THE FUZZ-REVISITED

~This is for Solelicious Sevenicious~I finally found it!

This short-lived trio was Barbara Gilliam, Val Williams and Sheila Young and were originally known as The Passionetts. They managed to record a one-off single for the small Path Records label ('My Plea' b/w 'My Fault'

1970 saw them picked up by Uni Records and the release of a second 45: 'Sister Watch Yourself' b/w 'Stand By Your Man' (Uni catalog number 55230). Probably an administrative oversight, the single was credited to 'The Passionettes' (note the extra 'e').

Billed as 'The Fuzz' (so much cooler than the earlier nameplate), 1971 found the trio recording for Roulette Records' Calla subsidiary. In a rather daring marketing move their self-titled debut was a concept piece. Well, the first half of the album was apparently built around a concept. Written by Young and arranger Joe Tate, the eight 'A' side tracks were built around a theme comparing love to the four seasons. Mixing a series of spoken word narratives with some catchy ballads and mid-tempo numbers the results were occasionally quite cheesy (check out the monotone reading of ''I Think I Got the Making of a True Love Affair), but to my ears that simply added to the album's charm. In contrast, the flip side abandoned the concept approach in favor of discrete songs. Material such as 'Like An Open Door', 'Leave It All Behind Me' and 'I Love You for All Seasons' served as a nice showcase for Young's songwriting skills and the trio's lovely harmony work - these gals were easily as good as Honey Cone (whom they actually remind me of). Elsewhere the group enjoyed a series of three R&B hits from the album: The Making Of A True Love Affair (Prelude) Think I Got The Making Of A True Love Affair I'm So Glad (Prelude) I'm So Glad All About Love (Prelude) All About Love It's All Over (Prelude) It's All Over /Like An Open Door Search Your Mind Leave It All Behind Me Ohh Baby Baby I Love You For All Seasons (S)

SC-2001 - The Fuzz - Fuzz [1971] (10-71, #196) Think I Got The Making Of A True Love Affair (Prelude) Think I Got The Making Of A True Love Affair I'm So Glad (Prelude) I'm So Glad All About Love (Prelude) All About Love It's All Over (Prelude) It's All Over /Like An Open Door Search Your Mind Leave It All Behind Me Ohh Baby Baby I Love You For All Seasons

MY FAULT MY PLEA by PASSIONETTS

-1971's 'I Love You for All Season' b/w 'I Love You for All Season (instrumental)' (Calla catalog number C-174)

-1971's 'Like An Open Door' b/w 'Leave It All Behind Me' (Calla catalog number C-177)

-1971's 'I'm So Good' b/w 'All About Love' (Calla catalog number C-179)

"The Fuzz" track listing: (side 1)

1.) I Think I Got the Making of a True Love Affair (prelude) (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 2:32

2.) I Think I Got the Making of a True Love Affair (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 2:29

3.) I'm So Glad (prelude) (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 0:42

4.) I'm So Glad (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 2:41

5.) All About Love (prelude) (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 0:45

6.) All About Love (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 2:53

7.) It's All Over (prelude) (Joe Tate - Sheila Young) - 0:44

8.) It's All Over (Sheila Young) - 3:33

(side 2) 1.) Like An Open Door (Sheila Young) - 2:27

2.) Search Your Mind (Matthew Allen) - 3:05

3.) Leave It All Behind Me (Sheila Young) - 3:00

4.) Ooh Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson - Warren Moore) - 5:32

5.) I Love You for All Seasons (Sheila Young) - 2:55

One final non-LP single ('Do Just What You Can Do' b/w 'Mr. Heartaches and Miss Tears' (Calla catalog number C-183)) and their recording career seems to have come to an end.

play A1. I Think I Got the Making of a T…
play A2. I Think I Got the Making of a T…
play A3. I'm So Glad (prelude)
play The Fuzz — I'm So Glad
play A5. All About Love (prelude)
play A6. All About Love
play A7. It's All Over (prelude)
play A8. It's All Over
play B1. Like An Open Door
play B2. Search Your Mind
play The Fuzz — B03 - Leave it All Behind M…
play B4. Ooh Baby Baby
play B5. I Love You for All Seasons
play The Passionettes - My Fault (Bonus …

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Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on December 3, 2009 at 9:14pm: WOW....You finally found it, i am loving this, now i got the songs and a couple of pics....AWESOME/SMILE

Comment by Edie Antoinette on December 2, 2009 at 10:21pm: It was 2 years ago that we were here...wow.

Comment by Edie Antoinette on December 20, 2007 at 9:36pm: Naw, Berry IS a fish..a lil brown goldfish..bwaaaaaaa...
You gone make me hurt myself laffin...*think about a lil bug-eyed goldfish swimmin up to the bowl doin that little blooba blooba* at'cha...ROFLMBO

Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on December 20, 2007 at 9:21pm: Now on that song, i can tell they are females....LOL. I never thought about checking out Imeem...LOL. That sounded good too...If the White Temps sleeping with the fishes, i bet Berry Gordy did the frying with his Tarter Sauce looking butt....BWAAAAAAA....lol

Comment by Edie Antoinette on December 20, 2007 at 9:05pm: Well I'm going to try..I wish I could see a pic of them. You don't think the White Temps are sleeping with the fishes do you? BWAAAAA...lol

Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on December 20, 2007 at 8:54pm: If i could even find a second song by them, i would be thrilled.

Comment by Edie Antoinette on December 20, 2007 at 8:48pm: I love that you suggested it..now I'm on a roll! ((hug))

Comment by Shelley "SoleMann" King on December 20, 2007 at 8:40pm: I sooooooooo love this...SMILE

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Remembering Q

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Quincy Jones is thoroughly entwined in the musical background of my young adulthood. A genius of unique quality. I have been posting blogs and music throughout the years and decided to embark on the arduous but satisfying task of gathering some of it to remember the excellent legacy that he left.

Maze Feel That You're Feelin
Maze Somebody Elses Arms
Maze Southern Girl
Cant Get Over You
Maze Golden Time Of Day

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. The Butlers recorded their first single in 1960 titled "Loveable Girl". Left to right John Fitch, T Conway, Frankie Beverly, Sonny Nicholson and Joe Collins.

Frankie Beverly12/6/46 - 9/10/24

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