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Posted By: John on: 06/22/2012 08:24:19 EDT
Subject: Billy Harner - She's Almost You - 1969

Message Detail:

One of the thrills of my vinyl record collecting, about the mid to late
'80's, was finding Billy's regional "hit" songs on mint 45 singles
(Berlin, NJ Mart) at $1.00 each, out in the open, even his only album,
"She's Almost You", at (defunct) The Record Hunter, Levittown,
Pennsylvania, maybe $15.00, still sealed - all prior to internet
popularity. They are now kept under lock and key; even his (only) (LP)
album was gone when I last checked eBay. I have many thanks for Bob
Pantano, who works independently, featured on WOGL-FM, for refreshing my
memory of Billy's hits. I knew Billy probably lived in the NJ area, my
friend Mike checked his phone book. He found what seemed to be a hair
stylist, in Camden, New Jersey, with a Harner name. Could it have been
Billy? I'm sure it was. He has moved a couple times, but (still) resides
in New Jersey. I was hoping to get Billy to autograph the still sealed
LP I found, but never did. I never opened the LP, assumed it was
rechanneled (fake) Stereo. Not too long ago, I bought it again, on eBay,
but have nothing to play it.

While Collectables published one of Billy's songs, on a WOGL related CD,
it was mastered from a 45 single (vinyl record). Others in the reissue
industry told me licensing Billy's songs was a nightmare; not even sure
what Collectables published was legit.

It was nice to see Billy open a web site, but didn't participate in the,
now closed, chat forum. He kept recording over the more recent years,
cut one or more CDs, but they didn't gain much popularity, one was even
given to me by a dear friend.

Billy's physique, when I found a photo of him with Sally Starr, on the
internet (WVLT-FM, Vineland, NJ, live broadcast), reminded me of a Joe
Cocker, even similar sounding (rough) singing.

Since I'm running low on interesting songs to salute, I thought I'd
search the internet for Billy Harner. To my surprise, I found a (30)
song compilation of his, but in binary file form (no CD). It appears it
was published about 2008-2009, not sure how I missed it. Personally,
even though it is offered at legitimate dealers, I'm not sure it is
legitimately published. It's not listed on Billy's web site, which is
odd. I was hoping the songs were mastered from tape, but, sadly, they
are mastered from vinyl records, at least, this song, "She's Almost You"
(circa late '60's). Billy gained some international success; I found
fans in the UK and Canada.

Anyway. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that someone will stumble
across Billy's recording tapes, from the '60's, appearing on the
Open Records (OR) label and publish them. Plus, recording information,
dates, recording studio(s), musicians, backing singers, all would be
nice to document. For now, I enhanced what I found, in True Stereo...

Message Link:

Billy Harner - She's Almost You