Baby Don't Cry

Sundae Times Baby Don't Cry b/w Aba-Aba 45 (Seville, 1968)

Pleasant surprise here! I bought this just because of the name. I was digging through a box at a pretty quick pace and didn't look at the label too carefully. The name made me think, "Sixties pop" - which is fine as I've been on a Sixties pop kick for a while now. Since I didn't know the name Seville, any doubt to spend $2 on this was shelved. I am always willing to check out a new record label. Had I looked a little closer at the label I wouldn't have done a double take when I heard the intro Baby Don't Cry and then the vocals. "Hot damn," I mumbled. "This sounds like the Equals." I look at the label. The songs are credited to and produced by an Edmund Grant. So Eddie Grant, the genius behind the Equals is behind this band! No wonder it sounds like Eddie Grant!

Though the Sundae Times was, no doubt, under Eddie's wing, they weren't an Eddie Grant band. Headed up by Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuel, the Sundae Times came about after the young Antiguan met Grant in England and started writing songs with him. He also jammed with future Wailer Junior Marvin, who gave Samuel the nickname Fuzzy because he played his bass through a fuzz box. Fuzzy joined up with Dell Richardson and Conrad Isadore (what a great name!) to form Sundae Times, the UK's first all Black pop trio. They made one album and some singles and then broke up. Richardson formed the Afro-fusion group Osibisa. Fuzzy went on to play with Stephen Stills, Jimi Hendrix, Ringo Starr, and later joined Manassass.

These two songs are aces. How they picked an A side I have no idea. Too bad they only managed one album. But it is still good to know that there was at least one band going in the Sixties who were hitting the same chords as the Equals.