John Ellison

The sky-high degree of soulful intensity John Ellison taken to his lead vocals using the Soul Brothers Six came straight from the church. No real surprise there, since he was raised in a spiritual household. However the method Ellison harnessed that sanctified enthusiasm for the group’s secular edges was not common. Departing the coal mines of Western Virginia for a far more musically opportune Rochester, NY, at age group 18, Ellison sang spirit and styled locks before starting up with four brothers called Armstrong (Sam, Charles, Harry, and Moses) and bassist Vonell Benjamin. The Spirit Brothers Six had been a totally self-contained device; they performed their own tools furthermore to performing. Their 1st 45s on Good (1965’s “Move Young lady”) and Lyndell (“Don’t Neglect YOUR CHILD” the next 12 months) veritably dripped gospel-soaked motivation but proceeded to go nowhere. The sextet made a decision to relocate to Philadelphia. Along the way there, Ellison published the wonderful “Some type of Fantastic,” the track that place the group around the map. Atlantic Information issued the amazing spirit workout in 1967, and it slipped onto the pop graphs (getting their only strike). Deserving encores on Atlantic didn’t recapture the 45’s achievement, and the initial lineup split up in 1969. Ellison put together another band from the same name and soldiered on at Phil L.A. of Spirit Information during 1972-1973. In the mean time, Grand Funk Railroad’s graceless cover of “Some type of Fantastic” demonstrated a gigantic pop smash in 1974. The John Ellison tale might have finished there (he’s mainly been ensconced in Canada since that time). However, not too long back, After Hours Information bosses Marty Duda and Gregory Townson occurred upon the long-lost story seated in at a Rochester gin mill with bluesman Joe Beard. The upshot was a 1993 single Ellison disk, Welcome Back again, that reintroduced the vocalist towards the American marketplace. Two songs, including a remade “Some type of Fantastic,” actually reunited the vocalist using the Armstrong brothers. Very wonderful, eh?