måndag 18 juli 2022

SHORTY LONG/THE PRIME OF SHORTY LONG STML 11144 (-70) UK

 


A guy totally new to me when I found this vinyl for my Motown collection a while ago. I've learned about him from his Wikipedia article  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorty_Long . Got nothing to add to that so I'm keeping this short.   Frederick Earl Long (1940-69) was an american singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. After releasing a couple of not so successful singles on Tri-Phi he got hooked by Motown's Soul label and seems to have worked there as a jack-of-all-trades, supporting the labels and its artist in many ways. His own biggest 45 hits was "Here Comes The Judge" and "Function At The Juction". This his second album was released posthumously after his death in a boating accident summer -69. It didn't sell a lot at release and nor did any of the spawned 45:s. Not sure if it was a newly recorded album, a collection of earlier unissued stuff, or a mix of both. It does sound somewhat uneven to my taste, blending good tunes - like the uptempo "I'm Walking" and the very romantic "I Had A Dream" - with not so seminal covers of Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade Of Pale" and Fats Domino's "Blue Monday". However as a whole it's still good Motown - well performed all through with tons of that unique label atmosphere and I'm just happy to have found one more of their gems to enjoy. To my knowledge only other issues on vinyl was 1969 in US and Canada on Soul (SS-719). UK 2012 CD on Kent Soul (CDTOP 369) came with this, his first album - "Here Comes The Judge" - and two bonus tracks. First UK had label as shown here in a laminated flip/back cover.  (TÖMÖ*)


                                                                                 

                                                                             




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