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THE SOUND OF PHILADELPHIA
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BUNNY SIGLER
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MORE SOUL INFORMATION
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PHILADELPHIA SOUL LEGEND
A REAL SOUL ARTIST
Bunny, real name Walter, Sigler, was born in Philadelphia in March 1941. He was one of eight children to father Henry and mother Susie. He was apparently quickly given the nick-name “Bunny” after the Easter bunny, because he was born, either 2 days before Easter or one day after it, depending on which of the two stories I was given is correct. He was said to have been born with one fully grown front tooth, making the Bunny tag even more apt.. Predictably enough he first gained his first singing experience in his local church, reputedly at the age of three! His Mother used to take him along to the local Baptist church, The Emmanuel Baptist Church and he enjoyed the passionate and joyful singing on display. As a young boy his first love had in reality been basketball and originally he desperately wanted to become a professional player but, after an accident, he devoted himself more to his second love, music. Basketball’s loss was a significant gain to Soul music, thankfully.
As a young teenager in the fifties he was involved in a local Doo-Wop group, The Opals, with two of his brothers and another guy, called Murphy. The group got a number of gigs, even though they were all still at school. Some nights the rest of the group failed to turn up and Bunny would complete the set alone. He was still with the group but he was fast becoming an established solo act around the local supper club circuit where he is said to have worked under various names, including O’Sigler, Sligowitz and De Siglio. His performances were earning a strong reputation for the passion he delivered and he was soon dubbed “Mr Emotions”. He was a talented guy, not just a singer, he played guitar, piano, organ, trombone and bass. In 1959 he cut a song called “Promise Me” for Hilo records, a subsidiary of ABC, with very little success. He continued with the live performances at clubs like Music City on Columbia Avenue in Philadelphia, giving his all and endeavoring, and succedding to improve all the time.
After one of these appearances he was approached by a local DJ, called Cannonball, who having liked what he had seen and heard, took him to sign a record deal with the tiny Craig label. They released “Come On Home”, a version of a Junior Parker song and on the records label he was billed as Bunny “Mr. Emotions” Sigler. He also recorded for the long running Philly based V Tone label, with them he cut “Promise Me” backed by another local vocal group, The Cruisers. He also wrote a song for the group “Picture Us”.
John Madara and David White were very “hot” producers around 1965 having scored a national, and indeed international success with blue eyed soul man, Len Barry on the hits, “1 2 3” and “Like A Baby”. They took Bunny into the studio at 290 Broad Street and because of the pairs previous success they were able to lease a few of the resulting tracks to Decca records. Decca where hoping for more of the same success, as they had experienced with the Len Barry material but unfortunately no real commercial success was to come Bunny’s way. Many years later one of the tracks, “For Crying Out Loud”, would gain appreciation from the UK Northern Soul scene, but it was to be another 2 years before Madara and White would finally strike gold with Bunny.
PARKWAY
Being a native of Philadelphia in the sixties meant there was a wealth of highly successful, locally based labels. All of these were in direct competition and were constantly on the look out for fresh talent. These included Swan, Jamie and of course the legendary Cameo Parkway company. Bunny was signed up to the Parkway label in 1967 and began recording sessions again with John Madara, White and an up and coming writer, producer, Leon Huff. The legendary Joe Renzetti was in charge of arrangements and with this talented team he cut a string of fine , mainly uptempo motownesque recordings. His first Parkway 45 was the storming Leon Huff song “Girl Don’t Make Me Wait”. The song had proved to be too high for other vocalists but Bunny handled the song with immaculate ease. The record gained a little local action, but it was another song that would lay dormant until re-discovery by the Northern Soul scene on the other side of the Atlantic, in the following decade. Due to the songs incredible popularity at Wigan Casino, and other venues throughout the UK in the early seventies, it was released on the UK London label.
John Madara came up with the idea of re-working some old standards in the then current uptown Soul / Motown style. He chose Shirley And Lee’s “Let The Good Times Roll” and “Feel So Good”. The formula worked and the song soared up to reach number 22 in the national charts in June of 1967. They followed this with a similar re-workings of The Falcons “You’re So Fine” and Clyde McPhatter’s “Lovey Dovey”. This again made the charts but the follow up original composition from Leon Huff “Follow Your Heart”, faired less well, destined to be yet another future Northern Soul classic.
Following the phenomenal success of “Let The Good Times Roll”, Parkway released an album of the same name and things where going fine for Bunny. However the Cameo Parkway company was experiencing financial difficulty around that time and the album was eventually released under a distribution deal with M.G.M. The Cameo owner, Alan Klien, was being investigated for alleged illegal payments to Radio stations for extra plays of Cameo material throughout 1967. Whatever the reasons, in 1968 he wound up the Cameo operation. The studios were hired out to any producers wanting to use them and among the first to make use of the facilities were the up and coming partnership of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff . The same year as Cameo’s demise they had a huge success with The Intruders “Cowboys To Girls” and their new “Philly Sound” was beginning to emerge. Former Cameo engineer, Joe Tarsia decided to buy an old studio on North 12th Street, then called Sound Plus studios, and changed the name to Sigma.
In 1969 Gamble and Huff did a deal with Leonard Chess and started their Neptune label and Bunny once again had a record label. His performances for Neptune shone with the polish and sophistication that Gamble and Huff had in abundance and once again his recording career was appearing to get off the ground again. He was also starting to cut his teeth behind the scenes in the studio. In July 1970 Chess founder and GRT owner, Leonard Chess passed away. Neptune was left hanging without a major distributor and quickly folded.
Gamble and Huff re-grouped and when they returned and the mighty Philadelphia International label was born Billy was brought in as a significant part of the whole. Not just as another performer, he was to become a prolific writer for the company and his early contributions included the wonderful “Sunshine” and “Who Am I” for The O’Jays and “I’m Gonna Make It This Time” for Billy Paul, all in 1972.
He went on to work with many other acts in those glory days of the Philly Sound including - Archie Bell & The Drells, The Whitehead Brothers, Patti Labelle, Shirley Jones, Lou Rawls, Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes and many others. He also cut did some excellent solo work, including one of my all-time favourite mid tempo numbers, the quite superb “Somebody Loves You”. His solo albums for the label included - “Keep Smilin’” and “That’s How Long I’ve Been Loving You” in 1974 (Incidentally, Gerri Grainger also helped on that album) and “My Music” in 1976. It was on that album that Bunny used local Philly outfit, Instant Funk, for a lot of the backing, a group he would work with later at Salsoul, although Bunny often played many of the instruments himself as he blossomed into a true all round Soul artist.
Always busy, Bunny did not just limit himself exclusively to the Philadelphia International label during the early seventies. He was involved in writing / producing many great recordings, including:- Joe Simon –“Drowning In The Sea Of Love”, The Whispers -“Bingo” and Jackie Moore –“Sweet Charlie Babe”. He also worked with The Vibrations, Gladys Knight’s backing boys, The Pips, first solo album and Philip Wynne.
Bunny began to work a lot with Instant Funk, a local Philly outfit of 10 singers and musicians. They recorded an album for Philadelphia International off-shoot TSOP. The mainly disco orientated "Get Down On The Philly Jump" in 1976. Two years later Bunny and Instant Funk signed to Goldmind, owned by the legendary Philly guitarist Norman Harris, although Bunny was still continued to contribute to PIR. Goldmind was distributed by Salsoul, a company that was quickly emerging as a powerful black music label in the eighties. Bunny and Instant Funk soon moved to the Salsoul logo and they had chart success in 1979 with "I Got My Mind Made Up". A huge disco monster that even reached the UK top 50 pop charts. They followed this success with more Disco/Funk orientated tracks, including “The Funk Is On” in 1980 and “No Stoppin That Rockin” in 1982.
At Salsoul, Bunny released his own "By The Way You Dance" in 1979, a classic Salsoul disco hit and contributed to many other artists success for the label e,g, Loleatta Holloway, First Choice and Double Exposure. In the eighties he worked with Chaka Khan and Eugene Wilde. In 1986 he released a solo 45 on Star Island records – “What Would You Do Without Love”.
With such a large back catalogue, some of which were pretty successful, recordings, today Bunny is quite comfortable financially. He drives limousine decorated inside with rabbits, called his “Bunnymobile”. He is apparently sometimes to be seen wearing a dracula cape, that he often wore in the studio and has recently made appearances singing with another Philadelphia stalwart, Patti Labelle.
J.C.ORRITT, August 2000.
Acknowledgements –
Elizabeth Gold (WKCR – FM, New York), Ralph Tee (Who’s Who in Soul), Tony Cummings (The Story Of Philadelphia.
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