James Ellis was the original lead singer of The Satintones. When Motown began in 1958, it had just two male groups, The Miracles and The Satintones. The Satintones were James Ellis, Chico Leverette, Robert Bateman, and Sonny Sanders. After a couple of years, lead singer James Ellis left and was replaced by Vernon Williams. We got all five members back together, no exceptions. Sonny Sanders had become a legendary arranger, having made many million selling records including all Jackie Wilson's 1960s hits on Brunswick. As soon as they all met up again in Detroit, they were rushed onto a TV show to sing together live, before they'd even had proper time to greet each other after the passing of about twenty eight years. So I then decided to make solo reords on both James Ellis and Chico Leverette, as well as recording five brand new tracks with The Satintones. This particular wonderful song was originally released in 1967 by Robert John, one of my favourite blue eyed soul singers, who never seemed to make a bad record. I first heard this song as a youth listening to the Pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, and a very young unknown Kenny Everett used to play it on his show there, the same show that introduced me to all the weird and wonderful Motown obscurities that I came to love. A few years later, the guy who became my new best friend was the legendary Twisted Wheel DJ, Les Cokell, and, next to the Ray Pollard record, "The Drifter", this Robert John song was probably his all ...
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