This week's 45 is "Love-itis", a slab of driving funk by Harvey Scales which was later covered by the Sonics (not one of their best recordings unfortunately).
Harvey AKA "Twistin' Harvey" is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native and is well-loved there but not really huge elsewhere. But, he was the first African American song writer to get a certified Platinum record with the hit single "Disco Lady" co-written with Johnnie Taylor. I guess his son is in the Rap game so music runs in the family.
Magic Touch Records was run by Lennie LaCour who emigrated north from Louisiana to the north Chicago area in the early 60s, and had run several labels in the Chicago / Milwaukee area such as Score, Busy Bee and Dynamic Sound before starting up Magic Touch. LaCour got his singers and bands from Chicago and occasionally Milwaukee. From the latter city the most famous label signings were Harvey Scales and Marvel Love. Lacour also produced many of the sides himself. The label started around 1965, and went in several stops and starts, up until the final releases in the early 80s. Towards the end LaCour tried hard to break into the disco market, and a lot of the better soul releases from this period are hidden away as B sides to disco 45's. Thereafter what happened to LaCour is still a mystery.
Thanks to the folks at toodarnsoulful.com ,the Magic Touch label info was grabbed directly from there.
Looks like they may be re-releasing some of Harvey's work soon as I came across this:Love-Itis
And now the clip!
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