ROSE BATTISTE.....DETROIT EMPRESS

Rose Battiste was born in Detroit in 1947 and grew-up on the Motor City's east side with her sister and two brothers. Her mother, who was a frustrated entertainer, encouraged her young daughter to try and make it as a professional singer. At 15 she made her recording debut in the Continental studio on 12th Street, where Don Mancha produced a song called I'm Yours For A Lifetime for local musical entrepreneur Sam Motley. Rose remembers that, "My whole family came to the session and my grandmother took off her shoes and danced across the floor." But sadly the song doesn't seem to have made it onto any of Sam's various record labels, such as SA-MO or M & M.

After leaving school one afternoon she walked across Grand River, to number 6519, where she had an impromptu audition at the Thelma Recording Company's store front office.
Her warm reception made her start hanging out at the mom and pop operation, eventually teaming up with writer - producer Don Davis, and Joey "Kingfish". Rose joined other Thelma recording artists on gigs around Detroit, most notably at the famed 20 Grand on 14th Street. Radio-jock Martha Jean "The Queen" started hosting sock-hops in the club's Gold Room that were titled Monday Night Swing. Rose's two Thelma sides were recorded at Detroit's United Sound Studios on 2nd Avenue when she was just 16 years old. I Can't Leave You has Don Davis' customary stamp of high quality, with watertight production and a strong beat that typifies the emerging Detroit sound.

The flip, Someday, belies Rose's tender age and she told me how she overcame her teenage shyness to deliver such a vocal punch, "Mrs. Coleman said to me, 'turn around with your back to us and face the wall,' and that's how I did it!"

Unfortunately the 45, like other Thelma releases, didn't achieve the success that it deserved. Once things started to dissolve at Thelma, Rose followed Don to the Golden World studios on West Davison, where he'd established a new base.

Her Ric-Tic sides were co-written by Bob Hamilton, who told Rose to sing Holding Hands straight, without infusing any passion, or as he put it, "Blues-ing it up."
This Ric-Tic release immediately followed the successful records Hungry for Love and Edwin Starr's Agent 0-0-Soul, which inevitably shoved Rose's 45 into promotional oblivion.

Her next release on Golden World, Sweetheart Darling which has a Diana Ross sound.

Golden World had become too Motown-esque for Berry Gordy's liking; he bought Mr. Ed Wingate's company in September of 1966 and the take-over left most of his artists searching for a new recording home.

Rose again followed Don Davis, this time to Solid Hitbound, a production company that had been formed at Golden World with ex-radio DJ LeBaron Taylor and station manager George White. Their labels included Groovesville, Revilot and Solid Hit and boasted George Clinton, Mike Terry and other talented Detroit musicians and writers.

Rose's tremendous up-tempo Revilot double-sider, I Miss My Baby b/w Hit And Run, followed in the wake of Darrell Banks' hugely popular Open The Door To Your Heart (Revilot 201). Steve Mancha's Don't Make Me A Storyteller (Groovesville 1005) also proved to be a big regional hit, so it was another case of being in the right place at the wrong time. The company's promotion drive was focused on these two 45s, leaving hers to sink without trace.

Consequently it's now a highly sought-after disc.

The Parliament's Top 20 smash I Wanna Testify (Revilot 207), was released simultaneously to her underrated I'll Still Wait For You and unkindly condemned it to the land of flops. Rose's fine vocal delivery and the polished work of Mike Terry and Leon Ware deserved better.

1. I Miss My Baby
2. Holding Hands
3. Come Back In A Hurry
4. I Still Wait For You
5. Hit & Run
6. That's What He Told Me
7. Someday
8. Sweetheart Darling
9. I Just Can't Leave You

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