Obscure American Artists 1956-1963, Teen 03

 

1. Mike Born - Leave Me Lonely (2:00)
2. Mike Born - I Love You Baby (1:57)
3. Mike Born - Nightingale Lullaby (2:13)
4. Mike Born - Lonely Train (1:49)
5. Ronnie Ellington - Baby You Cry Too Much (2:21)
6. Ronnie Ellington - This Is The Last Time (2:18)
7. Dolores Dale - One Made Of Two (2:19)
8. Dolores Dale - Love Me As I Am (2:22)
9. Dolores Dale - Why Should I Cry Over You (missing) (0:01)
10. Dolores Dale - If I Were Ready For Love (2:23)
11. Dolores Dale - How Can I Tell You (2:34)
12. Dolores Dale - Always You (2:26)
13. Marlin Greene - Wishful Thinking (2:35)
14. Marlin Greene - I Love You More (2:31)
15. Marlin Greene - Walking To The Dance (2:34)
16. Marlin Greene - Marlene (2:05)
17. Marlin Greene - Never Been Kissed (2:13)
18. Marlin Greene - Ballad Of Love (2:37)
19. Marlin Greene - I Couldn't Take It Again (2:36)
20. Marlin Greene - (Let's Do The) Shimmy Shimmy (2:49)
21. Marlin Greene - At The Party (2:26)
22. Marlin Greene - Crazy Crazy Heart (2:38)
23. Marlin Greene - The Angels Got Together (2:36)
24. Marlin Greene - Let There Be Love (2:33)
25. Marlin Greene - If It Takes A Fool (2:11)
26. Marlin Greene - General Of Broken Hearts (2:13)
27. Phil Colbert - Deep Down Inside (2:19)
28. Phil Colbert - Lies (2:32)
29. Phil Colbert - Where Was I (2:28)
30. Phil Colbert - That's All It Was (2:20)
31. Phil Colbert - Who's Got the Action (2:33)
32. Phil Colbert - The Long, Long Tunnel (2:24)

Mike Born. Obscure male teen-pop singer. In 1959 and 1960 he recorded two singles, for small independent labels, Abel and Cheryl respectively. Born composed all four songs.
 
Dolores Dale. Obscure female teen-pop singer. In 1958 she recorded two singles, the only singles released by  S & S, small independent label – all four tracks were arranged, conducted and produced by Eddie Wilcox, who held down the piano chair in Jimmy Lunceford's band. In 1959 Dolores Dale recorded the third and the last single, for United Artists.
 
Marlin Greene. Long before his name became familiar to Southern soul aficionados thanks to his co-producing Percy Sledge’s incredible string of hits with Quin Ivy, Marlin Greene was rocking. The guitarist got in on the ground floor in Muscle Shoals, debuting with the bouncy original Wishful Thinking on James Joiner’s Florence, Alabama-based Tune label in late 1957 (the label botched the title as Wiseful Thinking). Atkins picked Greene up from there for RCA, producing the swaggering Marlene, Marlin’s first Victor offering, in early ’58 (it was penned by Joiner and Kelso Herston). Its plattermate Walkin’ To The Dance was a teen ballad.
 
Later in the year, Greene came back with Never Been Kissed, his wildest rocker with its slicing guitar work and Marlin’s energetic vocal. Writer Billy Harlan knew the rockabilly milieu intimately, waxing his own dynamite two-sider I Wanna Bop b/w School House Rock for Brunswick the same year. Rick Hall and Billy Sherrill later made mammoth music history, but when they wrote Greene’s B-side Ballad Of Love, they were struggling songwriters looking for a break. Strings and backing voices came out in force on I Couldn’t Take It Again, Greene’s self-penned United Artists single in 1960 (he covered Bobby Freeman’s [Let’s Do The] Shimmy Shimmy on the B-side). Marlin also wrote At The Party, half of his only 45 for Delta in 1961, with Hall contributing Crazy Crazy Heart as a flip.
 
Shelby Singleton produced The Angels Got Together, Greene’s first ballad outing on Philips in 1962 (Aaron Schroeder was its author), with Greene bringing its upbeat opposite side Let There Be Love in himself (guitarist Jerry Kennedy arranged both). Marlin encored on Philips with If It Takes A Fool, the attractive work of pianist David Briggs and Bruce Gist, and Gist’s General Of Broken Hearts. But Greene wouldn’t break through as a singer. Instead, he played lead guitar in 1966 on one of the biggest hits of the century: Sledge’s immortal When A Man Loves A Woman. Marlin also wrote a slew of Percy’s Atlantic sides, usually in cahoots with either Gist or Eddie Hinton, including Sledge’s ’67 hit Cover Me. (© Bear Family Records)
 
Phil Colbert. Black baritone pop-soul singer. He was, very briefly, a member of Billy Ward & His Dominoes in 1958 but didn't last long enough to record with them. According to Marv Goldberg's essay on the group he was fired after they did some dates at the Golden Hotel in Las Vegas around spring 1958. In 1962 and 1963 he recorded two solo singles, for KC and Smash respectively.
 
In the second half of the 1960s Phil Colbert recorded few more singles. He was appointed the R&B promotion manager for SSS International in June 1967 but didn't last long there as he was working for Jubilee by early 1968. He was one of the promotion men for Invictus in 1970 then moved back to New York in 1971 to work at the short-lived New York Sound label. (Discogs)
 
Ronnie Ellington. Obscure teen-pop singer. In 1961 he recorded just one doo-wop single, with unknown Group, on Locket, small independent label. Ron Ellington who recorded one single in 1963 (see P01), in popcorn R&B style, is presumably a different artist.