Glades Album Discography
Glades in its heyday was a division of TK Productions, but it was a label that pre-dated the
TK label by more than a decade. Founded in 1959 in Miami and named for the Everglades, it was
owned by Henry Stone. Stone released singles sporadically over the years on Glade, starting with a
vocal group fronted by Davey Jones (not to be confused with the later British singer Davy Jones,
member of the Monkees), who also recorded for Stone's sister Dade label. Jones' "No More Tears" was
a doo-wop ballad, backed with an uptempo tune "Tootsie Wootsie," released as Glades 601 in 1959.
The next year, Davey Jones followed that with "I Was Blind"/"The Chase" [Glades 605, 1960]. Neither
charted. Sandwiched between these discs was a Wilbert Harrison offering, "Gonna Tell You A
Story"/"Letter Edged in Black" [Glades 603, 1959]. Harrison's "Kansas City" had been a huge hit on
Bobby Robinson's Fury Records 1023, making #1 on both the pop charts and the R&B charts, but
lawsuits prohibited Fury from issuing an effective followup record. The Glades recording was offered to
stations as a followup, but either the stations or the public wasn't having any of it, as it flopped. To
illustrate how sporadically singles were issued, by 1972, when Stone signed Archie Bell & the Drells, a
Houston band who had a few hits in the 1960s for Atlantic, and issued "Ain't Nothin' for a Man in Love,"
Glades was still only at #615! At that point, Stone started over, revamping the label from a singles-only
imprint, redesigning the labels, and starting a new singles (1700) and album (6500) series. He eventually
reissued Glades 615 as Glades 1711.
The 1970s Glades was almost exclusively a soul/r&b label, edging into disco music only occasionally in
the later years. Like its TK Records sister label, Glades placed a large percentage of their releases on
the charts somewhere, whether it be pop charts, R&B charts, or dance charts, but in this case, it was
mostly the R&B/Soul charts. The first two singles in the 1700 series, however, did not chart. They
featured two of Stone's stable of artists, Clarence Reid and George McCrae. The first single was "Why
Baby Why, Parts 1 & 2" by Clarence and Gloria [Glades 1701], followed by George McCrae's "Love Who
You Can"/"Back Dues" [Glades 1702].
On the third try, however, Glades struck gold. Timmy Thomas had been doing session work for years in Memphis and recording for Goldwax, but hadn't been able to make it into the hit circle on his own, so he moved to Miami. Although he could play several instruments very well, he chose a minimalist approach of just an organ and drum machine for a song he had written about racial harmony called "Why Can't We Live Together?" [Glades 1703, 11/72]. The song, with its unique sound, plaintive singing, and simple message hit the mood of the country exactly, racing to #1 on the R&B charts and #3 on the pop charts. Followups were not nearly as successful, but Thomas put together a 13-record chart career on the R&B charts, mostly with mid-charters. Of the twelve additional chart hits, four were R&B top-40: "People Are Changin'" [Glades 1709, 4/73, #23], "What Can I Tell Her" [Glades 1717, 11/73, #19], "I've Got to See You Tonight" [Glades 1723, 11/74, #31] and "Gotta Give a Little Love (Ten Years After)" [Gold Mountain 82004, 4/84, #29].
Soul artist [Benjamin] Latimore had an even more successful R&B career, chalking up 15 charters,
including, "Let's Straighten It Out" [Glades 1722, 9/74, #31 pop/#1 R&B], "Keep the Home Fire Burnin'"
[Glades 1726, 4/75, #5 R&B], "There's a Red-Neck in the Soul Band" [Glades 1729, 9/75, #36 R&B],
"Somethin' Bout Cha" [Glades 1739, 12/76, #37 pop/#7 R&B], and "I Get Lifted" [Glades 1743, 6/77,
#104 pop/#30 R&B].
Of the 57 known singles released by the 1970s version of Glades, Timmy Thomas and Latimore between them accounted for slightly over half (29). Other artists included Little Milton, Archie Bell & the Drells, Clarence Reid, George McCrae, Gwen McCrae, Vanessa Kindrick, the Courtships, Smokey 007, Ruby Wilson & the Blue Chips, Seven Seas, Urban Crisis, Otis Clay, Jerry Washington, Universal Love, the Blue Notes, the Stony Island Band, True Image, and Nate Calhoun. The Glades label lasted until about 1981, when TK Productions closed its doors.
