THE VELVETS FEAT. VIRGIL JOHNSON, "THE LOVE EXPRESS" C/W "DON'T LET HIM TAKE MY BABY," MONUMENT 45-458-V (REL. 4/1962)

The Velvets formed in Odessa, Texas when high school teacher Virgil Johnson recruited four students from the body of Blackshear Junior High. He was a median of six years older than these kids and served as the group’s lead singer. Their early performances were on street corners and social events in the Odessa-Lubbock-Abilene area.

Fellow Odessan Roy Orbison encountered them while on a visit home and was impressed. At the time, Roy was a pop star via his operatic singles on Monument Records, and he said he’d talk them up with the Nashville label. The group backed him up on some local radio performances, and soon thereafter signed with Orbison’s label, run by Fred Foster, who had an ear for Black talent in the Deep South.

The group went pop Top 30 with their second Monument single “Tonight (Could Be the Night),” a Johnson original. The third 45, which was played her back in the Facebook days, comprised two songs co-written (and I use the term loosely) by Orbison; it was big in Japan but failed here. Today we’ll hear The Velvets’ fourth 45, which had all the earmarks of a comeback hit—except that it wasn’t. That, as you know well, is no fault of the record itself.

“The Love Express” was co-written by Clint Ballard Jr., a savvy songwriter whose resume includes many Northern Soul classics and in-demand r&b items. It’s a train song of sorts. Locomotion is a lyrical metaphor for the forward move of a man who’s fallen in love and gotten a thumbs-up from the object of his expression.

Strings, brass, woodwinds and simulated railway percussion send this sexually charged item along the fast track; members of the Nashville symphony earned regular session fees in this period of music. Strings—not fiddles—were rampant in Nashville’s country, pop and r&b recordings of 1962. The results here are the group’s most forceful performance; it seemed radio-friendly but perhaps all those double entendres were a bit much for conservative programmers.

Cash Box favored the more dramatic “Don’t Let Him Take My Baby,” which had a rival gender-swapped version by Chicago r&b diva Mitty Collier. The sound of an Orbison ballad dominates this production, with the song, penned by Aaron Schroeder and E. G. King, comparable to the current material recorded by The Drifters, et al.

It’s well-handled and shows that Nashville was able to create expressive rhythm and blues recordings at this time. Promotion wasn’t Monument Records’ strong suit: they put a shoulder behind their established hit-makers but tended to abandon new and unsuccessful acts, many whom they signed just to have their song copyrights, in case one of them might by accident pen a chart-topper.

The Velvets made five more singles for Monument into late 1966; their final release has, on one side, the cleverly-titled “Let the Fool Kiss You (But Don't Let the Kiss Fool You);” copies of this go for around $100.00 at present.

Ace Records UK issued a complete collection of The Velvets’ Monument recordings, including a bevy of unissued sides. It’s still available out there…

Tomorrow: The Kendall Sisters deliver a wacky femme take on the Everly Brothers’ sound, via a 1958 Argo Records 45.