Johnny Brantley produced several genuine recordings with Jimi Hendrix on guitar in 1966 - and then later created new "fake" Hendrix recordings, reworked old recordings by other artists and compiled / overdubbed / edited all of these in various ways into several albums that featured performances by Hendrix, the Icemen, Jimmy Norman, Lenny Howard, George Scott, Lee Moses, Herman Hitson, the Chosen Few, the Ohio Players, Billy Lamont, Lonnie Youngblood, Sam Williams, Nate Adams, "Peanuts" (and probably many artists yet to be discovered) - all labelled Jimi Hendrix -recordings.

Some of the early 1966 recordings that really did have Hendrix on guitar were released in the late 60s with the Hendrix contributions uncredited. Then in January 1971 Brantley put out the first "Jimi Hendrix" -compilation, Two Great Experiences Together! (Maple LPM-6004) ¹ Many more releases would follow and Brantley would also release one of the first "official" versions of the infamous Scene Club 1968 -recording with Jim Morrison on vocals.

As the story of the various recordings and releases produced by Johnny Brantley is very complex and hard to follow I've started to compile an overview of Johnny Brantley's career in music. I'll be adding more information here along the way, the idea is to try and pull together all the various bits of information related to Johnny Brantley sprinkled around this website into a more easy to comprehend overview.

At the moment this page is not much more than just an index or a placeholder - more information will be added later.


1964 - RED BIRD
The only picture of Johnny Brantley that I've been able to find so far. Published in Cash Box 29 August 1964. Based on the photo caption he was at the time doing promotion for the Red Bird -label.


JOHNNY BRANTLEY AND THE GIFFS

A few years later the company also released a single produced by Brantley - exactly what the relationship between Brantley and Red Bird was is something to be researched later...


1964 - MUSIC WORLD RECORDS
Some of the first releases crediting Johnny Brantley as the producer came out on Music World Records circa 1964 - 1965.


1965 - Lee Moses
Between 1965 - 1973 Johnny Brantley produced all of the solo recordings that soul cult hero Lee Moses released during his lifetime. Johnny Brantley produced several albums of "fake" Hendrix-recordings in the 1970s and Lee Moses was credited as a co-producer on some of these. What Lee's exact involvement was is still unclear as is whether he actually did know Jimi Hendrix or ever play with him. You can read more about Johnny Brantley, Jimi Hendrix, Herman Hitson and Lee Moses in the Lee Moses -section of the website.


1966 - Samar Recordings, Inc.
As far as known the first genuine releases featuring Jimi Hendrix on guitar that Johnny Brantley produced came out in 1966 on two singles on the Samar label. I have compiled a complete discography of all of the releases on the Samar label which can be found here.


1971 - MAPLE RECORDS
Circa 1971 Johnny Brantley seems to have started the Maple Records -label. I say seems as his exact role within the company isn't really clear - but all of the records released by the label were produced by Brantley...


1971 - Lonnie Youngblood
Johnny Brantley didn't originally produce any of the "solo" Lonnie Youngblood tracks recorded with Jimi Hendrix on guitar in 1966 but he did later rework these and other Brantley-produced recordings into the LP Two Great Experiences Together! together with Lonnie Youngblood who added new overdubs. After this things seem to have gone sour between Brantley and Youngblood...




SOURCES

1 "Two Great Experiences Together!" was mentioned in a news item ("This month from All-Platinum and the Stang label: ... Jimi Hendrix & Lonnie Youngblood "Together" on the Maple label, distributed by All-Platinum") in Billboard issue 16 January 1971 and also listed as a new CARtridge release in Billboard issue 27 February 1971