Fair Use disclaimer

All music presented on this site is shared under the premise of "fair use"; this site is solely intended for the purpose of education and critique. If you are a rights holder to any of the music presented and wish for it to be removed, simply contact me directly and it will be taken down.

Monday, December 3, 2012

THE COMPANIONS - BE YOURSELF


(originally posted 12/23/09)

Quite simply, what can be better than having someone to tell you "just be yourself". As for me, during the holidays, I am especially thankful to have someone in my life who not only tells me to be myself but encourages my obsessive record related behavior and tolerates the kind of time that I put into said obsession, including this blog! She's a keeper, for sho.

This is a gorgeous record that is shrouded in complete mystery. seems to be the only record cut by this Philadelphia group, and no one even seems to know when it was cut! Quite often, records have matrix numbers in the run off groove that have date codes. Not this one. Almost as if it were meant to be a mystery from the minute it was cut. I love how the singer almost chokes a few times reaching for certain notes. Sublime. I'm guessing at the year...

from c1966...

THE COMPANIONS - BE YOURSELF

3 comments:

Larry Grogan said...

I see Leroy Lovett and the Ben-Lee name on the label, both Big names (writing/arranging/publishing) in Philly. Lovett (the Lee in Ben/Lee) worked with Patti and the Emblems and the Persionettes among others.
I used to have a comp called 'The Ben-Lee Philadelphia Story'. I'll try to dig it out to see if this or any other General American stuff is on it.

Philippe Erville said...

found this which says it's from 1964:
http://www.45cat.com/label/general-american

Funky16Corners said...

Okay, I finally found the comp I mentioned, 'Ben-Lee's Philadelphia Story'. The only info on the Companions 45 is that it was issued in 1965, the members of the group were Larry Pinder, Ebert Holmes, and Herman Johnson, and that both sides of the 45 were co-written by Cindy Scott.