Dennis Coffey - Someone special 1978

This post is dedicated to my friend Mr.George Katsakis and Dennis Coffey. George and Dennis Coffey were together in the group Royaltones



The picture above is a picture of Dennis Coffey and George Katsakis today.



The picture above is a picture of the Royaltones (early 60’s) with Dennis Coffey on Guitar (left) and George Katsakis on sax (front).

Coffey learned to play guitar when he was thirteen in Copper City in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. At the age of fifteen he played on his first record, session backing Vic Gallon on "I'm Gone" on the Gondola record label.[1] In the early 1960s he joined The Royaltones who had had hits with "Poor Boy" in 1958 and "Flamingo Express" in 1961. The Royaltones played sessions with other artists including Del Shannon.
As a member of the Funk Brothers studio band, Coffey played on dozens of recordings for Motown Records, and introduced the wah-wah guitar sound to Motown record producer Norman Whitfield's recordings. He also played on Edwin Starr's "S.O.S. (Stop Her on Sight)," The Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing", and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold". In addition, Coffey scored the blaxploitation film, Black Belt Jones.
In 1971, Coffey recorded "Scorpio" which was a million selling instrumental single that peaked at #6 on the Billboard pop chart. This received a gold disc awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America on 9 December 1971. The follow-up in 1972 was "Taurus", both credited to Coffey and the Detroit Guitar Band. Since then, he has recorded several solo albums, most of them for the Sussex and Westbound labels.





From the last Lp on Westbound label entitled "A Sweet Taste of Sin" in 1978, I have chosen a mellow track. You can enjoy the track "Someone special". Vocals by himself and Cleveland Horne. Produced by himself.





While at Sussex Records Coffey arranged and produced along with Mike Theodore the million selling "Nice To Be With You" by the group, Gallery. Dennis Coffey and George Katsakis did the production of the album entitled “Motor City Magic” by Dennis Coffey in 1985.
In 2004, he published a memoir, Guitars, Bars and Motown Superstars.

Biography by wikipedia


Note: The above posted single is not played in full

I want to thank a huge collector in Greece “G. Poly” who brought Dennis Coffey to my attention in the mid 90s , especially the great album entitled “Back home” in 1977. 

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