This is a
hitherto unpublished singles list, originally compiled by Paul Pelletier in the
1980s, here updated with the unpublished LP listing added. Whilst Paul has
generally avoided small, West Indian oriented labels (they require a
specialised approach rather than the mainstream aims of RIS), Sugar has been less of a
challenge because during its short life it was under the wing of two major
companies.
It seems Pye was happy to take on just about anything offered
it, but the deal with Decca was more surprising. Decca was still tightly
controlled by its founder, the accountant-minded Sir Edward Lewis, and he
must have agreed to the deal, possibly because he was persuaded by Sugar label
boss Charles Ross and others that Reggae was going to be the next big
thing, and Decca didn't want to miss the bandwagon - hadn't they famously
missed out on The Beatles (although The Rolling Stones were a worthy
consolation prize). But if Sir Edward was initially fooled by West Indian
born Ross (who had once owned one of the labels called Flame in Jamaica),
the marriage was brief and Decca proceeded on its slow death through the
1970s without a specialised Reggae outlet.
There is a mystery about Charles Ross - did
Decca pull the plug on him or did he simply vanish? Given the small
roster, did Ross promise more than he could deliver? No trace of Ross can
be found after 1970, but it has been suggested he went to New York, a hub
of the music business and with a significant Jamaican population. Does
anybody know?
There is also something of a mystery about
ESS 104 by Pitts Henry, which was probably issued in September 1969. The
single is not listed in "New Singles" but it is listed elsewhere,
with the artist credited as Ray Ellington and only the A-side, "Ooh
la la", shown. The B-side was written by Ray Ellington and first
appeared as an Ellington release on the A-side of Ember S114 in 1960,
properly spelt as "Très jolie" (note the correct French accent,
grave not acute). Given that Ellington's real name was Henry Pitts Brown,
the true identity of "Pitts Henry" is revealed. The interesting
question remains as to how an established artist like Ray Ellington got
involved with Charles Ross? Stretching the imagination, did Ellington (who
had briefly recorded for Decca in the 1950s although his main outlet then
was on EMI's Columbia label) help Ross get the Decca deal? Ray Ellington
was well known, his musical interludes through the 1950s on BBC Radio's "The Goon
Show" had ensured that, Charles Ross was not.
The relevant hand-written Decca ledger (see Introduction) shows that a seventh release was planned as SU 107 in July 1970
but transferred to the main Decca singles series. This single, by Zorro
Five, had no obvious connection with Charles Ross - it was licensed from
an obscure source (Brigadier) and the music publishing was credited to
Decca's own Burlington Music rather than Ross's Mother Mistro. One can
surmise that Decca initially wanted to prolong Sugar's active life with or
without Charles Ross, but in the end decided to ditch the unsuccessful
label; however, they clearly had some material in hand because the Charles
Ross Reggae Combo album was issued in August 1970 as the label's swansong. In the event, the Zorro Five release on Decca suffered the same
fate as the Sugar singles - it went un-noticed. (Incongruously, the page for Sugar singles
is in the depths of
a bulky, Dickensian looking Decca ledger which had been used since the end
of 1948 to
list the voluminous Brunswick 78s and later 45s until that series ended in
1967; the later Brunswick "Soul" series was added to the ledger between 1972
to 1977.)
Any additional information is welcome.
Guy Pelletier
