RARE Original BABY HUEY STORY LP PSYCH SOUL
$
104
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Description
Record: VG+++ to MINT-
Cover: VG+ (small initials on back cover, bottom seam split 4")
CURTOM CRS-8007, Stereo, 1971 original gatefold pressing!
This LP is NOT a re-issue!
MEGA RARE ORIGINAL PRESSING! Breaks, beats samples, Psychedelic Soul, Northern Soul, Funk...He's largely unknown outside of Chicago, the world of obscure soul collectors, and DJs looking for obscure samples, which is a tragedy since Baby Huey was one of those rarities - namely a soul act that simultaneously managed to attract both black and white audiences.
Born and raised in Richmond, Indiana, James Ramey started his musical career as a member of his high school choir. After high school he formed The Vels, before forming Baby Huey & the Babysitters. The odd stage name came from Ramey's physical stature - due to a glandular problem he weighed in at over 350 pounds). With backing from the Babysitters, Huey became a mainstay on the Chicago club scene and on mid-western colleges. Unfortunately the group had difficulty finding a record label to sign them. Signed by the small Satellite label. the group's recording debut came with the 1964 single "Messin' with the Kid" b/w "Monkey Man" (Satellite catalog number 2013).
Their luck changed in 1969 when Huey's longtime friend/manager Marv Stuart took a job working for Curtis Mayfield's newly formed Curtom Records. One of his first business decisions was to sign Huey to a recording contract. Sadly, in the midst of recording material for the projected album, Huey suffered a fatal heart attack in his Chicago hotel room. He was only 28.
In the '60s, Baby Huey's sound moved from energetic R&B into a more psychedelic brand of soul, with a vocal style that drew comparisons to Otis Redding. He signed with Curtom and recorded a debut album, The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, that featured several Curtis Mayfield songs (most notably the oft-sampled "Hard Times" and "Mighty Mighty Children"), plus a cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." Sadly, Baby Huey didn't live to see it released; his weight and substance-abuse problems were exacting a steep toll on his body, and on October 28, 1970, he suffered a drug-related heart attack in a hotel room in Chicago. The album was released early the next year, and the Babysitters attempted to carry on for a while with a new lead singer, the still-teenaged Chaka Khan (she would, of course, go on to fame as the frontwoman of funk band Rufus shortly thereafter). In the years since, Baby Huey's lone LP has become a sought-after collectible among soul fanatics.
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