Eula Cooper "Try" (Tragar 6814)

Eula Cooper "Try" (Tragar 6814)

Today's blog subject is basically a think out loud session. Well, that's not entirely true as I'm typing, and the only sounds I hear are my fingers on the keyboard and a Tony Troutman 45 playing on the turntable. But I describe it as such because I'm working with a lot of sketchy details, none of which are to be taken as fact unless you can independently verify anything I'm writing today.

Eula Cooper is a singer with whom I've had a long standing fascination, partly because of a huge mistake I made. I was working part time at a record shop shortly after moving to Atlanta and found the Atlantic pressing of "Shake Daddy Shake" b/w "Heavenly Father" (Atlantic 2635) and was told by the store owner that it was a Georgia record. I dug it and would have bought it anyway, but Tragar publishing credit got me awfully curious.

Maybe a year or less later, I was in an antique shop where I picked up a VG- (or worse) copy of Eula's debut single, "Let Our Love Grow Higher" b/w "Have Faith In Me" (Super Sound 7002). It played, but really was scratchy. Still, I kept it for a while, then in a brief period of needing cash, put it on ebay, thinking I would turn up a cleaner copy around town if I kept on digging. Well, my friends, I'm here to say that to this day, all I have of that record is the label scan and an mp3 file. At least I had the forethought to record the A side for myself before sending that 45 overseas. I count this as an important learning experience, and one of the bigger mistakes I've made in my years of collecting records. In addition to the important lessons, I also grew to be very fond of Eula Cooper. More specifically, her voice as she - the woman - is still a great mystery to me.

I've been told by various people that she was from Atlanta, Macon and Birmingham, Alabama. I still don't know. I've only met one person claiming to have known her (and not well, mind you) who said she was from Macon. Smart money bets against this given her ties to Jesse Johnson's record labels based in Atlanta. Remember, there were labels in Macon, a city which boasted a stronger history for R&B music than Atlanta did (at least on paper). The point is that all I know about Eula Cooper has been learned from the incomplete stack of her 45s in my collection.

Our selection for today is probably my favorite among the singles I own by Ms. Cooper. Granted, I'm missing three and haven't yet heard two of them but I am hard pressed to think that she could have topped this particular song. Arranged by Tommy Stewart, another Atlanta soul legend, Eula's wonderfully natural voice is complimented by a top shelf horn arrangement and a rhythm section beyond compare. The drums, in particular, just push the song over the top. And then Steward throws in a string section. And a vibraphone!

Like the majority of Cooper's singles, this was probably recorded at Muscle Shoals. In fact, were I to hazard a guess, I'd bet at least a dollar that all of Cooper's singles were recorded at Muscle Shoals. In general, the production value on all of her records is simply better than the majority of records I know were recorded in Atlanta or Macon. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's a pretty strong hunch.

In lieu of my usual discography information given through casual prose, and given my general lack of strong information about Eula Cooper's biographical information, I'll lay out her recorded output as a list-styled discography this time, though for the purposes of this blog, I'd prefer to write about the records the way I have been up to now. Whatever....it looks like only a dozen people or less are reading this anyway.

As for dates, I'm assuming these records to fall between 1967 and 1972. Both the Tragar and Note labels were owned by Jesse J. Jones, who also ran the Baja label, and possibly the Super Sound and Mark IV labels. Just don't quote me on that.

"Let Our Love Grow Higher" b/w "Have Faith In Me" (Super Sound 7002)
"Shake Daddy Shake" b/w "Heavenly Father" (Tragar 6809)
"Shake Daddy Shake" b/w "Heavenly Father" (Atlantic 2635)
"Try" b/w "Love Make Me Do Foolish Things" (Tragar 6814)
"I Can't Help It If I Love You" b/w "Since I Fell For You" (Tragar 6816)
"Standing By Love" b/w "I Need You More" (Note 7100)
"Beggars Can't Be Choosey" b/w "I Need You More" (Note 7208)
"Need You More" b/w "Mr. Henry" (Note 7210)

If I don't have a label scan linked, that means I need a copy of the single for my collection. So get in touch and sell/trade them to me!