Ed Wingate and JoAnne Bratton formed their first record company in 1961, after rejecting a suggestion from Berry Gordy that they should buy a share of Motown. Wingate and Bratton preferred to start Golden World Records from scratch, advertising for singers and songwriters, plus producers and arrangers. Their plan was to record in New York, until they could set up a studio in Detroit.
George Wiltshire answered the ad and became the first arranger/producer for the new company. Sue Perrin also responded and was signed as Golden World’s first act. They worked together to produce Golden World’s first release, “I Wonder” / “Put A Ring On My Finger”, an up-tempo slice of Northern Soul.
Later releases were written by Barbara Da Costa and Leonard Reed, with Sammy Lowe responsible for arranging and conducting the recordings. Five singles were issued in 1962 and one in 1963, Willie Kendrick’s “Stop This Train”, which is an excellent Soul ballad.
In 1964, the company was relaunched, following the collapse of Correc-Tone, with a roster of artists that included the Reflections, the most successful of the Golden World acts in the early years. The Reflections were five White lads who sang Doo-Wop and Soul; two came from Detroit, one from New York, one from Washington, Pennsylvania, and one from Scotland! Golden World released nine singles and one album by the group between 1964 and 1965, before the group left to join ABC/Paramount. Five of their songs made the charts, but only one got into the top fifty. That was “(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet”, their first GW single, which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number nine on the Cashbox R&B Singles chart, and became the title track on their 1964 album.
Wingate and Bratton also set up a small number of subsidiary labels, of which Ric-Tic Records is the best-known, plus a music publishing company that they called Myto Music. Irving Biegel, who had been working at Motown, came across town to take over the management of Golden World.
The most important development was the creation of a Golden World Studio in Detroit, starting in 1964. Wingate and Bratton found a former electrical store on West Davison, not far from Bratton’s house, which they bought. Bratton had been looking for a source of good quality studio equipment and was directed to Ken Hamman in Cleveland, who could provide most of the things they would need. What they needed most of all, however, was someone who had the knowledge to install the equipment and turn the empty building into a working studio.
Bratton started talking to people in the New York studios, where the Golden World artists were recording. Via Bob Goldman, the owner of Mira Sound Studio, she contacted Bob d’Orleans at Bell Sound, to discuss the Golden World Studio project. At first D’Orleans was sceptical, but he was quickly attracted by the idea of setting up a state-of-the-art studio, in which he could eliminate all the faults that annoyed him in his current workplaces. He agreed to move to Detroit, to design and build the new studio, and to be its first chief engineer. Wingate and Bratton had struck lucky!
Within a few months, D’Orleans had agreed specifications with Ken Hamman, who began custom-building the console and other equipment. D’Orleans had also overseen the modifications to the former electrical store, creating offices, technical spaces, an echo chamber and store rooms, plus the studio itself (larger than Studio A at Motown), the control room, and rehearsal rooms. He also added a mastering room with a Neumann lathe disc-cutting machine, so that he could produce masters, just as he did at Bell Studios.
Once the studio was finished, probably in Spring 1965, the work of producing music recommenced, with the addition of a new label to the Golden World collection. The first single on Wingate Records was Ronnie Savoy’s single “Memories Linger”, co-written by Savoy with Freddie Gorman (ex-Motown), JoAnne Bratton, and “Popcorn” Wylie (ex-Motown). Wylie produced the song, with arrangements by Sonny Sanders (ex-Motown).
Ten more singles were issued on the new label in 1965, with a further four in 1966. Just one album was issued, a Gospel set. Around a dozen singles were issued on Golden World, plus one on the J&W subsidiary, in 1965, followed by another thirteen singles in 1966. Few of the artists’ names stand out, but one group is of interest. In November 1966, the Parliaments (named after a cigarette brand) recorded a single at Golden World, “Heart Trouble” backed by “That Was My Girl”. The A-side is a good Motown-style up-tempo dance tune, but the B-side is very MOR.
JoAnne Bratton understood that Motown’s success had been built on a number of important innovations and she started to copy them, once the new studio was up and running. The most important additions to the Golden World structure were the creation of a talent scouting system and then an artist development team. Wingate and Bratton had a clear vision of building a company to rival Motown, but it wasn’t as simple as copying key features of Berry Gordy’s set up. They needed an act like the Miracles or the Marvelettes and they needed a song like “Shop Around” or “Please Mr. Postman”. When no national hits came out of the new studio, they must have decided to switch to a new plan.
Golden World was sold to Berry Gordy almost in its entirety. The studio, some of the artists’ contracts, the songs registered to Myto, all went to Motown. The subsidiary label Ric-Tic was the only part of the Golden World enterprise that was not sold to Berry Gordy towards the end of 1966. It remained the property of Wingate and Bratton, who thereby retained the contracts of several excellent artists. The danger was clear, however. Ric-Tic was not big enough to challenge Motown; a year later Berry Gordy bought Ric-Tic too.
Header: Golden World Studios Trade Ad.
