ELGINS - DONT WAIT AROUND - NORTHERN SOUL

The Elgins were formed in 1964 by merging the male Motown group The Downbeats, together with Motown artist Saundra Mallett, real name Saundra Edwards. They had big Detroit hits with PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE, DARLING BABY, and HEAVEN MUST HAVE SENT YOU. This particular new single of theirs, DON’T WAIT AROUND, has easily been their biggest dancefloor success out of all the many songs which Ian Levine cut on the group. He co-wrote it with Motown legend Clay McMurray and his wife, Karen Pree. When he managed to track down the Elgins to record for Motorcity, and get them to reunite again after so many years, the project he most wanted to do was to get them to re-record "Heaven Must Have Sent You", but in the style of Bonnie Pointer's wonderful disco classic of 1979. So that was the first project they did together. Ian had always loved The Elgins ever since he was thirteen years old. Along with The Velvelettes they were one of his all time favourite Motown groups. They were indeed originally The Downbeats in 1962, with the three guys, Johnny Dawson, Norman McLean, and Duke Miller. They then added a girl lead singer in 1964, Saundra Mallett Edwards, and recorded such timeless classics as "Heaven Must Have Sent You" and "Put Yourself In My Place". In 1968 Saundra left the group forever, and moved away out of Detroit. The group still were recording and needed a new girl singer, and so Yvonne Vernee Allen joined Motown and took over as the lead singer. She recorded tons of stuff at Motown but they never released any more Elgins records. In 1972, "Heaven Must Have Sent You" was reissued in England and became a huge hit, and the group appeared at The Torch allnighter in Stoke On Trent, where Ian was DJing. He met all four of them, Yvonne, Johnny, Norman, and Duke. So then, seventeen years later, in 1989, Ian persuaded them to reform for his Motorcity project. Duke had died, so Johnny brought in Jimmy Charles, and together with Norman and Yvonne, The Elgins had a whole new lease of life and toured England in 1989. And in 2007, they returned back to England for the first time in sixteen years, to appear at a big Northern Soul Weekender in Northampton. And it was during that weekend that Ian persuaded them to film the footage, which you can see on Youtube, to the song which he loved so much. And long may they continue, always smart, sharp, and timeless. Kev Roberts remixed DON’T WAIT AROUND to release a very limited single on Goldmine, but it was a much slower funkier version than this release. This newly released version was the title track of the 2001 CD actually called DON’T WAIT AROUND, and was the stomping Northern version that everybody clamoured for, but until this day it has NEVER been on a vinyl 45.

ELGINS