LARKING ABOUT

I have a record in my collection I was astounded to discover is worth hundreds of pounds. It is by Don Julian & The Larks. It’s called Super Slick and is on the Money label. I paid £35 for it in Soho back in the 80s. I was using Discogs to value my records and was shocked to see it was worth so much. But there is no mention of why that is the case. Can you enlighten me on the matter?

Colin Deeds via email

Don Julian started his recording career in 1954 with the doo-wop group The Meadow Larks. They had put out a couple of 78rpm singles in the late 40s but their first 7” single was Real Pretty Mama/love Only You on the RPM label (45 X 399, US, £35). As time progressed the band evolved into Don Julian & The Meadowlarks and then Don Julian & The Larks. Their best-known single – The Jerk/forget Me (Money 106, US) – was released in December 1964 (credited to The Larks) and not only became a No 1 R&B hit but also got to No 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Indeed, the single was even released in the UK (Pye International 7 N 25284, £50) though it didn’t chart. Though more singles followed on Julian’s own Jerk label as well as on Money, none was a hit.

In the wake of the success of the feature film, Shaft, there was a glut of

Blaxploitation movies in the early 70s.

Julian was commissioned to write the soundtrack to the film Savage!, released in May 1973, starring James Inglehardt. As Julian & The Larks were, at that time, signed to Money, they released the Savage! soundtrack album (MS 1109, US, £250).

At this point, finance was being raised by a company called Associated Color Enterprises to make another film, Shorty

The Pimp. The title came from a single that Don Julian & The Larks released in 1973 (M 607, US, £40). Not only was Julian asked to write the soundtrack but also to star in the film with his group. According to the outline, the band would play a group called The Blue Flamingos who get caught up in a gang war over who should control and manage them. One of the gang leaders would be called Shorty The Pimp. The film was supposed to end with the band extricating themselves from the two competing parties and securing a “record deal based on their own material and at last Shorty The Pimp becomes famous as the track named after him zooms up the charts”.

The band were supposed to play a number of covers in the film as well as original songs written by Julian. All were recorded as a soundtrack LP for Money records. This album got as far as the test pressing phase with the film slated to be released in 1974. Sadly, there was not enough funding to complete the editing and print copies so Shorty The Pimp never made it to the cinemas. Allegedly, there was only one very rough cut made and that copy is now owned by Quentin Tarantino.

With Shorty The Pimp cancelled, it was pointless releasing the soundtrack LP, so Julian decided to use some of the tracks on a totally different LP called Super Slick (MY 1110, US). This is the record that you own. This LP sold very poorly and over the years has become highly collectable since it does contain some of the material recorded for the film. An original copy is worth in the region of £350. The album was reissued by Real Gone in 2022 (RGM 1341, £20) which has helped increase rather than deflate the price of original copies. Finally, all the tracks recorded for the film surfaced in 1998 and were released by Ace Records as Shorty The Pimp (CDSEWD 122, UK, £8).