Pied Piper Finale – Various Artists CD (Kent)

This final CD of Pied Piper material features more exciting tape finds. There’s even a little-known Pied Piper record from King Louie’s Court.

We feature Jack Ashford’s first productions away from Detroit: the Joe Douglas and Yvonne Baker Philly releases from 1965. The alternate version of Douglas’ ‘Crazy Things’ is a previously unreleased gem. The most exciting recent find is Lorraine Chandler’s ‘Ease My Mind’, a Pied Piper song and track undocumented until the recent transfer of Jack’s Just Production tapes.

Also included is the sumptuous backing track to Rose Batiste’s ‘This Heart Is Lonely’. We have kept some of Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent’s background vocals to differentiate it from the basic instrumental issued as ‘Bari Track’ by Doni Burdick. That 45 became a Northern Soul monster in 70s England and is presented here in its purest form from the original 1965 multi-track.

Willie Kendrick gives us alternate takes of ‘American Dollar’ and ‘Watch Yourself (She’s Fooling You)’, tracks unknown prior to featuring on our “Rare Collectible And Soulful” CDs in the 90s. The alternate early version of Lorraine Chandler’s ‘She Don’t Want You’ sounds terrific too. The Hesitations and Freddie Butler tracks are taken from their Kapp LPs and demonstrate that Pied Piper was more than just a dance label, while Reggie Alexander’s pricey rarity ‘It’s Better’ was very popular in the UK throughout the 80s and 90s.

The Metros’ ‘No Baby’ is the only one of their RCA recordings to never have been on CD before and their superb ballad ‘Sweetest One’ was their only R&B hit. The musicians get their turn with instrumentals of ‘What Can I Do’, ‘I’d Like To Know’ and ‘Love Will Find A Way’. Nancy Wilcox’s ‘Gambler’s Blues’ comes from a recently unearthed master tape for the first time and the rap-intro version of the Cavaliers’ ‘We Go Together’ debuts on CD.

Compilation and notes by Ady Croasdell- Ace Records