/soul compilation from Tramp Records.

HC hip-hop from Houston. Cool video too:

New noise rock from Denton, Texas:

HC punk from Italy:

Label Randy Records and band The Yolks are both from Chicago:

Here's two new full albums, courtesy bandcamp:

New York lady-punks, all in Portuguese. I listened to all of this today, it's rad. They've gotten some press from the Village Voice and Stereogum, much cooler than CNQ:

CNQ's favorite German re-issue label Tramp Records has this compilation, "Praise Poems 2- A journey into deep, soulful jazz & funk from the 1970s," available in various formats. Very groovy: