The Volumes (3) (Detroit, Michigan)

Personnel:

Eddie Union (Lead)

Elijah "Teenie" Davis (First Tenor)

Larry Wright (Second Tenor)

Joe Truvillion (Baritone)

Ernest Newsome (Bass)

Discography :

The Valume's
1962 - I Love You / Dreams (Chex 1002)

The Volumes
Singles:
1962 - I Love You / Dreams (Chex 1002)
1962 - Come Back Into My Heart / The Bell (Chex 1005)

1963 - Sandra / Teenage Paradise (Jubilee 5446)

1963 - Our Song / Oh My Mother In Law (Jubilee 5454)
1964 - Gotta Give Her Love / I Can't Live Without You (American Arts 6)
1965 - I Just Can't Help Myself / One Way Lover (American Arts 18)

1965 - Gotta Give Her Love / I Can't Live Without You (Astra 1020) 

1966 - I Got Love / Maintain Your Cool (Twirl 2016) 

1966 - The Trouble I've Seen / That Same Old Feeling (Impact 1017) 

1967 - You Got It Baby / A Way To Love You (Inferno 2001)

1967 - My Kind Of Girl / My Road Is The Right Road (Inferno 2004)

1968 - Ain't That Loving You / I Love You Baby (Inferno 5001)
1970 - Ain't Gonna Give You Up / Am I Losing You (Karen 1551)
Unreleased:
1962 - Angel (acapella) (Chex) (Collectables LP 5032)
1962 - County Jail (acapella) (Chex) (Collectables LP 5032)
1962 - I Wanna Be Your Man (acapelle) (Collectables LP 5032)
1962 - Miss Silhouette (acapella) (Collectables LP 5032)
1962 - Roly Poly (acapella) (Chex) (Collectables LP 5032)
1962 - You Put A Spell On Me (acapella) (Chex) (Collectables LP 5032)

Biography :

The term ‘one hit wonder’ is usually considered a put down and therefore isn’t a description that a group welcomes. Although it’s a term that has been assigned to the Volumes, it is far from appropriate. Ask a Northern Soul fan to name the track that was the group’s most popular cut and you will get any of four answers but none of them will be the group’s only US national hit. Their big hit was actually “I Love You” and it shot up the charts way back in 1962, making them just about the top R&B group in Detroit back then. Commercially, they never equaled those dizzy chart heights again, but they had a long recording career and enjoyed many more top releases that have become anthems with soul fans around the world.

Formed In Detroit back in the days of doo wop (1960), members had gotten together on street corners after school (Central High, Chadsey, etc.) to practice their harmony singing. The group consisted of Eddie Union (lead), Elijah Davis (first tenor), Larry Wright (second tenor), Joe Truvillion (baritone), and Ernest Newsome (bass). Willie Ewing became their manager in 1961 and he set up Chex Records. The group hit the floor running, as their first 45 release, "I Love You", quickly entered local charts.

 
Ernest, Eddie, Elijah, Joe & Larry- (bottom Guitar player Joe Peel)

It soon broke out of Detroit and rose to reach the R&B Top 10 and Pop Top 30 in 1962. The group’s expert harmony work on the cut hide the make shift nature of the instrumental backing (Detroit legend Popcorn" Wylie beating out the rhythm on a suitcase). Chex issued a second 45, “Come Back Into My Heart”, but this failed to repeat the huge success of their first outing (though Lamont Dozier played on this). Chex was only a tiny label with few resources and no means of effectively distributing their releases. When “I Love You” had exploded onto the charts, a deal was done with Jubilee Records for national distribution.Unable to cope with the workload their success brought, Chex handed over the reins to Jubilee almost entirely for the group’s next two releases (in 1963). The group had teamed up with Harry Balk and Duke Browner to work on these sides issued on Jubilee. Recording in New York the songs they cut were written by Maron McKenzie (Harry’s staff writer) and produced by Duke Browner.

Further label changes were experienced after Balk and Jubilee had a falling out. So the group’s next outing was released on New York based Old Town Records (1964), with a second 45 escaping that same year on the American Arts label. These changes weren’t instigated by the group themselves and certainly didn’t indicate that they were difficult to work with. The production team behind all of these recordings being Harry Balk and Duke Browner (however they worked almost exclusively with Browner).  American Arts was owned by Lou Guarino, a friend of Harry's based in Pittsburg. In fact, Balk was reorganising his Detroit area business set-up and so he placed a number of his artists (Bobbie Smith, etc) with American Arts during that period.

Joe Truvillion, Ernest Newsome, Elijah "Teenie" Davis, Eddie Union & Larry Wright (Middle Larry's Mother)

The Volumes had made a seamless transition to cutting soul tracks as Eddie Union adapted his lead vocal style perfectly to suit the new sound.  Their opening release on American Arts, “Gotta Give Her Love” was a superlative example of this and the 45 returned them to local radio station charts.The follow up “I Just Can't Help Myself” escaped in 1965 but that same year, Eddie Union left the group to ensure his family was provided with a more steady income.
http://home.comcast.net/~twirlrecords/volumes.html is dead!!!
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Volumes.html
https://www.soul-source.co.uk/forums/topic/353219-the-volumes-magnetics/

Songs:
(updated by Hans-Joachim)

     
             I Love You                             Dreams                       Come Back Into My Heart

     
        The Bell                                Sandra                             Teenage Paradise
 
     
Our Song / Oh My Mother In Law     Gotta Give Her Love          I Can't Live Without You      

     
I Just Can't Help Myself                   One Way Lover                       I Got Love            

     
    Maintain Your Cool               The Trouble I've Seen          That Same Old Feeling

     
You Got It Baby                  A Way To Love You                   My Kind Of Girl

     
My Road Is The Right Road            Ain't That Loving You                I Love You Baby     

     
    Ain't Gonna Give You Up               Am I Losing You                               Angel                     
  
     
     County Jail                    I Wanna Be Your Man                      Miss Silhouette

  
           Roly Poly                        You Put A Spell On Me

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