LIMITED EDITION 250 UNIT PRESSING

HAND NUMBERED

INCLUDES UNRELEASED TRACK

...

Hailing from East St. Louis, Illinois, Bull & the Matadors consisted of James Lafayette “Bull” Parks (born June 7, 1945), Milton Hardy, James Otis Love, and Robert Holmes.  In 1968 they made the trek 4 hours Northeast to work with the legendary Leaner family and their Toddlin’ Town label.  

At that time the zany NBC-TV comedy program Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In was at its ratings zenith. One of its most popular sketches was a hilarious courtroom vignette that revolved around the punchline “Here comes the judge.” The judge was portrayed by Pigmeat Markham, a chitlin’ circuit comic who had made the routine famous at the Apollo Theatre. Pigmeat cashed in on the craze by cutting a full-fledged soul dance number logically titled “Here Comes The Judge” for Chess. Not to be outdone, Motown’s Shorty Long donned his own white wig and belted a different song by the same title for the label’s Soul subsidiary. Both entered the R&B charts that June, and both peaked at #4.

Meanwhile, Toddlin’ Town writer/producer Andre Williams along with Leo Hutton cooked up their own Rowan & Martin tie-in, “The Funky Judge,” and got new Toddlin’ Town recruits, Bull & the Matadors to give it their own spin. 

Nationally distributed by Florence Greenberg’s Scepter Records in New York, “The Funky Judge” crashed the R&B hit parade at the end of August in 1968 and sailed all the way up to #9 R&B and #39 pop over the next three months, proving there was plenty of life in the judge routine yet.  Despite the song’s excellent showing for the scrappy little label, the Leaner family chose not to issue the sequel “Where Did The Judge Go”... until now that is! 

Both of these tracks, including the unissued side, were supposed to be on our Toddlin’ Town compilation.  Sadly that project was permanently shelved over a songwriter/publisher dispute.  Thankfully, however,  these tracks were not part of that dispute and we are still able to get this unreleased tune pressed up for those who want it!