In 1966 Eddie did a brief stint with one of Joe Banashak's label's - INSTANT. Joe Banashak had started out in the industry as the owner of the influential A-1 Record Distributors in New Orleans, in 1959 he decided to start his own label and established MINIT (a label he later sold onto Lew Chudd in 1963 when his main A&R man and hit maker Allen Toussaint left for the army) from the success of MINIT he opened INSTANT in 1961 before going on to found several smaller labels such as ALON, SEVEN-B, CHANNEL ONE and BUSY B.
Banashak was a tough business man who was constantly pushing his A&R men to create hits, often telling them what stye of track to write and record. It seems that there are very few artists who have a good word to say about Banashak and the dodgy deals he offered his artists and A&R men. Eddie had started working for Banashak's SEVEN-B label the previous year and had become an in-house A&R man, writing and arranging songs for himself and other acts and was quickly brought on board at INSTANT to work with some of Banashak's artists.
One of these artists was Art Neville, one of the Neville brothers, a musically talented family consisting of Aaron, Art, Charles and Cyril, he started his career out as a member of the Hawkettes, (who will always be remembered for the wonderful 1954 recording "Mardi Gras Mambo") before embarking on a solo career under the wing of Banashak and Allen Toussaint. The song he cut under Bo was "Hook Line And Sinker" - a non stop dancer bearing no relation whatsoever to the massive Smiley Lewis track of the same name, his voice sounds really similar to Skip Easterling's who oddly penned the delicate ballad "Buy Me A Rainbow" on the flipside, Skip recalls how he wanted to recall this himself but Joe B. insisted on Art having it. "Hook Line & Sinker" is one of Eddies stand out recordings of this period.
"Im Lonely, Take Me" is a great deep soul vocal, strikingly different to anything I have heard by Kenner before, it was recorded in 1966. "Cinderella" is outrageously good! A wild shotgun inspired Rn'B wailer with more balls than a randy bull!!!!
Chris Kenner was a popular male singer in New Orleans who recorded for a variety of local labels froim 1955 onwards such as BATON RECORDS, IMPERIAL and RON before moving on to INSTANT where he really made an impression, working with Allen Toussaint he penned "I Like It Like That" which reached the national top ten in 1961 and was later made famous by the Dave Clark Five in 1965. He also penned "Something You Got" - a big hit that was later covered by a whole host of artists such as Alvin Robinson, Barbara George, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown, and Bobby Womack. His signature tune however was to be 1962's "The Land of 1,000 Dances" which subsequently became a huge hit for Wilson Pickett.
The two 45's he cut for Eddie Bo on INSTANT and his Bo colaboration released under the pseudenym "'Candy' Phillips" for ATLANTIC are in my opinion his only truly brilliant records but alas none are considered masterpieces yet, perhaps as they were never as successful as that early sixties body of work.
Kenner fell from grace in 1968 when a girl he was with turned out to be underage and he was charged with statutory rape, he never quite got his popularity back after this and combined with the serious alcohol problems that had grown worse throughout the sixties his career really did slip. He died in 1976 of a heart attack.
Also recorded in 1966, one of my favourites by Chris Kenner and devilishly tricky to find, I am still without a copy but searching all the time. A cool RnB dancer with all the right ingredients, classic mid sixties Bo production that starts to hint at the funkier edge coming to the front.
Released in 1967 this is incorrectly listed on Eddie Bo's website as being an Eddie Bo release on the SEVEN-B label, "Key To My Heart" is a really muddy production with a great gospel / soul song underneath it, The Rainbows sound a little similar to The Crescents who recorded for SEVEN-B in the same year. But the vocal here sounds just like Bo. "Good Thing Goin'" is another great soul recording with a group sound, Bo's voice is buried slightly under the female backing but the more you listen to it the clearer it becomes that it's him in there.
Hmmm, a very poor outing from Lee Bates who released several great soul stormers towards the end of the sixties, "Key To My Heart" is a rather average version of the Bo penned song of the same name by The Rainbows, whereas the cover of "Sittin' On The Dock Of A Bay" is very poor. Eddie did so much stuff, come on the guy's allowed one or two slip ups!
I know there is one more Eddie Bo collaboration with Lee Bates on INSTANT as I owned and sold it a few years ago but can't for the life of me remember what it was?
Martin Lawrie www.soulgeneration.co.uk