Autographs

Many groups undergo name changes during their career's and this can occur for various reasons. The most obvious is a clash of names, two groups using the same name.The Presidents who had hits on Sussex in 1970/71 had to change their name to Trilogy when another outfit, who incidently never even managed to crack the charts, proved they had used the name first. The name change ruined the groups career as they never again had a chart entry, whereas under their original name they had enjoyed 4 soul chart hits with 2 of these making the pop chart. Groups also had their names changed by their record companies to establish a new identity, a reason for this sometimes being if their image was being changed or their line up had altered. An example of this being Livin' Proof (Ju-Par : 1977) who became Triple "S" Connection (20th Century: 1980) before evolving into The Skool Boyz (Destiny :1981) and then By All Means (4th & Broadway : 1988).
Another group who underwent a number of name changes was Los Angeles based The Autographs. They started life in the early 60's as a 5 strong (2 male / 3 female) "street corner" group by the name of The Impersonators. Through one of the girls they managed to gain an audition with Hal Davis.Hal was working at the time for Motown in their west coast set up --he was to have a much higher profile at the company in the 70's after it relocated to L.A., when he worked with Marvin Gaye,Diana Ross,etc. He used the group to sing backing vocals on tracks he was cutting for Motown. It was with Hal that the group enjoyed their first release, he changed their name to the Autographs and signed them to a deal with Joker Records.The first single the label released on the group was "Love's Gonna Do You In" / “On A Hot Summer Day” inst. -- Joker 714 and this was produced by Chester Pipkin. Another of their releases on the label was "Do the Duck" and this was later to find favour on the U.K. northern soul scene. The group then hooked up with Larry Williams who at the time was producing acts in L.A. for Okeh. They again started off doing backing vocals, this time on Okeh sessions early in 1967 & these included Little Richard's "I Don't Want To Discuss It" and "A Little Bit Of Something" plus Larry Williams & Johnny Watson's "A Quitter Never Wins". It was only natural that as a reward for their efforts Larry should cut some tracks on the group for Okeh. The only record to result from their efforts was released in September 67, "I Can Do It / I'm Gonna Show You How To Love Me" -- Okeh 7293 --the B being the better dance side !
The group then disappeared off the recording scene for a couple of years, this coinciding with the decline and death of the Okeh label. It was closed down early in 1970 after having enjoyed little if no chart success after mid 68 and only managing to release a handful of records in it's final year - Azie Mortimer's "You Can't Take It Away" Okeh 7336 being one of it's last issue's in March 70. I presume the group was locked into a contract with the failing label during this period as when they did reappear it was with a new name. In December 69 / January 70 under the name The Visitors the group had the first of two releases on Ray Charles' Tangerine Record Label. This was "My Love Is Ready And Waiting / What About Me" (TRC 1003), both sides being written by the group in conjunction with Len Jewel Smith with Len Jewel also handling production duties and James Carmichael arranging. The A side is a great deep soul track featuring strong lead vocals whilst the B is a "100 m.p.h." dancer. By this time the groups line up had changed to an all male outfit and they were supported by their own backing band. The record received no promotion and as a result didn't sell well. A second single followed in August 1970, "Anytime Is The Right Time / Never The Less" (TRC 1010) and again the songs featured were self written with Len Jewel. L.J. again also acted as producer on the session, incidently the A & B side matrix numbers aren't consecutive, being 473 & 476 so that almost certainly means there are at least 2 unissued tracks by the group from this session. Both sides of this single are also highly recommended however again it received no promotion so once more it made no impression on the Soul Charts. The group managed to make a living by playing live shows in and around L.A., they built up their own dedicated audience and as a result managed to survive. By the way there is no connection between this group and the Chicago based group The Visitors who recorded for Dakar / Bashie around this same time.
Times were changing though, more self contained groups were being formed -- ones who played their own instruments as well as undertaking the vocal duties. The Autographs, they reverted to their original name as soon as their connection with TRC ended, followed the trend in 1972 because as well as seeming more in line with current trends, it enabled the group to cut their costs and so to make a living from their live performance fees. Their line up also changed in this period, by this time the only original members were brothers Houston and Thomas. One of the members of their backing band in 1971, James, returned as a full member of the group on lead guitar and Floyd, bass guitar, joined at the same time.In 1974 Greg from Delaware, drums / percussion, became the fifth and final member of the unit. In 1975 things seemed to be looking up for the group, Mabel John had become their manager and they were cutting tracks at Sam Russell's recording studio in Pasadena. Sam enjoyed success in his own right in 1974 having some releases on Playboy Records. Sam was acting as their producer and had cut the rhythm tracks on 2 songs at Muscle Shoals, Alabama which the group added their efforts to back in California. The completed tracks from the session were taken around a number of record companies and in late 75 R.C.A. were in negotiations with the team to license the 2 tracks for single release with talk of an album to follow. However to my knowledge nothing by The Autographs was actually released in late 75 or 76 on R.C.A. or any other label for that matter. One of two things must have happened, either another name change was forced on them and the tracks were released without any clue to the groups earlier identity or the tracks are sat gathering dust in some stock room / basement still unissued. On the strength of the groups earlier efforts on vinyl it would be a sin if the second of these two possible scenarios turned out to be the truth.

by John Smith, Oxford, England