"Walkin' on My Mind" was a hit for

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

singer

Dianne Brooks Gwendolyn Dianne Brooks (January 3, 1939 – April 29, 2005), was a soul, r&b and jazz singer from New Jersey. With the Three Playmates, Brooks recorded several songs in 1957. She moved to Toronto shortly thereafter. Her part in Canadian soul m ...

. Released in 1969, it was the first single released by

Revolver Records Recreational Records was a British record label set up in 1981 by the Bristol record shop and distributor Revolver Records. Originally formed as an independent record label with its own distribution as part of The Cartel (record distributor), t ...

. It was also Brooks' first release on a Canadian owned label. It is also an example of how the quality of a song can activate a record label.

Background

"Walkin' on My Mind" bw "Need to Belong" was a Mort Ross production. It was released in February, 1969 on the Revolution Records' subsidiary,

Revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

. It was also released as "Walking On My Mind" in the United States on Ray Charles'

Tangerine The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in color. Its scientific name varies. It has been treated as a separate species under the name ''Citrus tangerina'' or ''Citrus'' × ''tangerina'', or treated as a variety of ''Citrus retic ...

label, cat no. TRC 993. The song started off in 1969 as one of two demos at a newly built recording studio that was set to open for business later that year in August. It wasn't the intention of the studio owners to start off with a record company. Mort Ross,

Doug Riley Douglas Brian Riley, CM (April 12, 1945 – August 27, 2007) was a Canadian musician, also known as Dr. Music. He spent two decades with the Famous People Players as its musical director, besides his participation on over 300 album projects ...

and their engineer, Englishman, Terry Brown wanted to build a studio with recording facilities superior to what was in Canada at the time. However Dianne Brooks' vocal work on the two Doug Riley compositions changed things. The songs were deemed to be too good to remain unreleased. As a result of this Revolver Records came into being.

Distribution

For Canadian distribution in Canada, the

Compo Company Compo Company Ltd. was Canada's first independent record company. The Compo Company was founded in 1918 in Lachine, Quebec, by Herbert Berliner, an executive of Berliner Gramophone of Canada and the oldest son of disc record inventor Emile Berli ...

was chosen. Revolution's chief, Mort Ross had travelled to New York to set up the distribution deal with Ray Charles'

label for the current record. The deal also involved any future releases from Brooks. For English distribution Morgan Records was chosen. The record was released in New Zealand on the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

record label.

Chart performance

By April 21, 1969, the song had entered the ''

RPM Weekly ''RPM'' ( and later ) was a Canadian music-industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. ''R ...

'' Canadian Content Chart at #10. By May 2, it reached #4 on the RPM chart. It got to #67 nationally.Canaukstan Music
Dianne Brooks, Walkin' on My Mind / Need to Belong - 7" by Michael Panontin
/ref>

Releases

References

{{reflist 1969 songs 1969 singles Tangerine Records (1962) singles Revolver Records singles