Reissues Spotlight Vintage R

Los Angeles’ Specialty Records will probably always be best remembered as the musical home of Little Richard, but the new “Legends of Specialty” reissue series demonstrates that the R&B-oriented; company was far more than a one-artist operation.

Though Specialty also helped introduce such noteworthy post-World War II vocalists as Sam Cooke and Lloyd Price, the first six editions in the new series spotlight Jesse Belvin, Jimmy Liggins, Joe Liggins, Percy Mayfield, Roy Milton and Larry Williams.

“This series is designed to expose the range and depth of our catalogue,” said Beverly Rupe, president of Specialty and daughter of label founder Art Rupe. The next four albums in the series--featuring Cooke and Price, among others--will be released early next year. Each CD in the series, supervised by singer and pop historian Billy Vera, contains approximately two dozen songs.

Eleven years before Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” in 1956, Roy Milton released a double-sided hit (“R.M. Blues” and “Milton’s Boogie”) on Rupe’s Juke Box Records that not only established Milton as a key figure in the evolution of R&B;, but also gave Rupe the capital to develop his record company, whose name he soon changed to Specialty.

Of the other artists featured in the first group of albums, Larry Williams may be the best known to today’s pop-rock audience because the Beatles recorded three of his songs: “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” “Bad Boy” and “Slow Down.”

Mayfield, however, is probably the most respected of the artists in this set. A singer and songwriter of exceptional talent, Mayfield’s first Specialty hit, 1950’s “Please Send Me Someone to Love,” remained his most popular record, but “Hit the Road, Jack,”--recorded by Ray Charles--is probably his best-known song.

But the Belvin album is in many ways the most intriguing, because his smooth vocal style so richly reflected the doo-wop strains of early Los Angeles R&B; that were defined by such records as the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” (a song co-written by Belvin) and “Dream Girl” (a Belvin duet with Marvin Phillips). The album also includes a dozen previously unreleased tracks or demos--most recorded for one of the labels John Dolphin ran in the ‘50s.

The Liggins brothers both dealt in an urban jump-blues style that, Vera points out in his liner notes, was a link between swing and rock. Joe, the elder Liggins, had the most hits, including “The Honeydripper” (on Exclusive Records in 1945) and “Pink Champagne” (on Specialty in 1950).

IN THE STORES: Albums that are either new in CD or have been shifted from main-line to budget packages include volumes 1 and 2 of Joan Baez’s “Joan Baez in Concert” (Vanguard), Bob Dylan’s “Shot of Love” (Columbia), Fairport Convention’s debut album (Warner Bros.) and Bette Midler’s “Songs for the New Depression” and “Thighs and Whispers” (Atlantic).