James Ralph (JR) Bailey was born in 1932, and died in 1980. He is best known as a prolific songwriter, having published over 300 songs, many of them classic soul tracks co-written with Ken Williams. The most notable of these are ‘Love Love Love’ (Donny Hathaway/FBI), ‘After Hours’ (check Charlie Mitchell’s great version on Richard Searling’s ‘Music From The Soul’ compilation on Expansion Records), ‘Just Me N You’ (Erasmus Hall) ‘Sweet Lights Soft Music And You’ (Millie Jackson and Isaac Hayes/ Ace Spectrum/Enchantment and others),Three Steps From True Love (Reflections), Everybody Plays The Fool and Let Me Prove My Love To You (Main Ingredient), the latter sampled by Alicia Keys in her Grammy winning hit ‘You Don’t Know My Name’. He also co-wrote the Northern Soul classic ‘Seven Days Is Too Long’ (Chuck Wood) with Vernon Harrell.

JR Bailey was a member of the doo-wop group The Cadillac’s (from 1958-72) and for a while of The Crickets. He started his solo career in 1968 and recorded many singles for a variety of labels (see below) , the most successful being ‘After Hours’ on the Toy label which reached the USA R&B top 30 in 1973. He also sang background vocals on Donny Hathaway’s debut self titled and Aretha Franklin’s classic Young Gifted and Black, album’s.

Many of the tracks on this 1974 album were released as singles on Toy, but the album rights were sold to London records subsidiary MAM records, better known for pop artists like Gilbert O’Sullivan and Englebert Humperdinck than for soul music. The original productions (many home made on a basic tape machine), were enhanced with strings, rhythmic overdubs and other instruments to create one of the best soul albums from its generation. Everything about this album oozes quality from the great songs, the arrangements and JR’s soulful vocals, pure magic, and we are delighted that after seven years of trying, we have finally been able to license and reissue this classic album, which has been heavily in demand for many years with original copies reaching up to £200.

Laurence Prangell

Track list (click to hear tracks - one minute clips)