Reprise Records is an American major record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It was mostly inactive from 1976 to 1987. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Bros. Records, often under the name Warner-Reprise Records. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include but are not limited to Enya, Michael Bublé, Eric Clapton, Green Day, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Deftones, Mastodon, Josh Groban, Disturbed, Idina Menzel, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Gerard Way, Dwight Yoakam, and Never Shout Never. (More from Wikipedia)
The first release by the Primitives was "Help Me" b/w "Let Them Tell". Both sides of this monster single are included on the English Freakbeat, Volume 1 CD. Bruce Eder has this lavish description of the single in his Allmusic article:
"[The Primitives] could and should have been one of the top groups on the Pye label, based on their rough-and-ready debut 'Help Me', a cover of a Sonny Boy Williamson [II] number that was beautifully raw and authentic, and wonderfully intense across an astonishingly long three minutes and 39 seconds, [John E.] Soul's harmonica and [Geoff] Eaton's guitar keeping the verisimilitude right up there like a Chess Records session gone out of control, amid [Jay] Roberts' ever more intense romantic lamentations. The group-authored B-side, 'Let Them Tell', was almost as much a showcase for the harmonica and rhythm section as for Roberts' singing. Amazingly, that November 1964 release even made it out in America, as part of the very short-lived licensing agreement between Pye and Philadelphia-based Cameo-Parkway Records, which also issued the Kinks' first U.S. single, before Pye headed for the greener pastures of Warner-Reprise."
(May 2015)
