The unknown Sylvia & The Blue Jays cut two tracks for Stax, a southern ballad and this atmospheric, laid-back funky dancer. We first put a version out by Memphis keyboard player Art Jerry Miller who rather swamped the song in organ on our “Let’s Crossover Again” CDKEND 174 in 1999. Underneath that lead instrument was a great vocal performance that we later found out was Sylvia & The Blue Jays. Their possibly original version, before the overdub, was issued on CDKEND 435 in 2015 and has many admirers. They can now play it from 7” of vinyl and fill up those dancefloors.
We coupled Sylvia with a more mainstream southern Stax groove from The Soul Children - ‘Standing In The Safety Zone’. Like ‘Put Me In The Mood’, the songwriters are frustratingly unregistered and none of the many soul and gospel versions with this title match our well-produced mid-tempo track. It was first issued on CDKEND 499 in 2021 but went under the radar to some extent. It will gleam on vinyl now.
