Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Baby Huey

The Baby Huey Story / The Living Legend

2025 · Curtom (2025 reissue on Rhino Reserve) RES1 971650 / 081227811686 · Stereo · US · LP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Curtom (2025 reissue on Rhino Reserve)
Catalogue number	RES1 971650 / 081227811686
Year	2025
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP, gatefold
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Soul/Funk - Psychedelic Soul
Producer	Curtis Mayfield
Performer / Orchestra	The Babysitters
Musicians	Baby Huey [James Ramey] (lead vocals), The Babysitters - Melvin 'Deacon' Jones (keyboards), Plato Jones (guitar), Otis 'Nut' Anderson, Bobby McClure and other members of the backing band, with additional Chicago session musicians associated with Curtis Mayfield's Curtom sessions

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  FRP RES1-971650-A 081227811686 CB 45636.1 (3)
Side B:  FRP RES1-971650-B 081227811686 CB 45636.2 (3)

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1971 - Original Curtom stereo LP, CRS 8007
2009 - Hip-O Select CD/LP reissue - no documented sale
2025 - Rhino Reserve 180g LP, cut from analog tape by Chris Bellman  <- this copy

This Pressing

2025 Rhino Reserve 180-gram reissue - lacquers cut from analog tape, pressed for the Rhino Reserve audiophile series.

The Album

Baby Huey, born James Ramey, fronted the Chicago soul-funk group Baby Huey and the Babysitters through the late 1960s, building a reputation as a ferocious live performer whose towering size and raw, gospel-rooted voice made him a local legend before he ever had a hit record. Curtis Mayfield, newly running his own Curtom label, took an interest in the group and began producing sessions blending Huey's voice with the psychedelic soul and social commentary that defined Mayfield's own work, reworking songs by Sam Cooke, John and Michelle Phillips, and several of Mayfield's own Impressions-era compositions into extended, horn-driven funk workouts. Huey struggled with drug addiction and weight-related health problems throughout the sessions, and died of a heart attack in October 1970 before the album was finished, leaving Mayfield and engineers to complete and sequence the record from what existed. Released in 1971 as a posthumous tribute, the album became a touchstone of raw, unpolished psychedelic soul, prized for Huey's unrestrained vocal power over deep Chicago funk grooves. It found only modest commercial notice on release but was rediscovered decades later by funk and hip-hop crate-diggers, its breaks sampled repeatedly by producers drawn to the intensity of tracks like the extended reworking of Curtis Mayfield's own catalog. It stands today as one of the defining posthumous soul albums, cementing Baby Huey's reputation as a nearly-forgotten talent whose brief career left an outsized mark on funk and soul music.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Listen To Me
2. Mama Get Yourself Together
3. A Change Is Going To Come

Side 2

1. Mighty, Mighty
2. Hard Times
3. California Dreamin'
4. Running
5. One Dragon Two Dragon

The Label

The disc label on this copy is the modern red Rhino Reserve design - a crown-and-shield 'RESERVE' wordmark over a 'RHINO' oval, '180 GRAM' and 'CUT FROM ANALOG TAPE' banners, side number in a circle at upper right, and a cream title panel below, with no deep groove and 'Made in U.S.A.' printed in the rim text. This is the label used for Rhino's audiophile Rhino Reserve series launched in the 2020s, distinct from the original 1971 Curtom labels the front cover's small Curtom logo evokes. Because the disc label itself carries the Rhino Reserve design rather than a Curtom design, this copy is placed as a modern reissue pressing, not an original-era Curtom pressing, regardless of the vintage cover photography reproduced on the jacket.

Fidelity

The lacquers for this reissue were cut from analog tape by a noted mastering engineer at a respected Los Angeles mastering house, and the record was pressed at a plant known for quality modern audiophile pressings. Collectors generally rate the Rhino Reserve series as a faithful, dynamic-sounding upgrade over compressed digital-era reissues, though the scarce original 1971 stereo pressing remains the version prized above all others for its era-correct cut. Within the album's own reissue history this 180-gram pressing ranks as the current top-tier commercially available option, sitting below only the increasingly hard-to-find original pressing in overall esteem.

Notes

This is the 2025 Rhino Reserve 180-gram reissue of the 1971 Curtom album, identified by its RES1 971650 / 081227811686 catalogue number and matching matrix runouts on both sides. The red Rhino Reserve labels, 'CUT FROM ANALOG TAPE' banner and 'Made in U.S.A.' rim text place it firmly in that modern series rather than among the original-era Curtom pressings. It is not the scarce 1971 first pressing that commands strong collector prices; it is a current in-print audiophile remaster of the same program.

Documenting collections

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