THE SHEEP RECORDS STORY #4: THE TREBLE SPANKERS "ENOLA GAY" (1997)

Sheep Records was a Swiss underground label specialized in Garage-Rock, Surf, Lounge and other Rock'n'Roll oddities. Run by Christian Müller from Zürich, along with friends Andi Frick and Andreas Egi, it was active from 1996 to 2004 and published about 30 releases, mostly on 7" vinyl singles.



In october 2006, after about two years of hiatus, all the contents of the now defunct Sheep Records website were deleted from the Internet, and replaced with a blank page announcing that "Der Kebab ist gegessen" ("The kebab is eaten"), a last goodbye and a reference to the label's cataloguing system that included the prefix "kebab" for vinyl releases and "gigot" for CD releases.



The fourth Sheep Records release was a 7" by Amsterdam-based The Treble Spankers, a surf band centered around charismatic leader guitarist "Phantom" Frank Gerritsen. The single was limited to 1000 copies, 500 on orange vinyl and 500 on blue vinyl.

We can not but agree with the short Sheep Records' press-release: "The Treble Spankers prove that 80's pop sounds much better when it's played with surf guitars!". Their cover of the OMD classic "Enola Gay" - an exclusive track that appear only on this vinyl release - is simply wonderful. "Vahim", the B-side of the single, is taken straight from their second album "Hasheeda" released by Polydor in 1995; this is a must have for all fans of Surf Music.





Here's the track list for this 7" single:

01. Enola Gay (2:02)
02. Vahim (3:54)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in May 2012 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.

Here's The Treble Spankers history according to their MySpace page:

The history of The Treble Spankers dates back to 1989 when Marcel Kruup (ex-The Other Side, -The Comedown, -The Kliek) starts trash combo Ouke Baas. After gaining a live reputation in the Amsterdam underground the band undergoes some lineup changes and finally renames to The Treble Spankers in 1993. At that point the band consists of Marcel Kruup, "Phantom" Frank Gerritsen (ex-The String Phantoms), Maarten Heijblok and Frank Sloos (ex-The Kliek). The band starts playing as opening act for The Kliek but soon they become more popular than the headliners.

September 1994 sees the release of "Araban". The album gets a lot of airplay on Dutch national radio, various university stations in the US and at John Peel's program on BBC Radio. Due to the bankruptcy of Semaphore - their record label - the album gets sold out in no time. Following impressive live performances at the Lowlands festival and Crossing Border festival The Treble Spankers sign a record deal with Polydor Records in 1995 after which they go into the studio to record their follow up album.

In 1996 "Hasheeda" gets released. Following the success of Pulp Fiction and an "easy tune" hype The Treble Spankers get massive airplay with the single "Red Hot Navigator" on Dutch national radio. The band plays a packed Roskilde tent at the Pinkpop festival in front of 10.000 jumping kids and the album "Hasheeda" ends up selling an impressive 20.000 copies. The band tours Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switserland and The UK extensively. In december 1996 Polydor re-releases "Araban" with three extra tracks.

Early 1997 finds the band in the Toe Ragstudio in London to record mainly covers for b-sides and bonus tracks of foreign releases. In the summer of 1997 the band goes back into the studio to record their third album. During the recordings Phantom Frank's RSI disease becomes unbearable and the band has to call it a day. In the short five years of their existence The Treble Spankers did over 500 shows and left behind two classic albums in the history of surf music.

Members:
"Phantom" Frank Gerritsen - Lead Guitar
Marcel Kruup - Rhythm Guitar
Maarten Heijblok - Bass
Frank Sloos - Drums

The Treble Spankers, from left to right: "Phantom" Frank Gerritsen, Frank Sloos, Maarten Heijblok and Marcel Kruup

After years of rest and rehabilitation Phantom Frank slowly picked up the guitar again and returned with a solo album in 2004. Later that year he formed The Phantom Four, an instrumental surfband, with which he started playing live regularly from early 2005. In late 2005 Marcel Kruup and Maarten Heijblok  formed Los Tiki Boys, an instrumental surf / rock&roll band.

"Phantom" Frank Gerritsen, lead guitarist of The Treble Spankers

More information about Sheep Records, The Treble Spankers and "Phantom" Frank is available here:

http://www.surfnroll.de/interviews/sheep/sheep.html

http://www.phantomfrank.nl/The%20Treble%20Spankers.htm

http://www.phantomfrank.nl/

http://www.thephantomfour.com/

http://www.treblespankers.nl/

http://www.myspace.com/thetreblespankers

http://www.instromania.net/D2/ART/ART_T/TREBLE%20SPANKERS%20The.php

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Treble+Spankers%2C+The

The Sheep Records story will continue in the next months. All your inputs are more than welcome, if you want to get in touch please write to stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!

WILLIAM SALTER "IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL TO BE" (1977)

I'd like to take a minute to tell you a thing or two that's on my mind
I know I've a got a reputation but baby you're fine, fine, fine

And you're the one I always notice everytime you pass my way
I get a natural reaction makes me wanna say, say, say

You got style, baby (Girl's got it)
You got style, baby
You got style, baby (She's got it)
You got style, baby

You got style, style, style
You got style, style, style
You got style, style, style

Oh baby, please baby, don't let me down
you got vibrations that keeps me hanging around
Oh woman, oh woman, you're what I need
there's a thousand ways I know to keep love guarantee

Baby you got style and I want the world to know it
but the thing that makes me higher is the special way you show it

A lot of girls are pretty to look at and some are like a dream come true
well, I don't want an imitation all I want is you, you, you

You got style, baby (Girl's got it)
You got style, baby
You got style, baby (She's got it)
You got style, baby

You got style, style, style
You got style, style, style
You got style, style, style

[from the lyrics of "You Got Style"]



William Salter is a native born son of Harlem NY who began his music studies at the High School of the Performing Arts; his life encompasses virtually every arena of music.

Salter had the privilege of working closely with Miriam Makeba back in the 60s, first as her bass player and then as her music composer. After he moved from her, he went on to work extensively with Harry Belafonte.

During the years he has toured all over the world with such celebrated musicians as Pete Seeger, Herbie Mann, Leon Thomas, Horace Silver, Oscar Brown Jr. and many more.

Since the late 60s he has teamed up with Ralph MacDonald: as songwriters they have composed hundreds of tunes, including "Mr. Magic" for Grover Washington Jr. and "Tradewinds" which was recorded by both Rod Stewart and Lou Rawls.




He had a very successful run in the 70s working with the very best in the music business of that time, including Roberta Flack, for whom the senior Salter and MacDonald wrote the classic tune "Where Is the Love", which Flack recorded with the late Donny Hathaway to great acclaim and Platinum status.

In 1982, along with Bill Withers, Salter and MacDonald won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song with "Just the Two of Us", performed by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers.

Nowadays Salter is still active with his group, The Ebony Hillbillies. According to their own definition, they "play authentic music that is reminiscent of the late 20s and early 30s, when blacks owned their music and were improvisational when it came to creating beats and melodies."

My promotional copy of "It Is So Beautiful to Be" comes with a generic Marlin company innersleeve...

Released in 1977 by Marlin, a T.K. Production subsidiary, "It Is So Beautiful To Be" is William Salter's one and only solo album. The following short review was published on the 19th November 1977 issue of Billboard:

Known primarly as one of New York's top bass players, William Salter gives an impressive performance here as a singer on eight tunes, all of which he had a hand in writing. He has a rich, expressive baritone which rocks nicely, but is most striking on ballads.

Best cuts: "It Is so Beautiful To Be", "Lena", "Three Days of Flowers", "When You Smile".

...and here's a few more words about the album sourced from the online version of the famous trade magazine:

Vocalist Salter eases through eight MOR love songs in a smooth-as-silk baritone backed with a smooth-as-glass rhythm section comprised of studio heavies who never stray from William Eaton's lulling charts. Ralph McDonald produced this romantic excursion.

Best cut: "You Got Style".

"It Is So Beautiful To Be" contains the following tracks:

01. You Got Style (4:09)
02. It Is So Beautiful To Be (4:35)
03. Let's Be Lovers Again (4:08)
04. If You Can Believe (3:49)
05. Lena (3:35)
06. You (4:28)
07. Three Days of Flowers (4:16)
08. When You Smile (4:00)

All tracks were remastered from the original vinyl in April/May 2012 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include completely restored PDF artwork. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.



All songs on the album were written by William Salter and Ralph MacDonald; unfortunately the copy I own is a promotional item and doesn't include the original lyrics sheet that I know was included in the official release.

Released as Marlin 2205, the album opens with "You Got Style", a track that was previously featured on the "Upchurch/Tennyson" album, by Phil Upchurch and Tennyson Stephens, released in 1975 on C.T.I. Records' sister label Kudu; this is a perfect introduction to the relaxed and classy atmospheres of the album. The title-track "It Is So Beautiful To Be" follows with its cool arrangement and the unobtrusive but effective multilayered percussions.

"Let's Be Lovers Again" was co-written by Allanah Salter, it combines Conniff-style back-up vocals, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" accompaniment and classic Broadway soft shoe, solo/ensemble numbers. The closing number "If You Can Believe" features evocative synth-lines by Bob James; this song was previously recorded by Melba Moore for her "Peach Melba" album back in 1974. "Let's Be Lovers Again" and "If You Can Believe" were also released as a 7" single on Marlin with catalogue number 3315.

The girl portrayed in "Lena", the opening track of Side 2, seems to have all the style that Salter was singing about in another tune. Co-written by Andrew Primus and featuring guitar solos by Eric Gale, this is one of the best tracks of the album. "You" showcases a full-scale arrangement tinted with hints of Brazilian rhythms, a driving beat and the usual rich melodies that Salter and MacDonald, along with producer/arranger William Eaton, have accustomed us with in this precious work of music.

"Three Days of Flowers" features once again Bob James on synthesizers and offers more easy-listening backing-vocals and an harmonc meeting of melodic structures and constructions. The album closes with "When You Smile", a track which is best remember in the version that Shirley Bassey performed on her 1974 album entitled "Nobody Does It Like Me".



Here's the long credits and personnel list of "It Is So Beautiful To Be":

Producers: Ralph MacDonald, William Salter and William Eaton for Antisia Productions
Arranged and conducted by: William Eaton
Recorded and mixed at: Rosebud Recording, Inc. - 1595 Broadway, New York, New York
Engineered by: Richard Alderson
Assisted by: Eddie Heath, Jr. and Eric Bowman
Disc mastering by: Dave Crawford
Album coordinator: Diane Johnson
Assisted by Judith Slaughter and Vickie Saratore
Cover painting by: David A. Leffel
Photos by: Martin Cohen
Art Direction and design by: Howard Smiley and Richard Roth
All songs published by: Antisia Music, Inc. (ASCAP)

Rhythm Section:
Ralph MacDonald: percussion
Steve Gadd: drums
**Eric Gale: guitar
Hugh McCracken: guitar
Richard Tee: piano and Fender Rhodes
Anthony Jackson: bass
Don Grolnick: piano on "Let's Be Lovers Again"
Eric Weissberg: steel guitar and banjo
Rubens Bassini: addditional percussion on "It Is So Beautiful To Be"
Bob James: synthesizer
William Eaton: string ensemble on "If You Can Believe" and "Three Days of Flowers"

Horns: **Harold Vick; Seldon Powell; Eddie Daniels; Jon Faddis; Victor Paz; Waymon Reed; George Coleman.

Strings: Alfred Brown; Selwart Clarke; Sanford Allen; Noel Pointer; Julien Barber; Matthew Raimondi; Eugene Moye, Jr.; Richard Sartomme; Avram Weiss; Seymour Barab; Dian Halprin; Charles Libove; Harry Lookofsky; David Nadien.

**Eric Gale appears through courtesy of Columbia Records, Inc.
**Harold Vick appears through courtesy of Wolf Records
**Patti Austin appears through courtesy of C.T.I. Records, Inc.
**Valerie Simpson appears through courtesy of Warner Bros. Records, Inc.

You Got Style (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter)
Solo: Jon Faddis, flugelhorn and trumpet
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, Gwen Guthrie, Vivian Cherry, Frank Floyd, Raymond Simpson, Zachary Sanders

It Is So Beautiful To Be (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter)
Solo: Eddie Daniels, flute
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, Gwen Guthrie, Vivian Cherry, Frank Floyd, Raymond Simpson, Zachary Sanders

Let's Be Lovers Again (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter / Allanah Salter)
Solo: Eddie Daniels, tenor sax
Background Vocals (intro): **Patti Austin, Lani Groves, Tony Wells, William Eaton
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, Gwen Guthrie, Vivian Cherry, Frank Floyd, Raymond Simpson, Zachary Sanders

If You Can Believe (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter)
Solo: Bob James, synthesizer
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, Gwen Guthrie, Vivian Cherry, Frank Floyd, Raymond Simpson, Zachary Sanders

Lena (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter / Andrew Primus)
Solo: **Eric Gale, guitar
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, **Valerie Simpson, Leslie Miller, Kenny Karen, Tony Wells, Doug Franklin

You (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter)
Background Vocals: Gwen Guthrie, Brenda White, Debbie McDuffie, Frank Floyd, Raymond Simpson, Zachary Sanders

Three Days of Flowers (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter)
Solo: Bob James, synthesizer
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, **Valerie Simpson, Leslie Miller, Kenny Karen, Tony Wells, Doug Franklin

When You Smile (Ralph MacDonald / William Salter)
Solo: Eddie Daniels, soprano sax / Waymod Reed, trumpet
Background Vocals: **Patti Austin, Lani Groves, Zachary Sanders, Frank Floyd

William Salter, picture taken from the back cover of "It Is So Beautiful to Be" (1977)

A few more information about William Salter  is available here:

http://mytrendybuzz.com/2012/04/18/trendy-interview-with-music-composer-bill-salter/

http://www.discogs.com/artist/William+Salter#t=Credits_All&q=&p=1

http://www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=artist&artist=William+Salter&tab=songaswriterchartstab

http://tklp.blogspot.it/2010/02/william-salter-it-is-so-beautiful-to-be.html

http://www.ebonyhillbillies.com/

If you have any other useful information about William Salter and "It Is So Beautiful To Be" - especially corrections and improvements to this post - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!

DICK JENSEN "I'M GOOD FOR YOU / JEALOUS FEELING" (1969)

Baby, oh baby, oh baby it's driving me crazy
it's a jealous feeling over you

He's looking at you across the room
he's making eyes at you
I can't keep from getting that jealous feeling
it hurt me so bad and it's making me mad
it's a jealous feeling over you

He's gonna sit down and talk to you
he doesn't know the hurt
the pain I go through with that jealous feeling
it hurt me so bad and it's making me mad
it's a jealous feeling over you

If only you knew the heartaches I'm going through, yeah
I am standing by watching some guy walk away with you
leaving me with with that jealous feeling

Oh baby, oh baby, baby it's driving me crazy
it's a jealous feeling over you

He's taking you from me
Now all I have left is this jealous feeling

Oh baby, oh baby, baby you're driving me crazy
it's a jealous feeling over you

Baby, oh baby, oh baby it's driving me crazy
is this jealous feeling over you

[From the lyrics of "Jealous Feeling"]

French cover of the "Jealous Feeling / I'm Good For You" single released on EMI/Stateside

Domestic promo version in Probe Records company sleeve

1969 was a very good year for Dick Jensen: recently he had signed with Don Costa Productions and he was performing at the most exclusive and famous club all over the U.S. and abroad; it was about time to debut with his first album on Probe Records - a subsidiary of ABC Records - aptly entitled "White Hot Soul".

A few weeks before "White Hot Soul" came to light, two tracks from the album were released as a single to give people a sneak peak of what was coming next. "I'm Good For You / Jealous Feeling" was released in a company sleeve with cat. number CP-468 in December 1969.

The U.S. single you can see pictured on this page is a promotional item, regular copies of the single exist but are seldom seen on the market nowadays... Just like it seems to have happened for the earlier Jensen's singles on Loma Records, promo copies for this item are more widely available that the proper release.

French back cover of the "Jealous Feeling / I'm Good For You" single released on EMI/Stateside

"I'm Good For You / Jealous Feeling" was also released in France on EMI/Stateside with a nice picture cover in January 1970; according to the information I gathered this was the first Dick Jensen single released outside of the U.S.

An original Billboard advertisement for the single is reproduced below; curiously, the songs are listed in reverse order, so that "Jealous Feeling" virtually occupies the first side of the single and "I'm Good For You" is moved on the flipside.

Labels of the domestic promo version on Probe Records

"I'm Good For You" is a strong track written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter (...who successfully teamed up and wrote songs for The Four Tops, Dusty Springfield and Glen Campbell, among others...) showcasing a nice arrangement by Don Costa - and production by Costa and Bob Morgan - with punctuating horns, a prominent bass line and multi backing-vocals blends.

"Jealous Feeling" is another cool production of the Costa / Morgan team, written by Bobby Weinstein (...best remembered as author of the music of the modern standard "Goin' Out of My Head"...) and Lou Stallman (...whose songs have been recorded by The Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Esther Phillips and many more...).

Labels of the "I'm Good For You / Jealous Feeling" single released in France on EMI/Stateside

Here's the track list for this 7" single:

01. I'm Good For You (2:50)
02. Jealous Feeling (3:00)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in May 2012 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.

Advertisement for the "Jealous Feeling / I'm Good For You" single - From a 1969 issue of Billboard magazine

More information about Dick Jensen is available here:

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/06/22/news/story02.html

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/22/il/FP606220304.html

http://www.oahuislandnews.com/May05/Home.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Jensen

I'm currently compiling a Dick Jensen biography, the first part of this work-in-progress covers the period 1942-1972 and is available here.

I'm also trying to compile a Dick Jensen exhaustive discography, my work-in-progress is available here.

Last but not least, I'm also trying to build a collection of Dick Jensen pictures and memorabilia, my work-in-progress is available here.

All my posts dedicated to Dick Jensen on this blog are available here.

I will post more Dick Jensen stuff in the next weeks, if you have any other useful information about him and his releases or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!