To crate-diggers, he’s Tyrone Thomas, the man behind Tyrone Thomas and the Whole Darn Family’s “Seven Minutes of Funk”—one of the most sampled tracks in music history. But dig a little deeper, and Northern Soul and Low-Rider Oldies devotees know him better as Little Tommy, a teenage sensation who cut his teeth in the ’60s on August Moon’s Sound of Soul label.
Now, Secret Stash Records is thrilled to present the first-ever reproduction of this Richmond, VA native’s 1964 debut, “I’m Hurt” b/w “Lov’h.” Clean copies of this rare gem easily fetch over $200, and for good reason. Originally released when Thomas was only 16, “I’m Hurt” became a Low-rider Oldies anthem, while “Lov’H” has fueled Northern Soul all-nighters for generations.
This limited pressing—only 500 hand-numbered units—pays homage to Little Tommy’s early impact, preserving a slice of soul history that’s as rare as it is timeless.
Mamie P. Galore’s 1967 Sack Records single, “Do it Right Now” / “No Right To Cry” is a beloved Chicago soul classic and one of the most sought-after records of its kind. Original pressings regularly command over $1,000. The record’s enduring popularity is largely due to “No Right To Cry’s” status as a Northern Soul staple, where it has been an unattainable gem for collectors and DJs for decades. In fact, in 2020 Soul-Source magazine named “No Right To Cry” one of the “Most Sought After Rare Northern Soul” records. Secret Stash Records is thrilled to offer the first-ever 7” reissue of this timeless classic, finally making it accessible to a wider audience. However, with only 250 hand-numbered copies available worldwide, eager collectors will want to get one while they can.
ATTENTION UK CUSTOMERS: We’ve partnered with Sonic Wax in the UK to dramatically bring down your shipping costs! You can order this title directly from them HERE.
Excerpted from the liner notes of The One-Derful! Collection: One-Derful! Records (Secret Stash Records SSR-35.1), by Bill Dahl.
Taking a more circuitous route to Chicago than most of his labelmates, McKinley Mitchell was the first star on the One-derful! roster.
The powerful singer was born on Christmas Day of 1934 in Jackson, Miss. His early musical experience was in gospel; at 16 he fronted the Hearts of Harmony, who migrated to Springfield, Massachusetts. There, Mitchell got his first taste of secular action, singing with guitarist Tiny Button’s quintet. When the Hearts broke up in ‘56, McKinley went to Philadelphia and formed another spiritual outfit, the Mitchellairs.
Next stop: Chicago. Mitchell arrived in 1958, waxing his debut the next year for El Dorados manager Johnny Moore’s tiny Boxer label. “Lazy Dizzy Daisy” and its flip side “Rock Everybody Rock” were an intriguing blend of raw Chicago blues and rock and roll, with longtime Howlin’ Wolf lead guitarist Willie Johnson burning up his strings.
McKinley didn’t locate another recording opportunity until he brought a demo of the haunting self-penned ballad “The Town I Live In” to George Leaner in late 1961. On New Year’s Day of ‘62, Leaner brought the young singer into the studio with veteran trumpeter King Kolax leading the band, including guitarist Thomas “Curley” Palmer, a former Sonny Thompson sideman, and drummer Steve Boswell (he was on Willie Mabon’s ‘53 Chess smash “I’m Mad”). The maiden names of George and Ernie Leaner’s wives, Verlie Rice and Jeanne Dodd, were added to the writers’ credits for the first of many times (Rice worked in the label’s front office).
Released early that year with the sleek, organ-cushioned minor-key “No One (Like My Love)” occupying the other side, “The Town I Live In,” with Mitchell’s tenor floating over the ice cream chord changes until he fired up the grit halfway through, soared to #8 on Billboard’s R&B charts that spring (it bubbled under the pop Hot 100).
Trying to match its commercial success would prove vexing. Mitchell’s encore, “All Of A Sudden,” released early that summer, captured some of the smoky charm of “The Town I Live In” in a minor-key blues mode, Kolax’s trumpet shining on the intro and the organ once again prominent. A Latin tinge distinguished the feisty backing on the other side, “I Found An Angel,” with McKinley’s fiery vocal incorporating a few of Sam Cooke’s trademark trills. Later in the summer, “All Of A Sudden” reappeared as half of Mitchell’s next single, coupled with his intense self-penned “I’m So Glad,” a stirring ballad in the tradition of “The Town I Live In.”
A female chorus harmonized behind McKinley on “Darling That’s What You Said,” an appealing mid-tempo late ‘62 effort that came attached to the fierce rocker “You’re Not Gonna Break My Heart.” Mitchell blamed his lack of follow-up hits on the loss of Kolax, but modernizing his sound with guitarists Cash McCall and Freddy Robinson was a wise move.
“A Bit Of Soul,” out in the summer of ‘63, seems irresistible in retrospect. Mitchell, who co-wrote it with co-producer Milt Bland and David Wilkerson, detailed all the requirements to score a hit: tight words, “tender and bold,” a piano man and a “great big band,” and a whole lot of soul. Perhaps Brook Benton’s similar “Hit Record” sufficiently covered the concept a couple of years earlier; Mitchell’s formula didn’t pay off on the charts. McKinley teamed with producers Bland and Otha Hayes to brainstorm the incendiary B-side ballad, “Hand Full Of Sorrows.”
No longer answering to Milt Bland, Monk Higgins penned the mid-tempo grinder “Tell It, Like It Is,” eliciting an entrancing effort from Mitchell. On the other side of the 45, out in late ‘63, sat “Uncle Willie,” one of several numbers commemorating the Chicago-generated dance.
Williams and Hayes gave McKinley a joyous “It’s Spring,” timed to cash in on the 1964 changing of the seasons; “You Know I’ve Tried,” a torrid, brass-powered rocker, was its plattermate. Monk came up with both derivative sides of Mitchell’s One-derful! swan song in the spring of ‘65. “I’m Ready” cloned Sam Cooke’s “Shake,” while the guitar riff at the heart of the Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” winds through Mitchell’s “Watch Over Me.”
“McKinley was a nice guy. He was very popular in the local South Side clubs at that time,” said Otis Clay. “Kind of a pretty boy too. All the little things that worked.”
One of many studio track sheets from Michell’s time at One-Derful!
Eight singles were by no means the extent of Mitchell’s One-derful! discography. Over in Great Britain, the President label put out a 1967 album by the singer that introduced “I’ve Been Wrong,” “Reckless Lover,” “I Wonder Do You,” and “There He Goes,” and a 1979 collection on Japanese P-Vine unearthed “Stop Crying Over You,” “Don’t You Know That’s Love,” and the pummeling “I Think You’re The Girl.”
This collection debuts two previously unheard Mitchell titles, a soul-pumping “Now That You’re Gone” and the upbeat blues “What Love Will Make You Do.” That doesn’t exhaust the mother lode of unissued Mitchell gems: In 1969 McKinley recorded a session for the Leaners’ Empire Productions, including a beautiful rendition of his self-penned “The End Of The Rainbow” (which will be included on the forthcoming Midas Records compilation), long before he utilized the yearning ballad as his 1977 comeback hit for Chimneyville.
Mitchell’s post-One-derful! recording career was at times baffling. He masqueraded as Billy Bland (ostensibly the East Coast singer that hit big in 1960 with “Let the Little Girl Dance”) for “She’s Married Already” under Higgins’ direction at St. Lawrence in 1966. Mitchell followed Monk over to Chess for a ‘67 one-off, “Playboy,” issued under his own name and officially produced by Willie Dixon.
45s for Sandman, Black Beauty, and Spoonful preceded Mitchell’s return to Jackson, Miss., where his career was reborn with “Trouble Blues” in 1976. The song started out on the Big 3 label and was reissued on Malaco’s Chimneyville logo. The success of “The End Of The Rainbow” led to Mitchell’s eponymous Chimneyville LP. A stream of product on Malaco, Southern Biscuit, Retta’s, and Big Boy brought him into the ‘80s. Mitchell died January 18, 1986 of heart failure in Chicago Heights, a southern suburb of the Windy City.
Side A: The Funky JudgeSide B: Where Did The Judge Go
Hailing from East St. Louis, Illinois, Bull & the Matadors consisted of James Lafayette “Bull” Parks (born June 7, 1945), Milton Hardy, James Otis Love, and Robert Holmes. In 1968 they made the trek 4 hours Northeast to work with the legendary Leaner family and their Toddlin’ Town label.
At that time the zany NBC-TV comedy program Rowan& Martin’s Laugh-In was at its ratings zenith. One of its most popular sketches was a hilarious courtroom vignette that revolved around the punchline “Here comes the judge.” The judge was portrayed by Pigmeat Markham, a chitlin’ circuit comic who had made the routine famous at the Apollo Theatre. Pigmeat cashed in on the craze by cutting a full-fledged soul dance number logically titled “Here Comes The Judge” for Chess. Not to be outdone, Motown’s Shorty Long donned his own white wig and belted a different song by the same title for the label’s Soul subsidiary. Both entered the R&B charts that June, and both peaked at #4.
Meanwhile, Toddlin’ Town writer/producer Andre Williams along with Leo Hutton cooked up their own Rowan & Martin tie-in, “The Funky Judge,” and got new Toddlin’ Town recruits, Bull & the Matadors to give it their own spin.
Nationally distributed by Florence Greenberg’s Scepter Records in New York, “The Funky Judge” crashed the R&B hit parade at the end of August in 1968 and sailed all the way up to #9 R&B and #39 pop over the next three months, proving there was plenty of life in the judge routine yet. Despite the song’s excellent showing for the scrappy little label, the Leaner family chose not to issue the sequel “Where Did The Judge Go,” recorded that December… until now that is!
Both of these tracks, including the unissued side, were supposed to be on our Toddlin’ Town compilation. Sadly that project was permanently shelved over a songwriter/publisher dispute. Thankfully, however, these tracks were not part of that dispute and we are still able to get this unreleased tune pressed up for those who want it.
Bull And The Matadors’ “Funky Judge” B/W “Where Did The Judge Go” will be available exclusively at secretstashrecords.com. The hand numbered limited edition (only 250 units) 7” records will ship July 12, but preorders open June 21.
In 1971, Minneapolis-based soul group The Valdons released what almost became their only 7” record. However, as fate would have it, our work on 2012’s Twin Cities Funk And Soul compilation connected us with the group as the record included several of their tracks. To celebrate the compilations release we reunited the group for a string of live performances, which quickly lead to producing new recordings.
The lineup included original members Clifton Curtis, Maurice Young, and Monroe Wright III, along with Secret Stash label-mate Sonny Knight. The Lakers, best known for backing Knight both in-studio and on-stage, served as the backing band. The sessions, produced by Secret Stash founder and Lakers drummer Eric Foss and engineered by John Miller, featured three compositions that resurfaced when Wright brought a collection of 1970s demos and rehearsal tapes to the Secret Stash offices. Label staff spent countless hours repairing and digitizing the tapes, revealing sketches of the songs. With the help of The Lakers, The Valdons completed full arrangements, rescuing the songs from obscurity.
Since then, all 3 recordings, especially Whatcha Gonna Do, have gone to become staples of the scene. At one point used copies of Whatcha Gonna Do were trading hands for hundreds of dollars, and as of writing this it has hit 11 million streams on Spotify. Not exactly a platinum record, but also not nothing for a song no one had ever heard of by band only known by a hardcore record collectors.
Today we’re excited to make available for the first time ever instrumental mixes of all three recordings. While there is no denying that the singers are what make these tracks so special, instrumentals can provide a fun look behind the sonic curtain. We hope you enjoy it!
Photos clockwise from top left: Tatrite Sahara, Karamoko Diabate, Marshall Ag Faki, Tambaoura Jazz
We’ve spent almost 15 years working with artists around the world and their families to help share their lost or overlooked vintage music with new audiences. Today, we are thrilled to take this same ethos to a partnership with a thriving label making new records all the time. Ségou, Mali’s Mieruba Records is on a mission to repatriate Mali’s music. For years Mailian music has grown in popularity around the world but most of their musicians wind up signed to foreign labels. In 2008 Mieruba set out to bring Mailain music back home, and share it with the rest of the world from there. Since then they’ve built up an impressive catalog of newly recorded folk and desert blues music. Mieruba will continue to operate as they have from Ségou while Secret Stash assists in managing their rights for film, TV, and commercials around the globe. Their one-stop back catalog is all ready to go with new releases in the works!
