As you say, Demon bought out Ace in 1997 and they have re-issued four or five Jimmy Clanton LPs since then, along with lots of other Ace albums.

Although Vincent recorded stereo masters, he rarely put anything out in stereo - even the first few CDs he released thirty years later, were still in mono!

(He hated CDs - he was still releasing 45rpm records in 1990!).

Vincent kept the label going up to 1997, even though he was in bad health, and about a year before he sold out, he issued a Johnny Angel album, using the backing tracks from the old Jimmy Clanton sessions.

Vincent had done this quite a lot! For example, he used to carry the two-track master tape of "Sea Cruise" around in the trunk of his car, offering to record new singers over the original track. The only new version that I recall being released was by Little Shelton in 1971.

Sadly, even though he had money problems, he perhaps did not need to sell out in 1997 - a few months after he did so, "Sea Cruise" was used in a movie, and he started getting back royalties, and he also strated pushing a live tour featuring Jimmy Clanton, Frankie Ford and others which got its own TV series etc.

Vincent died in 2000 - still working and still recording new acts.

Angel now lives and works in Japan, and does 50's shows across the country but he has also had an album on Pat Boone's Gold Label, called "The Bradley Sessions".

Amongst his claims are that he went to school with Elvis, that he played baseball professionally for the New York Yankees but got injured, that Pat Boone had been his manager, that he had ten US Gold Disks, that he worked with Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly, that he was "adopted" by the New York crime boss Joe Colombo, and that when Joe was shot, it was into Johnny Angel's arms he fell!

Anyway, he is still working away in Tokyo, apparently.

• RE: Jimmy Clanton - Venus In Blue Jeans - 1962 - John 05/03/2009 14:54:27 EDT (1)