The Ballads - The Gift Of Love - LP (1969) Venture - CD (2007) P-Vine (Japan) Expanded Edition + In Depth History Included - Rare Soul

Since i First discovered this superb band from Oakland California i was hooked!...They recorded for a multitude of usa labels but their only stateside album was released on the long gone Venture Label...Thankfully those clever guys at P-Vine Japan released this album in an expanded release capturing most of their 45,s and unreleased tracks that covered them till 1969, and also released a second album on LP & CD " confessing The feeling" a compilation which was also expanded to collect their output from 1972 onwards. .......Both albums must have,s for any lover of soul music. The other posted tomorrow.

The Ballads were the smoothest, coolest, hippest and certainly most successful vocal singing group to come out of the San Francisco Bay Area during the Sixties. Their 1968 remake ot their own 'God Bless Our Love', produced by Jesse Mason and Willie Hutch for Venture Records, shot the 'Billboard' rab charts in June, finally peaking at #8 after a twelve-week residency. The Ballads were also the first East Bay vocal
quartet to play Harlem's famous Apollo Theatre. Ballads' recordings are sought after as frequently today by local followers, Japanese fans and British northern soul aficionados as in the past.  It all began in June 1961 when Bill Hollins, who had sung in the Fabulous Flames road group alongside Johnny Terry, Snake Johnson and Louis Madison and had recorded for Brad Taylor's San Francisco-based Bay Tone Records a year earlier, approached Nathaniel (Nate) Romerson with the idea of starting a vocal group. Both Madison and Hollins were, at that point, members of the Flambeaus. To go back a ways for a moment, Hollins, Terry, and Madison,(Madison also played organ) and had initially written the melody lines to "try me"and "Please, please,please" for James Brown,started out as the Dominions,  & became James Brown's second set of Flames but were fired over a pay  dispute in San Francisco in early 1961. Hollins moved to Portland and Madison continued to play organ with a string of small combos around the Bay Area clubs until the bottle brought him down. To Hollins' friend, Romerson, the idea of  forming a singing group was what he always wanted. Pretty soon, Rico Thompson was taken aboard. The boys then found Tank Johnson but, unfortunately, Johnson had sustained a leg injury in military combat and could not dance. Johnson then came up with his own replacement: Bobby Meade. With Hollins out and returning to Portland, the original recording group, comprising the newly acquired lead tenor Les Palmer, Romerson, Thompson and Meade fell into place. The Ballads were schooled so that each member could sing the parts of the others, all that was needed was a good name. "It seemed that the group was very much into singing ballads," said Romerson. "One of the first songs we rehearsed was 'You're The One", a number the group recorded for Venture seven years down the line, I looked up the Webster dictionary definition of ballad' and it read 'a slow romantic or sentimental song'. The description fit perfectly, so we adopted the name. I was alsotaken by the moves made by Hank Ballard and his Midnighters. They had a routine that was out of sight, so I decided we would adopt similar dance routines. I'd have four of us dancing as a unit, as  opposed to having only three, as with Hank  Ballard's group!'  The guys rehearsed constantly, almost day and night, for two weeks. Then, having mastered a short list of tunes, they played their first club engagement, at Ross  Christy's Rhumboogie Club. They then moved into the Time Out which, under Don Barksdale'smanagement, became The Sportsman. After a stint at the Reno Club,  the group started opening for major-league acts. Meanwhile, through Barksdale's connections with Bob Geddins, the  Ballads cut their first record for Veltone. The top side bore the title N Hope I Never Fall In Love Again', a tender doo-wop ballad written by ex-J.B. band member Nat Kendrick of '(Do The) Mashed Potatoes' fame and tough-singing Bay Area soulstress, Sugar Pie DeSanto.     You Know'/ a Falcons-like dance vehicle with wild nice sax riffs, constituted the flip-side. In today's collector market, the scarce Ballads' Veltone single fetches a hefty sum. The  Ballads' reputation as an exciting live act seemed to gain momentum. Lee Hildebrand, in a February 1983 interview and review of the Ballads' appearance at Mr. Gee's House Of Lee in Oakland, stated that John Foster told him that one of the first gigs he played with the group in 1964 was at Al's House of Smiles on East 14th  Street in Oakland. "We owned one set of uniforms," said Foster "and we'd turn them inside out between acts." After guesting at the Reno Club in 1963, the boys filled in for Little Junior Parker at the 53 Club. Following a successful opening for O.V. Wright at Don Barksdale 's
Sportsman's Club, Wright asked if the group would tour with him and do the same every night but Barksdale, who had invested time and money in the boys, made a better offer to keep them at Sportsman. So, the Ballads' tenure there lasted an extremely successful nine months, after which they went out on their first road gig, an engagement at the Salinas County Fairgrounds with Bobby Bland. One day, baritone singer, Bobby  Meade, upped and left for Texas and his place was taken by John Foster. Romerson had caught Foster singing lead with the Holidays at the California Hotel and was much impressed. The Holidays started out of Roosevelt High in Oakland, in 1955. The 1957 line-up featured Stan Harris, second tenor lead, William Harrison, first tenor, Isaiah Brown, baritone, (Rev.) Elton Stevens, bass, plus founder and lead, Ken Pleasant, who went on to sing in the legendary Bay Area's Four Rivers. The Holidays were the 'hottest' group before the Ballads came along but they were never able to secure the right recording deal . Ray Dobard's Music City label had treated them shabbily. "The Ballads really got off the ground when we found Foster," said Romerson. "Thats when things started to hang together,"  Another ex-Holiday was Wylie Trass, who later joined Freddie Hughes to become the Casanova Il on Early Bird and Lonnie  Hewitt entered the picture. Hewitt, who ran the Wee record company on 42nd Street in Oakland to promote himself and his friends, took the Ballads under his wing. (Hewitt's best remembered recording is the two-part 'Is It Me", a jerky, midtempo soul dirge overlaid with a cool rap reminiscent of the king of soft soap radio, the Magnificent Montague.) At this point, membership and vocal parts ran as follows:  Palmer, lead tenor and bass, Romersont tenor, Thompson, tenor and baritoner and Foster lead tenor and baritone. The group's first Wee outing was 81 Can't See Your Love (Parts 1 & 2)  a joint songwriting effort. The song, a standard soul felt, mid-tempo ditty, is sweetly sung in the style of the day: screeching brass Temptations like harmonies and heavy grooves made this a solid contender for a place in the national charts. It became such a favourite among a growing legion of California fans that it was reissued months later and, through a deal made with Bill 'Bunky' Sheppard in Chicago, saw release on Vee-Jay Records. However, Vee-Jay was on the skids having encountered financial problems. Had it not been for this, the Ballads might have broken through and garnered national recognition for their talents.
Back home in San Francisco, the Ballads were asked to background in place of the Dukays at the
Cow Palace for Gene "Duke of Earl" Chandler. Chandler, having arrived in San Francisco without backing singers, was riding a song written by Jerry  Butler's brother, Billy, entitled "Bless Our Lover", produced by Carl Davis for Constellation Records, (Constellation had been set up by 'Bunky' Sheppard and Ewart Abner Jr., ex-president of VeeJay,) Chandler's recording of Our Love'  had done so well that it peaked at #4 on the *Cashbox' r&b chart.43 in 1964...Then their 45,s exploded onto the Northern Soul Scene in England all the pre 1969 dancers are featured here.....DYNAMITE!..

AMM

                                                                        The Tasters!