More on FAME, or, Anyone Wanna Give The Stepfather $6,600?

Clarence Carter - Tell Daddy

This morning I was looking at my daily eBay search results and I found an interesting auction: someone in the UK is selling their collection of almost every (78 out of 80) FAME label 45. This is a pretty interesting collection, featuring everything from early soul classics like Jimmy Hughes' "Steal Away" through to Northern Soul records (most notably "Keep on Talking" by both James Barnett and Phillip Mitchell) through to Southern soul smashes and early '70s grooviness. The opening bid is around $6,600, which I'm sure somebody will make - unfortunately it won't be me! I guess I'll just have to settle for enjoying the FAME recordings I've heard and the handful of FAME 45s I own!

Clarence Carter has appeared in this blog and on the podcasts several times so I'll dispense with any storytelling. "Tell Daddy" was a pre-Atlantic FAME single, but is better known as "Tell Mama," as recorded by Etta James on Cadet during her sojourn to Muscle Shoals to work with Rick Hall, and the strength of Carter's recordings for FAME (then distributed by Atco) provided the stepping stone for Carter's records to appear on Atlantic, although Rick Hall and the FAME personnel still ran things. At the end of the record Carter entreats his subject to "tell me ... what you gotta have." Well, Daddy - I mean, Clarence - how about $6,600 to bid on records with?