Don Julian & The Larks Super Slick (LP, colored Vinyl)

One of the holy grails of 70s soul funk collectors is finally being re-released (and yes, original copies of this 1974 release on the Money label cost a lot of, uh, money)! Don Julian was a Los Angeles-based doo-wopper who got his start in the band The Meadowlarks, which recorded a number of sides for Dootone Records. The Meadowlarks then became The Larks, who, like so many other R&B groups of their time, became immortalized with the 1964 dance craze song The Jerk. They spent the rest of the '60s recapturing that magic with titles like Soul Jerk and The Penguin (on Jerk Records, of course) before reemerging with a couple of long players on the Money label. But at this point, things get a little murky. The group also recorded a soundtrack for a long-colored, never-seen blaxploitation film called Shorty the Pimp (supposedly Quentin Tarantino has the only copy). In 1998, Ace Records released a CD of tracks from Shorty the Pimp, but although seven of the ten tracks on Super Slick appear on that collection, many of them are quite different from their soundtrack incarnations. So how, when and where this recording was made remains a great mystery. But no matter; with its blend of Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, the Papa Was a Rolling Stone-era Temptations, and sweet '70s soul (e.g., a cover of David Gates & Bread's Make It with You), Super Slick clearly wears its influences on its sleeve while topping them with soaring falsetto harmonies, piercing bass, and impeccable arrangements. Trivia: That's Richard Berry from Louie Louie doing the deep-voiced spoken word parts in Super Slick and Shorty the Pimp. We're pressing this album in blue vinyl to match the album art - a re-release that's been a long time coming!