George Torrence

In March-April 1968 yet another vocalist clearly influenced by The Godfather Of Soul, James Brown, who went by the professional name George Torrence, led a group called The Naturals (29) with his lovely tenor voice, taking (Mama Come Quick, And Bring Your) Lickin’ Stick, to # 40 on the national R&B charts (it also just edged into the Billboard Pop Hot 100 at # 91) b/w So Long Goodbye as Shout 224 (that’s the 45-rpm covered here). From Washington, D.C., he first recorded for Aladdin Records in 1954 as lead with the local group The Five Pearls with Real Humdinger b/w Please Let Me Know simply billed The Five Pearls on Aladdin 3265. Four years later, fronting a gathering from New York City called The Caribbeans, he cut Too Soon b/w Sweet Little Thing in 1958 billed as “Georgie Torrance & The Caribbeans” for the tiny NYC label Galliant 1003. By 1960, again shown as Georgie Torrance, he was fronting The Dipper's on Go Away b/w (You’ve Been) So Good To Me as King 5376, and when they next turned up at Epic Records in 1961, the billing was George Torrence & The Dippers on Such A Fool Was I b/w Way Over Yonder as Epic 9453. That billing remained the same in 1965 although his approach, which up to now was more Doo-Wop, changed to Soul for Together At Last b/w the very definite Latino-tinged boogaloo Fine Foxey Frame as Duo Disc 117 (a West Coast label which spelled the group’s name as “Dipper’s”). Other than that, the only other single shown George Torrence & The Dippers was the 1978 release Juanita (actual recording date unknown) which came out as King Tut 170 b/w a track by The Clovers, For Sentimental Reasons. Apparently when he left secular music he founded a church in Duncan, Oklahoma in 1992 where he presides as Pastor George Nowlin (his real name?) in Duncan, OK, and has apparently released several Gospel CDs.