Lattimore Brown - Sweet Desiree (Renegade 1201)

Sweet Desiree

I know I say this a lot, but these Renegade singles of Lattimore Brown's are just about as good as it gets.

After John R apparently lost interest in Brown in 1969, Chuck Chellman stepped in and took him down to Muscle Shoals to work with Rick Hall at FAME. Chellman had come up through the ranks in Nashville, working with Shelby Singleton at Mercury before moving up to high level positions at Starday, Monument and Kapp. He started up his own independent Renegade label around 1970, and these two releases are the only ones I've ever seen on there...

I'm not sure which of them was released first (although, I guess it really doesn't matter in the long run). 1201 here says it was produced by Chellman and distributed by Nashboro, while 101 (over on The B Side) says it was produced by 'The Chuck Chellman Company' which by then is listed as 'A Division of Starline Productions'. In any event, like I was saying, they just crank. Check out Lattimore's way cool vocals over that funky Fame Gang arrangement... that's what I'm talkin' about, y'all! How these records failed to hit at the time, considering Chellman's clout with the record companies and everything, is beyond me.

Chuck, like our man Lattimore, is still around, and is the founder of the Country Music Disk Jockey Hall of Fame and the Parade Of Stars.