LONNIE YOUNGBLOOD

SAMAR DISCOGRAPHY
Below is a listing of all singles released by the Samar label, no album releases are known to exist. The discography places the two Samar singles that Jimi Hendrix and Lonnie Youngblood play on (by the Icemen and Jimmy Norman) in context and gives an idea of the timeline of releases.

Samar Recordings, Inc. seems to only have been in operation in 1966 - 1968 with one stray single released later circa 1973. Several catalogue numbers were apparently skipped by the label during both periods of activity which is a bit odd. I've included these missing catalog numbers / releases with a "?" next to them in the hope that someone can find a copy or explain their absence...

A news item in the 19 February 1966 issue of Cash Box announced the formation of the label:
"Samar Recordings Formed
NEW YORK—Marty Cantine announced last week the formation of Samar Recordings, Inc. Cantine, president of the company, also announced the appointment of Bill Schwartau as vice president of the firm and producer and creative director of Samar’s recordings. Schwartau has served as A&R man for such artists as Peter, Paul and Mary, Connie Francis, Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Bill Evans. Lennie Lewis will handle all the promotion and distribution for the label.

Samar will initially concentrate on single releases with an eye toward new and imaginative ideas within the framework of the current market trends. The firm’s first release, “Don’t Put The Monkey Down” c/w “Wild Does The Wind Blow” is by Skipper and the Wrecking Crew. Also released is Sarah Cantine and her Trio with “Green Dolphin Street” and “Solitude.” "

Record World ran largely the same press release in their 5 March 1966 issue with one additional bit of interesting information:
"Marty Cantine announces formation of Samar Recordings, Inc., of Rochester, N.Y. The operation will be based in New York City."

It probably is no co-incidence that the president of Samar was Marty Cantine and one of the artists recording for the label was Sarah Cantine who had three releases come out on the label, including the very first Samar single issued.

All evidence suggests that Samar was a very small and short lived record label so finding exact information about release dates of individual singles is very hard. I've pieced the release dates  together mainly by cross referencing small bits of information from different sources. For the discs where I'm unsure of the date or have just made a rough estimate of it I've added a "?" after the month.

If you have any additions and/or corrections please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..



Original 1960s Samar releases
Catalog numbers 100-121 seem to consist Samar's first run of titles. Catalog numbers 100-119 use the first Samar label design with "SAMAR" in capital letters and an oversized "M".

Catalog number S121 introduced a new label design that has "SAMAR" in equal sized capital letters but adds a "sparkle" to the first "A". The font has also been changed though it's very similar to that used on the first design.

The logo may have been redesigned in connection with a restart of the label as there seems to have been a gap in releases of more than a year after the single that preceded the release of S121 with the reworked Samar-logo?

Issues 100-119 had the text "SAMAR RECORDINGS, INC., ROCHESTER, N. Y." at the rim of the label. This was removed from the label of S 121 and replaced by "DISTRIBUTED BY Troy Recording Co., New York, N.Y.", also suggesting changes in the business arrangements behind the label.


samar logos
THE FIRST (TOP) AND SECOND (BOTTOM) SAMAR LOGO DESIGNS


Note too that there are only two known singles with the second "sparkle" Samar-logo, chronologically these appear to be the last two singles ever released by the label and both feature Mickey And His Mice.

100 The Sarah Cantine Trio "On Green Dolphin Street / Solitude"
(Samar SE 100) February 1966

101 ?

102 Skipper And The Wrecking Crew "Don't Put The Monkey Down / Wild Does The Wind Blow"
(Samar SE 102) February 1966 8

103 ?
104 ?

105 Sarah Cantine and Her Trio "Chit'lins A' La Carte / Feeling Good"
(Samar SE 105) March? / April? 1966

106 ?
107 ?
108 ?
109 ?
110 ?

111 The Icemen "(My Girl) She's A Fox / (I Wonder) What It Takes"
(Samar S-111) May 1966 1

112 Jimmy Norman "You're Only Hurting Yourself / That Little Old Groovemaker"
(Samar S-112) May / June 1966

113 The Sarah Cantine Trio "Fever / Dressed For A Ball"
(Samar S-113) June? 1966 2

114 Les Cooper And His Soul Rockers "Wahoo / Skatin' With Bill"
(Samar S-114) June 1966 3

115 Madeline Wilson "Dial "L" For Lonely / Loving Him"
(Samar S-115) August 1966 6

116 Jimmy Norman "Can You Blame Me / This I Beg Of You"
(Samar S116) late August / early September 1966 4

117 The Icemen "Sugar Baby / Only Time Will Tell"
(Samar S-117) October 1966 7

118 Gloria Parker "The Best Thing For You Baby / I'm Headed In The Right Direction"
(Samar S-117) November? 1966 5

119 The Nobody's "Thinkin' About It (Is What Makes It So Mean) / This May Be The Last Time (I Don't Know —Hymn #6)"
(Samar S-119) January? 1967 9

120 ?

121 Mickey And His Mice
"Little Green Apples—Part I / Little Green Apples—Part II"
(Samar S121) 1968 10


LATER 1970s Samar releases
Samar seems to have been briefly revived in the early 1970s. One (?) single was released with the second "sparkle" -label design first used on Samar S121, the last issue of the previous run of singles. The numbering system seems to have been started again from "000" instead of continuing with the "100s" series. And another change was to the Samar credits on the label, the text "DISTRIBUTED BY Troy Recording Co., New York, N.Y." that had been added on the preceding release, apparently the last one issued before a five year gap, was removed. In it's place the location of Samar returned but it was now given as "SAMAR, N.Y., N.Y." - indicating that the label had moved it's offices from Rochester to New York City?

I haven't found an exact release date for Samar 004 but the copyright registration11 for side A was made in 1973 so this release seems to be separate from the first run of Samar issues. With, once again, a puzzling catalog number of S-004 with no other known releases in this run...

001 ?
002 ?
003 ?

004 Mickey And His Mice "Much Right Man / Amen"
(Samar S-004) USA 1973 11




SOURCES
1 The single was listed on the WJMO (Cleveland, Ohio) "Might Mo's Soul - Survey" -list "FOR THE WEEK OF May 16, 1966". The "R&B Beat" section in the Record World 4 June 1966 -issue reported:
"Johnny Brantley keeps on pushing on "She's A Fox," by The Icemen, and Georgie Woods is on it on WHAT, Phila. and WWIN, Baltimore" so May 1966 looks like a probable release date.

2 There is a picture of the single label in a YouTube video with the marking "6-22". This may be some DJ's notation for adding the disc into a library on 22 June. Not very reliable evidence of course but hardly something anyone would fake in order to sabotage the possible future compiling of a Samar discography so I believe that the notation is genuine. It does fit well with the June release date of the following Samar release.

3 the single was reviewed in the Cash Box issue 25 June 1966 and included on the "Radio Exposure Chart" in Record World issue 13 August 1966. The chart tracked "the initial exposure of new records", the disc was notes as getting airplay in the east of USA (WDRC in Hartford and WEAM in Washington). The single is also listed on several WJMO (Cleveland, Ohio) "Might Mo's Soul - Survey" -lists in July - August 1966 the earliest available being "FOR THE WEEK OF July 18, 1966".

4 The "R&B Beat" section in the Record World 10 September 1966 -issue reported:
"Ernie Durham and Rudy Runnels are very high on Len Lewis' new record, "Can You Blame Me," Jimmy Norman, Samar"

Len Lewis aka Lennie Lewis handled the promotion for Samar, listing his name before that of the artist shows that Record World was aimed at people in "the biz", not the general audience. Ernie Durham was a DJ on WJLB, Detroit and Rudy Runnels was a DJ on WOL, Washington D.C.

And again the "R&B Beat" section in the Record World 17 September 1966 -issue reported:
"Len Lewis is thrilled because "Can You Blame Me," Jimmy Norman, Samar, went on WOL, Washington, and WCHB, Detroit. It's a very good record"

The single is also listed on several WWRL (New York City, New York) "SOUL 16" -lists in September - October 1966 the earliest available being "Week Beginning: SEPTEMBER 1, 1966"

So a late August 1966 / early September release date seems likely. "Can You Blame Me" entered the Billboard "TOP SELLING R&B SINGLES" -chart at number 48 in Billboard issue 22 October 1966. It seems to have been the label's biggest (only?) seller spending several weeks in the Billboard charts.

NOTE: there is a mistake on Google Books. For the Billboard issue listed as 2 April 1966 only pages Only pages 1-4 are from the 2 April 1966 issue, the rest of the magazine is actually pages from the 22 October 1966 issue of Billboard.

Keeping this in mind it's no surprise that only the first few pages of the 22 October 1966 issue on Google Books are from that date and the rest of the pages are the missing pages from 2 April 1966...

When I for the last time years and years ago wrote / rewrote the listing for this single the only source of information that I could find were Billboard chart entries so I used those to estimate a release date for "Can You Blame Me" and then made an estimate of the rough release dates for "You're Only Hurting Yourself" and the other Samar singles based on that.

Unfortunately what I did NOT notice was that there was a bizarre mistake in the scans of the two Billboard issues on Google Books. This is how the magazines still appears on Google Books and for that reason I originally misdated the release date for "Can You Blame Me" and the other Samar singles by 6 months!

Extremely annoying but with more sources to use I have now (December 2022) corrected this and other Samar single entries.

5
The single is listed on two WJMO (Cleveland, Ohio) "Might Mo's Soul - Survey" -lists in November - December the earliest available being "FOR THE WEEK OF November 21, 1966". There is also an interesting comment about this single by "jukebox george" on 45cat.com:

"Track A Copyright as The Best Thing For You, Baby w&m Norbert DeCoteaux & Mike Lendell (c) Eden Music Corp. 9AUG66 EU951763 [Notice 13DEC66 v79 p523]
Track B Copyright as Headed In The Right Direction w&m Norbert DeCoteaux & Mike Lendell (c) Eden Music Corp. 9AUG66 EU951762 [Notice 13DEC66 v79 p289]
Other Copyright filings indicate Mike Lendell = Michael Rashkow"


Mike Lendell aka Michael Rashkow aka Mike Rashkow also worked as an engineer at Ed Chalpin's Studio "76", see the Mike Rashkow interview

6 the single is listed on two WJMO (Cleveland, Ohio) "Might Mo's Soul - Survey" -lists in August - September the earliest available being "FOR THE WEEK OF August 15, 1966"

7 the single is listed on two WJMO (Cleveland, Ohio) "Might Mo's Soul - Survey" -lists in October - November the earliest available being "FOR THE WEEK OF October 24, 1966"

8 a review of the single was published in the 19 February 1966 issue of Cash Box. As often was the case the sides as reviewed were not listed as Samar (judging by the matrix numbers) originally intended, "Wild Does The Wind Blow" is reviewed as side A "Smooth haunting folk oriented ballad" and "Don't Put The Monkey Down" as side B "Funky rocker with strong beat".

9 a review of the single was published in the 4 February 1967 issue of Cash Box.

10 The "Mickey" in Mickey And His Mice was Mickey Fields, a saxophone player from Baltimore. I haven't been able to find a release date for this single. However, according to discogs.com and 45cat.com another single on a different label, Mickey And His Mice "Little Green Apples - Part 1 / Little Green Apples - Part 2" (Bell Records B-750), contains the exact same recordings. This must have been a re-issue / licensing deal so most likely the Bell Records issue came after the Samar issue. 45cat.com dates the single with "Nov 1968", with no source given for this release date it isn't very reliable but I found pictures of two other copies of the single, one listed on eBay had a DJ marking "11/8" and another on discogs.com has a DJ marking "11Nov68" so a November 1968 release date is a good approximate date for now. Which in turn dates the Samar single as being from 1968.

11 I haven't been able to find a release date for the single but a copyright registration for the A side does exist:

MUCH RIGHT MAN; w I. Heigh & M. Cantine,
w & m E. Drennon (Edward A. Drennen)
3 p. C Edward A. Drennen; 27Jun73;
EU415256

So it seems likely that the single would have been released in 1973, it is clear from listening to it that the A side is not a mid 1960s recording. "Much Right Man" is also a remake of "Cracker Jack" released by Mickey And His Mice on Marti Records RI2986 in 1970. The Marti Records single is listed several times on WWIN (Baltimore, Maryland) playlists between May - October 1970 and listed under "REGIONAL BREAKOUTS" (Washington) in Billboard 27 June 1970. The single label gives the location of Marti Records as Baltimore.