Rose Cornelius - Here / I Want You To Stay With Me

Here we’ve got two tunes that come with a fascinating story.
Recorded in the late 70’s but never released, this music was thought to be lost.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Rose was originally a member of a family affair called ‘The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose’, heralding from Dania Beach, Florida. The group had early success with United Artists which produced two albums in 1972 and 1973, plus an extensive number of single releases taken from these albums, including the million seller ‘Too Late To Turn Back Now’. But Rose’s story starts even further back, singing solo and as part of the Gospel Jazz Singers in the late 60’s, and even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1970 at her mother’s request she returned home to form the family group and use her contacts in the industry to move things forward. The group stayed together until 1976. Soon after, Rose returned to a solo career, but few further releases appeared.

During this time she recorded a number of tracks in Miami at The Music Factory with producer Shirley Cowell, who later received a Grammy nomination for her work with Lena Horne. Arrangement was done by gold-certified studio veteran Frank Owens. By this time the disco sound had taken over much of the industry and these tracks had a Hi-Energy feel that was much in favour at the time. This session produces the titles ‘Here’ and I Want You To Stay With Me’ but no release was forthcoming. For many years they became almost forgotten, until the next chapter of the story.

In 2018 DJ and record collector Dave Thorley saw an old dusty acetate for sale online, credited to Sister Cornelius. When listening to it he realised this was indeed Sister Cornelius of the famed group and so purchased it with the intention of simply playing it in his DJ sets. Dave then offered the disc to his friends of the Disco Bizarre crew from the KitKatClub / Berlin for their record label. Rose, in turn was contacted and she was kind enough to give her permission for its release and additional contemporary remixes and re-edits. Thus New York producer veteran DJ Duke and San Francisco disco authority, Jim Hopkins landed on the bill.

This record is the result of the story – a story that has spanned fifty plus years.

Take a listen.....

Here we’ve got two tunes that come with a fascinating story.
Recorded in the late 70’s but never released, this music was thought to be lost.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Rose was originally a member of a family affair called ‘The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose’, heralding from Dania Beach, Florida. The group had early success with United Artists which produced two albums in 1972 and 1973, plus an extensive number of single releases taken from these albums, including the million seller ‘Too Late To Turn Back Now’. But Rose’s story starts even further back, singing solo and as part of the Gospel Jazz Singers in the late 60’s, and even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1970 at her mother’s request she returned home to form the family group and use her contacts in the industry to move things forward. The group stayed together until 1976. Soon after, Rose returned to a solo career, but few further releases appeared.

During this time she recorded a number of tracks in Miami at The Music Factory with producer Shirley Cowell, who later received a Grammy nomination for her work with Lena Horne. Arrangement was done by gold-certified studio veteran Frank Owens. By this time the disco sound had taken over much of the industry and these tracks had a Hi-Energy feel that was much in favour at the time. This session produces the titles ‘Here’ and I Want You To Stay With Me’ but no release was forthcoming. For many years they became almost forgotten, until the next chapter of the story.

In 2018 DJ and record collector Dave Thorley saw an old dusty acetate for sale online, credited to Sister Cornelius. When listening to it he realised this was indeed Sister Cornelius of the famed group and so purchased it with the intention of simply playing it in his DJ sets. Dave then offered the disc to his friends of the Disco Bizarre crew from the KitKatClub / Berlin for their record label. Rose, in turn was contacted and she was kind enough to give her permission for its release and additional contemporary remixes and re-edits. Thus New York producer veteran DJ Duke and San Francisco disco authority, Jim Hopkins landed on the bill.

This record is the result of the story – a story that has spanned fifty plus years.

Take a listen.....