Intro
The tale of Lenny Howard is quite complex so it is best to start with a bit of background information. Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Youngblood, in early 1966, recorded a track that has become known as "Wipe The Sweat" (which may or not may be it's original title). The original track was recorded in an unknown studio on an unknown date. The session is likely to have been produced by Johnny Brantley, at least he seems to have been in a position to do what he liked with the recording. It is possible that the vocals by Jimi & Lonnie may have been just a bit of fun done as a guide vocal as Brantley later released the song with several different vocalist and sets of lyrics. All of these later versions with different vocalists used take 3 of "Wipe The Sweat" in different mixes and with two different sets of lyrics, sung by five different vocalists:
circa February 1967
The track was released as the single "Keep The Faith, Baby" with vocals by Lenny Howard.
June 1968
The track was released as the single "Sweet Thang" with vocals by Billy LaMont
January 1971
The original version of the track, "Wipe The Sweat", was released on the LP Two Great Experiences Together! with vocals by Lonnie Youngblood & Jimi Hendrix
1971
The track was released as "Sweet Thang" on the LP Find Someone To Love with vocals by George Scott
THE SINGLE A SIDE
The Lenny Howard version seems to have been the first one released. The 28 January 1967 issue of Record World reported:
"Amy took the title of the Adam Clayton Powell saying "Keep the Faith Baby" with Lenny Howard"
"Keep The Faith, Baby" was a catchphrase made popular during 1966 by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. who was a Baptist minister, civil rights activist and a congressman representing Harlem. In January 1967 he issued a spoken word album "Keep the Faith, Baby!" and this was followed by several other artists releasing their own songs with the same title. It seems that Johnny Brantley decided that he should issue a "Keep The Faith, Baby" as well and he seems to have done this with some haste.
The Lenny Howard single, however, eventually did not come out on Amy, a record label based in New York City. Instead it was issued on Real George, a label that seems to have been a one off as there are no other Real George singles to be found.
According to urbandictionary.com the phrase "real george" stands for "cool, fresh, outta sight. Very common in the early 1950s".
So it may be that the deal with Amy fell through and Johnny Brantley instead, for whatever reason, released the single on a label specially created for it. As "Keep The Faith, Baby" was a topical record it's unlikely that the release would have been delayed to much later than February 1967 but the exact release date remains unknown.
Lenny Howard probably overdubbed his vocals on take 3 of "Wipe The Sweat" circa January 1967, and this new recording was then released as the A side of the Lenny Howard -single "Keep The Faith, Baby / Darlin'" (Real George 501).
The Real George 45 label credits "Keep The Faith, Baby" to "L.Youngblood and O.Jones". "L.Youngblood" is of course Lonnie Youngblood and the credit is there most likely for the music ie "Wipe The Sweat", the backing track used for "Keep The Faith, Baby". A search on BMI.com brings up just one song that fits these credits, "KEEP THE FAITH BABY" composed by "JONES HENRY OLLIE". There is no mention of Youngblood in the BMI credits - and there is no mention of Hendrix on the single label...
So it looks likely that Henry Ollie Jones was responsible for the lyrics and probably the vocal melody as well. So Lenny Howard may have been a pseudonym for Ollie Jones. The Johnny Brantley produced 45 "Keep The Faith, Baby" is the only record that "Lenny Howard" seems to ever have released and even that single has very little actual "Lenny Howard" input on it.
Henry "Ollie" Jones passed away in 1990, here is his obituary as published in The Record, Hackensack, New Jersey:
Below is a comparison audio clip that starts off with a snippet of "Keep The Faith, Baby" by Lenny Howard from 1967 and continues with a snippet of "The Night Is A Beautiful Thing" by Ollie Jones from 1963:
This does sound to my ears like it could be the same person singing both songs, or at least both singers have very similar sounding singing voices and ranges. Keep in mind that these are two very different types of songs and that they were recorded circa four years apart. So I think it is a strong possibility but I am not yet 100% sure that Lenny Howard was Ollie Jones, other opinions on this would be most welcome.
The connection between Ollie Jones and Johnny Brantley may be Alan Freed. Early in his career Johnny Brantley worked for Alan Freed and Ollie Jones composed at least one song that also has an Alan Freed writing credit, "Teenage Meeting (Gonna Rock It Up Right)" (recorded by Dave Appell and his Applejacks) according to BMI written by Julius Dixon, Alan Freed and Ollie Jones.
But Johnny Brantley of course was a producer and Ollie Jones was a professional songwriter - so there are many ways in which Ollie Jones may have ended up writing half of (and possibly singing) "Keep The Faith, Baby".
THE SINGLE B SIDE
Brantley seem to have been in such a hurry to get the single out that he did not bother to record a new B side but instead recycled a previously released recording.
The B side of the Lenny Howard 45, "Darlin'", is the exact same track as the B side of a Johnny Brantley produced single released by the Adventurers on Music World Records circa 1965, "I've Caught You Cheatin' / Darlin' (You Said You Loved Me)" (Music World MW 110). Brantley used the exact same recording and simply rebranded it as a "Lenny Howard" track. It's in the same mono mix and of the same length, the mastering is just better on the Lenny Howard 45.
After the release of the Music World Records single the Adventurers later evolved into another Johnny Brantley produced group, the Chosen Few.
In 1971 "Darlin'" was released for the third time and again under a different artist name when the Chosen Few included "Darlin' (You Said You Loved Me)" on the LP Taking All The Love I Can (Maple Records M-6000), this time around titled "You Say You Love Me". Again it's the exact same recording but this time remixed into stereo and fading out about 10 seconds earlier than the mono mix...
And finally, there is also a Johnny Brantley produced fake Hendrix track titled "You Say You Love Me" - which is NOT a version of "Darlin' (You Said You Loved Me)" but a completely different song, just sharing the same title!