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The King Records Story - Part 2

© Barney Quick

Little Willie John, born John Davenport, likewise had a powerful voice. His very biggest hit was the self-penned “Fever,” released in 1956. Peggy Lee’s subsequent cover ensured the song’s status as a classic. He also scored big with “Need Your Love So Bad,” “Sleep,” and others. In 1966, he stabbed a man to death in Seattle and succumbed to pneumonia in prison two years later.

In 1956, both Bass at King / Federal and Leonard Chess in Chicago caught wind of an explosive singer with a hot band out of Georgia. Clint Brantley, Little Richard’s manager, had informed Chess and Atlanta record distributor Gwen Kessler had spread the word to Bass.

The ensemble was called The Famous Flames. Like so many vocal groups of the day, it had recently switched to r&b from gospel. Two of the members, James Brown and Bobby Byrd, had met on the baseball team of a boys’ work farm in Georgia. They began talking music and realized that it was probably the best ticket out of a life of trouble.

Fate had a lot to do with Bass’ signing of Brown and The Famous Flames to Federal. Bass heard the demo of the group’s song “Please Please Please” at an Atlanta radio station and drove through torrential rain to Macon at the same time Leonard Chess was scheduled to board a plane in Chicago. The flight was delayed by snow. When Bass met Brown and Brantley at a Macon train depot, he slipped them two hundred dollars and put a contract on the table.

Bass brought the group to Cincinnati in short order to cut a polished version of “Please Please Please.” He had major challenges convincing Syd Nathan to withhold his objections and let Bass put the record out. Nathan thought it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. In fact, Bass was briefly fired over the matter. When the song topped the r&b charts, Nathan brought Bass back into the fold.

By this time, however, Bass could see that his current boss was cut from the same cloth as Lubinsky at Savoy. By 1959, he had tired of Nathan’s pushy, contentious ways. And Nathan, who had a history of cynicism-laced relationships with his r&b artists, was about to meet his match in the fiery James Brown. Brown would, though, make Nathan, not to mention himself, a very rich man over the next fifteen years.