Speed Record Label
Garcia_Vega
2,428 Posts
Speed released some of the illest latin-soul, boogaloo joints around. But for me and those I've talked to, the label remains shrouded in mystery. From the records I have seen the main produces were Stanley Lewis and Morty Craft. I have no idea who Stanley Lewis is, and is Morty Craft the same guy from the Warwick label? Speed records is a division of Latin Showcase Productions, who were they? I can't even find a solid discography anywhere. This is what we've been able to come up with so far:
The Latin Blues Band featuring Luis Aviles "Take a Trip Pussycat" SS-101
Diane and Carole and the Latin Watchamacallits "Feeling the Pain" SS-102
The Moon People/Los Astronautas "Land of Love" SS-103
Orchesta Olivieri "A Swingin' Combination" SS-104
The Terrible Frankie Nieves "S/T" SS-105
Milton Zapata "S/T" SS-106
Milton Zapata "Viva Zapata" SS-107
Is that it? Seven LP's? Four of these have been reissued and are all fire. Someone please shed light on this obscure record label...
The Latin Blues Band featuring Luis Aviles "Take a Trip Pussycat" SS-101
Diane and Carole and the Latin Watchamacallits "Feeling the Pain" SS-102
The Moon People/Los Astronautas "Land of Love" SS-103
Orchesta Olivieri "A Swingin' Combination" SS-104
The Terrible Frankie Nieves "S/T" SS-105
Milton Zapata "S/T" SS-106
Milton Zapata "Viva Zapata" SS-107
Is that it? Seven LP's? Four of these have been reissued and are all fire. Someone please shed light on this obscure record label...
Comments
Frankie Nieves 'True Love' / 'Amor Sincerio'
Dave Baby Cortez & the Moon People 'Happy Soul( with a Hook)'
oddly enough, both of these were also re-released in the late 70's as twelves on the 'Disco International' label - the Nieves seems to be an edit of both sides of the 45( alternating the English & Spanish lyrics).
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Really? 12" of that Nieves tune? very strange.
i love that tune though.
I would think Happy Soul 12" would be a big one.
how's life up north, may finally make my way back for a moment in a couple weeks, still strategizing. been hard making any decisions.
How different is the Happy Soul(with a hook) track from the Happy Soul track on the LP?
Also, on the Speed LP's I have never seen a listing of the musicians, which makes me believe that The Latin Blues Band, The Moon People, The Latin Uniques, and The Latin Watchamacallits, are all the same studio band. What do you guys think of that?
And the obsession with Symphony Sid? Yeah, he was the big latin radio DJ in NY. So what, different songs dedicated to him, or mentions in their liner notes, or liner note credit, so that he would play their records? Did he break all these Speed joints on the radio? Probably paying him in hookers,drugs or cash on the side, haha. So many questions...
My understanding was the Speed label was like a Fania or Cotique Subsidiary created to cash in on the "kidz" market of Speed, LSD, Psychedelia, etc....
Anyone want to make a comprehensive list of
MUST HAVE LATIN SOUL LPS?
Bataans
Monguito Santamarias
TNT Bands - The Meditation (Killer!)
Who has Chollo Rivera for trade? Cotique?
You sorta answered your own question in the second sentence up there. Namechecking deejays was a common rock & soul practice back in the sixties, and it apparently got to the Latin scene as well. I have a Joey Pastrana album on Cotique that contains a song called "Sid's Walk"...I'm assuming it was the theme from Sid's radio show, 'cause it's just over a minute long and the entire lyrical content is "It's The Symphony Sid Show!" and "PLaza 1106" (or whatever Sid Torin's request line number was).
I don't think it was affiliated with either label... Cotique was itself a label whose business model seems to have been to cynically shoot for the "kidz" market (not that they didn't put out plenty of great music in the process).
You may be thinking of Swinger, which I understand to have been a Fania subsidiary aimed at youth, although I've never even come across any of their stuff.
looks like Swinger was a Roulette subsidiary( just like Tico & Alegre)
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I stand corrected. I was thinking of Swinger, not Speed.
I've never seen a single record on Swinger....
Symphony Sid spent the second half of his career breaking latin sounds on the radio in NYC (after spending the first half bigging up the BeBoppers). He was devoted...
I don't know about the Swinger label, but Tico and Alegre were not subsidiaries of Roulette. Tico was formed in 1948, Roulette didn't come about until the early 1950s. George Goldner did create both of them though. In fact for a while George Goldner despised Morris Levy, then president of Roulette, because he convinced Tito Puente to leave Tico (their number one act at the time) for RCA in the late 1950s. Alegre was also independantly created.
It wasn't until the mid 60s that Tico, and Alegre were sold to Branton Music, who also owned Roulette.
Cotique was a subsidiary of Fania records.
exactly.
are you sure about this?
They may have been absorbed into Fania later on, but I'm pretty sure that they didn't have a relationship initially.
My understanding is that Cotique wasn't founded as a Latin label at all, but when the guys behind it saw that there was money to be made in the Latin youth music market, they started recruiting artists like Johnnie Colon.
Btw, I think there may be some stuff about the politics/history of the Cotique label in the boogaloo chapter of Juan Flores' book--I'll try to remember to check on that when I get home tonight.
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yes
Don't let the fuzz catch you stealin'
Don't let the fuzz catch you dealin'
You'll get busted
That shit is hoard
Speed 106 is Chuito and the Latin Uniques - "From the Street" which is tough stuff. I don't think there is a s/t Zapata lp, just Viva Zapata.
Of the label's output, I'm only missing the Dianne & Carole... anyone with a copy get at me. I'll give stupid trades.
f
A big dude walks among us; I only have two of them.
Cheers, have one in the mail and couldn't wait (sorry deepstank)
Caught the frankie neives on ebay for 20 bucks a few days ago. deals can be had.
Wish I kept my copy of viva zapita now... was in really nice shape too... was before it was reissued, and I thought I could get good $ for it. (I didn't)
I saw that--it was a steal.
YAHR been watching for em for like 2 yeras.... weird that it happened right before a thread started up on the label.
I pulled Orquestra Olivieri off the Bay for about $7...
I just got the reissue of this at Dusty Grooves, and it seems kinda suspect. From the top:
(1) Only the first four songs are actually in the "psyche-Latin-soul" vein.
(2) Only the first four songs are mentioned in the bilingual liner notes.
(3) The rest of the songs are straight-ahead Latin, sound like they were recorded ten years earlier (i.e., the late fifties), and might not even be the same band.
(4) None of the songs are any good, IMO.
So even though this album seems like a total wash, I am still intrigued by how Speed Records managed to bullshit the public.
To be fair, that is probably the worst release in the label's catalog.