The Show Stoppers - Ain't Nothin' But A Houseparty (1996) Marginal 130 - Rare Soul

The Show Stoppers (as the group preferred) or Showstoppers were formed about 1967 by brothers, Edward "Alex" Burke  and Vladimir H. "Laddie" Burke  who were the two oldest of the five younger brothers of Atlantic Record's star Solomon Burke, who joined with fellow Germantown High School students, brothers Earl Smith and Timmy Smith. The Burke,s were from Philly Whilst the Smiths were from Boston. The Burke brothers had been in show business since at least 1957 as part of a four-member group with two of their two younger brothers... After rehearsing under the guidance of Solomon Burke, they modeled themselves initially on The Vibrations. After signing to local Philadelphia label Showtime Records, The Showstoppers had a couple of local hit singles in Philadelphia. Their 1967 hit "Ain't Nothin' But a Houseparty" b/w "What Can a Man Do?" (STR 101), sold well in Pittsburgh, and New York City, and sold about 40,000 copies in Philadelphia, and reached No. 118 on the Billboard chart on May 27, 1967. The session musicians on the song included Carl Chambers, who was later drummer with Gladys Knight & the Pips, Joe Thomas, who went on to become the guitarist with The Impressions, and Motown's Mike Terry on baritone sax....Legendary Funk Brother who worked a lot in Philly. By early 1968, the Antiguan-born American businessman Milton Samuel, the head of Beacon Records, a small independent record label started in January 1968 in the Afro-Caribbean London suburb of Willesden, & who was later Antigua & Barbuda's Ambassador to the UK and the founder of the Bank of Antigua, purchased the UK leasing rights for "Ain't Nothing But a House Party" for only £30.  On February 16, 1968, "Ain't Nothing But a House Party" became the first release on Beacon Records, giving it its only hit.  In March 1968 Samuel and Mike Berry of Apple Records had negotiated a deal for "Ain't Nothing But a House Party" to be released through a newly created Milton Apple Music, but the inability to locate one of The Beatles to approve the deal forced Samuel to make alternate arrangements. Initially distributed through the British Independent Record Distributors Network, "Ain't Nothing But a House Party" caught on with DJs in the UK, and spent 16 weeks in the chart, debuting at No. 57 on March 2, 1968, before entering the Top 40 at No. 38 on March 23, 1968. By the end of March, Samuel organized a British visit for the Show stoppers. The Show stoppers made the first of their three appearances on the British television program Top of the Pops on April 18, 1968. According to one British source, "Ain't Nothing But a House Party" "was played to death and back to life at the Twisted Wheel and Blue Note Club in Manchester", and peaked at No. 11 on May 4, 1968, in the UK Singles Chart. Later in May 1968 "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party" was released in Germany on Ariola Records and France on Barclay Records, and later released by Beacon in Scandinavia, the Benelux countries, Austria, Italy, Japan and New Zealand.  Jerry J. Ross a Philadelphian, was the head of newly created Heritage Records, heard about "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party" from Hal Charm, his national promotions director, and decided to buy the master recordings of "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party" by late April 1968, and also signed the Show Stoppers to his label, became their manager, and organized MGM to distribute its re-release in the USA. Despite rights being acquired for national release by MGM, it failed to become a national hit, spending 5 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 87 on June 22, 1968. "Ain't Nothin' But a House Party" was Regarded as a Northern soul classic, the song has been covered by The Tremeloes (1968), The Paper Dolls, Cliff Richard on his album Cliff  Live at the Talk of the Town (1970), The J. Geils Band, who had a No. 2 AOR US hit with it in 1973, and Phil Fearon, who recorded a house music version produced by Stock Aitken Waterman in 1986 that reached No. 60 in the UK chart. "Ain't Nothing But a House Party" was covered in 1988 by British group The Corporation. All of The Show Stoppers subsequent singles were produced by Indian British producer Biddu and recorded by Beacon Records in England.  The Show Stoppers' follow-up single, "Eeny Meeny" b/w "How Easy the Heart Forgets" (Heritage HE 802), was released in September 1968 in the US, but it failed to chart there. On November 7, 1968. The Show Stoppers released several more singles, including "Shake Your Mini" (1968), and 1969's "Just A Little Bit Of Lovin'" b/w "School Prom" (Beacon BEA 130), however none achieved chart success. Chart success in the UK and Europe "created demand not only for the record but for live appearances as well". As the Show Stoppers had disbanded, Jerry Ross sent a different group on an entire tour of the UK and Europe as The Show Stoppers, which was a group later known as The Persuaders, who would later score with "Thin Line Between Love and Hate". Eventually the authentic Show stoppers traveled to Europe and were well received. On January 17, 1971, The Showstoppers performed at the Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester, England (where i was in attendance) what a great gig that was!. The Show Stoppers made their third and final appearance on Top of the Pops on February 28, 1971, singing the Live version of "Aint' Nothing But a House Party". After their own tour of Europe, and in the absence of any other hit records, The Show Stoppers disbanded finally about 1972. This is perhaps the hardest of the Marginal Boots(the jury,s still out on that) to locate and it collects all their Northern Dancers and a few Obscurities. Brilliant group back in the day whose 45,s are still sought after!...say what you want about the Marginal guys,back in the day they were the only people providing Rare soul and now these albums are collectors items.

AMM

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