A friend sent this along as a "birth-day" present. It's Shirley Raymond's only release. I'm not sure, but could be this side's never been comped. Google makes me think it hasn't, but I have a hard time accepting that a cut this good hasn't been re-issued somewhere, sometime.
It's not as though it's unknown. Mr. Finewine likes the tune a good bit. He's played it at least four times on his show, which given the seemingly infinite depth of that man's crates says quite a lot. But ya know, his playlists are the only online evidence I can find of it getting spins, which makes me think the 45 is a tough-ish find. Certainly I didn't have an mp3 of "What A Wedding Day" until I ripped my own.
The flip-side, "You're Gonna Miss Me", shows up here and there, but as far as I can tell never tied to comp or even a label scan. I'm thinking most or all were sourced from Sir Shambling's site where a download has been available for some time. Could be it's never been comped either.....it's just "around".
Only saying because I'm surprised. Raymond's voice is top notch, it's a seriously good record.
The the interplay of bass and drums is the thing on "What A Wedding Day". Sir Shambling suggests that John Boudreaux is on the sticks, and as far as I'm concerned Charles Mingus might as well be playing the bass [that's a very small joke]. You can read what Shambling has to say and pick up the flip-side where Raymond really shows off her pipes, here.
As a side note....the Amistad Research Center in Hartford, Conn. has put up a small exhibition called "Keeping The Music Alive" to celebrate their recent acquisition of Harold Battiste's papers. Too bad it's not closer to home, there a few items in the show I'd like to see. One of the exhibits is a copy of this 45. Since I can't find a discography, I'm taking that to mean this is first record issued on the At Last label.
Hope ya'll enjoy....
