Allison Durbin - Amerikan Music (1972)

Steve Alaimo - Amerikan Music (1972)

(Johnny Carlton - Wayne White)
 USA
Original version

Single on Entrance, March 1972.

Produced by songwriter-guitarist-producer Chips Moman (1937-2016), a major figure in both Memphis soul in the 60s and in Nashville country music from the 70s.

Singer, producer, label executive and occasional actor Steve Alaimo (1939-2024) started out in Miami band The Red Coats and recorded many solo singles from the late 50s to early 70s without having a hit. He was better known in the late 60s as co-host on TV’s Where the Action Is for which he was also music director.

From 1973, Alaimo was involved with Henry Stone in the formation of prominent disco label TK Records, where Alaimo was vice president, producer and creative director. TK released George McCrea’s Rock Your Baby (1974, #1 USA) and KC & The Sunshine Band’s nine Top 40 hits (1975-79, including five at #1). In 1987 he co-founded Miami label Vision Records.

Further reading:
1. Steve Alaimo Wikipedia entry.
2. Steve Alaimo biography by Ben Mclane at McClane & Wong.
3. TK Records Story at Both Sides Now.
4. Chips Moman obituary at The Guardian.

---

The writers

Label credits for the writers are J. Carlton – W. White, shown in the US copyright registration as Johnny Carlton & Wayne White. Their full names, listed at rights organisation BMI, are John Warren Carlton (10 compositions) and Harold Wayne White (17).

Johnny Carlton (1945- ) was born in Dalton, Georgia. When he formed his band The Escorts as a teenager in 1962 he was living in Smyrna, a city in the Atlanta GA metropolitan area. In later years he lived and worked in nearby Marietta GA.

Carlton was lead guitarist in The Escorts, with his Amerikan Music co-writer Wayne White on piano and vocals. An Atlanta Journal story from September 1963, “A teenage band leader”, profiles the 18-year-old Johnny Carlton.

In 1965 Atlanta label Beaumont released a Johnny Carlton With The Escorts single with [A] Bamboo Baby written by Carlton and [B] Dark Side Of Town by White. The A-side of a 1966 Johnny Carlton single on Beaumont, She’s A Moonlighter, was a Carlton–White composition.

Wayne White (c. 1943- ) wrote Hurry, the A-side of a single released by Faman (aka Famen) on Atlanta label X-Poze (1967).

Faman/Famen seems to have been a studio project by Wayne White and it is unclear whether there was a gigging band of that name involved. Three other singles with the artist name Famen that also carried some writing credits to “Famen” were released on Delta and X-Poze (1966) and Famen (1967). Their singles included Bo Diddley’s Crackin’ Up, also recorded in Australia by Alan Dale & The Casuals. (See also notes by Bolt24 Hot Sounds at their YouTube post of Hurry.)

During this time (while also working a day job as a housepainter) White gave one of his compositions, Laugh In My Face, to a young Cochran GA band Apolloes. White paid for the session, produced both sides of the single, and may also have contributed organ. It was released on a label called Apolloe (1965). Laugh In My Face was copyrighted by White in 1966, with his full name included.

White wrote both sides of a Dee Ford With Muscadine single Lovelamp / Today Is A Rock & Roll Day (1974) on East Point GA label MRI. He wrote Love’s Farewell, a B-side by Dottie West on RCA (1970, also on an album) and co-wrote both sides of a single on Atlanta’s Sycle label (1970s) by Shack Jones who had a hand in the arrangement of the Dee Ford single.

Notes on Johnny Carlton – Wayne White
• An essential source on Wayne White for this page was Garage Hangover’s detailed article about Apolloes. It includes glimpses of Wayne along the way, including reminiscences by Apolloes member Pat Ray and comments by people who were there.
• Gérard “Rocky” Lambert’s site has a rare entry for Johnny Carlton with a photo, a birthplace, a year of birth, and a discography (duplicating or duplicated by Discogs.com).
• Up until 2016 Johnny Carlton’s website (archived here) was advertising private and video guitar lessons.
• The Johnny Carlton YouTube channel, still active into the 2020s, includes instructional videos and performances. The Bamboo Baby single by Johnny Carlton With The Escorts is posted with audio and slideshow. ♫ Listen at YouTube

---