All the New Breed releases are essential Mod releases, so the New Breed R&B – Saturday Night Special CD should be on your list.
The whole New Breed R&B thing has been around for a few years now but was pioneered by the much-loved and much-missed Hideaway Club in Manchester. These were dance floor grooves from the blues and old school R&B scene of the late 1950s into the 1960s. But not necessarily rare grooves. I remember one of the Hideaway DJs telling me once that a good number of early plays were pretty cheap to acquire. Perhaps because no one was really playing them.
However, they were lesser-heard tunes on the Mod and soul scene at the time and the kind of floor fillers lapped up by the Mod scene from the late 1990s onwards, some transitioning over into the wider Mod scene and even the northern scene too. Although the New Breed sound is very much a sound apart from the northern soul sound.
If it appealed to you, the new Saturday Night Special CD should be right up your street. Compiled by Ady Croasdell (who also did the sleevenotes), here is the official write-up:
New Breed is back with a historical bang. The opening track and title inspiration is Aaron Collins & the Teen Queens’ ‘Every Saturday Night’. Its R&B pedigree is inestimable; Aaron was a member of the Flairs/Flares LA vocal group and wrote songs for Z.Z. Hill, Jackie Day, Cookie Jackson and others and, in 1972, Ray Charles recorded his ‘Every Saturday Night’ for ABC. The Modern tape vaults have given up this original 1966 R&B take of the song with both Aaron and his sisters, the Teen Queens, performing at their best. All the more remarkable as the girls had not recorded since 1962 and it was to be their last session, both dying tragically a few years later.
More unissued beauties come from East Coast outfit the Corvairs with ‘I’ll Never Do It Again’, Oakland’s funky bluesman Johnny Talbot and ‘Satisfied’, Gay Meadows’ Atlanta-recorded ‘Head Doctor’, a trio of obscure Ohio R&B outfits – Little Macey & The Valiants, Big Charley & The Domans and Pee Wee Foster.
Rare 45s come courtesy of Curly Mays, Pat Garvis, Esko Wallace and the Tren-teens. There are Ace CD tracks that went largely undiscovered by the New Breed crowd from Prince Conley, Rob Robinson and the Lon-Genes, while other highlights come from the very recently discovered Freddie Williams track ‘Purty Little Mama’ recorded for Norman Petty in New York, Slim & The Twilights’ New Orleans-sounding ‘Family Man’ and Tony Clarke’s early Detroit rocker ‘Your Love Must Be Taboo’ – presented digitally from master tape for the first time. We have stunning photos of Margaret Lewis, Flora D, the Metallics, Rob Robinson and Johnny “Guitar” Watson, along with some fax ‘n’ info for the serious Breeder.
24 tracks in total, all listed below. It lands on 31st July 2020 and is available to pre-order now for £14.21.
Find out more at the Amazon website
Tracklisting:
1. Saturday Night- Aaron Collins & the Teen Queens
2. I’ll Never Do It Again – the Corvairs
3. Ain’t That Good – Prince Conley
4. Compact Baby- Rob Robinson
5. Triple Zero – Esko Wallace
6. Purdy Little Mama – Freddie Williams
7. Something’s Wrong, Baby – Margaret Lewis
8. Way Out Baby – Flora D
9. Family Man – Slim & the Twilights
10. You’re Gonna Need Me – Big Charley & the Domans
11. Wait a Minute Baby – Johnny Watson
12. Almost Midnight – King Solomon
13. Show Me How to Shake Like That – the Lon-Genes
14. Head Doctor – Gay Meadows
15. You Can Be My Honey – Pee Wee Foster
16. Turn Your Lamp Down Low – Pat Garvis
17. Your Yah Yah Is Gone – the Tren-Teens
18. The Long John – Jarvis Jackson
19. Tighten Up & Pull Yourself Together – Sterling Magee
20. Satisfied – Johnny Talbot
21. Love Must Be Taboo – Tony Clarke
22. I’ll Conquer the World – the Metallics Feat J D Wright
23. Walking the Track – Little Macey & the Valiants
24. I’m Walkin’ on – Curley Mays
