The Neptunes

Founded in the late 1950s, Nashville vocal group The Neptunes recorded under various incarnations for a handful of small labels.

The boys looking sharp

History[edit | edit source]

The Neptunes provide a central link to a couple of Nashville solo artists who are recognised on the rare soul scene. Between 1958 and 1964 the group recorded a handful of 45s, including Payson, Checker, Instant and Victoria.

Hal Hardy had a solo hit later with House Of Broken Hearts b/w Love Man, which featured the Billy Cox band as his backing group. ("Love Man" being a product of songwriter, actor, claw-picking comic Jerry Reed). Paul Hendricks recorded 4 singles for Hickory Records under the name of P.W. Cannon.

From Night Train to Nashville, vol. 2 liner notes: "Singer Gene Kennedy produced 'I'm Coming Home' for his short-lived imprint Victoria Records. The Rivieras, also on Victoria, provided backup, and Cliff Parman arranged the music. The recording was made at Fred Foster's Sound Studio... with assistance from engineer Billy Sherrill, who went on to become one of Country music's most influential producers..."

On one episode of Night Train, Hal Hardy, wearing a cape, provided his version of the Ray Charles song "What'd I Say?", with his own local referential adlib:

"Tell your momma! tell your brother!

I'm gonna take you back to Murfreesboro'!"

In his book, "House of Broken Hearts," E. Mark Windle writes: "The group’s recording of particular interest to the early soul record collector is “House Of Heartaches” (Instant 3255), recorded in February 1963. Writing credits are attributed to Allen and Holbert, a reference to WLAC DJ Bill Hoss Allen, and their manager Tom Holbert. Allen’s Rogana Productions outfit leased out their artists recordings to several extra-regional labels through the 1960s. The Neptunes were under Rogana’s wing early in the decade, with “House Of Heartaches” released on the New Orleans label.

By the mid-1960s a number of the members attempted to forge their own careers. Hal Hardy (b. unknown, d. 2009) was known in Nashville for his appearances on the Night Train TV show, and his 1965 version of “House Of Broken Hearts” (Hollywood 1516) was a popular recording on the UK northern soul scene. The Hollywood label had originated on the west coast but relocated to Nashville in the mid to late 1960s, when Starday Records took control. Writing credits on Hardy’s 45 were given to Holbert and McGlothin; though the same song as the Neptunes’ Instant release, with a subtle change in song title. Hardy recorded the song with the Billy Cox Band as part of weekly recording sessions at the Starday/King studio. These sessions were facilitated by Bill Hoss Allen for his Rogana artists.

“Bill Allen and I started the first independent promotion company, Rogana, in Nashville” says singer, promoter and producer Gene Kennedy. “We were promoting R&B records - everyone thought Hoss was black because he was a DJ who played R&B records from 10 p.m. at night to 1 a.m. on WLAC. I got involved with The Neptunes during this time. Wesley Rose called Hoss at the office one day to hire us for a job. Wesley wanted us to help promote a record for Hickory that had broken in Boston but they couldn’t get it played in the south, so he hired us to promote it. We broke the record and it ended up selling a million records. Later, Wesley asked me if I wanted to join Hickory on a more permanent basis. Hoss was OK with that, so I started to work for Hickory. Wesley knew that I had previously recorded as a singer for Old Town records, so it was only natural that I would record for Hickory too. My first record for Hickory was the Pick Hit on WSAI in Cincinnati, Ohio and WHK in Cleveland, Ohio. The distributors ordered 6500 records each. At this point Wesley asked if I wanted to be an artist or an executive. When he expanded on the ‘executive’ part, he said he wanted to make me the national promoter for Hickory and Acuff-Rose. I took him up on it. He killed my record and didn’t ship it to the distributors. As I was already working with the Neptunes, Wesley suggested putting them out on Hickory.”

Located on 8th Avenue South in the Melrose district, the label was owned by Acuff-Rose Music, the publishing arm of country singer and musician Roy Claxton Acuff and Wesley Rose. Wesley was the son of respected Nashville talent scout Fred Rose, the original partner in the Acuff-Rose empire, who had passed away just before Hickory was formed in 1955. The first run of the label continued for around eighteen years. Initially known for its country output, Hickory turned its hand to pop and pop-soul as this music form evolved through the 1960s. Although not exactly a record collectors’ “go-to” for rich source of earthy R&B and soul music, Hickory was responsible for a few pop-soul and northern soul classics from artists such as Frankie and Johnny (“I’ll Hold You”), Charlie Romans (“Twenty Four Hour Service”) and Barbara Mills (“Queen Of Fools”).

In the end, The Neptunes didn’t make it as a collective on Hickory, though Paul Hendricks had four solo releases between 1966 and 1967 under the name of P.W. Cannon."

Members[edit | edit source]

Hal Hardy (who would later become known for his caped performances on the Nashville produced TV program Night Train), Robert 'Dickey' Dixon (a professional boxer), Joe Wade (nephew of ex-Prisonaire and solo singer Johnny Bragg), Hendricks (recorded solo as P.W. Cannon), James Porter Box and Henry 'Sonny' Short, were part of the ensemble when "House Of Heartaches" was recorded.

E. Mark Windle writes: Clifford Curry reported on the Brown Eyed Handsome Man blog by Red Kelly that Hal Hardy moved to Knoxville with Sir Lattimore Brown soon after cutting the Hollywood 45, and pretty much took up permanent residence there. In later years Hardy appeared in a local blues review there for several summers. Robert Dixon’s concern was always for providing for his family and children. He gained a reputation as an entrepreneur, driving and running his own passenger taxi cab business as a sub-contractor at Harlem Cab Company located in south Nashville. Boxing continued to feature in his life; Dixon helped to build the amateur boxing circuit in Nashville, trained with Sugar Ray Leonard, and worked with young boxers and the Tennessee Metro Sherriff Department. As his 2002 obituary states, Coach Dixon believed that helping young people to achieve through sport was key to building positive individual character and a way to help unite the community. Paul Hendricks passed away August 2016.

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Red Kelly writes about House of Heartaches (Instant 3255):

I'm loving the lead singer's soulful baritone (tres Roy Hamilton) and, while it takes them a while to get in the groove there, by the end of the record them crazy Neptunes have got it goin' on!

Anyway, here's a couple of clues that might help us along the way...

The song is listed in the BMI Database under the title House Of Broken Hearts. If you look at the label, the songwriters are credited as Allen & Holbert. A closer look at BMI reveals that the 'Allen' refers to someone named Bill Allen... that ringing any bells with you? How about our man Bill 'Hoss' Allen, the much-loved WLAC disk jockey and host of those way cool THE!!!!BEAT TV shows? As you know, it was common practice in those days to throw a composer's credit to a dee-jay as a form of promotion, but there's more (I think); according to the Wikipedia article, "Allen's popularity grew steadily until the early 1960s, when he decided to branch out into the record business. He took a job with a label as a field representative..." In the liner notes to The Rogana Story, Fred James had this to say: "...his first outing into the record business came with his Athens label in the late 1950s... he folded the company in the early 60s and went to work for Chess Records. Record promotion involved a lot of traveling, though, and Hoss was soon back in Nashville at WLAC..." After he returned home, Hoss formed his own production company called Rogana which leased songs to labels like Jewel, Excello and Hollywood throughout the decade. I believe it's entirely possible that this Neptunes 45 was an early example of that kind of thing, and was a Nashville record leased to Irving Smith for his Instant label, and consequently had nothing to do with Allen Toussaint (which is why it didn't make the podcast).

What makes me think that? Well, the only other reference I can find to Allen's co-writer Thomas Holbert is in the Kirk Collection Country Music Index, where he's listed as a Nashville songwriter affiliated with Acuff-Rose Publishing. Another clue that points in the direction of ol' Music City is that the B side of this Neptunes single here was written by Country music stalwart Warner Mack...