For their latest 7” release SOUL JUNCTION RECORDS once more dip into the archive of soul entrepreneur Richard Calloway. Collectors will know that Calloway hailed from Uniontown P.A. which was known affectionately by the local black community as ‘Oniontown’ the name which Calloway adopted for his first music publishing company which later morphed into C-Way Productions and label.
Amongst the many groups who worked with Calloway were THE ENTERTAINS from Cleveland. The group recorded four Calloway songs. The first two – ‘Love Will Turn It Around’ and ‘Why Couldn’t I Believe Them’ were eventually released on Steel Town Records and enjoyed some regional success. Then, (yes, you’ve guessed!!!) the record won cult, collectable status when the effervescent ‘Love Will Turn It Around’ was heavily championed by famed DJ Colin Curtis and it became a firm favourite with the dancers within the Highland Room of the Blackpool Mecca and subsequent Northern Soul venues of the time.
The US regional success of the single (especially in and around the Baltimore and Washington areas) encouraged Calloway to record two more sides on the Entertains… ‘I’ll Answer You With Love’ and ‘Your Love I Give It Up’. However, for financial reasons the planned release of the songs on 7” never happened and the two cuts have lain in the metaphorical can … till now!
Step in the soul sleuths of Soul Junction, who, with a licensing deal with C-Way, are, at last, releasing the record! The disc’s A side is the lovely, emotional ‘I’ll Answer You With Love’ which comes complete with a lovely opening monologue before breaking into a sweet, harmonic groove with a searing vocal. The B side, ‘Your Love I Give It Up’, is looser and a lot more frantic and in places it might remind you of the Isley Brothers! Anoraks might recognize the song from another version by C-Way’s Richie Merrett whose take was called ‘I Gave It Up’.
We believe that the Entertains line up was fairly fluid – even varying between quartet and quintet status. Amongst the members were Donald and Howard Rice, Alfred Wilson and Andrew Wright who we believe was the lead singer.
Find out more about this fascinating release @ https://www.souljunctionrecords.co.uk/
