Sammy Ward - Sister Lee

The late Sammy Ward, with his trademark cowboy hat, was one of Tamla/Motown's earliest recording artists. The man was a great bluesy singer who should have done much better. Smokey wrote "You Really Got a Hold on Me" for Sammy, but Berry Gordy insisted that Smokey do it on the Miracles. At Motorcity, twenty six years later, we later recorded Ward on the song and someone posted on the internet that "the rendition is one of Levine's best efforts as a record producer". Sammy Ward was the Bobby Bland of Motown. He was all business and no fluff. Listen to the way he tore into "What Makes You Love Him" (again, two different versions recorded) and "That Child Is Really Wild", a rather funny take on a crude girlfriend. His only chart success (and that was R&B only) was "Who's The Fool". Co-founder of Motown, Raynoma Gordy Singleton, (known as Miss Ray), renamed him Singin' Sammy Ward, and in the early days, Motown treated the blues just as importantly as the burgeoning Motown sound, particularly grooming Sammy Ward, Mable John, Sherri Taylor, Amos Milburn, and Hattie Littles, and it's notable that, by the mid sixties, all five of these notable artists had left the company. Sammy released seven singles in all for Motown, five singles on the Tamla label, and then a further single on Soul, plus a duet on Motown with Sherri Taylor. He also dueted with Mable, but those tapes didn't surface till years later. After leaving Motown, he signed to Don Davis' Groovesville company, and released the monster Northern Soul classic "Sister Lee" on the Groove City label in 1967. He was credited as Sam Ward, rather than Sammy Ward for that record. Sammy didn't get to sing again till 1989 when I found him, and Raynoma herself came in and supervised the vocal sessions like in the old days. I feel that we only really captured him well on this one song, "If At First You Don't Succeed". We cut seven tracks with him, six solo, and one duet with Sherri Taylor once again. He was almost impossible to record, as he couldn't stick to any melody at all, and merely improvised in a bluesy voice, which made it hard to capture a vocal that would appeal to Motown fans. On the remakes of "Try It Baby", "Crazy Bout My Baby", and "Part Time Love", he seemed unable to grasp any melody at all, but with Raynoma's help, we nailed it on one particular song in my opinion, "If At First You Don't Succeed", which is also here on YouTube for all to see. Sammy was quite lucky that he got to come to England to appear at a Northern Soul allnighter in Morecambe, where they wanted to see him sing "Sister Lee", and here is his performance of that classic, captured for all posterity, and newly edited together for the first time, even though it's fifteen years since he passed away.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Northern-Soul
• Motown
• Motorcity
• Detroit
• Sixties-Soul
• Male-Soul
• Groovesville
• Hitsville
• Centre-City
• Classic

[awood918]

Ian my name is Autumn and Sammy Ward was my Grandfather. I would love to find out if you have any other footage. Please contact me at Awood918@live.com as I would love to find anything I can. Thanks for posting this. It gives me a chance to see him again. I miss him so much!!!

[IanLevine]

@awood918 - There's another video on here of him singing "If At First You Don't Succceed".

Those are the only two I could piece together.

[IanLevine]

@awood918 - Having said that, he does appear on two other videos but not just solely of him. Hattie Littles - Waiting For The Day, and The Motorcity All Stars - I Can't Help Myself. You will clearly see him on both of those videos as well as the two solo ones of him.

[barnsleyboy514]

Thanks for posting this clip Ian. Like I said in an earlier posting, this was and is my all time favourite northern sound.

God only knows how and where you acquire your material. Many thanks. Keep the faith Ian.

[IanLevine]

I shot it all myself over a very long period.

[the6tssoulman]

HAD THE PRIVELEGE OF MEETING SAM AT A NIGHT CLUB IN GARY INDIANA WHERE HE WAS PERFORMIN1976 ALONG WITH POPCORN WYLIE

AND I WAS AT THAT MORECOMBE ALL NIGHTER IN THE LATE 80s WHERE WE HAD SISTER LEE AS THE OPENING AND CLOSING SONGS PLUS THE OBLIGATORY ENCORE VERSION...

HE DID HIMSELF PROUD THAT NIGHT,

REST IN PEACE SAM WE LOVED YA

[the6tssoulman]

i remember the night at morecombe late eighties when SAM WARD strutted his stuff and did SISTER LEE no less than three times very reminiscent of POCORN WYLIE at wigan

in tems of atmosphere on a smaller scale but never the less a rememberable night RIP SAM WE LOVED YA

[7DDuncan]

Ian, what you did for the soul scene was unbelieveable TOTAL RESPECT

[sarahkleen]

this was a great song to dance to , id have climbed over tables at wigan to get on the dance floor for this

[hitsvillechalky]

wow what a awesome remake only Ian Could have done this well done !!!!!