Barbara George--I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)--1961

     New Orleans has always been a hotbed of music and in the early 60's, many record companies sent their scouts to that great city to find new talent. One who decided there needed to be a local company that catered to the needs of the black musician was Harold Battiste. More can be read about him and the AFO (All For One) record label here:  http://www.rockandrollomnibus.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-weekend-vault-afo-executives-and.html and http://www.rockandrollomnibus.blogspot.com/2013/03/weekend-vault-afo-executives-with-tammy.html
     One of his breakthrough artists was Barbara George. Born in Smithridge she was discovered singing in her church choir by singer Jesse Hill, who recommended her to Battiste. She recorded the first single on the AFO label, and it hit big reaching number one on the r&b charts and number 3 on the Hot 100. I Know (You Don't Love Me No More) was written by George herself.
     She had a couple more songs which reached the charts on AFO in 1962, but nothing that reached the success of her hit. Along with others, George was poached by Sue Records (which AFO had a distribution agreement) and shortly afterward AFO folded and Battiste headed to Los California. She never approached the success with Sue that she had with AFO and by the mid-60's was out of music.

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Weekend Vault: AFO Executives With Tammy Lynn (Pt.2)

     When we left off, many of the members of AFO, including Tammy Lynn went to the west coast seeking work. After some difficulty getting regular work in LA she went to New York long enough to play some gigs at the Birdland and to hook up on a recording session with producer Bert Berns. However, there wasn't enough to keep her busy so she moved back to California and reunited with Harold Battiste who had made a foothold for himself by producing early sides for Sonny and Cher, and reuniting with other New Orleans musicians such as Dr. John. She got quite a bit of work doing commercials, and backing vocals including the artists just mentioned. Over the years she has contributed her voice to many projects including the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street.
     In 1971, she was approached by Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records to re-record one of the songs off of the AFO Executives album called, "Mojo Hannah". She agreed and it was released on Cotillion Records to little fanfare, but it was a fantastic recording and felt the need to include it in our retrospective.

     While this is going on, just based in a hunch, Atlantic released the song which Tammy had recorded back in New York in the mid-60's. "I'm Gonna Run Away From You" became a big hit for her in the UK and it looked as if she was finally going to make it big. Here is an old video from the "Top of the Pops" show in England.

     On the success of the single, she went to the studio and recorded a number of cuts, which Atlantic pasted together with, "I'm Gonna Run Away From You" and "Mojo Hannah" with a group of songs that were haphazardly put together. The resulting album, "Love Is Here and Now Your Gone" went nowhere. Looking back, it was easy to see what happened. The cuts that were recorded in the states were quite inconsistent and she didn't even have a foothold in the US that would warrant an album in the first place. Secondly, the hit in the UK was a straight up piece of pop, and Mojo Hannah and much of the album were blues and jazz inflected. Not exactly the intended market who bought the single.
     As mentioned before, she probably best known in the states for her work on the album, "Exile on Main Street" and also on the single, "Would I Lie To You" by Eurythmics in 1985. She has kept busy over the years and released a new CD in 1992 called, "Tamiya Lynn". After 30 years of success in LA as a producer, Harold Battiste returned home to New Orleans and restarted AFO Foundation to recognize and document the musical history of his home. 

    
    

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The Weekend Vault: AFO Executives and Tammy Lynn, Part 1

    Today we start a two part set featuring the AFO Executives with Tammy Lynn. AFO stands for "All For One' and was the brainchild of New Orleans native Harold Battiste who believed that his city needed and deserved a black owned and operated record label. A place where local songwriters and musicians could come together as a collective and everyone could share in the profits rather than the constant bickering with labels who's dealings were a bit more than shady.
     Part of the support for the label was bankrolled by Juggy Murray who was the president of Sue Records out of New York City, which although giving immediate capital for the fledgling new label and would also provide national distribution. It came right out of the gate in 1961 with Prince La La's single, "She Put the Hurt On Me" (#28 r&b, #119 pop), the next single did even better, Barbara George's "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More) (#1 r&b, #3 pop).

     Subsequent follow-up's to both singles didn't do very well, and Murray, who thought they could do better with George on their own, signed her away to a larger contract. This seemed to be the Achilles heel of AFO as over the three years of their existence, they recorded many of the hottest names in New Orleans at that time; Prince La La, Barbara George, The Blenders, Willie Tee, Mac Rebennack (Dr. John), but they would be "discovered" by bigger labels and would soon sign up with them and move on.
     An interesting sidelight to AFO was their Jazz division. One of the albums featured some of the best session musicians that New Orleans had to offer; Battiste on alto sax and piano, Alvin "Red" Tyler on tenor sax, John Bordreaux at the drums, Melvin Laste on Cornet, Peter Badie on Bass, and a young singer known as Tammy Lynn.
    Tammy Lynn was born Gloria Brown in the Gert Town area of New Orleans in 1942 She began like many singers of that day in the church, but also had a love of musical theater in school. Her first gig came about totally by chance as Red Tyler's band was to play at a club down the street from Brown's house called, the Joy Tavern. Tyler's vocalist was a no show and the owner of the club mentioned there was a girl down the street who was a good singer. Although very nervous, she held her own and soon became a regular singer with the band.
     In 1961, Tyler became a member of the AFC Executives and brought Tammy along with him. Battiste signed Brown (now Tammy or Tami Lynn) and they released her first single on the label called "Baby"/"Where Can I Go"

     The single went nowhere, but Tammy Lynn continued to tour the New Orleans area with the AFO Executives, as they finally went into the studio in 1963 to record, "A Compendium". The album went nowhere at the time, but it's seen now as a classic recording of what was happening in the New Orleans jazz scene at the time.The following is the Barrett Strong song, "Money".

Soon afterward AFO went out of business and many of the musicians went to the west coast. Tomorrow we pick up the story of Tammy Lynn....

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