Into the ’60s and
Quinn’s Last Sessions

Numerous other noteworthy young artists recorded at Gold Star Studios in the early 1960s—an era when popular music was rapidly changing and Bill Quinn was in the final phase of his remarkable career.  Gene Thomas (b. 1938) scored a hit with the product of his very first session. That song, “Sometime,” recorded and mastered by Quinn, was released on Venus Records (#1439) in 1961. After proving itself first regionally, the soulful ballad was leased and reissued by the major label United Artists (#3 38). “Sometime” debuted nationally in late October 1961 and peaked at number fifty-three on the Billboard pop charts. Thomas returned to Gold Star Studios in 1962 to cut the tracks “Mysteries of Love" and “That’s What You Are to Me” for Venus (#1443). Later the Texas native moved to Nashville, where he worked as a songwriter and recorded successfully for other labels.   Country singer Mel Douglas launched his career with a Gold Star Studios- produced record. Though he would go on to cut other tunes, he would never top the acclaim directed at his 1961 track called "Cadillac Boogie,” issued on SAN Records (#1506). Douglas recalls how that hit came to be:  Troy Caldwell, he had the lyrics for “Cadillac Boogie” and “Since You Walked Away.” 1 straightened up the lyrics and added the music. Man, I was nineteen, maybe twenty, at the time... . We came over to Gold Star and laid them down. That was back in 1961, and it was my first recording ever. . . . We put the single on Troy Caldwell’s label, SAN Records. The record then got taken over to the Dailys. ... They distributed it, and I got to meet Pappy and Don Daily, and Gabc Tucker and his wife Sunshine [all of D Records]. They were all great people. They helped make that record take off regionally. KNUZ [radio station] played that record every hour on the hour. I joined with Gene Thomas, Roy Head, and others who were making the circuit playing the teen shows.  In 1962 Douglas returned to make his second single, “Dream Girl" backed with “Forever My Darling,” for the Gulf label (#1630/1631), which Quinn had briefly revived around this time. He continues,  “There Must Be a Way” and “Pounding I Ieart” . . . was my third single and was recorded right here at Gold Star. It was done on the 19th of January 1963. That single was my first real big session because we had five horns on it. I also wrote both of those songs, and the record was released on the Tamel label [#11 ]....). L. Patterson was the engineer who recorded and mixed that single.  In late 1964 or early 1965 1 cut my fourth single here at Gold Star. The songs were “My Lonely Girl” and “Box Lunch.” They were released on the Dream label (#101). One of the relatively few female singers to record at Gold Star in this era was Mary McCoy, who worked with producer Huey Meaux. In i960, Mary McCoy and the Cyclones recorded two songs there: “Deep Elem Blues” and “Breaking Up Is the Thing to Do.” The resulting single on JIN Records (#140), a South Louisiana-based label, was a minor hit on the local scene.  Louisiana artists had long figured into the facility’s history. But under Meaux’s influence, a new breed of Louisiana singer, performing a style called … Read full text here >>> Mel Douglas and other artists