Crate Digger: BILLY HARNER Don’t Want My Lovin’
Billy Harner Don’t Want My Lovin’ (Deborah Records) 1964
There was a time when I was djing in the not too distant past when I picked up the wrong box of singles to take with me. Very easily done 9not the first time) as many of my boxes look the same, save for a choice sticker here and there. This particular box held no fewer than 10 Billy Harner singles and I played them all. Luckily for me (and the dance floor), Billy Harner was a versatile blue-eyed soul singer that tried his hand at everything from popcorn to garage to northern stompers. I’m sure no one noticed, honest. Unfortunately, I also had to resort to playing Snoopy Dean – Shake ‘n’ Bump, and as its opening line boomed out ‘You’ve heard of the Shake ‘n’ Bake, well this is the Shake ‘n’ Bump..’ the floor cleared. God Damn you Snoopy Dean, I gave you a chance and you let me down! It was the first and last time, my crowd was just not ready for the Shake ‘n’ Bump obviously.
Out of that batch of ten Billy’s, Don’t Want Your Lovin’ is the one disc that I still take out regularly. It’s a jaunty Alto Sax that first catches the ear with this tune, before Billy’s pleading wail comes in to compete with it. First released on the small regional Deborah Records in about 1964 I believe, it was later re-released as the B-Side of the Northern Stomper and Minor Hit ‘Sally Saying Something’ on Karma Sutra. It was exactly the same recording but in order to get round a publishing/ownership issue, Karma Sutra sped the tape up to +8 and credited its writing to ‘Poltergeist’. It was easier to get away with this sort of intellectual property theft in the 1960s apparently.
Here in 2022 when I DJ this tune I like to slow it down by -4 so it has a much more Popcorn feel to it, The Alto Sax becomes less shrill, Billy’s voice a tad less frantic, and breathy, resigned to his loss but more relaxed and less angry. Note to any other DJs or platter speed nerds among you, this can only be achieved if you have the Deborah issue, as I said before later issue having a speed increase of +8 the maxim reduction only achieves the disc playing at its original speed. Are you following? Maths is tricky right?
Don’t take my Word, listen for yourself and see which one you prefer:
BILLY HARNER Don’t Want My Lovin’
Karma Sutra
Deborah
Photos via Discogs
It’s worth noting that when all of Billy’s singles were compiled in 1976 they chose the Karma Sutra version. Still a rights thing maybe rather than a preference.
Anyway, enough of my nerding out. It’s a tune. GO LISTEN!
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