Fuqua founded the seminal R&B/doo wop group the Moonglows with Bobby Lester, Alexander Graves and Prentiss Barnes.

Mentored by Alan Freed, the group’s doo-wop harmony style achieved great success on the national R&B charts in the mid 1950s. Recording on Chess Records, Fuqua initially shared lead vocals with Lester, but eventually asserted himself as the leader of the group. This changed in 1957 when he, in effect, sacked the other members and installed a new group, previously known as the Marquees, which included Marvin Gaye. The new group, billed as Harvey and the Moonglows, had immediate further success, but Fuqua left in 1958. The Moonglows reunited temporarily in 1972, and in 2000 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Fuqua left the Moonglows when Leonard Chess suggested that he join Anna Records in Detroit. At Anna Records, Fuqua began working with Anna Gordy, Billy Davis, Lamont Dozier and Johnny Bristol. He also introduced Marvin Gaye to Anna’s brother, Berry Gordy, and married their sister Gwen Gordy. In 1961, he started his own labels, Tri-Phi Records and Harvey Records, whose acts included the Spinners, Junior Walker and Shorty Long. However, tiring of running a small independent label, Fuqua welcomed the opportunity to work at Motown, and was hired to head the label's Artist Development department as well as working as a producer. Fuqua brought the Spinners and Johnny Bristol to Motown, and co-produced several hits with Bristol. He was also responsible for bringing Tammi Terrell to the label, and for suggesting and producing her duets with Marvin Gaye, including "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love”.

Around 1971, Fuqua left Motown and signed a production deal with RCA Records, having success particularly with the band New Birth. He also discovered disco pioneer Sylvester, and "Two Tons O' Fun" (aka The Weather Girls), producing Sylvester's hit singles "Dance (Disco Heat)" and "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" in 1978 as well as his album Stars in 1979. He also served as Smokey Robinson's road manager. In 1982 he reunited with Marvin Gaye to produce the singer's Midnight Love album which included the single "Sexual Healing". In 2000 he set up his own "Resurging Artist Records”, and has also acted as a trustee of The Rhythm and Blues Foundation.





Harvey & Motown
1960-1970

Harvey Fuqua arrived at Motown with the Spinners, Johnny Bristol, Junior Walker and Shorty Long. By his side was the young hopeful called Marvin, who still had no solo records to his name, let alone anything even vaguely resembling a hit. Nevertheless, Marvin had been busy. Harvey recalled, "during the year and a half that we had [my] labels, Marvin was playing drums on all of our sessions, and he was doing some night-club work. Everywhere I played you'd read 'Harvey, formerly of the Moonglows, also Marvin Gaye.' I'd do four or five numbers then I'd bring Marvin on, and introduce him as my protegé. And he'd do two numbers and almost kill me even at that time!"

While Motown's acts were riding high, Harvey's small roster soon found that a Motown contract did not automatically guarantee hits. However, their onstage performances frequently outshone their more successful labelmates. Using the experience he'd gained while grooming the Moonglows into an enviably-polished professional act, Harvey applied the same sheen to his own roster of talent. Simply playing the music was not enough in itself - the artists had to look and act the part - and learn how to entertain. It was not long before Berry Gordy became aware that Harvey's acts were running rings round his Motortown Revue onstage. This realisation was the beginning of Motown's Artist Development Department, and Harvey was given a free hand to gather the necessary personnel to make it a reality.

"Artist Development" was Harvey's brainchild, and he saw it through to fruition, then supervised the whole operation. Among the seasoned professionals he enlisted were choreographer Cholly Atkins - veteran of the legendary Cotton Club, musical director Maurice King, and 'charm school queen' Maxine Powell. The task of this Detroit branch of the "Impossible Missions Force" was to transform talented but raw and inexperienced youngsters into polished professional entertainers. Harvey was in control of the department, but left it to the individual tutors to work their own particular magic. ''It made us feel good that he had that kind of confidence in us," said Cholly Atkins, responsible for the slick dance routines for which Motown groups became justly praised. "But everything we were doing was his idea in the first place. Of course, Berry Gordy took credit for it.'' In retrospect, Harvey considers Artist Development to have been his most important contribution to the success of Motown in the sixties, even if the company never publicly acknowledged their debt to him.

"I'm sure you'd agree," Harvey commented, "whenever a Motown act played... they were always well polished. That came from my department. We had a regular schedule... we would start at ten in the morning. We drilled the whole thing into any and every artist before they'd make any kind of appearance anywhere. "

His erstwhile protegé Marvin of course became one of Motown's major stars, though Harvey's personal involvement in his music was actually fairly minimal. The two remained very close friends throughout their years with the company, though Harvey actively supervised only a small percentage of Marvin's recordings during that time. In addition, the two men were "family" - Harvey's wife was Berry's sister, and Marvin married another Gordy sister, Anna! Their close relationship probably also explains how Marvin managed to avoid going through the Artist Development mill. As brother-in-law to both Harvey and Berry, who was going to argue if Marvin ducked out of his dancing lessons?

Quitting Motown, Harvey also left Detroit behind and returned to Louisville, Kentucky to plan his next project. Once again he had his sights on his own record label, though unlike his early sixties ventures, this time he would not be distributing the records himself, by hand! Fuqua III Productions soon came into being, with an exclusive deal via the major RCA label. He also called in an old friend from his early days in Detroit. Ann Bogan, famous in the sixties as a Marvelette, actually hailed right back to the Harvey/Tri-Phi labels, when she recorded a couple of duets as half of Harvey and Ann. His new roster of talent also included the Niteliters, New Birth and Love Peace and Happiness, and while not achieving the world-beating status of Motown's stellar names, they saw very respectable sales and favourable reviews. By any standards, eleven Top 40 R&B entries is not exactly a failure!

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Excellent Big Brother Papa and a well deserved honor to have Mr. Harvey Fuqua in The OOTP Hall of Fame

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Introspection

Entr'acte

  1. play Norman Brown — Night Drive
  2. play Norman Brown — Feeling
  3. play Norman Brown — Still
  4. play Miles Davis — miles 1
  5. play miles 2
  6. play miles 3
  7. play miles 4
  8. play miles 5
  9. play Marvin Gaye — I Met A Little Girl
  10. play Santana — 01 Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
  11. play Santana — 02 Black Magic Woman-Gypsy Queen
  12. play Mongo — 02. Afro Blue



The history of the Butlers/Raw Soul is dense, but for all of us music nerds, that's normal. It is not totally clear what year the Butlers actually formed but they released their first single in 1963 on Liberty Records. That single was "She Tried To Kiss Me" and another single followed on Guyden entitled "Lovable Girl." After the Guyden single the Butlers took a break not recording another record until the single "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" was released on the Phila label in 1966. The group also backed Charles Earland and Jean Wells on one Phila single ("I Know She Loves Me"). 


As you might be noticing, the Butlers were doing a fair amount of recording but not achieving much success. The group's recordings sold regionally but never had the promotion to make an impact on the national scene. After the single with Phila, the Butlers moved to the Fairmount label (part of the Cameo-Parkway family) and released a handful of singles, some being reissued singles of the past. The Butlers were with Fairmount for 1966-67 and then moved to Sassy Records. Sassy released the group's greatest single (in my opinion) "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" b/w "If That's What You Wanted." A copy of that 45 sold for just under $500 last summer on eBay. Even though that isn't that much in the world of record collecting--it's still a hefty sum. The Butlers released another single on Sassy ("She's Gone" b/w "Love Is Good") that appears to be even 
harder to come by then the "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" single.

 

The true history become a bit blurred here as the AMG biography states that the Butlers last record was released on C.R.S. in 1974 (". However, between 1971 and that single, Frankie Beverly formed a group called Raw Soul and released a number of singles. Some of the songs recorded by Beverly during this period are "While I'm Alone," "Open Up Your Heart," (both on the Gregor label) and "Color Blind." "Color Blind" was released by the Eldorado label and rerecorded by Maze. Beverly's big break came when Marvin Gaye asked Raw Soul to back him on a tour. Gaye helped Beverly/Raw Soul get a contract at Capitol. Beverly decided to take the group in a different direction, a name change occurred, and Maze was created. 

The above isn't the most complete history of Beverly but hopefully someone will know a way to get in touch with the man or his management because a comprehensive pre-Maze history needs to be done on Frankie Beverly (his real name is Howard, by the way). Below you'll find every Frankie Beverly (pre-Maze) song available to me right now ("Color Blind" will be up soon). 

If you have a song that is not included below, shoot it over to funkinsoulman (at) yahoo.com and it will go up in the next Frankie Beverly post (later this week--highlighting Maze). Also, if you have any more information please share your knowledge. The Butlers material has been comp-ed sporadically (usually imports) but the entire Maze catalog has been reissued and is available. 

Enjoy.  "She Kissed Me" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967) 
 
 "I Want To Feel I'm Wanted" (not sure which label or year) "Laugh, Laugh, Laugh" (Phila, 1966) "Because Of My Heart" (Fairmount, 1966 or 1967)
   
 "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)" (Sassy, 1967)
   
 "If That's What You Wanted" (Sassy, 1967)
 



Frankie Beverly is one of those cats that has lasting power. He started in the music business doing a tour with doo wop group the Silhouettes and then formed his own group called the Blenders. The Blenders never recorded a single, Beverly wouldn't appear on wax until forming the Butlers a few years later. Along with Beverly, the Butlers included Jack "Sonny" Nicholson, Joe Collins, John Fitch, and Talmadge Conway.

Beverly would later enjoy great success fronting Maze and Conway would become a
well-known penning Double Exposure's
"Ten Percent" and the Intruders' "Memories Are Here To Stay." 
 While Maze is a phenomenal group, Beverly's work before that group will always stand out as his best (imo).

The Butlers produced tunes that most Northern Soul fans would kill for and Raw Soul gave the funksters something to pursue. If, by chance, you know of a way to get in touch with Frankie Beverly or his management, please drop me an e-mail. It would be absolutely great to do an interview with him about his pre-Maze work. He's still playing out, most recently doing a New Year's Eve show in Atlanta.
:: Funkinsoulman ::

Power...Through Simplicity ♪♫♪

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