Ralph Bass | Kevin Mazur / Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame
Talent scout and rhythm and blues record producer, artists and repertoire manager and song writer Ralph Basso Jr. was born on May 1, 1911 in The Bronx, New York. As a boy he showed an interest in music and was given music lessons. He grew up listening to blues, jazz and other forms of music but developed a desire to assemble sounds. In the early 1940s he began work as A&R manager at Black And White Records, including T Bone Walker’s landmark recording of “Stormy Monday”. By 1948 he was working for Savoy Records from 1948 to 1951, then King Records of Cincinatti. Extensively touring the southern states, he realised that R&B music appealed to increasing numbers of listeners across social and racial divides. He set up Federal Records and recorded the classics “Sixty Minute Man” (The Dominoes), “Work with me Annie” (Hank Ballard) and others. He signed James Brown but record company owner Syd Nathan hated the first recording, “Please Please Please” so it was issued on Federal. Chess Records poached him in 1959, where he worked until 1976 when he moved to MCA Records.
The book “James Brown The One” was published in 2012. I managed to obtain a copy released by the Fort Myers Public Library, Florida, through Thrift Books in Arizona, for £4.50 through Amazon.
It is a fascinating book which I have found utterly absorbing, and it sheds more light on the recording he made with The Famous Flames of “Night Train” which was released in the UK on Parlophone and then Sue UK WI 360.
Original US single on King 5614 | 45 Cat | king5614
Original UK single on Parlophone R4922 | 45 Cat | r4922
The backing band, or as King Records would have it, “orchestra” he was using at the time was the original one, The Famous Flames, and the personnel on this recording were Bobby Byrd, Johnny Terry, Bobby Bennett, J. C. Davis, Lloyd Stallworth and Nat Kendrick. The band often featured the number on stage, often adding snatches of other tunes including Bill Doggett’s “Hold It”.
The book is well worth looking out for and inexpensive to buy – it seems supply outstripped demand for this volume!
Singer, song writer, band leader, dancer, record producer, political activist, shoe shiner, black power advocate, record label executive, radio station owner and hardest working person in show business James Joseph Brown was born in Barnwell, South Carolina, on May 3, 1933 and became a major figure in 20th century music. He began his career as a gospel singer age 16 with other young prisoners in Toccoa, Georgia. In the mid 1950s he rose to prominence as the lead singer of Bobby Byrd’s group The Famous Flames. His success peaked in the mid-1960s with a successful “Live at the Apollo” LP and a number of hit singles, especially the ground breaking “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”.
“Night Train” is one of his few instrumentals; the band is really great. Mr Brown does put in an appearance during the recording, as a railway attendant! The track is taken from a 1962 LP called James Brown presents his band. The date does not appear on the UK Sue single. The recording, with the same B side, was originally issued in the UK on EMI Parlophone R 4922 in July, 1962. It is thought that the original song writer of “Why does everything happen to me” was Roy Hawkins.
He was notorious for his discipline system where he would fine his band members for various failures.
He was also famous for his “cape act” in which he feigned exhaustion and collapse during the song “Please Please Please”, and his valet/master of ceremonies Danny Ray (left in the picture) would rush to help him and place a life-restoring cape on his shoulders.
James Brown died in Atlanta, Georgia, from congestive heart failure and pneumonia, on December 25, 2006.
Danny Ray died on 2 February 2021, age 85. The Los Angeles Times noted: ”Even after Brown’s death, Ray continued to serve his boss’s needs. A resident, like Brown, of Augusta, Georgia, he was present at Brown’s 2006 memorial service, where he draped Brown’s body with a cape embroidered with the phrase “The Godfather of Soul.” A year later, during a tribute to Brown at the 49th Grammy Awards, Ray hung the cape on a lone microphone.”
Collection of Martin Whitell
King 45-5614, 1962. UK Sue WI-360, 1965.
Chart position: data not available.
The James Brown Revue | Undated | Unknown photographer | Croc Music | 14488
There is a photo of a test pressing of this single on the Test Disks page.
Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles | Superstock | 14599
Patricia Louise Holte (Patti Labelle) was born on May 24, 1944. She spent sixteen years leading the Bluebelles. She holds two Grammy awards. Down the aisle was the first major hit the group had for the King record company. The UK Sue label for WI 324 does not blank out the “Sue records USA” credit. The personnel on this recording is Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and Cindy Birdsong. The recording was made in Philadelphia (at Cameo Parkway) in 1963.
“Down the aisle”, Newtown 45-5777, 1963.
Chart position: Billboard No. 37, R&B No. 14, 1963. UK release on Sue WI 324.
Cindy Birdsong, December 15, 1939-
Nona Hendryx, October 9, 1944-
Sarah Dash, August 18, 1945 –
Patricia Louise Holte (Patti Labelle), May 24, 1944 –
Collection of Martin Whitell
Collection of Dave Hewitt | PattiLaBelleA
Collection of Dave Hewitt | PattiLaBelleB
Newtown 5777, Also King 5777, September 1963. Released on 14 August 1964 on UK Sue WI 324. Chart position: US Pop and US R&B Top 40.
Sue Records UK 