Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Bad Girl

The Fabulous Denos Bad Girl King


Lee Moses Bad Girl Pts 1 & 2 Musicor


Hermon Hitson She's A Bad Girl Minit


Lee Moses She's A Bad Girl Gates

I have posted many features about Johnny Brantley's productions. I still get inquiries about his work and the artists he was involved with especially Lee Moses.

I was recently asked by someone to post up a version of the song Bad Girl. I thought I'd take the opportunity to post the 4 versions above that I know about for comparison.

Sadly Lee Moses and Bobby Lee Fears aka Bobby Dixon aka Bobby Brown died before I could speak to them however I have discussed the song with Hermon Hitson.

Here's what I wrote after about Hermon Hitson's version of Bad Girl after interviewing him:

By 1967, Hermon was going up to New York to work on tracks Brantley had already laid down. These include probably his most famous 45 on the Northern scene – “Yes You Did” This song and “Better To Have Loved” were written by the song-writing team of Lewis, Farmer and Lewis who had given a demo of the song to Johnny Brantley after being introduced by friends of Lee Moses. The backing tracks had already been laid down by the Ohio Players when Hermon entered the Bell Sound Studios on West 54th Street to record his tortured vocals on these classic tracks with both tracks being were licensed to Minit Records.

One of the most iconic songs of this period has to be “Bad Girl”. This was song was written by Lee Moses and Bobby Lee Fears aka Bobby Dixon who was originally lead singer of the Atlanta group The Fabulous Denos. The first recording of the song was by this group followed by the Lee Moses version for Musicor before Johnny decided to give Hermon a shot using the same backing track as Lee’s version. “Bad Girl” was issued on Minit with “Show Me Some Sign”.

When I recorded the tracks for this post, I realised that I was mistaken in saying that Johnny Brantley used the same backing tracks for the Lee Moses Musicor and Hermon Hitson version. You can clearly hear that they are different backing tacks. It is possible that Lee used his own band The Deciples and Johnny used the Ohio Players for the Hermon Hitson version.

You can get more information on the Fabulous Denos over on Georgia Soul blog.

I enjoyed listening to the 4 versions sided by side and taking in the different takes on the song especially Lee Moses's rap on Part 2 of his Musicor cut.

Thanks to Gabe Vaughan for inspiring this post!

Update

Great news from Eli Reed below in the comments concerning the song Bad Girl!

Thanks also to Eli for pointing out the mix up in the tracks - I've now fixed them!!

Eli also reminded me of Hermon Hitson's alternative version of Bad Girl which was released on the Soul-Tay-Shus CD You Are Too Much For The Human Heart back in 2005:

Hermon Hitson Bad Girl Alternative Version

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:56 AM

    Colin,

    So timely that you posted this because we actually just finished recording our version of the song! We played it backing up Hermon Hitson last summer in Chicago and since then we've been incorporating into our set. Backing Hermon was really inspiring and I recently picked up the Lee Moses comp that has his complete singles so I actually know now of two different versions by each of them. I think you may have mislabeled your song clips, the one labeled Lee Moses version Pt. 1 and 2 is definitely Hermon and the one below that I believe is Lee Moses. I actually have an early version of the song that Hermon recored that is on the most recent comp of Hermon's work. Anyway, fantastic post. Really interesting and I'll be sure to send you a copy of of our version!

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  2. Hi Eli

    Thanks for dropping by!!! Great news that you are recording a version!!!! Can't wait to hear it!!!

    Thanks for pointing out my mix up!!! I've fixed it now and also included Hermon's alternative version in the update.

    Old age creeping in - I'd completely forgotten Soul-Tay-Shus had used another version!!!

    Cheers

    Colin

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  3. Anonymous10:32 PM

    hello,

    (in reference to the bad girl backing tracks)

    this is probably my confusion although i was under the impression that the deciples were mostly made up of the ohio players. not sure where i'm going with this... but that would mean the backing tracks were done by similar musicians despite the difference in names

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  4. Hi Walton

    I am not certain who was in the Deciples????

    I must check with Hermon Hitson to see whether he knows.

    I always assumed that The Deciples were an Atlanta band and that The Ohio Players only played on the NJ cuts - but I maybe wrong.

    Cheers

    Colin

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Here's a video I shot of Eli performing "Bad Girl" in Pontiac, MI this summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlJX0VJ9U34

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  7. just good albums these, I love the theme brings me too many memories to mind at this time, thanks for sharing the theme.

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  8. Anonymous1:20 PM

    There's a version by "Fabulous 3 + 1" which was released on T&L records too (can be found on youtube). The vocalist sound very similiar to the guy whos sings in Fabulous Denos. Does anyone know anything about that group and version?

    Cheers
    Mathias

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  9. Cheers Mathias

    Please see my response here:

    http://indangerousrhythm.blogspot.com/2010/10/fabulous-3-1-bad-girl-t.html

    Cheers for turning me onto a great version

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