Search - Bobby Marchan :: There's Something on Your Mind

His Very Best Only With The Fire Label

08/10/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There is a tendency to regard Bobby Marchan as a one-hit wonder in light of the fact that the only song to make the Billboard Pop Hot 100 under his name was There's Something On Your Mind, Part 2. This hit # 1 R&B and # 31 Hot 100 in the summer of 1960 for the Fire label [Part 1, the so-called A-side, did not chart - but both are included here].



However, there is much more to this entertainer who was born Oscar James Gibson on April 30, 1930 in Youngstown, Ohio. Very early on in his life he became impressed by female impersonators working the "chitlin circuit" and, while still in his teens, performed in drag. Then, at age 23 and while working in New Orleans, he established The Powder Box Revue female impersonator act, eventually being offered a recording contract with Aladdin Records and cutting the 1954 single Have Mercy. After being released by Aladdin he moved over to Randy Woods' Dot Records and cut Just A Little Ol' Wine. Neither of those are included here.



His next stop was Ace Records after the owner, Johnny Vincent, caught his act and assumed he was a female. There he cut Give A Helping Hand in 1955 under the name Bobby Fields, followed by Chickee Wah-Wah as Bobby Marchan, neither of which charted and both of which are also excluded here. Still with Ace, he then became the lead singer for Huey "Piano" Smith's group, The Clowns in 1957 where he was quite prominent on Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu, Don't You Just Know It, and Don't You Know Yockomo in 1957/58.



He also continued to cut singles under his own name and with his group The Tick Tocks, among them I'll Never Let You Go [another omission], and in 1959 quit The Clowns to again pursue a solo career. In 1960 he signed with Fire Records where his first release was Snoopin' and Accusin' [track 13], but it was his 1960 cover of the 1959 Big Jay McNeely hit, There Is Something on Your Mind, that brought him into the national spotlight.



Unfortunately, despite several more decent Fire singles - All in My Mind [track 6], Booty Green [track 8], What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You [track 10], and Yes, It's Written All Over Your Face [tracks 17/18] - he never could regain hit status, a situation which did not improve after signing with Stax in 1963. There, on the advice of Otis Redding, he even tried to assume a more contemporary soul approach, which is evident on cuts like What Can I Do? - except Collectables ignores these as well.



In 1964 he turned up with Dial Records, releasing Get Down With It, but it wasn't until 1966, now with Cameo, that he scored his next [and final] hit. After There's Something About You, Baby went nowhere, he made it to # 14 R&B late in 1966 with Shake Your Tambourine. This is yet another omission from a CD blaring The Very Best Of Bobby Marchan [nor do the songs appear on any of the other CDs available].



Everything after that failed and in 1977 he was back working as a night club MC in New Orleans, the same year he cut I Wanna Bump With The Big Fat Woman for Mercury followed by Disco Rabbit. In the mid-1980s he became head of his own production company promoting hip-hop acts, and in 1987 re-recorded There Is Something on Your Mind. Bobby Marchan passed away on December 5, 1999 following a courageous battle with liver cancer.



This volume has excellent sound reproduction and informative notes, but in limiting itself only to his Fire years it misses out on some great selections. Here's yet another project for someone like Ace of London or Rhino."