Marisol

Artist: Marisol

LP: 7" single

Song: "Corazón Contento"

[ listen ] 

Here's a neat little 1968 Spanish number that I picked up at 10,000 Records in Barcelona back in August of 2018. My copy was badly warped, so when I tried to play it, the needle on my turntable was tossed to and fro...or maybe fro and to. Anyway, I finally got around to ordering a replacement copy—from Spain!—and it was waiting at my doorstep this evening when I got home from delivering mail in the snow!

Marisol was born on February 4, 1948, and was an international singing/dancing sensation by the time she was 11. She has appeared in a number of films, including BLOOD WEDDING and CARMEN, both directed by legendary Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura. Marisol, who worked under the name Pepa Flores as an adult, retired from public life in 1985 and has reportedly worked for charitable causes ever since.

[ Pepa Flores, aka. Marisol ]

Mary Wilson [1944-2021]

Artist: The Supremes

LP: Floy Joy

Song: "A Heart Like Mine"

[ listen ]

Song: "Automatically Sunshine "

[ listen ]

I was sad to awaken today to news of the death of Mary Wilson, the most supreme member of the legendary Motown girl group The Supremes. Wilson was the only founding member of The Supremes to remain with the group from the beginning (as The Primettes in Detroit in 1959) to the end, when the group disbanded in 1977. 

 

The Supremes' lineup for their 1972 "Floy Joy" LP is Jean Terrell (she handled most lead vocals after coming aboard to replace Diana Ross, who had left the group in 1970 for a solo career), Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong. In fact, Birdsong was exiting The Supremes to focus on raising a family at the time "Floy Joy" was released. She was "great with child" at the time of the album photo shoot, so it's her replacement, Lynda Laurence, standing in on the LP cover (far left, holding a drink) despite the fact that she hadn't actually contributed anything to the record. Mary Wilson is pictured seated on the cover, with Jean Terrell standing to her right (well, to her left, but to our right). 

 

With her misty dry-ice-vapors-on-the-dance-floor voice, Wilson takes center stage on the lovely ballad "A Heart Like Mine." Her vocals are featured again, as co-lead with Terrell, on one of the album's singles, "Automatically Sunshine," which peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100, at #21 on the R&B singles chart, and made it all the way to #10 on the singles charts in the U.K. "Floy Joy" was produced by Smokey Robinson. You can find Mary Wilson's obituary in the New York Times here.

 

Mary Wilson

[ March 6, 1944 — February 8, 2021 ]

We will miss you, Mary.

The Five Blind Boys

 Artist: The Five Blind Boys

LP: Can I Get a Witness

Song: "Shall We Come?"

[ listen ]

Song: "I'll Trust In God"

[ listen ]

Song: "Come Up the Back Door"

[ listen ]

I can only assume that, after losing their first five copies of this terrific gospel record by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama to theft by sticky-fingered staff and students, the folks at Tufts University Radio (WTUR) were forced to take extraordinary security measures regarding their WTUR-property-labeling protocols upon acquiring this subsequent copy of the record.

 

The Five Blind Boys of Alabama (not to be confused with the five blind gospel-singing boys from the state next door) released more than one LP under the "Can I Get a Witness" title. According to Discogs, the one I've posted above is from 1969. The other is from 1965 and then there's yet another one from 1970 that has the same tree-and-clouds cover as the one from 1965:

 

According to the Discogs listing, my Buddah Records release of the LP with the farming cover is a 1969 reissue of the 1965 release on Vee-Jay Records that features the tree-and-clouds cover. (The track list titles are slightly different, but they seem like they might still be the same songs.) And then the 1970 release, with the tree-and-clouds cover again, on Exodus Records has the same track list as the 1965 listing, but for some reason Discogs doesn't list that one as a re-issue of the earlier releases. (Discogs also says there's yet another re-issue with the tree-and-clouds cover on Trip Records, release date unknown.) So it seems there are at least three LPs released by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama on three different labels over the span of five years, all with this same title. I suppose this points to the difficulty of securing a witness when nobody in the group is able to see. 

 

Speaking of dates unknown, the group photo below may or may not include actual members of The Five Blind Boys of Alabama at around the time this LP was recorded. But based on hairstyles, I'd say there's a good chance the photo was taken sometime between the years 1965 and 1970.

 

[ The Five Blind Boys of Alabama ]