GO NOW * BESSIE BANKS * RED BIRD 106 * UK
The flurry of promotional activity and interest for the newly launched (British) Red Bird label probably helped to get this record known by the DJs. Although she had recorded a single the previous year that was eventually released on the Wand label in America, Bessie Banks was unknown to the majority of soul fans in and around London when this rich Soul sound started to get played in the clubs and dance halls. The record was destined for the last spot on the nights turntable and it became especially useful in that particular capacity for public houses that employed DJs because it gave a direct message to the drinkers, 95% of who were young, to drink up and go.
On this record Bessie sings of the contradictory emotions she feels; telling her loved one to go, when that's precisely what she doesn't want to happen. Young people hearing this song played loud in a social situation such as a club, pub, or dance hall, would have empathized with the bitter sweet sentiments expressed in the song, sentiments which would became intensified for the audience because, while being still immersed in the nights brief moments of relative freedom, they were simultaneously being jerked back into a mundane and controlled reality, and, ultimately having to accept that the night was prematurely and abruptly at an end. Those same young people having been locked away daily for the past ten years (in the 1960s children went to school at age five and left, as soon as possible, at age fifteen) they now find that what they thought would be their long awaited and hard won freedom and independence was still controlled and restricted by the same authorities who had had them incarcerated since the age of five.
Bessie Banks, nee White, started singing as a member of The Turbans, she then sang as Three Guys and a Doll, with David Jones, Jimmy McGowan and future husband Larry Banks. Then Miss Toni Banks and The Four Fellows; who recorded You're Still In My Heart / Johnny The Dreamer for Glory in 1957. Following this she sang with Larry Banks, Harriette Banks, Milton Bennett and Al Wiiliams as The Companions, who recorded one for the Brook's label in 1959, and one for Federal in 1960. It was after this that Bessie Banks went solo her debut being the mighty Go Now first released in the US on Tiger 102 in January 1964, and reissued on sister label Blue Cat 106 one year later in January 1965. It wasn't released in the UK until October 1965, almost two years from it's original American release!
Written in part by husband Larry Banks (who only had one release in the UK [see below]) and produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller the record when released was overshadowed both in the United States and the UK by a cover version by Pop group Moody Blues. It did however become an in demand record in the UK and was later re-released in 1968 on Dave Godin's Soul City label (see Below).
GO NOW * BESSIE SMITH * SOUL CITY 105 * UK
I DON'T WANNA DO IT * LARRY BANKS * STATESIDE 579 * UK