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Marvelous Ray
Back in the late 70's Richard Searling was offered an obscure 45 & he really liked the A side (a dance item) of the record. He decided it had the necessary ingredients to become a
big 'northern soul' sound. To retain the track as an exclusive item, Richard 'covered-up' the record, giving it a false title and attributing it to Baby Washington. The ploy didn't succeed however and the record
& it's artists true identity were soon discovered. In no time at all other copies of the 45 were found in the States and these were eagerly snapped up by British DJ's & collectors. As the record was no
longer 'exclusive' and rarity ruled above quality on the scene at that time, the track was all too soon dropped from the scenes play-list. With the passage of time the record slipped from many soul fan's
memories.Earlier this year however, I was sent a cassette containing tracks with Cleveland connections. One of the tracks on the tape was Marvelous Ray's "Whirlpool" and this is Richard's old Baby
Washington 'cover-up'. Through my US contacts I was able to get in touch with Marvelous & she told me the following..............................While still at school I appeared on a Cleveland TV station amateur
talent show & enjoyed a considerable run of success. James Abner, a local independent record producer who ran Abner Records, saw me on the TV show and offered me a contract to record for his label. He soon
presented me with several songs that he had written and after some initial rehearsals a recording session was scheduled. This was in Detroit, at Golden World Record Studio's. With Don Davis acting as producer we cut
two songs, a danceable tune and a ballad, these being the A & B sides of a proposed 45.When the record was released it got some plays and this led to me working with the likes of Kim Tolliver, the Intertains,
Steve Mancha and Mary Wells. James Abner decided that for the follow-up release we needed the big name and sound of an established arranger and so he booked my next recording session with the great Sy Oliver in New
York City. This studio was more sophisticated and enjoyed notable acoustics. At that session we recorded "Whirlpool" (a
dance tune) and another called "Tears" (the ballad side B). When
"Whirlpool" was released, it really made my name as a recording artist. The record made Billboard magazine's 'Pick to Click' list with a bullet and moved steadily up their chart for a number of weeks. The
invitations I received to perform became more numerous, unfortunately many had to be turned down because I was still in school and many of the locations were too far away............... The above will form part of a
much fuller account of Marvelous'singing career which will be printed in a UK soul magazine in the near future.......................... John Smith
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