CAROL VEGA, "ONE LITTLE THING" C/W "A LITTLE WHITE LIE" (ARGO 5490, REL. 2/1965)

Carol Vega, whose first recording we heard a few months ago on the other website, was a white vocalist who performed in the Chicago area with a trio led by Paul Cotton. She got onto records with the help of Billy Emerson, Black Sun Records artist who relocated to the Midwest and became a player in the Chicago and Detroit music scenes.

Emerson had done a fair bit or work for Chess and Vee-Jay and recorded for M-Pac, one of a trio of labels owned by George Leaner. He was taken with Vega’s confident, soulful performance style and invited her to make a record for his short-lived label, Emerson. The single picked up more interest than the label could face, and Emerson leased the two sides to Constellation, the Chicago label that Abner Ewart formed after he’d ruined Vee-Jay with his massive gambling debts. Many former Vee-Jay artists relocated to Constellation, and given Emerson’s presence at the former label, he had an in with this newer imprint.

I would guess that Vega is backed by Paul Cotton’s band on these two sides, which Emerson composed. They achieve an easy elegance that blurs the ethnic boundaries of music, as happened so often in this era.

I’d also wager that the two tracks here were recording alongside the two that were issued on Constellation—the sound is identical. Creepy electric organ, tremolo guitar and a funky little combo, with Vega’s double-tracked vocals over all.

“One Little Thing” has Vega’s sloppy double-vocal for most of the record. She’s so much better when she sings solo, as in the song’s bridge. This equivalency song—the closest pop songs get to algebra—has a slinky feel that’s mighty appealing. The producer in me really wants to step into this 1964 recording session and confer with Emerson, whom I very much respect, and proffer the notion of Carol just singing one part, which Emerson could boost in the mix. Vega was a jazz singer, and theirs is a different discipline. They strive to sing from the heart rather than by the standard rules of pop music. She’d sound so much better with a well-balanced single vocal track. Just my thoughts: Mr. Emerson would be the decision-maker. (While I was in 1964 Chicago, I’d visit all the record stores and fill my time-machine with great r&b/soul rarities for their original retail price. It’s my fantasy, so I get to acquire rare records in it.)

Hear it >>>>> HERE. <<<<<

“A Little White Lie” is a country-soul swinger which does give Vega some welcome solo time. She self-harmonizes, a la Nashville singer Skeeter Davis, on the choruses of this delightful li’l mover. How great she sounds singing just one line on the verses! And since she’s singing harmonies on the choruses, her accuracy rate is much higher.

This down-home bopper is charming as all get-out, and might have caught the public ear, had Chess Records bothered to push this Argo release, which they may have put out to mollify Emerson.

Hear it >>>>> HERE. <<<<<

The single didn’t chart or get one iota of coverage in the music trade magazines. “One Little Thing” would become a favorite of a Belgium-based popcorn movement, but that didn’t do anything for Ms. V in 1965. To my best knowledge, she never recorded again.

 Vega found a new career as a voice-over artist; she was heard on local radio and TV commercials for years. She continued to sing in blues and jazz clubs and was reported still performing a decade ago; I’m not sure of her current status.

Tomorrow: The Jive Five, led by the great Eugene Pitt, deliver a song of cosmic terror, backed with an atmospheric ballad. Just the thing for your Thursday!