Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Category: Soul

Bud Hobgood
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Bud Hobgood – A Life In Music

From Wax of Stacks — David Bottoms‘ expansive history of Cincinnati’s record labels including, most prominently, King — we learn that recording engineer Lee Hazen generously provided the author a copy of an audio recording of a meeting that had been convened at King Records‘ Cincinnati headquarters by its founder/owner,

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60s/70s rock +/- pop
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‘Sister Baby Merry Clayton’ – Stage Name Used Ever So Briefly

<LINK to related Spotify playlist: . Merry Clayton Steals The Show> From Terri Gross‘s 2013 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air radio program, we learn that it was Bobby Darin who had signed Merry Clayton to Capitol Records when the New Orleans-born vocalist was barely fifteen years old. And yes, it

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Beau Dollar
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The Dapps at King Records

Note:  Spotify playlist at the end of this piece Music writer/historian, Randy McNutt, in King Records of Cincinnati, points out the irony of “How You Gonna Get Respect (When You Haven’t Cut Your Process Yet)” – a Hank Ballard single “obviously aimed at the R&B market” – being voiced by mostly white

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60s/70s rock +/- pop
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King 45s That “Bubbled Under”

My ambitiousness got the best of me with the posting of the two-part history piece, “Quirky 45s That Bubbled Under (1959-1976).”  If you go to Zero to 180’s home page now (as of April 2020), you might be frustrated that it takes so goshdarn long to finish loading all the

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Bobby Byrd
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Birth of The JB’s @ King Records

The two-volume King Labels recording sessions discography (i.e., “the red books“) compiled by Michael Ruppli with assistance from Bill Daniels, can be frustratingly incomplete, especially with regard to musician credits.  Although this reference source is a great starting point, scholars of James Brown funk are forced to do quite a bit of digging on

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50s/60s rockabilly bop +/- boogie
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Summer Beach Read – Fun Fluff

Breezy, offbeat, trashy, yet intermittently illuminating – and just in time! Zero to 180’s curated highlights from 1983’s Rolling Stone Rock Almanac humbly serves as your Summer Beach Read!  These carefully selected bits of humor and offbeat information have been lavished with picture sleeves from around the world, streaming audio,

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"Bad Girl"
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Bobby Smith’s King Productions 1963-1965

[This piece updated with new content in 2024] LINK to companion piece – Bobby Smith’s King Productions 1966-1973 Ruppli‘s King Labels discography is a 2-volume reference set that can be hard to make sense of initially, given all the subsidiary labels and various quirks in its numbering systems, among other things.

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"Darling (I Miss You So)"
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Bernard Purdie at King Records

Zero to 180 is thrilled to learn that two titans of funk who both recorded for King – Bernard ‘Pretty‘ Purdie and William ‘Bootsy‘ Collins – are teaming up for a set of new recordings.  In accordance with this event’s historical significance, the Mayor of Cincinnati, John Cranley, recently paid tribute to

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Afro-Cuban +/- Latin jazz
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Lord Thunder: Final Deluxe 45?

Browsing DeLuxe releases in chronological order in Discog’s database, Lord Thunder‘s “Thunder” from 1975 appears to be the last gasp of Starday-King: “Thunder” Lord Thunder (1975) But wait:  1975 sounds much too late in the post-Syd Nathan saga for a new production to come out of the Starday-King studios, especially

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