DD 013A Alpaca Phase III "Someone To Run To" / DD013B Frederick Knight "It Ain't No Fun"

Description

Our latest 45 release is another Birmingham, Alabama, double-decker that Diggin’ Deep are extremely proud to be able to bring to you. This being the first time on vinyl for either of these superb Southern Soul tracks.

Of course, any release coming from the pen of Sam Dees is bound to cause a bit of a stir and here we have a real gem with a bonus flipside courtesy of his song-writing partner, on so many occasions, the great Frederick Knight.

Alpaca Phase III were a song writing and musical team headed up by Sam Dees, Wes Lewis and Collins Berry and this track might well be their finest hour as a group. But we’ll let you be the judge of that.

In the can, from the same session, was a take of this song with Sam Dees on lead vocal (which Ady Croasdell and I included in the final part of the Sam Dees previously unreleased CD’s ‘Its Over - 70’s Songwriter Demos and Masters’ CDKEND 426) but it is the Alpaca Phase III ‘group take’ which the fans have been drooling over for many years.

This version, we understand, features Wes Lewis taking his turn on lead. Lewis was a terrific vocalist and an artist with a much loved and in-demand Soul 45 on Black Kat Records ‘It’s Gonna Be Hard’ / ‘Best Of My Years’ from 1977. He recorded a subsequent string of Inspirational Music with the Gospel group ‘Faith’ on Malaco Records. His lead vocal recording of ‘Someone To Run To’ is a blistering, seventies soul, dancer, which only ever appeared on the Hotlanta Soul Volume Two set CDKEND 183, over 20 years ago. Wes Lewis passed away, sadly, in September 2005.

The third most valuable player is Collins "Bo" Berry, a Birmingham based horn player and session musician. Berry headlined the house band for Birmingham's 401 Club in the 1960s and was an original member of the Commodores back-up band in the 1970s. In 1975 he joined Alpaca Phase III, which had recorded the Northern Soul hit "I Like to Party" for Atlantic Records the year earlier. He toured with the group before returning to Birmingham where he recorded and produced Cleveland Eaton’s Garden of Eaton amongst others.

Sam Dees should need no introduction to fans of Diggin’ Deep Records. His work is revered in soul circles and with legions of music fans around the world. We are very proud, once again, to bring you another vinyl 45 from the pen and genius of the maestro, Sam Dees. It’s absolutely wonderful.

Frederick Knight is a singer, songwriter and producer, born 15 August 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, best known for his 1972 hit "I've Been Lonely For So Long" which he recorded at Neal Hemphill’s Sound of Birmingham studio, where he worked as an engineer, and for writing and producing Anita Bell's 1979 #1 hit "Ring My Bell".

Here we revive Knight’s original take of ‘It Ain’t No Fun’ which received huge acclaim when recorded and included in the million selling, southern soul album ‘Woman To Woman’ for Shirley Brown. Beginning with the customary rap intro, Knight takes this sad ballad at a mournful pace which draws the listener into the song’s sorry tale. If you like your Soul on the deep side, unhurried and intimate, you’ll be floored by this.

So with the topside ‘Someone To Run To’ a highly regarded Crossover Soul midpacer and the flipside ‘It Ain’t No Fun’ having been an acknowledged Southern Soul classic song for over 45 years, we hope you will agree, this wonderful double-header is a slice of vinyl that every Soul fan will want in their collection.

Please take a few minutes to listen to the promotional video.