Eddie Singleton RIP

Eddie Singleton with his wife Raymona

Little Bobby Parker I Won't Believe It Until I See It Shrine

J D Bryant I Won't Be Coming Back Shrine

I picked up the sad news this AM from Soul Souce that Eddie Singelton had died earlier this year in South Africa.

Ady Croasdell from Kent Records passed on the news:

Andy Rix just passed on this sad news from Harry Bass.

Eddie had been living in South Africa for several years. He was most famous on our scene for his magnificent Shrine record label that created some of the most exciting, and beautiful soul music of the 1960s. Shrine has become a byword for top quality rare soul and is now spoken of in awe and affection.

I had the honour of releasing the first Shrine recordings in the UK in the mid 80s with two LPs and two singles on the Horace's label. Andy Rix researched and recorded for posterity the story of the Washington DC label that featured Ray Pollard, Eddie Daye, The Cautions, The Cairos, Shirley Edwards, The Prophets and JD Bryant among its releases. This detailed history was documented in the booklets to the two volumes of Kent CDs "Shrine: The Rarest Soul Label". The quality and rarity of the Shrine records combined to make the label a Northern Soul collector's Holy Grail.

Eddie had been a successful writer, producer and artist in the late 50s and early 60s working with Barbara Lewis, The Matadors and Marie Knight. He later wrote for Motown contributing 'Don't Bring Back Memories' for the Four Tops and composed the great Northern Soul classic 'The La Rue' for Lada Edmund Jr.

He married Berry Gordy's ex-wife Raynoma in the early 60s and she was a cornerstone of his Shrine operation being a very musically talented lady. Harry Bass was Eddie's right-hand man throughout most of his musical endeavours and contributed songs and business skills to the label.

In later years he was re-married to Motown singer Barbara Randolph who pre-deceased him by about ten years. He was a warm talented man who was very happy that his commercially unsuccessful work at Shrine was eventually appreciated overseas.

You can still pick up the 2 Kent CDs of Shrine music which have some exceptional tracks. I have picked out the above 2 tracks as tribute to Eddie's work. He wrote the song for Little Bobby Parker and produced the JD Bryant track.

You can also read the full story of Shrine Records here:

The Shrine Records Story

Eddie Singleton RIP