Yahoo LAUNCHCAST Song Of The Day-The Falcons

Artist:The Falcons

Song:I Found A Love

Album:The Doo Wop Box II

The Falcons 1961 hit I Found A Love is yet another nugget on the Rhino 4CD box set The Doo Wop Box II. The group is interesting because of the members who went on to bigger things. The man behind The Falcons was Detroit based manager producer Robert West (born Mar. 1, 1912 in Montgomery, AL). He started Silhouette Records in 1957 and started The Falcons for his nephew Eddie Floyd. Floyd would go on to have a big hit with Knock On Wood. Then he brought in Joe Stubbs & Sir Mack Rice. Stubbs was brother of Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs and would later be part of The Contours, The Originals & 100 Proof Aged In Soul. Rice is best known as the composer of Mustang Sally and he wrote a lot of other songs. West had a good eye for talent but I guess he wasn't much of a bussinessman as his companies seemed to frequently close. In 1959, West released The Falcons You're So Fine on his Flick label with Stubbs singing lead. He licensed it to United Artists and it was a top 20 pop hit. But then Stubbs left The Falcons and was replaced by Wilson Pickett in 1960. I Found A Love was released on West's new label LuPine and was licensed to Atlantic and became a top 20 pop hit. Of course Pickett would become one of the all time greats of soul music. Pickett soon left to go solo. The Falcons split in 1963 and West took a group called The Fabulous Playboys and renamed them The Falcons. That was unsuccessful. Robert West was someone who worked with a lot of great talent before they became successful but he seemed to have problems being successful himself. I guess that's the difference between Robert West & Berry Gordy. West left Detroit and the music business in 1964 after an altercation with Mary Wells' husband resulted in his eye being shot out. He moved to Vegas and died in 1983. Though The Falcons are classified as doo wop, their rawer gospel based sound was an early example of the soul music that was to come in the 60s. Here's a video of I Found A Love by The Falcons.