CURTIS KNIGHT (& THE SQUIRES)


1966 Studio Recordings

Sometime in late 1965 what had started out in October as a Curtis Knight solo act became "Curtis Knight & the Squires" 1. The well known promotional picture of the group (probably dating from late 1965) introduces the band as "Curtis Knight and the Squires" and Ed Chalpin as their manager.

Apparently after the 1965 PPX sessions Ed Chalpin only handled the management for the band and in 1966 the Squires signed publishing and recording contracts with RSVP. PPX gets no mention on the label of the second Knight / Hendrix RSVP single "Hornet's Nest / Knock Yourself Out" released in early september 1966 and the production (and co-composing) credit goes to Jerry Simon of RSVP.

RSVP OR PPX?
Even though all of the Curtis Knight recordings are nowadays known as "PPX" recordings this wasn't how all of them were originally made. All of the 1966 recordings listed on this page were done for Jerry Simon's RSVP.

For reasons unknown the Squires stopped recording for PPX & Chalpin sometime in late 1965 / early 1966 and instead signed a recording contract with RSVP on the 10th of June 1966. As Chalpin already was licensing his own recordings to RSVP for release and both the RSVP and PPX offices were located in the same building 1650 Broadway this wasn't really a very dramatic change of circumstances. The signing members included Napoleon Anderson, Nathaniel Edmonds, Marion Booker and Jimmy Hendrix.

Curtis Knight had already signed a contract with RSVP on the 19th of February 1966. The 1966 contract may have been his second one with RSVP as his first single for the label, "Ain't Gonna Be No Next Time" (RSVP 1111) released in April 1965 makes no mention of Ed Chalpin or P.P.X. on the label.

The RSVP sessions were recorded at Allegro Sound Studios located downstairs at 1650 Broadway and were produced by Jerry Simon.

When Ed Chalpin started to put together the first Knight / Hendrix albums in 1967 he bought several (but not all) of the 1966 RSVP recordings from Simon. On or around 27 July 1967 Chalpin bought the masters for the following tracks: "The U.F.O.", "I'm A Fool For You Baby", "Ballad Of Jimmy", "Gotta Have A New Dress", "Hornet's Nest", "Knock Yourself Out", "Your Love".

I have yet to see facsimile copies for this transaction of this or any other RSVP paperwork, the information about them comes from the book Setting The Record Straight and Univibes issue #35. If anybody has copies of the actual papers I'd be more than happy to see them...

Jerry Simon for one reason or another however didn't sell Chalpin all of the recordings that he had, at least three tracks recorded by the Squires for RSVP were left out of the deal. As a consequence the first Hendrix / Knight record that was not put out by Ed Chalpin, a 45 with the 1966 RSVP recording "No Such Animal" (split into two parts), was released by Jerry Simon on the Audio Fidelity Records label in November 1970. 11

More recordings surfaced in February 2005 when Jerry Simon placed a listing on eBay (with a starting price of $3 million). The listing pictured two reels (although the description only mentioned one) of RSVP recordings, copyright registrations for "No Such Animal" parts 1 & 2 and multiple copies of the sleeve for the Audio Fidelity 45 "No Such Animal". One of the reels is noted on the box as "No Such Animal 7 1/2", this probably is a 7.5 ips reel of that track alone, maybe a back-up reel or a test mix of the 45 master. The other reel comes with a studio log listing the following tracks (my comments in brackets):

Kato's Special (aka Hornet's Nest), Station Break, No Such Animal, Flying On Instruments (aka Knock Yourself Out), I'm A Fool For You Baby, U.F.O

The total time for this reel is given as 17.48 which indicates that these are not complete tracks but rather edited mixes of the multitracks prepared in 1966, the complete versions of these tracks give a much longer playing time when put together .

The Allegro Sound Studios, Inc. log for the 6 song reel (or 7 as the listing says, probably counting the 2 parts of "No Such Animal" as two separate songs as it was split in half for the 45 release) seems to list tracks for 3 possible singles.

Allegro Sound Studios was located at the same address as the RSVP offices, 1650 Broadway, this is the studio that Jimi in his deposition interview referred to as being located "downstairs" in the RSVP building 2. This was confirmed by Mike Rashkow (engineer at Studio "76" in 1966), there were only two studios in the building, Studio "76" and Allegro Sound Studios.

It's unclear exactly what this tape is: the tape log has the following boxes ticked: "master", "re-record" & "4T". This can't be the original multitrack as the timings don't match, the tracks are not complete, and "re-record" sounds like this would be a copy of something rather than a master tape. The most logical explanation that I can think of is that this is a tape of edited mixes of the multitracks made when they were considered for release as 45s. This 4-track tape could then have been used to make a mono master from which the actual 45s would have been cut.

The tracks are coupled in pairs with the mysterious notation "1DF" after each pair. The pairings are as follows, and probably indicate the suggested couplings for the single releases considered at the time:

Kato's Special
Station Break

No Such Animal
Flying On Instruments

I'm A Fool For You Baby
U.F.O

A date of 20 June 1966 appears twice on the tape log, under "date" and "due date". Based on the speculation above and the "due date" notation I believe this is the date when this particular reel of mixes was prepared, not the actual recording date of these tracks.

Eventually only two of these tracks were released by RSVP in 1966, and Jerry Simon sold most of the multitracks and masters to Ed Chalpin in 1967. Ed Chalpin in turn sold all of the recordings in his possession to Experience Hendrix in 2014 and since then three albums and one single of PPX / RSVP recordings have been released by EH. These contained new previously unreleased songs, new mixes of old favorites and three tracks previously owned by Jerry Simon and now licensed from Global Recording Media LLC. 12

The eBay auction description said that "we do have a copy of the entire reel to reel on a DAT and cassette, done by Jerry about 20 years ago, also included. Besides these two copies, no others had been made."  So the whereabouts of the multitracks for the songs originally held onto by Jerry Simon remain a bit of a mystery.

Note that some of the available publishing contracts and the label of the "Hornet's Nest" 45 co-credit Jerry Simon as a composer. It is however quite probable that the credit to Jerry Simon does not indicate that Simon actually had any part in writing the tracks. It was a common practice at the time to split up and add composing credits to give producers and other people involved a share in the profits. I have kept the "Jerry Simon" -credits for songs that originally had them but I've added a question mark after his name...


1966 RSVP recordings FEATURING JIMI
Since there is no session info available I'll list the tracks in alphabetical order using the titles that I believe to be (the most) correct. There must have been several studio sessions and these are all likely to have taken place in or after June 1966 but no further info is available.

Ballad Of Jimmy
(aka My Best Friend aka Ballad Of Jimi)
Composer(s): ?
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple?
Date: June? 1966
Vocals: Curtis Knight
Drums: Marion Booker?
Acoustic rhythm guitar: unknown
Bass: Jimi Hendrix
Piano: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)?

Until 2020 only one take of "Ballad Of Jimmy" from the 1966 sessions was known to exist. It was also generally agreed among collectors that this track did not feature Jimi, but that changed when Experience Hendrix released the CD / LP No Business. That album included two previously unheard takes of the song, in between which Jimi can be heard directing the band in the studio. It was also revealed that Jimi played bass on this session, which of course had partially led to the track being dismissed in the past as the guitar parts do not sound like Hendrix and are played on an acoustic.

On the label of the Chalpin-produced 1974 MFP-lp Strange Things the track is explicitly credited as "1966 Version" and it was listed among the batch of 1966 recordings that Chalpin bought from Jerry Simon. No dates are given for any of the other tracks on the 1974 lp so it seems obvious the information came from Ed Chalpin / PPX along with the tapes for the album.

The new tracks released in 2020 break down as follows (these are all indexed as one cd track on the No Business -album). Jimi is directing the session and can be heard talking in between takes. The studio talk back also reveals that "Ballad Of Jimmy" is the correct original title for the song. All three takes released on No Business were newly mixed by Eddie Kramer, 14 

Take 3
After the incomplete take 3 Jimi instructs the drummer. It's very hard to hear exactly what Jimi says here, my best attempt: "One more time. [Marion? sort of do that ?] same thing until, until he comes in". "Marion" could also be "Ray" or "Harry", the name or word is so vaguely mumbled by Jimi that any of these names are a possibility, all drummers that played with the band at some point. Or the word may not be a name at all. 16 "Until he comes in" refers to the vocals by Curtis Knight.

Take 4
Take 4 reveals what Jimi meant by the comment after the previous take, here the drummer switches to playing a steady beat with just the hi-hat (or cymbal, I`m not a drummer, please do tell me which one he´s playing if you are) until Curtis starts to sing the actual lyrics. On the preceding take the drummer started to vary the rhythm already during the spoken introduction.

After take 4 breaks down Jimi appears to shout more instructions, "don`t forget to..." but the tape is cut here.

Take 5 (mix 1)
Take 5  is a complete version of the song. Until 2020 this take / mix was the only one known to exist. It appeared on the lp Strange Things (Music for Pleasure MFP 2M046-95397), released in France & Belgium (and possibly all of the Benelux) 9 in 1974. This is the same take 5 that follows take 4 on No Business but on this mix some bits of the piano and drum parts have been mixed out. It sounds to me like this was done to make Curtis' vocal better heard by removing instrumentation from the background. For example at circa 0.20 when, after the spoken intro, Curtis starts to sing "Me and my best friend..." the attack of the drums coming in has been mixed out here on mix 1 but can be heard on mix 2.

Take 5 (mix 2)
The No Business -version is the same take of the song that we were already familiar with but it`s in a new Eddie Kramer which includes all of the recorded instrumentation. The old Ed Chalpin mix had some bits of the piano and drum parts mixed out.

What No Business made clear is that "Ballad Of Jimmy" was a track that a lot of work was put into over the years. We now have a demo version from 1965, a studio version from 1966 (recorded for RSVP) and another studio version from 1967 (recorded for PPX).

The original "Ballad Of Jimmy"  was a novelty song telling the story of how Curtis' best friend, Jimmy, took away the girl that he loved but then died in a car crash and now Curtis has been married to Jimmy's girl for five years. So the original song actually joked that "Jimmy" had died around 1960. These original lyrics can be heard both on the 1965 demo recording and the 1966 studio recording. In 1967 the track was re-recorded in the studio, still with the same lyrics.

After Jimi died a "Jimi predicted his death" -scam was cooked up by retaining the "five years" reference and writing and recording new lyrics in which Curtis praises his friendship with Jimi and puts words in his mouth: "five years this he said, he's not gone, he's just dead". This new version was released in 1970.

It´s a real shame that Chalpin chose to overdub the new vocals as the song really WAS about Jimi right from the beginning and this was not just a later fabrication - which is the impression that the reworking left many people with.


Gotta Have A New Dress

Composers: Sampson Horton, Curtis Knight
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple?
Date: June? 1966
Vocals: Curtis Knight
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)

This track is a re-recording of a Curtis Knight solo track (with no involvement by Jimi) released in 1962 on the single "Gotta Have A New Dress / When You've Got Love" (Shell 45-312). Multiple different mixes exist. This is the first 1962 copyright registration for the track: 3

GOTTA HAVE A NEW DRESS; w & m Sampson
Horton & Curtis Knight. © Saxon Music
Corp.; 30Jan62; EU704774.

The second registration dates from 1967, after Chalpin had bought the 1966 of the track from RSVP: 4:

GOTTA HAVE A NEW DRESS; w & m Curtis
Knight. 2p. © PPX Pub. Co., a
division of PPX Enterprises, Inc.;
16Aug67; EU10286.

The re-recorded 1966 version is basically a straight re-recording of the original so the correct writing credits for the track should include Sampson Horton, missing from the 1967 registration.


Hornet's Nest
(aka Kato's Special)
Composers: Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Simon (?)
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple
Date: June 1966
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)
Vocals (screaming): unknown (all players?)

The eBay RSVP reel auction in February 2005 listed this track under it's original working title "Kato's Special". One of the available mixes includes engineer Bruce Staples´ intro (he confirmed that it's his voice by listening to a sample) "Rolling - Kato's Special take 2". Kato was a character in the radio (and later film & tv) series The Green Hornet which was first aired in 1936.

The theme music of the show was an adaptation of "The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. "Hornet's Nest" is not a straight cover of this, but certainly has been strongly influenced by the song. Jimi regularly included "The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee" as part of the guitar solo in "Lover Man" during his 1970 concerts, the inclusion might have more to do with The Green Hornet than Jimi's taste in classical music.

This track was copyrighted twice, once in 1966 5 by RSVP for the 45 release and again in 1967 4 after Ed Chalpin bought the track from RSVP:

HORNET'S NEST; m Jimmy Hendrix & Jerry
Simon. © R.S.V.P. Music, Inc.;
30Aug66; EU955490.

HORNET'S NEST; m Curtis Knight. 1 p.
© PPX Pub. Co., a division of PPX
Enterprises, Inc.; 16Aug67; EU10287.

Take 1(?)

This is an alternate take of the instrumental, previously unreleased and not known to exist until it's release in 2015 on the CD / LP You Can't Use My Name. The take number is unconfirmed, I'm just guessing that since take 2 was designated as the master the alternate take probably was take 1. But it is always possible that the band first recorded more takes than just two and only then went back and selected the one that they liked the best.

This is another track that never was in Ed Chalpin's possession but instead stayed with Jerry Simon hence Experience Hendrix licensed it from Global Recording Media for You Can't Use My Name. Interestingly it is a stereo mix suggesting the multitrack might still exist since it's unlikely that there would have been stereo mixes created in 1966.

Take 2

This take was released in edited form as the A-side of the RSVP 1124 -single. Several different Ed Chalpin mixes exist. A complete new Eddie Kramer stereo mix can be found on the CD / LP No Business. The mix  starts with a studio talkback announcement "Rolling, Kato`s Special take 2" by engineer Bruce Staple, as also previously heard on some of the old Chalpin mixes.

Rather confusingly this take was on No Business listed as an "alternate" which refers to it being a different take to that previously released by Experience Hendrix on You Can't Use My Name. This take of course was in fact the one chosen to be the "master" take and released as a DJ single in 1966.

And finally some Bruce Lee -trivia, courtesy of Andre Ellis:
1) Aretha Franklin also included a reference to the Green Hornet in "Save Me", the lyrics include the line
" Calling Kato, Green Hornet too...".
2) Bruce Lee who played "Kato" in the 1966 TV series shares the same birthday with Jimi - November 27, 1940 (but 1942 for Jimi)
3) Both died in (almost) the same place / street name: Cumberland Road (Hong Kong) / Cumberland Hotel (London) (Jimi was booked to stay at the Cumberland but he actually died at the Samarkand Hotel)
4) They also, amazingly, both ended up being buried in Seattle

I'm A Fool For You Baby
(aka Fool For You Baby)
Composer: Curtis Knight?
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple?
Date: June? 1966
Vocals: Curtis Knight
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitars: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)

"I'm A Fool For You Baby" was for some 30 years only known to exist in one mix which is why I originally speculated here that Ed Chalpin may not have been in possession of the multitrack for the song and thus had been unable to create multiple new mixes. Then a longer new stereo mix (2.13 instead of 1.48) by Eddie Kramer was released by Experience Hendrix in 2014 and on top of that a second vintage Ed Chalpin -mix was documented by Jimpress in 2019.13 So clearly Jerry Simon did deliver the original multirack to Ed Chalpin after all.

The track features two guitar parts by Hendrix, the second one played through a fuzzbox with Jimi cleverly imitating a trumpet. The copyright listing for this track dates from 1967 after Ed Chalpin had bought it from RSVP:

FOOL FOR YOU, BABY; w & m Curtis Knight.
2 p. © PPX Pub. Co., a division of
PPX Enterprises, Inc.; 16Aug67 ;
EU10285 .


Knock Yourself Out
(aka Flying On Instruments)
Composers: Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Simon (?)
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple
Date: June 1966
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)

This instrumental was released in edited form as the B-side of the RSVP 1124 single. Hendrix signed a publishing contract with RSVP for the tracks "Station Break" and "Flying On Instruments" on the 21st of June 1966 . The contract credits the composers for both tracks as Jimmy Hendrix and Jerry Simon. The eBay RSVP reel auction in February 2005 listed "Station Break" as an unreleased song, meaning that "Flying On Instruments" was probably an alternate (working) title for "Knock Yourself Out".

The longest version of this track, a new Eddie Kramer stereo mix released on the Experience Hendrix cd You Can`t Use My Name, includes a short snippet of Jimi playing the sax riff from "I Got You (I Feel Good)" by James Brown at c. 6.20-35. 7

Listen below for samples of the riff, two short segments one after another:
1 James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)
2 Curtis Knight & the Squires - Knock Yourself Out


This track was copyrighted twice, once in 1966 5 by RSVP for the 45 release and again in 1967 4 after Ed Chalpin bought the track from RSVP:

KNOCK YOURSELF OUT; m Jimmy Hendrix &
Jerry Simon. © R.S.V.P. Music, Inc.;
6Sep66; EU956073.

KNOCK YOURSELF OUT; m Curtis Knight.
1 p. © PPX Pub. Co., a division of
PPX Enterprises, Inc.; 16Aug67;
EU10288.


No Such Animal
Composer: Jimi Hendrix
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple
Date: June 1966
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)
Vocals (shouting): unknown (all players?)

Hendrix signed a publishing contract with RSVP for this instrumental on the 21st of June 1966. This track is not included in the list of RSVP masters sold to PPX and never appeared on any compilation put out by Ed Chalpin. So Jerry Simon clearly, for reasons unknown, did not sell this track to Ed Chalpin, instead it was first issued as a 45 by Audio Fidelity in November 1970. 8 The single labels made no mention of Jerry Simon, the track never appeared on any Ed Chalpin -produced release and even the latest issue by Experience Hendrix licensed it from Global Recording Media. Whether the original multitrack still exists is unknown, the only version of this track that we have is the original mono mix.

Record World reported:
"Audio Fidelity has released a single by Jimi Hendrix entitled "No Such Animal." The track was recorded in 1966 when Hendrix was playing clubs in Greenwich Village as Jimmy James & the Esquires." ... "The master was purchased from RSVP`s Jerry Simon. Ten other tracks from the same era are also expected on another label." 18

Cash Box:
"Probably one of the earliest efforts by the late Hendrix, this AF release bears as much resemblance to the known artist as Bill Haley to the Beatles." 17

The 1970 copyright listing, note that the registration was made by RSVP ie Jerry Simon 6:

NO SUCH ANIMAL; m Jimmy Hendrix. 2 v.
© R.S.V.P. Music, Inc.; 22Oct70;
EU213266-213267.

Ed Chalpin later sued Audio Fidelity for releasing fake Hendrix recordings...

no such animal spanish 45
SPANISH 1971 "NO SUCH ANIMAL" -SINGLE



Station Break
Composers: Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Simon (?)
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple?
Date: June 1966
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Piano: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)

Jimi signed a publishing contract with RSVP for the tracks "Station Break" and "Flying On Instruments" on the 21st of June 1966, so the track was probably recorded sometime around June 1966.

The eBay RSVP reel auction in February 2005 listed "Station Break" as an unreleased song, this was at the time confirmed by John McDermott of Experience Hendrix and the track was finally released in 2015 on the CD / LP You Can't Use My Name. The recording was owned by Jerry Simon and wasn`t part of the PPX tape archive which Experience Hendrix acquired in 2014. For the album the track was "Licensed Courtesy Of Global Recording Media LLC". Whether the original multitrack still exists is unknown, the only version of this track that we have is the mono mix that was supplied to Experience Hendrix.



A "station break" is "a pause in a television or radio broadcast for the broadcasting station to give its name" 10 Jimi revived the idea of a radio jingle in 1967 when the Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded "Radio One Theme" for the BBC in London.

There is an edit in "Station Break" at roughly 1.44 where a repeat of the previous 2 seconds has been inserted. This added part can be cut out seamlessly so there doesn't seem to have been any reason for inserting it, no tape damage or mistakes by the band to mask. The edit would seem to have been done in analog (as the two segments are not digitally identical) before the track was digitized. Why it's there is a complete mystery.

I asked John McDermott of Experience Hendrix about the edit section and here's his reply:
"We transferred the original master of "Station Break" that Jerry Simon had.  Eddie did not make a single edit (digital or otherwise) in the master supplied to EH by Global.  What is on the finished CD exactly matches the cassette copy of that same master that Simon's attorney supplied me for reference purposes eleven years ago."

If Experience Hendrix didn't do the edit then Global Recording Media LLC must have, would be very interesting to get hold of someone at the company and ask about this and other recordings that they might still be holding.


The U.F.O.
(aka UFO)
Composer: Curtis Knight?
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple?
Date: June? 1966
Vocals: Curtis Knight
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: Jimi Hendrix
Bass: Napoleon Anderson
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)

There is what sounds like a glitch on this track at circa 1.13, however this is on the master tape as it`s there on all of the mixes, both Ed Chalpin and Experience Hendrix produced. The mix released on No Business is a new Eddie Kramer mix. 15

The copyright listing for this track dates from 1967, after Chalpin had bought it from RSVP 4:

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS; w & m
Curtis Knight. 2 p. © PPX Pub. Co.,
a division of PPX Enterprises, Inc.;
16Aug67; EU10284.


UNCONFIRMED 1966 RSVP recordings
One of these tracks, "I Ain't Taking Care Of No Business", may not exist at all as a 1966 recording and the other, "My Love", may not feature Jimi.


I Ain't Taking Care Of No Business (NOTE - not known to exist)
Composer: Jimi Hendrix

Jimi signed a publishing contract with R.S.V.P. MUSIC, INC for the track "I Ain't Taking Care of No Business" on 30 March 1966. The contract was offered for sale by Lelands.com in 2002. He's credited as the sole composer for the song.

A demo recording of the song from 1965 exists (see the Curtis Knight Demo Recordings) and a studio version was recorded during the July / August 1967 Curtis Knight -sessions (and released as "No Business", see the 1967 Studio Sessions) by Ed Chalpin but a 1966 RSVP-recording does not seem to exist. That a publishing contract for the song does exist however strongly suggests that it was at least considered for recording but such a thing has never shown up so the idea may have been abandoned. As new tapes are still surfacing a recording may exist somewhere but so far there is no trace to be found of a 1966 studio recording of the song.


My Love
(aka My Heart Is Higher aka My Love (My Heart Is Higher))
Composer: Tony Hatch
Producer: Jerry Simon
Recorded at: Allegro Sound Studios, New York City
Engineer: Bruce Staple?
Date: June? 1966
Drums: Marion Booker
Guitar: unknown
Bass: Napoleon Anderson? Jimi Hendrix?
Organ: Nathaniel Edmonds Sr. (aka Nate Edmonds)?

This instrumental most likely is the track listed as "Your Love" on the list of RSVP masters sold to PPX. It is a version of the Petula Clark song "My Love", released in the USA on a 7" single "My Love / Where Am I Going?" (Warner Bros. 5684) in December 1965. "My Love" is most of the time listed on Curtis Knight LP's as "My Heart Is Higher".

Long though to not feature Jimi but since the recording of "Ballad Of Jimmy" turned out to have Jimi on bass this track may very well also have Jimi on bass. After all Ed Chalpin did pay Jerry Simon money for it as one of the songs in the batch of 1966 RSVP recordings that he bought. It is however pretty much impossible to tell from the recording that we have whether Jimi is playing the bass part or not, and Experience Hendrix have so far not included the track on any release.

Here's Petula Clark performing "My Love" on the Ed Sullivan Show 28 November 1965:



There was a very small scale public "feud" between Petula Clark and Jimi Hendrix, or rather the press tried to make one that didn't really take off. First, there was a comment by Petula Clark on Hendrix, published in the 6 January 1968 issue of Melody Maker:
"Jimi Hendrix is a great big hoax — but if he can get away with it, good luck to him." An explosive statement from Petula Clark, someone not usually noted for saying such hair-raising things. But it appears that Hendrix is one performer that Pet feels strongly about. "I saw him in Los Angeles. I think he's unexciting and he doesn't move me. The fact that he isn't a big success with the general public proves something."

Then Jimi was asked about this in an interview published in Sunday Mirror, 11 February 1968:
"PETULA CLARK called Jimi Hendrix "a great big hoax" and those American moral watchdogs, the Daughters of the Revolution, branded his act obscene [...] I said that Petula Clark wasn't one of the "watchdog daughters" with her "hoaxer" opinion, but was undoubtedly a prospective member of the "Hendrix Hate Society."

"Well, I figure it's nice for her to have thought enough about me to say anything," he said.

"But I dig her. I think she`s great and progressive - which is more than I can say about a lot of pop stars."
14




SOURCES
1 as stated by Jimi in his 7 March 1968 deposition interview he played all of the instruments except the drums during his first Curtis Knight session 6 October 1965. So obviously Curtis didn't have a band together having just met Jimi the previous day. This is backed up by the RSVP single released from the sessions, "How Would You Feel", which is credited to Curtis Knight only, no mention of the Squires. In June 1966 RSVP signed a contract with Curtis Knight & the Squires and this is also who the 1966 "Hornet's Nest" RSVP single is credited to on the label.

2 Jimi's PPX court case deposition interview recorded 7 March 1968 in New York City, partially reproduced in Univibes issue #35

3 Library of Congress Copyright Office
Catalog of Copyright Entries 1962 Music Jan-June 3D Ser Vol 16 Pt 5

4 Library of Congress Copyright Office
Catalog of Copyright Entries 1967 Music July-Dec 3D Ser Vol 21 Pt 5

5 Library of Congress Copyright Office
Catalog of Copyright Entries 1966 Music July-Dec 3D Ser Vol 20 Pt 5

6 Library of Congress Copyright Office
Catalog of Copyright Entries 1970 Music July-Dec 3D Series Vol 24 Pt 5

7 I wrote in my cd review that this was "a very familiar riff that I now can't place". Both Roland Stone (posting on a Hendrix group) and David Chance (via email) did manage to place it...

8 a news item published in Record World 14 November 1970, also mentioned in Billboard 21 November 1970 under "SOUL SAUCE" and reviewed in Cash Box issue 14 November 1970.

9 There are two version of this lp, one with "MADE IN FRANCE" printed on the label, the other with "MADE IN BELGIUM". The sleeve for both pressings has the liner notes in French and in Dutch. Dutch and French are both official languages in Belgium, and Dutch is of course spoken in the Netherlands so the lp probably had a much wider circulation instead of just France unlike previously stated here.

10 taken from the online Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/station-break

11 a news item published in Record World 14 November 1970, also mentioned in Billboard 21 November 1970 under "SOUL SAUCE" and reviewed in Cash Box issue 14 November 1970.

12 the company were in control of three tracks that Jerry Simon hadn't sold to Ed Chalpin, "No Such Animal", "Station Break" and an alternate take of "Hornet's Nest".  I thought Global Recording Media LLC might give us some answers and looked for the company on Google in 2014 with very little result, just one hit and that was only a statement that Global Recording Media LLC is a "New Jersey Domestic Limited-Liability Company filed on July 1, 2009" and a postal code: Morristown, NJ 07962. Looking again on Google in 2022 I can again only find one search result. A business name search on the State Of New Jersey, NJ Department Of The Treasury, Division of Revenue & Enterprise Services -website gives this result:

GLOBAL RECORDING MEDIA LLC
Entity Id: 0400295637
City: Woodland Park
Type: LLC
Incorporated Date: 7/7/2009

So the situation is (or was in 2015) that the Jerry Simon owned RSVP recordings were licensed from Global Recording Media LLC and the original tapes are not in the posession of Experience Hendrix. Who controls Global Recording Media LLC is unknown, as is whether they still own the RSVP recordings or not and the whereabouts of the original multitracks for the three songs.

13 a new mix of "I'm A Fool For You Baby" (with no fuzz guitar) was detailed in Jimpress Issue 115, page 63.

14 From Sunday Mirror, 11 February 1968, reproduced in Foxy Papers #3 by Ben Valkhoff, page 45. The uncredited writer of the piece says that he called Jimi after a concert in Phoenix, Arizona, but the Experience didn`t play in Phoenix in February 1968. There were two concerts in Arizona that fit the time frame, 5 February in Tempe and 6 February in Tucson.

15 John McDermott send me some comment on my No Business cd review via email 22 November 2020

16 with thanks to Peter Strömback for a discussion on the subject on Facebook

17 Cash Box 14 November 1970

18 Record World 14 November 1970