Percy Mayfield - His Tangerine and Atlantic Sides

I know that this one is the hardest of the bunch to find, we have Cliff to thank for this.

Billy Vera's liner notes from this set have cleared up some issues in the previous Mayfield post, confirming my suspicions about Percy's ongoing relationship with Specialty's Art Rupe (Percy called him Poppa in his letters) and clearing up some aspects of both their states of mind at the time Percy's contract expired in 1955. Rupe was losing interest in the record business, having financial issues of his own, and shifting focus to his other enterprises.  Right around the time he allows Percy to leave he also has a fit and fires Sam Cooke and Bumps Blackwell for, as it turns out, making Sam's first secular megahits. The notes also place the correspondence between them that I referenced as being early in 1959 (rather than 53 or 54) while Percy was living in Minden, thus proving my speculation incorrect. The one and two off sessions were, as I suspected, favors to the singer from Rupe to help him generate some cash and possibly attract a new label. Finally, they also help place the time that Mayfield moved back to Los Angeles as being in early 1961.

Not long after returning to L.A. Percy reconnected with old friend Ray Charles who had just left Atlantic and was basking in stardom and new privilege at ABC. Amongst the many concessions made to the star was his own record label, distributed by ABC, that he was quickly populating with old friends and neglected artists that he enjoyed. Daddy Ray was nobody's dummy and he had no problem seeing the value of a 'house writer' who was also still a fine performer, particularly one who came bearing a gift like "Hit The Road Jack". Ray signed Percy into the Tangerine fold, where he joined Jimmy Scott, Louis Jordan and Lula Reed, and Percy set about writing a whole new round of songs, many tailored just for Ray like "Hide Nor Hair", "The Danger Zone" and "My Baby Don't Dig Me Anymore".

Mayfield was not just the staff songwriter though, he also got to record while at Tangerine and made three strong albums included here with a pair of stray Atlantic tracks tacked on the end (don't see any story about those). I am fond of the arrangements and instrumentation on these songs, no strings or chorus' here but always a strong horn section and some killer rhythm sections too. Great new songs like "Ha Ha in the Daytime", "Never No More" and of course "Stranger In My Home Town" (which is covered by Elvis!) are mixed in with remakes of old Specialty hits, the sound is updated, a bit more modern but it still suits Percy to a tee. This music is pretty much everything a Percy fan could hope for.