Sugar Bear - I Love You So 7" (Ovide 1969) *Re-Post

Hello friends, I noticed that for some reason my Sugar Bear Post from ages ago was missing, I don't remember why I took that down or if it was deleted by accident or what. Anyway, I'll probably never know what happened to the post but I can remedy the situation pretty easily....

This is the sinlge most impressive and expensive find I ever came up with. And it was located in a box of 99 cent 7"s that were very dirty, but mostly in good shape still, located at a mainstream record store that I go to pretty frequently. The box was mind blowing, to put it mildly. In it was the legendary Austin soul 7" 'Trace of Smoke', and also the Alabama modern soul legend Sonic Explosion. I picked both of those out along with a few others and was verging on the point of crapping my pants, but at the very end of the box I noticed a beat up looking 7" by Sugar Bear, and saw on the side of the label "with the TSU Toronadoes" and I thought, oh my, a 45 with the Toronadoes that i've never heard of? On the Archie bell and the drells label? that is a DJ promo? Produced by Skipper Lee Frazier? I knew I was on to something big but the other 2 records which I knew already took precedence in my mind. When I got home I looked on the net, in the books, and asked around, and I couldn't get one sliver of information on it, aside from info about Skipper Lee, the producer, and Ovide the label, and even who Sugar Bear himself was, a local Houston soul cat that occasionally opened for Archie Bell around town. He recorded two 45s to my knowledge, both very small houston affairs, one of which is this promotional 45 cut in a tiny tiny amount to give to radio stations to get airplay in order to get money for more presses and more studio time, obviously it didnt work out, and thats a really sad thing, because this guy had massive talent and combined with he TSU Toronadoes, I enjoy just as much as Archie Bell, who had enormous success in Texas and nationally to some extent as well. Also, there is another Sugar Bear soul artist, who released a collectible 12" named Sugar Bear Johnson, but I don't think these are the same people. This 45 still hasn't popped up anywhere since I sold it off a couple years ago, its a true ghost status 45. Anyway, it was a 892.00 auction for a vg--/G+ copy, though it sounded much better than it looked thankfully. In fact the pressing was so deep that it sounded quite good even, which helped the price quite a bit. No doubt a NM copy would sell for major, major money. Anyway, it is a very rare chance to hear this gem, and no further copies have been surfaced, no comps, nothing. So enjoy.


SIDE A: I Love You So


Side B: I Got What You Been Looking For


*Feel free to click on the divshare links in the sample players to download the songs after listening.