Read and hear more under the listing "Larks" on this site.
Weldon Arthur McDougal III organized the Larks, wrote their songs and produced their records. It was his training for the music industry, in which he went on to become a vice president of Motown Records, a nationally-known promotion man and ultimately an authority consulted internationally about the music business past, present and future.
Weldon McDougal had a stellar career in the music industry -- the executive at Motown Records who discovered the Jackson 5 and produced Barbara Mason’s “Yes, I’m Ready,” one of the anthems of 1960s soul music. But for all the national recognition and significance in his career, it is the Larks – the group he organized in 1960 – that hold a special place for him in his career. After all his national success, he came back to Philadelphia, put this album out on vinyl on his own Universal Love label in the early 1990s and watched it became a collector’s item. He never re-pressed it.
Weldon learned the music business through the Larks: he learned producing by taking them in the studio, writing by composing their songs and promoting by promoting his own record. “I would never take ‘no’ for an answer,” he said. When the important Philadelphia disc jockey Georgie Woods told him that he would not play his record, “Fabulous Cars and Diamond Rings,” in fact he would never play that damned record, Weldon turned around and got Bill Curtis to play it on WHAT. Then they watched it become a hit.
He also recuruited other stellar producers to work with the Larks, including Van McCoy, who produced "Groovin' At the Go Go," an international dance anthem.
