Eddie Daye (July 26, 1930 – August 6, 2009) – Don't Give Up (1969)

The singer/songwriter and Dayco Records owner produced Betty Wilson's inspirational anthem, arranged by Donny Hathaway.

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Eddie Daye was a singer/songwriter, producer, record label owner, and an original member of the Washington, D.C.-based R&B vocal group the Four Bars.

Born in Durham, North Carolina, Edward Jasper Daye’s family moved to Washington, D.C. when he was young. He and his friend Melvin Butler sang together in a gospel group called the Spiritualaires while enlisted in the Army’s Special Services during the Korean War. After their discharge in 1953, they recruited two more friends they had grown up with in Southeast D.C. and became the Four Bars Of Rhythm, soon renamed the Four Bars. They played all over the D.C. and Virginia area and ventured at least as far South as the historic Durham Armory in N.C.

In the spring of 1954 they signed to Jubilee Records, whose Josie subsidiary immediately released their blues-soaked debut single “Grief By Day, Grief By Night” written by Daye. Josie issued two more of their singles, the last being the heartbreak ballad “Why Do You Treat Me This Way” (1955) which Daye also wrote. One unreleased track from this period was the superb “How You Move Me” (1954).

Over the next several years, they released a string of singles on small labels based in New York, Detroit, and Philadelphia. In 1962, Daye launched his own label, Dayco Records, with the hopes of better promoting the group. Their first release on Dayco that year was the beautiful ballad “Try Me One More Time” with a more upbeat number “Comin' On Home” on the flip, both written by Daye.

Dayco Records did not take off. The following year “Try Me One More Time” was re-issued as the B-side to the stellar Daye-penned R&B jam “What's On Your Mind” on another label, Shelley Records, the in-house label of a large New York independent pressing plant.

The single’s back cover showcased an inspired promotional idea, announcing the group would conduct a National Amateur Contest while on tour.

Around 1964, singer Betty Wilson became the first female member of the Four Bars. Two years later her voice added a magic touch to their phenomenal single “Guess Who Loves You,” co-written by Carl Kidd and producer Harry Bass and arranged by the great Dale Warren. He also arranged the B-side, a heartbreak tale written by Daye titled “What Am I Gonna Do.” It was released on the D.C. label Shrine Records, run by Eddie Singleton and his wife Raynoma Gordy Singleton, aka Miss Ray, whose second husband had been Berry Gordy in the early sixties and helped him found Motown.

The upbeat track was destined to become a Northern Soul anthem. The last time an original copy changed hands on Discogs, it went for a cool $4500. Very few copies of records released on Shrine survive today, one reason being that the label’s warehouse and all its back stock were destroyed in a fire during the April, 1968 riots in D.C. sparked by Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

In 1967, Daye resurrected Dayco Records, this time with the help of a talented young arranger named Donny Hathaway who was studying music on a fine arts scholarship at Howard University. The revamped label’s first release was credited to Betty Wilson and The 4 Bars, the deep soul cut “All Over Again,” written by Wilson and arranged by Daye. It was backed with the stellar love song “I’m Yours,” co-written by Wilson and baritone group member Ellsworth Grimes, and the first Dayco cut to be arranged by Hathaway. Daye produced both sides. Original copies today sell for $1800 on average.

The next release on Dayco was the phenomenal upbeat jam “Lean On Me (When Heartaches Get Rough)” (1967), b/w the emotional cut “Why (I've Got To Know).” Both sides of this $500 record by Eddie Jasper Daye’s Four Bars were written and produced by Daye, and arranged by Hathaway.

Donny Hathaway’s association with Dayco was brief, since he left Howard University and D.C. later in 1967 just before completing his degree because he had job offers from bigger labels including Curtom Records in Chicago. One of the final tracks he arranged for the label was Wilson’s inspirational anthem “Don’t Give Up,” which she wrote, released in 1969. It was produced by Daye, who also wrote and produced its B-side “Anything To Please My Man.”

Happy Heavenly Birthday to the great Eddie Daye.

Further info:

“The 4 Bars (based on an interview with Eddie Daye),” by Marv Goldberg, Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks, 2005.

#soul #TheFourBars #DaycoRecords #DonnyHathaway #EddieDaye