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I'm So Satisfied: The Complete Ko Ko Recordings and More
Tommy Tate
I'm So Satisfied: The Complete Ko Ko Recordings and More
Genres: Pop, R&B
 
  •  Track Listings (20) - Disc #1

Superior Muscle Shoals-recorded Southern (and Northern) soul from a hero of fans of both genres, finally receiving its first-ever UK release 30 years after it was recorded. Tommy Tate has never been prolific in his record...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Tommy Tate
Title: I'm So Satisfied: The Complete Ko Ko Recordings and More
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Kent Records UK
Original Release Date: 1/1/2007
Re-Release Date: 12/11/2007
Album Type: Import
Genres: Pop, R&B
Style: Soul
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 029667228923, 0029667228923

Synopsis

Album Description
Superior Muscle Shoals-recorded Southern (and Northern) soul from a hero of fans of both genres, finally receiving its first-ever UK release 30 years after it was recorded. Tommy Tate has never been prolific in his recorded output, but almost everything he's ever recorded is highly rated in soul circles. This CD brings together everything that Tate recorded for Ko Ko Records between 1971 and 1977, and adds three tracks that he cut for Stax just prior to the earliest of his Ko Ko sessions, as lead singer of the Nightingales. The only previous issue of the Ko Ko material on CD came more than 10 years ago, via a Japanese limited edition of 200 copies that sold out almost as soon as it was pressed. Demand for these tracks has increased considerably through that limited run, and the exposure that 'If You've Got To Love Somebody', in particular, has received via both the Northern and Modern soul scenes. The word is already out among soul collectors that this project is imminent, and they are suitably excited about the prospect of buying a copy.
 

CD Reviews

The Greatest Singer You've Never Heard
06/01/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tommy Tate, born in Homestead, Florida on 29 September 1944 but raised in Mississippi, and who began his career singing and playing drums at clubs in and around Jackson, has been alternately described as "the greatest singer you've never heard" and "America's best kept secret." A major reason was ultimately putting his fate long-term in the hands of one Johnny Baylor at KoKo Records in the early 1970s.



Before then he had joined Tim Whitsett & The Imperial Show Band, an all-white orchestra extremely popular at southeastern colleges and universities in Mississippi and can be heard on two of their most popular records, The Whole World Is The Same on Musicor 1340, and Stand By Me on Big Ten 1003. When the band dissolved sometime in 1970 Tate was signed as a songwriter at Stax Records, and while there was recommended to the remaining members of The Nightingales by Mack Rice as a suitable replacement for lead Ollie Hoskins, who had left the group. Two singles emerged with Tommy as the lead: You're Movin' Much Too Fast b/w Don't Let A Good Thing Go on Stax 0076 in- 1970, and Just A Little Overcome b/w I Don't Want To Be Like My Daddy on Stax 0091 in 1971. Neither charted.



Not long after he was signed to that KoKo Records contract (a label distributed by Stax) and in 1971 released I Remember b/w Help Me Love on KoKo 2109 (both here). It failed to chart, but in 1972 he had his first singles success when School Of Life (track 1) made it to # 22 on the R&B charts b/w a re-issue of I Remember. Unfortunately, the follow-up I Ain't Gonna Worry b/w More Power To You (tracks 11 and 12) on KoKo 2114 again failed to dent the charts, likely because Baylor was putting most, if not all, of his promotional efforts towards Luther Ingram, the only other vocalist whose records were handled by KoKo.



Indeed, it wouldn't be until 1976 that he would get his second charter when, in July, Hardtimes S.O.S. registered in the lower regions of the R&B charts at # 62 b/w Always (tracks 15 and 16) on KoKo 722. That same year he had his third and final hit with If You Ain't Man Enough, which just made the R&B Top 100 at # 93 in November b/w Revelations (tracks 13 and 10) on KoKo 723.



A 1977 release on KoKo 726, If You Got To Love Somebody (Why Not Take A Chance On Me?) - track 5 - b/w Do You Think There's A Chance? (not here) went out as a promo only, and the official KoKo 726 release was a Luther Ingram record. But KoKo 729 was a Tate single, I'm So Satisfied (track 6) b/w a re-issue of If You Ain't Man Enough. It did not chart. He also had singles released by Verve under the name Tommy Yates and by Atco as Andy Chapman without success. In 1980, however, he began a lucrative career as a songwriter for Malaco Records in Jackson, home at one time or another of such as Johnnie Taylor, Dorothy Moore, Eddie Floyd, The Fiestas, King Floyd, Jean Knight, Frederick Knight, Denise Lasalle and Little Milton, many of whom recorded Tate compositions.



A very nice release by Kent Records of the U.K., with quality sound and informative liner notes, covering just some of the work by a man unfortunately largely forgotten as a performer through no fault of his own."