Nate McCoy was a Black singer, songwriter, and record producer, who established five record labels in Los Angeles, starting with SotoPlay in 1958. He recorded Blues artists and vocal harmony groups.
Nate McCoy’s 1979 “Soul” album on Dobre Records at Studio City, California
The first recordings for SotoPlay were issued in 1958 and the last in 1965. (Later, in the early eighties, the label was resurrected to release a single by Nu-Cru). There were seven acts on the roster, including three Doo-Wop groups, a Blues singer/ harmonica player, a Pop singer, a Blues/ R&B singer and Big Mama Thornton.
The Heartburners launched the label in 1958 with a good up-tempo Doo-Wop Pop track, “Twickle, Twackle, Twickle”, written by owner Nate McCoy. It is backed by another of his songs, a slow Doo-Wop ballad “Honey Baby Darling”. The quality has made them a rare collectors’ item.
The Notemakers followed that with two more McCoy compositions, “Do I Have A Chance” paired with “It Hurts To Wonder”.
The Stylemakers completed the trio of Doo-Wop singles released by the label with their 1960 release “Kissing Behind The Moon”/ “Under The Tropical Sky”, both written by McCoy.
Marv Goldberg has sorted out a lot of the background to these recordings (See Marv Goldberg’s R&B Notebooks). The first version of “Do I Have A Chance” was recorded for SotoPlay by the Raindrops, who were managed by Nate McCoy. The Raindrops were, however, credited as the Webs. McCoy then decided to use one of their earlier takes, overdubbing George Smith playing harmonica. He then released this rather odd version, giving the credit to the Notemakers. Sadly, the overdub is not well done. The B-side may also be a Webs/ Raindrops recording.
Ronnie Dru’s only single offers two Pop songs, with hints of Doo-Wop in the backing vocals.
Jimmy Thomas, a local Los Angeles singer, cut three tracks with Nate McCoy in 1961. Thomas’ composition “Every Day (I Wake Up Crying)” was issued on SotoPlay with the Nate McCoy song “Pocket Change” on the reverse. It was also issued on another McCoy label (Play Back Record) with a different McCoy song “I Must Be Crazy” on the B-side. Thomas’ voice is strong but not always accurate.
George Allen Smith was born in 1924 in Helena, Arkansas, on the West bank of the Mississippi river, which was a hotbed of the Delta Blues before the second World War. He started learning harmonica from his mother as a child. He played in various groups before coming to Los Angeles in 1955, including several in Chicago, where he backed Muddy Waters and Otis Rush.
His first recordings came in 1955 on the RPM label. He made eight singles for Sotoplay between 1960 and 1965, at first credited as George Allen and then as George Smith. One of the singles is a re-issue of two previous A-sides. Some of his recordings also appeared on Nate McCoy’s later labels.
The first of his singles is “Times Won’t Be Hard Always”/ “Tight Dress”, both co-written by Smith and McCoy. The strong session band includes Curtis Tillman (bass), Chuck Thomas (drums), J.D. Nicholson (piano), the excellent Jimmy Nolen (guitar) and George Allen on harmonica and vocals. His early recordings are instrumentals, but he sings well here. The A-side is a Delta Blues, the B-side has a flavour of Chicago.
After the instrumental “Loose Screws”, Smith recorded two R&B Blues dance tracks entitled “Come On Home” and “Good Things”, and then “Rope That Twist”, to keep up with the latest dance craze. After the re-issue of “Tight Dress” backed by “Loose Screws”, he moved to McCoy’s other labels in the sixties.
Several compilations of Smith’s output have been released. Some of his SotoPlay tracks are included on the Blind Pig album “Now You Can Talk About Me”.
The final performer on the label is Willie Mae Thornton, more commonly known as Big Mama Thornton.
Willie Mae was born in 1926 in Ariton, Alabama, one of seven children. At the age of fourteen, she was already singing Gospel. Soon after that, she was touring the Southern States with the Georgia Hot Harlem Revue. She played harmonica and drums. Her first recordings were made at Peacock Records in Houston, Texas, in 1951.
Willie Mae met a lot of people during the time she was singing at Don Robey’s club in Houston, including Johnny Otis, who invited her to go on tour with him. It was Otis who first called her Big Mama. He then brought her to Los Angeles, where she met two teenage songwriters, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. She recorded one of their songs, “Hound Dog”, in 1951, but it wasn’t released by Peacock until 1953. She had no idea that it had become a hit, as she was on tour, but then she heard it on the radio! So, later, did Elvis Presley. Big Mama Thornton’s original version of “Hound Dog” spent seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart in 1953. Elvis Presley took the song to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, the Billboard Country Music Singles Chart, and the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in 1956. His single sold around ten million copies and topped the Pop chart for eleven weeks.
Willie Mae left Peacock around 1957. By the early sixties, she was recording on the West Coast, cutting an excellent single for Bay-Tone in 1961, before coming to record for Nate McCoy. She recorded for a few other companies during the sixties and then the opportunities tailed off. She never really retired; there were tours to do and odd recording sessions, but by 1980 she was very ill. She died in 1984. Johnny Otis delivered the eulogy at her funeral.
Her six tracks for Nate McCoy’s labels include one outstanding performance. Two of the three singles appear on both the SotoPlay label and the Carolyn label. The third is just on SotoPlay.
The A-side is a Nate McCoy composition, “Yes I Cried”; the B-side is “Mercy”, an instrumental written by Willie Mae Thornton. McCoy’s song has a strong Gospel flavour and a punchy arrangement by Ray Shanklin.
“Tom Cat” from 1964 is an answer song to “Hound Dog”, co-written by M. Murphy and George Allen eleven years after the latter was released. It uses the same tune. On the B-side is the Nate McCoy composition “Monkey In The Barn”, which doesn’t make much impression.
Finally comes the best of the three, probably recorded with the others in 1964. Willie Mae’s version of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” is surely one of the best covers of the iconic song. Has any one else ever rendered the song more dramatically? If that wasn’t enough, the B-side is also outstanding. Nate McCoy’s “The Truth’ll Come To The Light” is a wonderful Gospel song that Willie Mae just nails.
SotoPlay was a tiny label that few have heard of, but this single makes the label special.
