12
13
Charts. He got some play with a follow up single
on the label (a cover of Willie Nelson’s
Always On
My Mind
) but failed to achieve further success as
a solo singer. Charles went back to performing
with the Checkmates on the oldies circuit. In 2007,
when singer Sweet Louie Smith died on a cruise,
Charles disbanded the group to become a singer
with the Steve Miller Band.
6. CREATIVE SOURCE:
PASS THE FEELING ON
(Mike Stokes-Earl Thomas)
Creative Source were a mixed-gender group from
Los Angeles put together in 1972 by Ron Townson
of the 5th Dimension; the group consisted of
Don Wyatt, Celeste Rhodes, Steve Flanagan,
Barbara Berryman, and Barbara Lewis. Almost all
the singers were seasoned in the music industry
and had previously recorded in groups or as
solo artists in the ‘50s and ‘60s; they were put
together more as a recording studio group than
an actual performing act. Townson got the group
signed to Sussex Records under the production
of Mike Stokes.
The group released 5 singles and 2 albums for
Sussex; 4 of the 5 singles charted on the Billboard
R&B Chart. The group’s only top 40 hit was a
cover of Bill Withers’
Who Is He And What Is He
To You
; the record hit #21 in 1974. The group had
a pretty consistent sound that ranged between
funky soul and ballads – almost all of the tracks
were somewhere in the midtempo range and
featured nice male/female harmonies, creating a
pretty consistent ’rare groove’ type of sound. The
tracks could be considered proto-disco, similar to
what groups such as the New Birth were doing at
the time – for example, taking an existing hit and
making a longer, funkier arrangement focused
more on the beat and the chants at the chorus.
After Sussex folded in 1975, producer Mike Stokes
took the group with him to Polydor Records.
Despite releasing two entire LPs, Polydor strangely
released only one single on Creative Source, Polydor
14291 -
Pass The Feelin’ On / Turn On To Music
, in
1975.
Pass The Feelin’ On
has a nice rare groove
sound typical of the group’s other songs. The
record hit the bottom of the Billboard R&B Charts
in December of 1975. Polydor released an entire
album titled
Pass The Feelin’ On
in 1975 and a
second album ’Consider the source’ in 1976 without
releasing any more singles. The group disban-
ded after their second Polydor LP – it’s not clear
whether any of the members remained active in
the music scene, as most of them were already
singers who had been active in the industry for
15-20 years.
7. ALVAREZ:
SOONER OR LATER
(Jesus Alvarez)
Not much is known about artist Alvarez, aka, Jesus
Alvarez. He was from the New York / New Jersey
area and spent much of his career as a musician,
writer, and producer for Joe and Sylvia Robinson’s
stable of labels (Stang, All Platinum, Vibration,
Turbo, etc.). Alvarez was an official member of the
disco band Shirley and Company, which featured
CREATIVE SOURCE
