I love a good mystery. Sometimes even my most exhaustive research turns up nothing more than a few details about a great musician, not enough to tell the full tale. As much as I might want to blast that story from the mountaintops, I also respect the value in leaving an artist’s mystique intact—a rare […]
Tag: One-derful Records
A local R&B favorite by the Fabulous Turks gets resurrected after half a century
Chicago singer-songwriter RJ Griffith has released a cover of his uncle’s old R&B band the Fabulous Turks.
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.
Bacon fat, corn liquor, and tail feathers: remembering R&B legend Andre Williams
R&B legend Andre Williams influenced generations of rockers and rappers—and his decades-long comeback ended only with his death at 82.
How Jake Austen found the lost Jackson Five demo
A great piece of detective work uncovered a great piece of Chicago music history.
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!
Now Playing: The Jackson Find
In 1967, Larry Blasingaine played on the first studio recording by the Jackson Five. The tape was lost for 42 years. The song still hasn’t been released. But now he can finally listen to it.
“Big Boy”: Michael Jackson’s First Recording, Found After 42 Years
The Jackson Five’s Steeltown and One-derful versions of “Big Boy”: a showdown.
Earliest Known Jackson Five Studio Recording Found
Jake Austen set out to tell the story of the Jackson Five’s first single, cut in Chicago in 1967, and picked up a trail that led to the discovery of their earliest known studio recording.
The Jackson Find
This was supposed to be the story of the Jackson Five’s first single, cut in Chicago in 1967. But while he was writing it, Jake Austen picked up a trail leading to a tape nobody knew existed: the earliest known studio recording of Michael Jackson and his brothers.