Identical Studio Acts

[discodjinn]

I was going through some weekend flea market purchases-- Caroline Crawford's "Coming On Strong" and Sergio Mendes' "I'll Tell You" were fun finds-- and was reading the credits for a 1979 Rudy (Trevisi) lp I'd never heard of. It was produced by Jacques Fred Petrus, with Malavasi and others from the Change outfit. It got me thinking about how prolific some of these producers were and how many artists they tried to break.



The real surprise came with the "Sticky Fingers" lp from 1978. I'd always resisted getting this because of the cheesy cover photo. Did my ears ever perk up when I played it. I went to the credits and found it to be produced by the Three Hats group. I always liked THP's "Two Hot For Love"-- I love the Sticky Fingers lp even more. It seems tighter and more soulful, the kind of disco I always respond to. It has such a New York feel I couldn't believe that the players and vocalists are identical to THP Orchestra.



When I played the even cheesier looking Southern Exposure lp (and got past the lame "Heading South" track) I found a couple of songs that were surprisingly good. Lo and behold, it was produced and played by the same THP personnel. The only difference was that the Duncan sisters were not singing. Again, some very active producers. I wonder, though, why projects with identical participants were released under different names. To avoid flooding the market with releases from the same group? To try avert preconceptions on the part of record buyers?



The situation reminds me of other studio acts that were identical or very similar-- Dazzle and Inner Life, for example. It seems unfortunate that this practice prevented some talented acts from getting more of the exposure they might have gained from developing a bigger body of work. Donna Summer, after all , spent years releasing two lp's a year, many of them double albums. Or am I missing some rationale for all the name changing?

[BrunoRepublic]

Well, some artists, like Rinder & Lewis, used different monikers for each style of music they did. But I think for most of them, it was a matter of being able to release many albums at once, since many labels will only allow an artist to put out one LP per year.



Some other THP productions...



The Duncan Sisters -- S/T (LP)

The Immortals -- Warlords 12"

Grand Tour -- On Such A Winter's Day (LP)

The Skatt Bros -- Strange Spirits (LP)

THP Orchestra - Early Riser LP (first album, can be hard to find)

THP Orchestra - Fightin' On The Side Of Love (non-LP 12"/7", done between Early Riser and Two Hot For Love)

Thor -- various 70s releases (note: not disco at all, but a horrible Canadian hair metal band... ewww)

[maarten]

(discodjinn) ...was reading the credits for a 1979 Rudy (Trevisi) lp I'd never heard of. It was produced by Jacques Fred Petrus, with Malavasi and others from the Change outfit. It got me thinking about how prolific some of these producers were and how many artists they tried to break.

Under normal circumstances I would have directed you to my website on Jacques Fred Petrus but it died, thanks to GeoCities. And I haven't had the time to bring it back somewhere else.



So here is a list of all JFP productions:



- Change: 6 albums and 2 compilations

- BB&Q Band: 4 albums and 1 compilation

- Macho: 2 albums

- Rudy: 1 album

- Midnight Gang: 1 album

- Revanche: 1 album

- Zinc: 1 album

- Peter Jacques Band: 3 albums

- High Fashion - 2 albums

- Ritchie Family - 1 album



There is also a JFP productions compilation album called Goody Music Orchestra Volume 1.