by Stu Green, Swarthmore, PA

It was late spring, 1963 and I was taking summer school courses at UofP. My radio was blasting WDAS-AM when all of a sudden, this came over the airwaves: “Star time ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready for star time?” It was Fats Gonders’ introduction of “the hardest workin’ man in show business…Jaaames Brown!!”

And there it was—horns blasting, the crowd screaming, and James hadn’t even opened his mouth yet. I was floored by the sound of it—raw and real. Before the song was even over, I was out the door and taking a bus ride to 52nd St in West Philly, where I bought a lot of my records. I rushed into the store and told the man behind the counter I had to have the new James Brown. He smiled and handed me a pad that already had a dozen names on it. “We only got 2 copies. That’s the waiting list for when new ones come in.”

But I wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I pulled a dollar out of my pocket and said “that’s for you” if you sell me one of your two. The clerk pocketed my dollar and made the sale.

When I got back to my dorm room, I excitedly put the record on my low-fi record player, and noticed that ‘Apollo’ on the label was mis-spelled ‘Appollo’.

Years later, I learned that King records president Syd Nathan had thought so little of JB @ Apollo, he’d only pressed 5,000 initial copies. Only the first 5,000 have the mis-spelling on the label. So it’s quite rare and quite valuable. That $1 bribe was the best investment I’ve ever made.