Honey & The Bees - Come Get It - The Complete Josie Recordings 1970-1971 (2000) Westside - Rare Soul (MP3)HQ

One of my all time Fave Girl Groups from Philly since they evolved from the Yum Yum,s....Considered as one of the “Holy Grails” of female black soul LP albums, the scarcity of the 1970 album outweighs the less than 29 minutes contents easily. This is great female soul music and showcases the girls talents.
Honey & the Bees were a talented soul group from Philadelphia, originally named the Yum Yums, and comprised of Nadine Felder White, Cassandra Ann Wooten, Jean Davis and Gwen Oliver. They changed their name to Honey & the Bees before signing with Arctic.. The quartet recorded around five sides with Arctic, including a few choice and expensive Northern soul pieces. In 1970, Honey & the Bees went over to Josie Records and recorded this album plus another half dozen or so singles. With both labels the group had the backing of musicians that played on classic ‘70s Gamble-Huff productions. These included Leon Huff himself on piano, and Ron Baker, Earl Young, Bobby Eli, and Norman Harris in the rhythm section, Harris and Thom Bell were among those who contributed to the songwriting. As such, though the Supremes are an obvious point of comparison, they had far better production that the vast majority of girl groups from the same era. Honey & the Bees spent years on the club circuit, opening for bigger soul acts in Philadelphia and throughout the East Coast before disbanding in 1973. Group member Gwen Oliver married Fred Wesley of the JB’s, whom she met when Honey & the Bees opened for James Brown in 1971,rumour has it that their headstrong, take no-BS attitude eventually came into conflict with Brown’s own strong armed control over his players and he had Wesley remove the group off tour). Cassandra Wooten and Gwen Oliver were later in The Ritchie Family. Not to be confused with the other group same name who recorded for Academy records. I,ll post up the other compilation tomorrow that has all their Arctic recordings bar a flip side + 5 unreleased tracks.These girls should have surpassed the Supremes,i rated them that highly for quality & delivery of their material...a few of us on the northern scene also appreciated them!

AMM

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