Time in a Bottle
LOVE AND MONEY FOR FRANK WILSON’S SIGNATURE SONG
Simon Soussan. Les McCutcheon. Jonathan Woodliffe. Kev Roberts. Tim Brown. Ron Murphy. Martin Koppel. Dan and Denise Zieja. Kenny Burrell.
And now there’s a new name to add to the list of those individuals said to have once possessed “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do).” For an undisclosed purchase price – or more than £100,000, if you believe the Harborough Mail – the latest owner of a legitimate copy of the unreleased Frank Wilson single is Lee Jeffries.
“I have bought this 45,” he told the newspaper in early August, “for everyone who has ever danced and sang along to Northern Soul.”
Fawn Weaver follows ‘the Motown way’
This particular pressing is thought to be one of two filed away at Motown after it scrapped all others, following Wilson’s decision to continue with the company as a staff writer/producer rather than as a singer. The record, produced by Hal Davis and Marc Gordon, had been scheduled for release as Soul 35019 in early 1966. (Its definitive backstory remains the one written by Andy Rix and published by Soul Source in 2012.)
More than five decades have passed since the 24-year-old Wilson walked into a Los Angeles studio to tape “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” but it continues to be called upon for public duty.
In the 21st century, this has included use in TV commercials – for Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Happy Egg Company, to name but two – as well as a mandatory appearance in Strictly Come Dancing (and it’s quite an impressive routine by Kelvin Fletcher and Oti Mabuse). Also, a test pressing of the Wilson original was acquired in 2018 by Jack White’s Third Man Records, which then reproduced copies, on purple vinyl, for that year’s Record Store Day in the United States.
Another development – Lee Jeffries aside – which has brought the track back into the news involves advertising, too. The twist? That the latest commercial to feature “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” promotes American whiskey from a firm founded by the late Frank Wilson’s daughter, Fawn Weaver. Keeping it in the family, as it were.
BORN-AGAIN FRANK, FROM MUSIC TO MINISTRY
Weaver, one of four children from the musician’s 42-year marriage to P. Bunny Wilson, began her career as a restaurant and real estate entrepreneur in California, then branched out into writing books. Her first was 2014’s Happy Wives Club: One Woman’s Worldwide Search for the Secrets of a Great Marriage. The topic seems to have been influenced by her mother’s own career as an author, whose work includes Liberated Through Submission, The Master’s Degree: Majoring in Your Marriage and God Is in the Bedroom Too. The second of these books was written with her born-again husband Frank, as he evolved from music to ministry. (The Wilsons also used to conduct marriage and family seminars.)
It was while travelling abroad in 2016 that Weaver came across the story of Nearest Green, a Tennessee slave who taught Jack Daniel how to make whiskey. “It was jarring that arguably one of the most well-known brands in the world was created, in part, by a slave,” she told the New York Times. Fast-forward to 2020, and Weaver is CEO of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, which “honours the first known African-American master distiller,” and which last month drafted Frank Wilson’s signature song to help sell its product.
Frank Wilson (photo: Najee Williams)
“My father did a brilliant job of cementing his own legacy when he was alive,” Weaver declared as the TV spot began airing across the U.S. earlier this month. “Now, I have the honour of combining that with my own mission of cementing the legacy of Nearest Green, a man who didn’t have the chance to do that while he was living. I have no doubt my father is in heaven with a smile, and hopefully seated right next to him is another legend, Nearest.”
In a Fox TV interview, Weaver said, “Uncle Nearest follows what I like to call ‘the Motown way,’ and bringing people to the table that may not have ordinarily thought they were welcome. We’re saying everyone is welcome to raise a glass to Nearest Green.” She added, “I came up in a house where you got Smokey and Stevie walking through the door, Marilyn McCoo coming up at any moment, and you’re calling all these guys ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle.’ I only knew the sky’s the limit, and I never understood the concept of a glass ceiling, because if the sky’s the limit, then there can’t be a glass ceiling.”
West Grand Blog readers familiar with “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” may recognise the version used in the Uncle Nearest commercial as the re-recording made by Wilson in the ’90s with Britain’s Ian Levine. “He was a big help with the Motorcity project in 1989 and 1990,” wrote the DJ/writer/producer in notes for his YouTube channel in 2007, “and he and his wife Bunny always stay at my house every time they’re visiting London.” Moreover, Levine filmed Wilson singing “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” in his California home, as seen here.
A COPY ‘BORROWED,’ A LEGEND BORN
Among others with first-hand knowledge of Wilson’s work is Keith Hughes, co-producer – with Harry Weinger of Universal Music – of The Complete Motown Singles series of albums which lovingly packaged the Detroit’s company’s output from 1959-1972.
“ ‘Do I Love You’ was the only track we ‘faked’ on TCMS,” Hughes told me recently. “The mono master tape was unusable, and so I tracked down the two owners of the 45 and got them each to send me three needle-drop rundowns, with different tracking weights. Ellen Fitton, the mastering engineer, declared them all ‘unusable’ due to the vast amount of surface noise. She merged a stereo master tape to mono, and we used that. It is the same recording.”
Jack White (centre) with Denise and Dan Zieja
The owners found by Hughes were residents of the U.K. – no surprise in light of the country’s reverence for “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” particularly on the Northern Soul circuit. Prominent in that fraternity is Richard Searling, one of the original disc jockeys at the famed Wigan Casino soul club during the 1970s. “I did play it at the start,” he explained, “when it was ‘covered-up’ as Eddie Foster by the guy who discovered it, Simon Soussan. He ‘borrowed’ the Los Angeles Motown office’s library copy.” Years later, Searling interviewed Wilson about the record for his radio show on England’s Jazz FM North West. (A rare photo of a young Wilson appears in Searling’s Wigan Casino memoir, Setting The Record Straight.)
The Northern Soul popularity of “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” eventually led to its legitimate release in Britain – its first anywhere – as a Tamla Motown 45 in 1979. According to Andy Rix, the track was “taken from stereo masters but folded into mono for release,” much as it was for inclusion in The Complete Motown Singles.
None of that activity lessened the rarity value of the few, original pressings of Wilson’s single. In 2009, a copy sold by Scotland’s Kenny Burrell secured £25,742 from an anonymous buyer in Humberside, England – thought to be the individual who has now sold the single to Lee Jeffries. The conduit in both transactions was John Manship, a U.K. dealer well-known for buying and selling rare soul and R&B vinyl; he filmed his “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” handover to Jeffries, but did not disclose the price paid.
The newest owner of one of the world’s most valuable records is just a few years younger than the daughter of its creator – but, it turns out, both are in the bottling business. While Fawn Weaver’s firm is distilling spirits in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Lee Jeffries’ enterprise does contract bottling and drinks development in Leicester and London.
There must be a song for that coincidence. “Time In A Bottle,” perhaps, or “Spirit In The Sky.”
Music notes: it’s not hard to locate Frank Wilson’s original on digital streaming services, although it’s trickier to identify or separate the various mixes. Best choice? Mine would be the one on The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 5: 1965. Then there’s Wilson’s alternate vocal version, which – by most accounts – was first released in 1995 on one of a series of CDs entitled Motown Year By Year: The Sound of Young America. Look for the 1966 edition, although that album doesn’t appear to have made the leap from compact disc to streaming. Then there’s Chris Clark’s ’66 recording of “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do),” with her vocal overdubbed onto the Wilson track, planned for release on V.I.P. but subsequently stashed in the vault. Like Frank’s original, this was bootlegged, but came out legitimately in 2001 on a U.K. compilation, Tamla Motown Connoisseurs. Digitally, it’s available on A Cellarful Of Motown, although the dreaded words “alternate mix” appear beside it, and on The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 6: 1966.
Merchandising notes: stars and superstars of music often inspire merch, and even some albums do (got your What’s Going On hoodie?) But a single? Well, “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” continues to assert its cultural influence with a range of items you can buy, wear, send or fix on a wall. Naturally, there are T-shirts featuring the song’s title and lyric excerpts; there’s also a pullover hoodie with a reproduction of the Soul single’s label on front or back. If you want framed lyrics, those are available, as is at least one greetings card. As for vinyl, there are several selections from the above-mentioned John Manship: a promotional copy of the 1979 U.K. reissue on Tamla Motown for £250, a later reissue for £75, and still another, which coupled the Frank Wilson and Chris Clark versions. That one appears to be only £50. Is that a steal?