"5" Royales, "Let Me Come Back Home" c/w "What's That," Apollo 45-458 (rel. 7/1954)
Happy Easter! I get a religious experience whenever I hear The "5" Royales, so here's my kind of celebration. This record, in essence, represents the resurrection of the dead. This rare 1954 single--the group's next-to-last on Apollo Records--had come into the hands of a collector/seller friend. It had gathered decades of grime and dust in its grooves; it also was not treated with kid gloves over the years.
As well, Apollo had yet to master their seven-inch records for microgroove styli; it has the wider grooves of a 10" 78 rpm disc (the industry standard until 1949; they persisted to the end of the 1950s in America). Thus, a constant hisssssssssssssssss competes with the music etched into the vinyl. The only way to hear it proper is with a wider stylus. Said friend's verdict: you want this?
That I did. I nursed this single back to life and did what I could to mitigate the endemic hiss. The results aren't perfect, but I captured both of these fine songs and performances well enough.
This single was issued by Apollo after the Royales migrated to King Records, where they would make one masterpiece after another in the late 1950s. The group's vocal harmonies were already well honed at Apollo, but songwriter Lowman Pauling had yet to become the group's lead guitarist. His blazing, sometimes-distorted guitar solos made a great group greater and the results, in classics such as "Think," "Dedicated to the One I Love," "Say It" and "Don't Let it Be in Vain," are breath-taking.
Pauling's songwriting deepened along with his emergence as guitarist. He dug into his own life experiences and delivered secular sermons in the byways of man's existence. He continued to write love ballads, novelty songs and rockers, but they all touched on this empathetic, thoughtful vein and are among the greatest works in American popular music, 20th-century edition.
The two sides of this single, which didn't sell and got one small pressing, date from October 1952 and July '53. Both were recorded at Beltone Studios in New York, where much of the group's Apollo material was taped. I'll play the sides in chronological order.
Up first is "Let Me Come Back Home," an early example of Lowman Pauling's skill with an affecting ballad. Johnny Tanner sings in a high voice on this pleading, ambitious song with a haunting melody that shows the group's roots in gospel music (their starting point upon forming in 1942). It's Tanner's show all the way, with no instrumental break or interruption. You feel him straining to hit those crazy-high notes, but he does it and never loses the feeling of what he sings.
When the group harmonizes on the song's bridge (first heard at 00:47), the results are gripping. This is one of many intense ballads from Lowman Pauling's songbook. James Brown, one of Pauling's acolytes, would write similar material that got much more into the public mainstream of the 1950s, '60s and beyond. None of them can touch the hem of Pauling's catalog.
Cash Box was gung-ho for this single and their anonymous review shows knowledge of rhythm and blues and is an obvious admirer of this epic Black vocal group. Nice to see!The song is an amusing account of a suspicious man who's certain his wife/sweetie isn't 100% true to him. Songwriter Pauling throws some playful lines into this mover, which epitomizes the jazz-flavored jump blues style that would disappear by 1956 in Black music. This side sounds the best, playback-wise; I think the single had been stored without a sleeve and with the "Let me Come Back Home" surface exposed to the elements of time and decay. Arisen!
Two wonderful songs! Really well-recorded jazzy music and vocals. Love the fervent jump of "What's That." Any idea why they were called "5" Royales with only the 5 in quotes?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question, Bill! Some sources say that, since the group consisted of six members, they put the quotes around the 5 as an inside joke. In the late 1930s, jazz composer Raymond Scott called his group the Quintette; again, it had six members. I guess 5 looked better than 6 on a marquee!
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