Squatting and Squirming with The Blenders

• Listen to this song on youtube: Squat & Squirm
• Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
• Download the songs by clicking the titles above

Today brings a side from Chicago’s early 60′s transitional doo wop / soul scene AND some of my favorite label art out there.  If you can’t get down with a psychedelic witch and songs called Squat & Squirm I think you’re on the wrong blog and should probably open your mind to these truly beautiful things.

The Blenders, who also recorded under the name The Candles came up under the tutelage of the Reggie Smith, Howard Pitman and Jerry Jones (who wrote today’s side) of the veteran doo wop group The Five Chances were made up of Gail Mapp (Lead), Harold Jones, Albert Hunter, Goldie Coates and Delores Johnson. Not to be confused with the Doo-Wop group who started recording in the 50’s.

The Blenders managed to make some noise on the Pop charts but also put out a bunch of singles that didn’t do too much business including the excellent “Everybody’s Got A Right” 45 which was featured in a previous podcast here at Musicalepisode.com

The Cortland / Witch labels belonged to Chicago coal and oil business man Bill Erman’s who started them as his R&B labels and quickly handed over control to Bob Catron who had mostly left the Nike label. Catron had an interesting history.  Before landing with Cortland/Witch and the nascent Chicago soul scene he was a member of the Beale Streeters Band in Memphis gigging with the likes of Bobby “Blue” Bland and Roscoe Gordon. 

As the times were changing so were the fortunes of the labels.  Witch/Cortland had a relatively short life span, calling it quits in late 1964, the life of the label being synchronous with the transition from Doo Wop and R&B to the emerging “Soul” genre.

I hope you enjoy today’s 45 and dig into the Witch/Cortland catalog if you get some time as there’s lots of great stuff!

-George / Snack Attack

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