Spice - Let There Be Spice (2013 Japan Edition)

An ultra rare soul album from the mid-1970’s, Spice’s “Let There Be Spice” is so rare in fact that members of the original band didn’t even know the album existed until many years after it was released. Led by South Bronx, NY native Richard Brown who, along with two friends, started the vocal group Spice Of Life - given the name by the original lead singer of Main Ingredient, Donald McPherson, who was a close personal friend of Brown’s. After adding a rhythm section, the group shortened the name to Spice. After many local gigs on the club circuit, the group eventually got signed to Lloyd Price’s LPG label, which was financed by the boxing promoter Don King. The group recorded a whole album worth of material with the great Leon Pendarvis helping with musical arrangements, but as far as they knew, only a lone 45 was ever released. The details are sketchy, but Brown vaguely remembers a disagreement between Don King and the group’s management company. The album didn’t come out on the LPG label as expected, but on the TSG label, also financed by King. The group was never informed and Brown had no idea the album was ever released until more than twenty five years after the fact! Listening to the album now, Brown realizes how far ahead of its time some of the original material was. Finally available for all to enjoy in the digital domain, this rare soul classic originally released in 1976 finally gets its just due. All selections have been newly remastered.