1967
IT'S GOT TO BE MELLOW * LEON HEYWOOD * DECCA 32164 * USA
Leon Haywood debuted as a solo artist for Hunter Hancock's Hollywood based Swingin' label in the early 1960s with the instrumental Without A Love. He had started out as a musician playing for Big Jay McNeely and with Sam Cooke, a talented keyboard player he later played with The Packers and Dyke And The Blazers. It's Got To Be Mellow is the first of his to be released on a major label: Decca; and was his first minor hit reaching #21 on the R&B charts.