Orange Colored Sky - Help/ Press A Rose

Borderline Northern Soul single from Californian club stalwarts

Label: People

Year of Release: 1970

We've already covered Orange Colored Sky on this blog, so there's going to be a limit to the volume of fresh information I can provide on this entry. Suffice to say, the group (consisting of Larry Younger, Walter Slivinski, Vinny Younger and Tony Barry) had at various points acted as the house band at New York's Peppermint Lounge and also served as Burt Bacharach's opening live act. 

While their recording career seems to have ended by 1973, they remained an on-off presence on the South West USA gig circuit until the mid-00s, retiring, re-emerging and then retiring again. You can't keep a tight, professional vocal harmony group down forever, especially one who also happens to know their collective way around their instruments too.

"Help" was a one-off 45 on People Records after they had seemingly been dropped by Uni, penned and produced by occasional Motown songwriter William Stevenson. For this reason, it has a much more soulful swing than some of their other records, blending their harmony vocals with upbeat, pie-eyed rhythms and melodies. The song sticks to the common soul theme of being so in love you can barely walk to the kitchen in a straight line (or not exactly that, but you know what I mean) and so fulfils the "dancing with tears in your eyes" requirements of the Northern Soul movement that I can't help but wonder if the track got any airings on the circuit.

Their 1973 record on MGM "Who Are You Foolin" certainly did, and currently gets sold for ludicrous £100+ prices online. If that one is all sulks and moods, though, "Help" bounces off the walls. 

The flipside here is worth your time too, perhaps displaying a degree of groove, sophistication and conflicting emotions the A-side lacks. Either way, though, you've got yourself a winner at a much more reasonable price. 

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