Search - Wade Flemons :: Here I Stand: 20 Greatest Hits

America-How COULD you?

The BlackFerret | Plymouth UK | 01/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I only discovered this buried in the midst of the Golden Age of Rock N Roll series, which gave the world a mountain of golden wonders-and a few even you guys didn't do justice to.



Enter Wade Flemons-Here I Stand got to about number 79 in the Billboard hot 100 late in 58 or early 59. Wade did make future minor dents on the national charts later on, but that's about as good as it got. Now Here I Stand is a sorta doo-wop torch song which is just outstanding. I had to buy this album to see if anything else he made was remotely as good.



Here's the surprise-the range of styles I found went thru later doo-wop, the poppier side of early Sam Cooke, a little in the mode of Brook Benton, early 60's smmother soul,mid 60's covers of rockier numbers-ALL here. Not a hint he would become a founder member of Earth Wind & Fire(YAWN!)AND still we got his distinctive voice and A Flemon's style which I can best describe thus-if someone else was singing any of this, you'd be hard pushed to acknowledge it or would leave it to the elevator. Put in Mr Flemon's hands(or vocal chords)and you won't be leaving this off your CD player, I promise.



Well, he died forgotten 12 years ago, so the least you can do is discover this guy NOW. He deserved it!"

One CD That Was Long Overdue When Released

The BlackFerret | 07/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When this emerged in 2000 it was welcomed by collectors of single hits from the Fifties and Sixties like myself because, even though he only had four such hits, and Here I Stand (the opening track) was available on any number of multi-artist compilations, the other three were almost impossible to find.



Billed to Wade Flemons & The Newcomers, that first hit peaked at # 19 R&B/# 80 Billboard Hot 100 in February 1959 for the Vee-Jay label b/w My Baby Likes To Rock (track 6). However, it would then be over a year before he hit the charts again with What's Happening, a decent offering that, for some reason, stalled at # 94 Hot 100 in February 1960 b/w Good Nite, It's Time To Go (tracks 3 and 12). The follow-up Easy Lovin' fared a bit better, reaching # 10 R&B/# 70 Hot 100 in May 1960 b/w Woops Now (tracks 8 and 7 respectively), and in 1961 Please Send Me Someone To Love became his fourth and last hit single when it made it to # 20 R&B in September b/w Keep On Loving Me (tracks 16 and 15 respectively).



A very nice collection by yet one more singer/pianist who could not withstand the phenomenon known as the British Invasion, although he did go on to become the electric pianist for Maurice White's The Salty Peppers in 1969, which preceded Earth, Wind & Fire.



Wade, born on September 25, 1940 in Coffeyville, Kansas, and raised in Battle Creek, Michigan, unfortunately passed away on October 13, 1993 after battling cancer."