VINYL CLASSICS - GODFREY PRESENTS

Godfrey Kerr was a Los Angeles disc jockey and record producer and entrepreneur. He started the Gee Kay, Kay Gee and Flashback record labels. See my post THE EASTSIDE SOUND HITS THE RADIO WAVES - GODFREY KERR.

In 1965 Godfrey released four record albums entitled GODFREY PRESENTS: courtesy of local record companies in Los Angeles. The albums feature a mix of Mexican-American recording artists and black R&B artists. The albums are ala Art Laboe's OLDIES BUT GOODIES series

In 1968 I bought two of his albums at Sounds Of Music, a record store in East Los Angeles to play on my radio show at East Los Angeles College. I now have all four albums to complete this post.

Album Discography:

1965 - Godfrey Presents - 18 R&B Flashbacks, Flashback 601

1965- Godfrey Presents - 18 R&B Flashbacks, Volume 2, Flashback 602

1965 - Godfrey Ppresents - 16 Successful Sounds, Flashback 603

1965 - Godfrey Presents -  20 Blast-Backs, Flash-Back 401

GODFREY PRESENTS: 18 R&B FLASHBACKS:

Tracks of interest to Eastside collectors are "Tonight" by The Carlos Brothers, "Symbol Of Heaven" by Little Julian Herrera and "Bring Me Happiness" by Ron & Rosie.

GODFREY PRESENTS: 18 R&B FLASHBACKS VOLUME 2:

Tracks of interest to Eastside collectors are "Sad Girl" by Thee Midniters, "Dream A Little Dream" by The Perez Brothers, "So Dearly" by Ron & Rosie and "Darling Dear" by Alfred & Joe. Another favorite track is "Split Personality" by The Resonics which was the main reason I bought the album.


GODFREY PRESENTS: 16 SUCCESSFUL SOUNDS:

Tracks of interest to Eastside collectors are '"Land Of A 1,000 Dances" by Cannibal & The Headhunters, "It'll Never Be Over For Me" by Thee Midniters, "la La La La La by The Blendells, "Farmer John" by The Premiers and "I Need Someone" by The Ambertones. Two other noteworthy tracks are "Let's Get Together Again" by Carol Hughes and "Unlucky Girl" by Chris Teller.


GODFREY PRESENTS: 20 BLAST-BACKS:

Only "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez may be of interest to Eastside collectors. The other 19 tracks are doo wop & R&B hits.


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SOLELY FOR HISTORICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!!!

EASTSIDE BANDS - THE ALDERMEN

EDITORS NOTE:

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALDERMAN'S DRUMMER LEE MARKS FOR SUPPLYING THE MISSING NAMES OF THE BAND MEMBERS!!

BAND MEMBERS:

L-R (Front Row):

Bruce Gilbert (Keyboards)
Tad (Lead Guitar)
Joe Chapman (Bass Player), later Greg Kricheff
Lee Marks (Drummer)

Seated In The Middle:

Jesse Acuna (Lead Vocals)

Standing:

Russ (Rhythm Guitar)


Keyboard player Bruce Gilbert met a band called The Aldermen at the 1965 Teen Fair at the Hollywood Palladium. They played mostly surf music  but soon became very versatile playing in the style of the East LA bands which was a mix of R&B and doo wop rock with a Latin flare.

The band played private parties, dances in East LA, schools and teen clubs. They also played El Monte Legion Stadium, the 1966 Teen Fair, the Salesian Rock & Roll Show and East LA City College.

 They would soon be on the same bill with bands such as Thee Midniters and Cannibal & The Headhunters.

Singer-songwriter Chick Carlton (see my post EASTSIDE BANDS- CHICK CARLTON & THE MAJESTICS) heard the band and became their quasi-manager.

In 1967, the band recorded two Chick Carlton penned tunes "House Of Wax" and "In My Upper Room" released on the Sir Graham label.

"House Of Wax' is a fuzz and Farfisa organ-fueled swinger with great soulful vocals.

You May Listen To The Aldermen "House Of Wax" Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UncrF79XCI

"In My Upper Room" features a neat bassline and has a brief but cool keyboard break to finish.

Lee Marks went on to play in a number of bands that can be found on line. BETTY, GOOD DOG BANNED, FOX and currently THIEVES. His son Christopher born in northern California moved to Los Angeles in his 20's to help form & still plays drums for Hoobastank.


NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!!! SOLY FOR HISTORICAL & EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AND FOR LISTENING PLEASURE.

VINYL CLASSICS - THEE MIDNITERS - GIANTS

Thee Midniters fourth and final album for Whittier Records was GIANTS released in 1967. It was intended to be a greatest hits compilation but new tracks were included. It is my favorite Midniters album and I played the grooves out of it while I was a disc jockey at East Los Angeles College 1967-1969.

SIDE 1:

Side 1 opens with the East LA cruisin' classic "Whittier BLVD". Track 2 is "Goin' Out Of My Head" with new group member Al Anaya singing lead on this cover version. Track 3 is the band's cover version of the Cannibal & The Headhunters hit "Land Of 1000 Dances". Track 4 is an instrumental version of "Walk On By" Closing out Side 1 is the Eastside classic "Sad Girl".


SIDE 2:





Side 2 opens with the Solomon Burke classic "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love". Track 2 is the moody cover of jazz singer Oscar Brown Jr's "Brother Where Are You". Track 3 is a psych-pop tune "Breakfast On The Grass" Track 4 is a cover of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night". Track 5 is the blue-eyes soul-horn-rock original 'Love Special Delivery". The closing track is the band's excellent cover of "That's All"


NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!!! SOLELY FOR HISTORICAL & EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!!!

VINYL CLASSICS - THEE MIDNITERS - UNLIMITED

Thee Midniters third album was "UNLIMITED" released in 1967 on Eddie Torres' Whittier label. By this time the band had been writing more of their own material. Eight of the twelve tracks on the LP are originals. The album features some fine cover songs as well as jazz-soul, soul and Latin-jazz-soul tunes.

SIDE 1:

Side 1 of the LP opens with a cover of the Solomon Burke classic "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" Track 2, "Cheatin' Woman" is a band original credited to Willie Garcia, Danny Lamont and Jimmy Espinoza. Track 3, "Could It Be" was written by Roy Marquez and is a great soulful ballad. Track 4, "Thee Walking Song" is a band original. Track 5, "Dreaming Casually" is a true Eastside classic written by Willie G and Larry Rendon. The closing track on side 1 is "Never Knew I Had It So Bad", another band original.

SIDE 2:

Side 2 of the album opens with a cover of the Beatles' classic "Yesterday" Track 2 is a cover of the Mitch Ryder classic "Devil With A Blue Dress"/"Good Golly Miss Molly". Track 3 is another Willie Garcia-Larry Rendon penned tune, "Making Ends Meet" and is another true Eastside classic. Track 4, "Chili Con Soul" is a band original and is a jazz-Latin-soul instrumental. Track 5, 'Welcome Home Darling" is a fine ballad written by Danny Lamont & Willie Garcia. Side 2 closes with a superb version of the McKinley Mitchell classic "The Town I Live In"


NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!! SOLELY FOR HISTORICAL & EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!!

VINYL CLASSICS - THEE MIDNITERS - LOVE SPECIAL DELIVERY

Thee Midniters second album, "Love Special Delivery" was released in 1966 on manager Eddie Torres' Whittier records label. Eddie had been urging the band to write their own material and this album includes four Jimmy Espinoza-William Garcia tracks. The other eight tracks are cover versions.

SIDE 1:

Side 1 starts with the Garcia-Espinoza original and title track "Love Special Delivery" This track is blue-eyed soul-horn-rock at it's finest. Next is a cover of the Holland-Dozier-Holland classic "Love Makes Me Do Foolish Things" Tracks 3 thru 6 are also covers, "Do You Love Me", "Soul & Inspiration", "Good Lovin" and "When A Man Loves A Woman"

SIDE 2:

Side 2 opens with a nearly five minute version on Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night" followed by a powerful James Brown screaming-like version of Van Morrison & Them's "Gloria". Track 3 is a cover of Deon Jackson's  "Love Makes The World Go Round" Tracks 4-6 are all originals. "I Found A Peanut" with it's peculiar lyrics. "Are You Angry" is an Eastside classic and "Don't Go Away" is a solid sultry soulful ballad.

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SOLELY FOR HISTORICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!!

RECOMMENDED LISTENING - THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS OF LITTLE JULIAN HERRERA

TRACK LIST:

01. Lonely Lonely Nights
02. In Exchange For Your Love
03. Symbol Of Heaven
04. Here In My Arms
05. I Remember Linda
06. True Fine Mama
07. Your Careless Love
08. You Will Cry
09. I Want To Be With You
10. Lonely Lonely Nights (with the Illusions)
11. Lonely Lonely Nights (version 2) (with the Illusions)
12. KRCW's "Little Julian's Secret


Five 45 RPM records comprise the complete works of Little Julian Herrera. Since he is my favorite Eastside singer, I highly recommend this compact disc.

For more information on Little Julian and his music please see my post under EASTSIDE LEGENDS.

Besides the music this from this incredibly talented vocalist, the highlight of this disc is "Little Julian's Secret", a KCRW radio documentary exploring the mysterious life and legend of Little Julian. The documentary is truly fascinating and well worth the price of admission. You may listen to "Unfictional - Little Julian's Secret"
by doing a Google search which KCRW has archived.

Little Julian Herrera was born Ronald Wayne Gregory in Massachusetts to Hungarian Jewish parents and ran away from home ending up in Boyle heights, California. There a Mexican-American family took him in and he used the family's name, Herrera. The name Little Julian came from Don Julian of the meadowlarks who had a hit with "Heaven & Paradise" at the time.

Little Julian met Johnny Otis who asked him to perform in his shows at El Monte Legion Stadium where he became a star attraction. In the summer of 1956 Little Julian would record for Otis' newlt formed Dig label. The session would produce "Lonely, Lonely Nights" and "In Exchange For Your Love" The group backing Little Julian is probably The Premiers who were also on the Dig label. The record would be a big hit locally but would do little elsewhere. In 1957 a follow-up record "Symbol Of Heaven" and "Here In My Arms" was released.

In late 1957 Julian signed with record producer Art Laboe who introduced him to The Tigers, a vocal group from Pomona. They recorded for the Starla label "I Remember Linda" and "True Fine Mama"

The A side was a minor hit in L.A. because Art Laboe plugged it on his radio show. The group appeared as Little Julian herrera & The Tigers in a San Diego theater show but at the end of the show the police came and arrested Julian accusing him of statutory rape. two others were also accused but for some reason the charges against them were dropped leaving only Julian charged. This killed record sales and after a stint in jail he would disappear later to be found at a car wash on National City Blvd and picking string beans on the Otay Mesa.

He once again disappeared and was rediscovered by "Huggy Boy", Dick Hugg in 1963 playing in a nightclub in Tijuana. Huggy Boy got  him back into the studio and released one single on his Essar label with an update version of "Lonely Lonely Nights" and "I Want To Be With You" Of major interest to record collectors, there are two markedly different takes of 'Lonely Lonely Nights"issued on the essar label with identical release numbers for which there is no know explanation. In these recordings Julian was backed by the band from Bellflower-Long Beach area, The Illusions.

After another recording for Emmo Records "Your Careless Love" and "You Will Cry", Julian disappeared into obscurity never to be seen again





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KEEPIN' THE MUSIC ALIVE - THE HEARTBREAKERS - GREETINGS FROM EAST LOS ANGELES

THE HEARTBREAKERS - GREETINGS FROM EAST LA

Track Listing:

01. Cradle Rock
02. Every Time I See You
03. Please Answer
04. I Played The Fool
05. The Roach
06. Trying To Forget You
07. Baby I Love You So
08. I Don't Care
09. She Is My Baby
10. Aquel Amor

Two of the finest gentlemen I have ever met, Benny and Joe Rodriguez have recorded a new CD entitled "Greeting from East LA"

Eastside legends, Benny and Joe are better known as The Heartbreakers and have been part of the Eastside music scene since the early 1960's. (See my post EASTSIDE LEGENDS - THE HEARTBREAKERS) and continue to perform locally and in various parts of the country today.

Although Benny and Joe have been singing and performing together for more that 50 years their voices have not missed a beat. Many critics have dubbed the "Eastside Sound" as duet vocal harmony. If that is the case The Heartbreakers are among the finest.

On this CD, Benny and Joe have re-recorded many of their vinyl classics. Songs like "Cradle Rock", "Every Time I See You", "She Is My Baby" and my personal favorite, "Please Answer" sound amazingly like their records which to me is a good thing.

Also included on the CD is the beautiful ballad "Baby I Love You So" penned by Eastside legend Mark Guerrero and two tunes penned by Eastside rocker, Chan Romero entitled  "Trying To Forget You" and "I Don't Care".

Rounding out the CD is a cover of the Clovers' classic, "I Played The Fool" and the beautiful Spanish language "Aquel Amor" (That Love).

I very highly recommend this CD and if you are interested in obtaining a copy you can e-mail Benny Rodriguez at

brodriguez424@gmail.com

You may also preview the CD for a very limited time at the East LA Revue website jukebox:

http://www.eastlarevue.com/

               Me and fellow collector Bobby Medina with Benny & Joe




NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!!!

SOLELY FOR HISTORICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AND FOR LISTENING PLEASURE!!!