When British producer Ian Levine saw the soul group 100% Poison live in concert in 1974 he was immediately impressed by the outrageous lead singer, a flamboyant gay man from Chicago, James Wells. Due to contractual reasons Levine had to wait another two years before being able to sign him up for a deal at Polydor Records where they released 4 singles during 1976 and 1977. By March 1978 Levine had completed their first album, My Claim To Fame. \"My music publisher, Mike Collier, took me over to Los Angeles, and he set up lots of appointments there for us, with just about every major record company in the city,\" said Levine. We played our album to fourteen different record companies, but shockingly, all of them passed on it, without any hesitation at all, making it blatantly obvious that they were not even remotely interested. On the other hand, Rick Gianatos himself was utterly one hundred percent convinced that it was a smash hit album, and he took it straight over to his colleague, Ray Harris, over at AVI Records. He persuaded Ray to sign it there and then on the spot.\" By October 1978, My Claim To Fame peaked at #4 on the Billboard Disco Charts, selling a phenomenal 100,000 copies. True Love Is My Destiny was another much-played track from the album (later CD versions of the album included a 9-min. edit, my video includes the full version of nearly 13 minutes).
I have expanded the album with the track Never Let Go that was originally left off as Gianatos could not stand Wells's wailing vocal on top of it. He eventually stripped the lead vocal, and the track was released with the backing vocals only under the name Eastbound Expressway, giving Levine another disco hit record.
Wells himself went on to record a second album, Explosion, in 1979 and another couple of sides with Levine in the mid-80s. Sadly, he passed away around 1990 from an AIDS-related disease. Here's to his \"Claim To Fame\".
MY CLAIM TO FAME
00:01 My Claim To Fame
16:11 I Guess That's Life
19:05 That's The Way The Wind Blows
28:42 True Love Is My Destiny
BONUS:
41:20 Never Let Go
47:05 True Love Is My Destiny (Instrumental Demo)
56:29 My Claim To Fame (Fiachra Trench Demo)
58:40 True Love Is My Destiny (Fiachra Trench Demo)
