Sunday, November 05, 2006

 

Cleveland Gospel -- the Bounty Label

In the 1960's / 70's, Tom Boddie ran a studio & pressing plant out of his residential property at 12202 Union Ave (on the junction of 128th St & Union Ave).
The house was in the front & had a big black sign outside that said Boddies Recording Studio. The studio was an extention to the garage in the back. His main soul labels were Luau, Soul Kitchen & Cookin but he also had a dedicated gospel label, Bounty. On this, he must have released about 20 gospel 45's (Boddie also had his Tom-lew publishing company to keep all the rights connected to his recordings in-house). Boddie also hired his studio out to 'outside' artists (acetates exist of some of these cuts -- he pressed them up under his own Boddie Recording Studio logo). The first recording by an early incarnation of Sly, Slick & Wicked (under the name, the Mod Squad) was made at Boddies in 1970, the group recording covers of popular songs that at the time formed their live act. This recording was probably typical of many demo's cut & pressed up at Boddies -- only 6 copies of the resulting LP being made.
It is likely that the majority of copies of the Bounty label gospel 45's were taken away by the artists who cut them (most of these outfits not being locally based -- the Victory Five for instance were from Detroit). The 45's would then be sold at the group's gospel shows, this is probably the reason why copies of these 45's are extremly hard to locate in the Cleveland area.
BOUNTY LABEL DISCOG:
45's:

5023 J.C. Akins & the Dukes "New Dance/ Searching For Someone" (soul)
5589 J.C. Akins & the Dukes "You Upset My Very Soul/ Pt. 2" (soul)
5591 Dolores White "Why Don't He Understand/ Lovers Paradise" (soul)
5592 The Friendly Brothers "Jobe/ Near The Cross" (gospel)
5595 Mitchellairs Gospel Singers "Trust In Jesus Always/ Happy With Jesus Alone" (gospel)
B-7171 The Celestial Coeds "My Last Move/ ???" 1971 (gospel)
B-7203 Jubilee Specials "Where E'er He Leads Me/ Nobody Knows" 1972 (gospel)
B-7205 Sarah Battles "Holding My Savior's Hand/ His Eye Is On The Sparrow" 1972 (gospel)
B-7207 The Stars of Faith "I'm Looking For A Home/ 99 ½ Won't Do" 1972 (gospel)
B-7209 The Silver Kings "Meeting Tonight/ Trouble The Water" 1972 (gospel)
B-7218 Brother Bill "Wha's Happ'nin/ All He Wants Is You" 1973 (B-side by Rev. William T. Sawyer)
B-7221 Nellie Dinkins"All the Way/ Search Me Lord" 1972 (gospel)
B-7313 The Ohio Silvertones "He Laid His Hand On Me/ Working In The Building" 1973 (gospel)
B-7362 Wings of Faith Juniors of Grand Rapids, MI "Send It On Down/I Can't Thank Him Enough" 1973 (gospel)
B-7406 The Victory Five "Have You Been To The Pool/ Prayer Is The Key" 1974 (gospel)
B-7411/12 Cleveland Golden Echoes "Used To Live On Broadway/ 30 Pieces Of Silver" 1974 (gospel)
B-7418 Union Star Gospel Singers "He's My Rock/ Be Not Dismayed" 1974 (gospel)
B-7442 The Dynamic Gospel Keys of Gary, Indiana "That’s Alright/ On The Right Road" 1974 (gospel)
B-7538 Reese Spirituals "It's A Lifetime Job/ Things I Used To Do" 1975 (gospel)
B-7602 Victory Five of Detroit, MI "Don't Leave Me/High Mountains" 1976 (gospel)861 Chosen Few of Cleveland, Ohio "You Don't Know Like I Know/ The Lord Will Make A Way" (gospel)
ALSO, one of the known Boddie acetates is a gospel outing.....Ohio Spirituals "Hold On/ The Will Of The World"

LP:
Victory 5 --- Something About The Lord Is Mighty Sweet

Comments:
a friend & i have some of these, would love to hear more. thanks again for another informative post. am considering posting some of these Cleveland gospel records at my site, they are forgotten for the most part and in need of renewed attention.
 
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