Vivian Carter and James Bracken formed Vee-Jay Records in 1953 to produce the “good music” that listeners of Vivian’s radio broadcasts and customers of her record store in Gary, Indiana, wanted to hear. By “good music,” her audience—largely southern-born African American migrants to the Chicago region—didn’t mean classical or pop. They hungered for electric blues, […]
Tag: Betty Everett
Posted inMusic
The Opals deserve a place among Chicago’s greatest girl groups
As I’ve complained here before, women often get left out of music history—a problem that seems especially bad in soul music. I’ll never understand why Loleatta Holloway, Holle Thee Maxwell, and the Fascinations aren’t as widely known as the Dells, Major Lance, and Curtis Mayfield. All-woman Chicago group the Opals had ties to all those […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Overflow can’t be contained
South Loop’s Overflow Coffee carries on the legacy of Vee-Jay Records.
Posted inMusic
Summoning the ghosts of Record Row
For two decades, a short stretch of Michigan Avenue hosted a concentration of creative entrepreneurship whose influence on Black popular music is still felt today.
Posted inMusic
Johnny Pate is one of the great unsung architects of Chicago soul
This 95-year-old living legend has played jazz, written blaxploitation soundtracks, and arranged for Stan Getz, B.B. King, and most famously Curtis Mayfield—but he’s probably most widely heard via hip-hop samples.
Posted inBlogs
Win a new test pressing of the Jackson Five’s lost studio debut from the Reader and Secret Stash
Win a piece of Chicago soul history by answering five ridiculously difficult trivia questions!
Posted inBlogs
This Week on the B Side
An exciting new-music ensemble, hazy hip-hop beats, electronic oddities, rappers talking to rappers, and much more
Posted inMusic
The Secret History of Chicago Music: Betty Everett
“Shoop Shoop” singer had hits prior to her most famous song