Northern Soul's Summer Heat

Ace Spectrum - "Don't Send Nobody Else"
From: Inner Spectrum, Atlantic [1974]
Otis Clay - "The Only Way Is Up"
Fron: The Only Way Is Up, Victor [1982]

I caught it. That summer twang in my Air Force IIs has placed a pep in my step and I'm ready to catch some cutty-bird game at RANDOM BEACH, Canada. It was O-Dub's William Devaughn post that put me in the summer jam mood and I will post more of these in the months to come. We at Ear Fuzz have a way of organizing posts that gel well, but today I'm pulling the Jell-O out of the fridge early with some random summer music of the northern soul genre. Firstly, I want to thank North American Slang for gifting me these joints. Oh yeah plus things, I could not gather the proper covers for this post and substitute the covers with my favorite photograph from last summer. I met this woman one late-June night. She is from Brazil and looks how summer feels.

Atlantic Records is not famous for developing, producing and releasing northern soul music, but Atlantic-possibly the first indie record label-did major in quality records that were turned out by hipster extraordinaires, Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Abramson and Jerry Wexler. Although originally established for banking race music, Atlantic records always kept fresh with cats like Joe Galkin pushing records in the South and Wexler making deals like Monty Hall. In the mid-seventies record company executives had to adjust their game from a post-psychedelic soul era to a to brief pre-disco era. In `74 Atlantic released Ace Spectrum, a quartet from New York City that had one hit single, "Don't Send Nobody Else". Some of you older (matured, distinguished, gentleman-like?) cats will remember this single, because of its heavy radio rotation and that alone qualifies its heated status. After a quick Google mission, I found out that Valerie Simpson composed "Don't Send Nobody Else" and go figure that one half of a high-demand writer/ producer team is responsible for making this single from, Inner Spectrum, the group's first release.

When disco blew up cats in the soul business jumped ship and made their way to Europe, or Japan. In `78 Clay toured Japan with great success and release an album on Victor called, Otis Clay Live!, a double LP pressed in Japan. That album did not have "The Only Way Is Up" on it, but a second album releases in Japan, The Only Way Is Up, came out in `82. Clay had something that Japanese soul enthusiasts appreciated and he followed up The Only Way Is Up with, Soul Man: Live In Japan, in `83, which was released in 1985 to American listeners. Esoteric is a word I try to avoid, but tracking the roots of northern soul music is like finding Halle Berry's phone number in the white pages; London Lee, where you at? I've read that The Only Way Is Up was produced by Troy Thompson and Benjamin Wright, but detailed information on how the record came together is beyond my grasp.

Bottom line, if I had a drop-top I'd pull the rag down and let these joints carry me down the highway.