The Valentinos — “It’s All Over Now”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 9, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

918) The Valentinos — “It’s All Over Now”

The song that quite possibly broke the Rolling Stones in America was this Bobby Womack-penned stunner that the Valentinos (the Womack brothers) had released as a single about a month earlier. Impresario and disc jockey Murray the K gave it to Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and the rest is history. The Valentinos took the song to #21 on the R&B chart and #94 on the pop chart. The Stones took it to #26 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK. Two classic voices, two classic versions.

ALO recalls that Murray the K gave him the Valentinos’ 45 at a party at the Dakota in NYC in the Stones’ honor during their first U.S. tour:

“Andy, I love the guys; I think they are fabulous. . . . Feel what’s in your hand . . . . [I]t’s for you and the boys. Just take it home and record it. I guarantee it. . . . I just gave you your very first American hit.” . . . the . . . breaking-out-black-but-not-white . . . smasharoonie . . . .

2Stoned

ALO also says that the song would launch the Stones into the Top 30 in the U.S. “for the very first time.” (2Stones). But what about the Stones’ self-penned “Tell Me“, which according to Billboard reached #24 in the U.S. a month earlier? (https://www.billboard.com/artist/the-rolling-stones/chart-history/hsi/). Well, I guess if you can remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there!

As to the Valentinos, Andrew Hamilton writes that:

Friendly Womack Sr. dreamed of fathering five gospel-singing sons before Friendly Jr., Bobby, Harry, Curtis, and Cecil were conceived. . . . [T]he hard-working laborer/preacher groomed them . . . and audiences watched the Womack Brothers perform at churches with Bobby standing on a crate because he was so small. . . . They met Sam Cooke on a gospel tour with the Soul Stirrers in the mid-’50s. The brothers had a row with their father some years later for singing the devil’s music and were thrown out of the house. Cooke had started SAR Records, discussions had begun for the brothers to sign, and there was no better time than right then. A call to Cooke in Los Angeles produced 3,000 dollars to wire as an advance on future royalties. They brought an old Cadillac and motored . . . to California to record for SAR Records . . . . Their first record was credited as the Womack Brothers in 1961. The two gospel sides . . . pleased their father, but didn’t sell many copies. For their second SAR release, they changed to the Valentinos and instead of singing about the Lord, they [went secular] . . . . SAR issued “Looking for a Love” (March 1962); it became a popular rocker on urban radio, particularly in their hometown where many were stunned to hear Reverend Womack’s sons singing rock & roll. . . . The fourth single, “It’s All Over Now,” was released in August 1964 ands was more country-rock than soul . . . . Their last SAR single surfaced in 1964, the same year Sam Cooke was killed at a motel. . . . [I]n 1965, Barbara, Cooke’s widow, dissolved the company. Bobby . . . married Barbara . . . and started testing the solo waters. . . . [Chess and] Jubilee Records issued [a few more of their singles].

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-valentinos-mn0000572313/biography

As to Bobby Womack’s early days, Steve Huey tells us:

[Bobby’s] upbringing was strict and religious, but his father . . . also encouraged his sons to pursue music as he had (he sang and played guitar in a gospel group). In the early ’50s, while still a child, Bobby joined his siblings . . . to form the gospel quintet the Womack Brothers. They were chosen to open a local show for the Soul Stirrers in 1953, where Bobby befriended lead singer Sam Cooke; following this break, they toured the country as an opening act for numerous gospel groups. When Cooke formed his own SAR label, he recruited the Womack Brothers with an eye toward transforming them into a crossover R&B act. Learning that his sons were moving into secular music, Friendly Womack threw them out of the house, and Cooke wired them the money to buy a car and drive out to his Los Angeles offices. The[y] made several recordings for SAR over 1960 and 1961, including a few gospel sides, but Cooke soon convinced them to record R&B and renamed them the Valentinos. In 1962, they scored a Top Ten hit on the R&B charts with “Lookin’ for a Love,” and Cooke sent them on the road behind James Brown to serve a boot-camp-style musical apprenticeship. Bobby eventually joined Cooke’s backing band as guitarist. The Valentinos’ 1964 single “It’s All Over Now,” written by Bobby, was quickly covered by the Rolling Stones with Cooke’s blessing; when it became the Stones’ first U.K. number one, Womack suddenly found himself a rich man.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-womack-mn0000064509/biography

Here are the Stones:

At the TAMI show:

On Red Skelton’s TV show. Maybe because Skelton makes lame jokes about their long hair, Mick Jagger seems about to fall asleep:

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