The Blenders

With a name that sounds like a section of an appliance store, the vocal group the Blenders made their debut at Harlem's important Apollo Theater in 1949 and snagged an exclusive recording contract with Decca shortly thereafter. As to how the situation stood at the termination of said contract, there seems to be several different stories. In one version, the group was dumped by the Decca-MGM empire, only to be picked up by savvy music business independent producer, songwriter, publisher, and label manager Joe Davis. In another version it is Davis that holds the hand of power, forming his own Jay-Dee enterprise and then spiriting off several groups, leaving the big-label honchos in tears. "He not only took the Crickets away from M-G-M, but the Blenders too," claims Marv Goldberg in his R&B Notebooks. Davis had produced a Blenders session for Decca late in the group's contract, utilizing ace players such as bassist Milt Hinton, pianist Gil Stevens, and guitarist Everett Barksdale for a truly hip sound. Sub-promotion was the best way to describe what happened next. Despite having already released nine records on Decca, the Davis-produced sides were promoted as being the work of "a vocal group new to records...one which will surely establish itself as one of the finest around." Foul-ups such as this were part of Davis' decision to terminate his production and A&R activities with Decca and go on his own. In the spring of 1953, Davis put the group in the studio for the second time, this time liberated from all corporate controls. The most famous track from this set of recordings turned out to be a song entitled "Don't Play Around With Love," as the group was apparently instructed to record an alternate take in which the chorus would be sung as "Don't f*ck around with love."...