Twist and Shout
Nobody But Me 1962
SHOUT
THIS OLD HEART OF MINE
I GUESS I'LL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
TAKE SOME TIME OUT FOR LOVE
TELL ME IT'S JUST A RUMOUR BABY
(LP Track 1967: Favorite track of
David Lomas at the
Blue
Note)
Ronald Isley - vocals
O'Kelly Isley - vocals
Rudolph Isley - vocals
Ernie Isley - guitar, drums, percussion, vocals
Marvin Isley - bass, percussion, vocals
Chris Jasper - keyboards, percussion, vocals
Yet
another group that started out as gospel singers, eternal favourites on the UK
soul scene, with “ This Old heart Of Mine” probably played in the main soul
clubs in
Manchester every single night from its release date until the end of
the decade.
“Tell me
it's just a rumour baby” was played to death at the
Blue Note club in
Manchester in 1968/9, launching this track as a later ‘pick up’ on the Northern
Soul Scene. The Isley Brothers had major hits
before joining
Motown such as “Nobody
but Me” unfortunately copied and remembered as a hit for the Human Beinz when
at the
Twisted Wheel and Blue Note this
Isley's original was King.
The Isleys
continued with hits after their association with Motown.
O'Kelly, Rudolph and Ronald, the Isley Brothers went to
New York in 1958 from their home town
of Cincinnati to pursue their recording career. And they hit it big with
'Shout' their very first recording on RCA. For their second they had to switch
to Wand in 1962, having a major USA hit with 'Twist and Shout', copied by The
Beatles.
This helped the Isleys quite a lot as some of the cuter DJs in the UK started
playing the original which led soul fans to start searching for the other
original artists on many cover hits in the UK>
LULU and The Luuvers did a copy of Shout, which
went far higher in the UK charts than the Isley’s original. Part of its appeal
was due to the fact that Lulu was young (fifteen) cute as a button and from
Glasgow, all of which gave her a distinct edge.
The brothers moved labels frequently then decided to form
their own called T-Neck records in 1964 and were the first black performers to
do so. The first release on T Neck; 'Testify' was interesting also as it had on
lead guitar - Jimi Hendrix. Unfortunately it went nowhere and they then signed
to Motown where
they hit with "This Old Heart of Mine" in 1966.
They had problems at Motown - like being forced into the
formula routine of factory style recordings and they left in 1968 and re-
stared T-Neck in 1969.
1973 “Who’s That Lady” and "It's Your Thing" was
an instant hit big reaching number two in the top ten (USA).