Lost & Found, Treasures from the Past

This Is My Story b/w More Peanuts (La Vienteunica) The Valentines - San Antonio, TX 1965/66 King Bee K-103     For about 3-4 years, "This Is My Story" by The Valentines was at the TOP of my want list. I searched high and low and just a week and a half ago I was able to get my very own copy of this EXTREMELY RARE record! Why the caps??? Because, the rarity of this is RIDICULOUS. Why is it so rare? Well first, let's learn a bit about this record.      FIRST OF ALL!!!! This is NOT Richard Barrett's group from NYC who were signed to Rama records.     Released around the year 1965/66, this record is virtually unknown to most people. Like myself when I first heard the song, many people don't even know it exists as a vinyl record! From the get-go, I thought to myself: "It must be an unreleased acetate!" The way the recording of the song sounded was much like that of a deteriorating acetate record. An acetate is a pre-production record meant to either be...

King Bee K-103 Going way back to the second day of school, my very first post to this blog was talking about a Soulful Chicano Group Harmony 45 by a group known as “The Valentines.” No, this is not Richard Barrett’s group on Rama, this is a group of Chicanos out of San Antonio. Needless to say, I’ve FINALLY after SOOOO SOOO long found my own copy! This copy had sat in storage for years and looks to be never played. I will upload the audio soon; here is what I first wrote about the record.   " Pictured above is a very rare and hard to find piece of Chicano Soul history. Unknown to most collectors, this record is a very beautiful cover of the 1955 hit single by  Gene & Eunice . This single comes from San Antonio, TX - presumably from around 1962. The group sounds like a 3 part harmony backed by a strong Wind Section (comprised of Saxophones), and a marimba in the background. As a collector of rare Vocal Group Harmony, this single is at the top of my list of records to find....