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Tamla T 54024 (B), April 1959
B-side of Solid Sender
(Written by Charles Leverett)
Following on from the blandly forgettable Solid Sender, for the B-side Charles “Chico” Leverett serves up another record written at the request of an easily-offended relative, this time his wife, who had specifically demanded Leverett “do a romantic ballad for her”.
Anyway, this is a better song than Solid Sender, a solid (ha!) chunk of doo-wop balladry made considerably more interesting by whoever the (uncredited) vibes player is, but it’s still not much to write home about; Leverett’s voice is nice enough, but not really solo lead vocalist calibre, and it’s not a huge surprise to find out he didn’t cut any more solo singles for Motown. He would shortly rejoin his group the Satintones, where his lead baritone was put to much better use on a number of Motown singles which were better than this one.
Footnote: This is one of the records for which the masters couldn’t be located when compiling The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1, meaning it had to be dubbed from a 45rpm single. Unlike the A-side, which seems to have survived the process quite well, I’ll Never Love Again unfortunately sounds particularly murky and muffled, definitely coming off worse as a result of the procedure. A shame, but more of a loss to posterity than to listening pleasure; I can’t really see many people playing this one over and over again.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in Chico Leverett, or The Satintones? Click for more.)
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| Chico Leverett “Solid Sender” |
The Swinging Tigers “Snake Walk (Part 1)” |
I like “I’ll Never Love Again” quite a bit, and got my taped version off a near mint copy. So, it’s sound quality is good. This cut would have been better with The Satintones singing harmony BG behind him, rather than The Rayber Voices sounding more like a “pop chorus”.
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Chico Leverette is a long lost relative. My father William Leverette of Detroit Michigan and Chico were second cousins. Chico’s mother Betty Leverette is Wanda Leverette (my sister) Godmother. I know that Betty recently passed on but my sister and I would despertly like to get in touch with Chico and his daughters. Please if you have an e-mail address where I can contact him I would greatly appreciate.
Sincerely, Gail Leverette Davis
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That vibes player could be Dave Hamilton. Berry knew him from frequenting jazz clubs long before he started Tamla Records.
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Considering this song was written for his wife that makes it even more sweeter = ). I agree with your verdict on this one too! Except, I think Chico could have been a great solo artist in the early 60s if given the right material.
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This is a nice ballad for Chico wife, I like hearing the background stories of these songs especially the obscure artist such as this. I agree he isn’t really a solo star but he can carry a tune lol. Does anyone know anymore info about Mr. Leverette?
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As of the time of writing, he’s still alive, as far as I know. He was interviewed by Keith Hughes for the excellent The Satintones Sing! CD compilation around a year and a half ago.
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After leaving The Satintones and Motown in 1961, Chico signed with King Records in Cincinnati. He had a few solo releases on their Bethlehem Records label in 1962-63. I’m not sure what happened to him in between, but he had a single released in the mid seventies, again with Detroit production people involved.
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So now this blog has me going to the beginning of the Motown story, a place I never expected to find much to like. So I’m astonished to find that I like both sides of this record. They are pleasant, pleasurable early Motown R&B sounds.
I will never confuse these with being classics but darn it if the A and B sides don’t have their charms. There are some early Motown records that trigger my finger to reflexively hit the SKIP button as fast as I can, so again, I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t one of them.
Kinda fun to hear Motown’s rough and tumble years. I think Chico and/or the Satintones could have developed rather well had they hung in there.
A 6 for me.
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