Spring. Is there a better season? I doubt it. Nights are getting longer, skirts are getting shorter. And because spring in Holland also means rain, I put on Irma Thomas to sing those clouds away with a stunningly simple, but gorgeous song about rain and missing someone. I miss Martin Bril. He was a Dutch writer who sadly passed away a year ago. His short stories made me feel as if it was spring every day. So, without Martin around to make rainy days feel like spring, I will put on Irma one more time.
Sugar Pie Desanto was a tiny woman with a big talent. She could sing, she could write and, man, could she perform! Her performance was energetic, charismatic and acrobatic. Born as Umpeylia Marsema Balinton in Brooklyn in 1935, her family moved to the Fillmore area in San Francisco in the late thirties. This would turn out a pretty good move. The rhythm and blues that was played in the clubs of late fifties and early sixties San Francisco shaped Sugar Pie.
In the following years she was lucky to be in very talented company. She formed a group, The Creolettes, with Etta James. That was rechristened Etta James & The Peaches by Johnny Otis. Later she went on to perform on her own gaining a lot of experience as the opening act for the James Brown revue all over America. Along the way she was picked up by the Chess Brothers who released her songs on Chess and Checker records.
Soulful Dress is a great song to play at an insane volume as you are preparing to go out on a Saturday night. At one point Sugar Pie hollers: “If you wanna keep your man, you better get as sharp as you can...” and you know she means it. So ladies, look out and watch your fellow for Sugar Pie is out to steal your man!
The Upper Shelves are hottest DJ collective of the Netherlands. Or at least as hot as the wax they are spinning. Guaranteed all killer, no filler! In a country with more DJs than civil servants that's saying something!
The Upper Shelves come with one promise, we’ll burn up your dance floor with the power of the 45! Though we have been known to sneak in a vinyl LP once in a great while.
Garage, Soul, R&B and Rock & Roll is our degree, with the occasional curve ball thrown in for good measure. We’ll bring you all the great hits, including the ones you forgot.
This Blog will give you an impression of our greatness, or should I say the mind blowing power of the 45. To be honest, we just drop the needle on them.
This blog is intended primarily for promotional use. We feel this music deserves to be spread around and we encourage everybody visiting to go out and buy it. Preferably on 45, but we do not look down on the convenience of getting a CD. If in any way you feel we are violating your copy right by our posts, let us know, we’ll glad to oblige by taking the post in question down.
