Three years ago a bootleg compilation called Divas of the 70s began popping up in south-side record stores, and among its contents were three tracks by a Chicago soul group called the Lovelites. The female vocal trio had caused a minor stir in 1969 with a sweet, catchy midtempo tune called “How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad,” in which lead singer Patti Hamilton wondered how to break the news to her folks that she was pregnant. That single, produced by an up-and-comer named Clarence Johnson, sold 55,000 copies locally and 400,000 nationally, peaking at number 15 on Billboard’s soul chart and landing the group a deal with Uni Records, a division of MCA.
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When Johnson, who’s now 58 and still works as a producer in the area, heard about the bootleg, he set about getting his due. “I found out who was doing it, where they were doing, and I talked to my attorney,” he says across the desk in the office of his Chi-City Productions, in an Alsip strip mall. “He said if I wanted to do something about it I should just put it out myself.” So last month he released a 20-song CD, The Lovelite Years, on Lovelite Records, an imprint he briefly used in the early 70s. At the moment it’s available only in Chicago and mostly on the south and west sides–though the north-side specialty shop Dusty Groove is also selling it via the Web–but Johnson is looking for distribution in the U.S. and Europe.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Nathan Mandell.
