By the end of 1983 work with SOLAR Records was winding down, so Benjamin concentrated instead on the links that he had built up with Motown, working with the Temptations and DeBarge in particular. In 1982 the Temptations had released their “Reunion” album, which was issued during the Reunion tour, […]
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When Don Cornelius and Dick Griffey set up Soul Train Records in 1975, they signed a distribution agreement with one of the major record companies, RCA Records, as was usual for small independent labels looking to break into global markets. When Soul Train Records morphed into SOLAR Records in 1977, a […]
Read More SOLAR Records was founded by Dick Griffey in Los Angeles in 1977. He had moved to California from Nashville, his home town, in the 1960s, with a view to entering the entertainment business, and became co-owner of Guys and Dolls, a nightclub which featured performances by such rising stars as Isaac […]
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The year 1980 was a very good one for Benjamin Wright, starting with an important recognition of work that he had done in 1979. Benjamin’s string arrangement on “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” contributed to the award of a Grammy to Michael Jackson for Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance, […]
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Benjamin F. Wright Jr. was born on July 11th 1946, in Greenville, Mississippi. He demonstrated his musical talent at Coleman High School, performing as a drum major in the marching band and singing doo-wop in a group he and his friends set up. He also played timpani in the school […]
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OKeh Records was founded by Otto K. E. Heinemann, a German-American, who set up a recording studio and pressing plant in New York City and started the label in 1918. A landmark OKeh release OKeh released mainly music by dance and jazz bands, until a blues singer, Mamie Smith, became the first African […]
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Phil Collins started writing songs for his first solo album, after he returned to the UK in April 1979 from Vancouver, where he had tried but failed to patch things up with his wife. As a result, the new songs were very personal and Collins decided to produce them himself, […]
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Thomas Clay Washington was born in Chicago in 1944. He grew up on the South Side of the city on a large housing estate called the Ida B. Wells Project. He learned to play drums and keyboards and went on to study music with James Mack at Crane Junior College. […]
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Family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples was born near Winona in Minnesota. In the early 1920s his family moved to Will Dockery’s plantation near Drew in Mississippi, where Roebuck was introduced to Delta blues. Charley Patton inspired him to learn the guitar. In his teenage years Roebuck started singing with gospel […]
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William Bell was born William Yarbrough in 1939 in Memphis. Judy Clay was born Judith Grace Guions in St. Pauls, North Carolina, just one year earlier. Around thirty years later they teamed up to cut a track at Stax Records in Memphis, “Private Number”, that achieved success in the UK, reaching number […]
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