Moment of Truth

Helplessly... Fantastic emotions flowing vibes...

The original Moment of Truth was headed by frontman singer and drummer John H. Mitchell (1945-2010). It was Mitchell's group that gave MOT its notoriety. Mitchell was the lead singer and drummer on most of MOT classics, such as "So Much for Love," "Your Love," "Helplessly" and the lesser-known tunes "If at First You Don't Succeed" and "Come on In."

After contractual disagreements with SalSoul, the execs replaced Mitchell's group with the four masked men on the album cover: Billy Jones, Ivery Bell, Norris Harris, and Michael Garrison.

The Acetate referred to above was actually a 10 inch not 12 inch. I actually own a copy of the 10 inch Acetate of "Helplessly". It's the same running time as the B side of the Roulette 7 inch ie 5:10

According to Tom Moulton in Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton's book "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" his mastering engineer José Rodriguez was out of 7" metal blanks. So José suggested to put it on a 12" blank and thus make the sound louder. Hence, the very first 12" was born.
However, it was released only to few of Moulton's DJ friends. Roulette then released it on 7" and when it hit, Moment of Truth was signed to Salsoul.
Moulton the continued this practice, but of course It took some time before the record companies got around to using this new format.
So: thanks Moulton and Rodriguez!

I first played this record in 1974 on a 7" record, I think the label was Blackstone or Blackbird, something like that. wouldn't bet on it though! I remember playing it nightly, for a year or more before I got the SALSOUL 12". Then It just got better, the Dance Floor increased, guess they now recognized the song from other clubs and WBLS. A true old-time DISCO CLASSIC, it can only receive a TEN!!!

One of the great carnivorous dinosaurs: full-on orchestral arrangement, heavy on horns, vibes, rhythm guitar and masculine black-man emotion leaping over the chords.

The latter quality may be the most telling. I don't know the answer to Bernie's riddle about 7" release on a different label, but I speculate that the record had two lives; first in '74 or '75, when I remember it as a modest hit on black-radio without the bottom and rhythm that Tom Moulton remixed into it for a still-young Salsoul on the prowl to license whatever it profitably could. Roulette was in decline, and although I'm sure it released a couple of 12" singles lacked a commitment to this strange new sound called disco, as did many long-established New York-area independent labels.

Perhaps only Moulton, surviving Moments of Truth and Salsoul lawyers can say for sure!



A treat, and a fair example of Tom Moulton's remix talents.