Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

King Coleman

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea
Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler

Mills Music Inc. (ASCAP)

Vi-Tose Record Co.

(Tasty Records)

102

One of his most obscure and rarer, probably from 1963, right before his two Togo Records releases, unless it was right after them ?

 

Carlton Coleman (1932-2010), compere, singer, disc jockey and preacher. He first recorded with Hal Singer Orchestra (Savoy, 1952).  Many records followed later on Karen (1958), Dade (1959-1960), Symbol (1960), Columbia (1960), Kenco (1961), Dade (1961), Atlantic (1961), Togo (1963), Sylvia (1964), Dade again (1965), Port (1966), Fairmount (1966), King (1967), Big Apple (1967) and Brunswick (1967, as Rev. Carlton Coleman).  He also can be heard throughout the LP "Apollo Saturday Night) (Atco 33-159) a  various artists album  recorded live at the Apollo Theatre in New York, with King Coleman as Master of Ceremonies (1964)

 

In 1957 R&B station WMBM hired Coleman and gave him a morning show that was the place to break hits locally, according to Miami music mogul Henry Stone, who then ran both Tone Distributors and Dade Records. "I was a Veejay distributor," Stone recalls, "and they gave me a Jerry Butler record, 'For Your Precious Love.' I gave it to King and he must've played it every fifteen minutes. In between spins he announced the number of times he'd played it! That broke the record completely. I'll never forget it."

"He was so aggressive!" says Reid. "King had this voice that just made you pay attention. If he had something to say, he'd say it to your face. You never worried about him calling you a motherfucker behind your back, because he'd say anything to your face. That's why it meant something when he played a song three times in a row."

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