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Boy - I've been playing "Dreamy" b/w "You Want To Change Me" over and over, "You Want To Change Me" has a great - gutsy - soul-full vocal by Robert Von Hebb, while Gamble & Huff have high pitched vocal-type sounds a la the theme to Star Trek soaring over the string section. Dreamy, meanwhile, has those wonderful vibes from "Sunny", and think about the way the words flow..."Sunny", "Love Me", "Dreamy".

I played some of it over the phone for Buzzy Linhart out in Oakland California earlier in the night - Buzzy and Bobby both wrote with Sandy Baron - more coincidence re: Lou Rawls and the Philly Sound.

Speaking of coincidence - and here's some real digression - Mr. Linhart and Mr. Viglione (me) are writing a book about Coincidences - SHAKA-PIFI. Going to get my hair-cut I went by a church which has cool sayings on the lawn in Reading. This week's was about Dreamers being important to the world because some of those dreams come true. Simultaneously I had Berry Gordy speaking on the cassette player, reading his life story TO BE LOVED - and Mr. Gordy kept talking about the realization of his dreams.

So "You Want To Change Me" and "Dreamy" keep spinning in my cd player - our version has a very "The Big Hurt" sound a la Toni Fisher as the frequencies added and subtracted by engineer Scott Couper to get the hiss out from the 45 created this marvelous different "mix". It moves,
it grooves, it bounces. How many of us in relationships and out of them go through this incredible Gamble/Huff poem "You're confusing me, you want to change me, rearrange me, why don't you take me as I am..." - the feel of the middle section is very movie like - grand string
section - with a bright and energetic rhythm guitar. "Dreamy" just takes it even further - a real departure from "Sunny", but almost as extraordinary- this material so perfect for soundtracks - and very summery and light.

The Phillips and Laurie singles would make a fantastic addition to the Sunny CD.

You can order the original CLASSIC album featuring "Sunny" and "A Satisfied Mind", Bobby Hebb's two Top 40 U.S. hits from the summer of 1966 on this site:

http://www.hiposelect.com/catalogue_hebb.asp

IN MEMORY OF HAL HEBB
Hal Hebb passed away the day after John F. Kennedy, November 23, 1963. Bobby Hebb's brother is often referenced as the inspiration for BMI's #25 song of all time, "Sunny".

This page is information gathered from the internet as a tribute to Hal.

October 30, 2001 Uni Music re-released Hal's performance with The Marigolds, two minutes and thirty-four seconds of a song called "Rolling Stone"

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=2WMWRCUILU&ean=731455626421

Street Corner Essentials
Label: HIP-O RECORDS
Catalog No.: 556264 UPC: 731455626421

Utilizing the new Http://www.amazon.com search engine which finds the book pages where someone is mentioned, we can find Hal Hebb's references:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-6201647-6499809

Jay Warner's excellent book on Johnny Bragg, a bandmate of Hal's, of course has information on Bobby's brother:

4. Just Walkin' in the Rain
by Jay Warner (Hardcover - February 2001)

• Excerpt from page 96: "... TOP: 1959. The Marigolds: Henry "Dishrag" Jones (SEATED AT PIANO), Hal Hebb, Johnny Bragg, John Drue Jr., L. B. McCollough, Alfred Brooks, ..." See more references to Hal Hebb in this book.

The Marigold's track is also available on "The Excello Story" Vol 2.
See Hal's page on Http://www.allmusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70311171715380060&sql=B8bkku3x0an6k

To hear some of "Rolling Stone" check out Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000I0RQ/qid=1069618852/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/103-6201647-6499809?v=glance&s=music

SEARCHES ON HAL HEBB
http://www.alltheweb.com search on the Webb has Joe Viglione's biography of Bobby and Thom Erlewine's review
of the Hip-O disc with The Marigolds
http://www.alltheweb.com/search?avkw=fogg&cat=web&cs=utf-8&q=%22Hal+Hebb%22&_sb_lang=pref

There are more pages on http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Hal+Hebb%22&sa=N&tab=gw

Johnny Bragg page
http://members.tripod.com/SoulfulKindaMusic/jbragg.htm

A Prisonaires biography on www.theIceberg.com
http://www.theiceberg.com/artist/29607/the_prisonaires.html

As their name suggests, this doo-wop group were formed in 1940 while each member was in the State Penitentiary, Tennessee, USA. The founding member was second tenor Ed Thurman, and he took on Johnny Bragg (lead), John Drue (first tenor), William Stuart (baritone and guitar) and Marcell Sanders (bass). The group was paraded around a variety of receptions and civic functions as demonstration of the jail's enlightened rehabilitation programme, where they played a mix of blues, gospel and pop songs under armed guard. Edwards then arranged for two talent scouts from Sam Phillips' Sun Records to see the group. They were subsequently driven down to Memphis in June 1953 to record a song written by Bragg and fellow inmate Robert Riley, "Just Walkin' In The Rain". The record took hold first on radio and then became a major seller, moving over 250,000 copies, despite a competing version from Johnny Ray that sold eight times that amount. Still, the Prisonaires had arrived, and found themselves in demand for a series of television and concert appearances. They gradually became high-status figures in Tennessee, and never betrayed the trust placed in them by trying to escape their guards on their numerous forays outside the prison. A second single followed in August 1953, the highly spiritual "My God Is Real", followed by "I Know" and its autobiographical b-side, "A Prisoner's Prayer". While recording it they made the acquaintance of Elvis Presley, who later visited them in prison. By now some of his colleagues had become eligible for parole, so Bragg formed a new version of the band titled the Sunbeams with Hal Hebb, Willy Wilson, Al Brooks and Henry "Dishrag" Jones. This group lasted only until 1955, when the group was retitled the Marigolds and had a number 8 R&B chart success with "Rollin' Stone". However, by 1956 Bragg had been released and he recorded a series of singles under his own name for Decca Records. He was then arrested for "parole violation" in 1960 when found in the back seat of a car with a white woman (his wife). His penalty was to return to prison for an incredible six and a half years. Despite this second injustice, Bragg put together another version of the Prisonaires with new inmates, but they never recorded again. On release, he worked in a cemetery.

Compilations:
Five Beats Behind Bars (Charly 1978)***.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 2002

The Marigolds on Google
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22+The+Marigolds%22++music+group&btnG=Google+Search

joe viglione, editor
Write to: Hebb_Project@yahoo.com