Talk:The Reflections (Detroit band)

Blue-eyed soul/doo-wop

Embellished the information regarding The Reflections. They are actually a doo-wop/blue-eyed soul vocal group. Their home base was Detroit, MI where they released their singles through "Golden World Records," which incidentally had rising unknowns such as the Manhattans and Parliament (Parliaments) on the roster. The 'doo-wop' part is from their own website. The blue-eyed soul was from their signing to an R&B label around 63-65 with the Shades of Blue and the Flaming Ember (information from the bio of The Shades Of Blue on MTV believe it or not). Some of their music had the unmistakeable stamp of Motown since a lot of the session musicians and songwriters would often moonlight for Golden World Records.

16:29, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

There seems to be significant confusion regarding this group. The group recording on the Capital Records label bears no resemblence to the same group of the sixties. The Golden World recording group is white, and the Capital Records group are all Afro-American.

The Reflections - Indianapolis, IN

14:00, 22, March 2009

As a member of the Reflections in Indianapolis, IN in the early sixties I can comment on our part in the footnote of this story. We were part of a contingent of Indianapolis artists brought together by producer Jan Hutchins (Maurice Willims - 'Stay') who wanted to produce an 'Indy' sound, similar to concept to regional sounds from other U.S. cities. He formed Tigre records and with several of us helping, built a studio in downtown Indianapolis just south of the city circle. He had no real money or investment so we glued egg crates on walls and sound barriers and helped setup a battered two-track recorder. The 'stable' consisted of us, The Reflections, Rick Fortune, Mona Thomas, The MG's (guitar band) and a black girl trio whose name escapes me. I believe Rick Fortune and Mona Thomas were really considered the best shots for success but since our singing group helped so much with studio construction we began recording almost as soon as the studio was finished. The A side of the 45 release was the oldie "In The Still Of The Nite", originally recorded by the Five Satins. As a lot of vocal bands did at the time we played around with our own version of a song we liked to sing, speeding it up and adding some vocal syncopation. Tic-Toc, the reverse side, might have originally been for Rick Fortune because he helped a bit with the vocals on this song. It was a rush to get this song recorded for the B side, because astonishingly enough to everyone involved, All State Records in Chicago had agreed on the basis of the A side to distribute the record in late 1963. Jan quickly arranged for label artwork for Tigre Records and the song was released. The MG's were the backup musicians on this record and we, in turn, did the backups for Mona Thomas' release later that year, "There He Goes".

Most of us had been singing together since junior year in high school with some of us continuing the group through our college days. Now, recently back from college and reformed, with a song about to be released, we were so excited. There is no feeling like the first time you hear your record on the radio! The song hit hard in the Chicago area rising to #5 on the WLS charts. Besides a lot appearances around town with local radio personalities, we made a number of trips to Chicago, playing local sock hops to promote the record. Jan was so understaffed that he asked me to visit All State Records while there on one trip to see how the distribution was going and to help put a face with the release. Unfortunately, that is where I found out that only a small amount of records had actually been produced. Apparently, as the result of airplay, there was great demand for the record and the release was ready to break out of the region to nation wide. One problem, Jan had lost the master tape so no new records could be made. Turns out, we believe, that he was short on cash and tape and accidentally recorded over the master.

When the Detroit version of The Reflections hit with 'Just Like Romeo and Juliet', we were devastated. We had already rushed back into the studio to record 'In The Beginning', a Four Seasons type arrangement written, I believe, by William Linton (co-writer 'Easier Said Then Done' - The Essex). Despite the blow to our aspirations we had to admit that these Reflections had released a great song and it was going to be a big national hit. It became obvious that we weren't going out again with that name. Jan decided to go with The Illusions (yuk!), and so another single was released. It went nowhere and eventually, neither did Tigre Records, The Illusions or the Indy sound.

As noted in the comments this singing group eventually morphed into the band Stark Naked and the Car Thieves after emigrating to California and playing regularly for fifteen years throughout western North America. Though this group went on to a lot of performing success, opening the Las Vegas Hilton (then the International) and Caesar's Palace's lounge - Nero's Nook (as the Big Spenders - another yuk! and another story) and playing for most of 2 years at the Flamingo Sky Room until early 1971, and recording for 7 different labels, it was unable to find that elusive hit record again.

LarryinLA (talk) 21:43, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

User:Larryinla, band moved into separate article. In ictu oculi (talk) 04:50, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

Propose providing cohesive topic by making the article about the Detroit group

No offense to Larry, but I propose that this article should focus on the Reflections from Detroit, which should provide the "cohesive topic" that the flag says is missing. While there were other groups with that name, I propose that they do not meet the bar for "notability". They had no songs that hit the national charts as far as I know, while the Detroit Reflections hit the Top Ten. I plan to proceed with these edits in the near future, as well as cleaning up the dead links and whatnot, but will wait a bit to allow for discussion. Joebedford (talk) 16:37, 11 November 2014 (UTC)