The first ever 12" single-"I'll Be Holding On " Al Downing

What’s the story of the 12-inch single?

Well, I take the credit for that. It’s a shame because most good things happen by accident. I think most things are created that way. It’s a mistake; a negative that turns into a positive. It’s like the idea of a break. I created the break, because a song modulated [changed key] and I had to make the song longer. The only way to make it longer was to take everything out of it that was music. So I had to break it down to the rhythm, but only because it modulated. Instead of it modulating once, it modulated twice. That was how the break was created.
The 12-inch? José Rodriguez, my mastering engineer, ran out of 7-inch blanks. I used to do work at Media Sound on Fridays – that’s where we did Gloria Gaynor – and I wanted to have the Trammps record cut. This was the first Trammps record on Atlantic, so I asked Dominic, the mastering engineer if he could do it and it was Friday. He said he couldn’t do it. He was going away that weekend. Ask me Monday, he said. I gotta get some refs cut, he said, well, I can’t help you. And I said what about your assistant? He said, you mean the Puerto Rican sweeper? I went crazy.
But I said to José, aren’t you learning to master? Oh yes. Fine, I said. I’ll be the ears, but you make it work. It’s called ‘That’s Where The Happy People Go’. I want you to cut me ref dubs. I liked it so much I said, I’m gonna do you a big favour. I’m gonna put your name on that record. I did it mainly because I was so mad at Dominic for calling him a Puerto Rican sweeper. It was such a lousy thing to say.
But that wasn’t the first 12-inch. I would say that the very first one – ah, I remember now. ‘That’s Where The Happy People Go’ was the second record to have his name on it. The first one was ‘So Much For Love’ by Moment of Truth on Roulette with José’s name on it.
The first 12-inch was ‘I’ll Be Holding On’ by Al Downing. It was never commercially available. The seven-inch blanks, they were out of them. So he had to give me a twelve-inch. And I said, heugh, that’s ridiculous. So they said, I know what we’ll do: we’ll spread the grooves and make it louder. And of course, when I heard it I almost died. And at that time there only about seven or eight disc jockeys around and I used to see them on Fridays and I would give them acetates.

Who did you take it to?

Oh, let’s see. There was Richie Kaczor, David Rodriguez, Steve D’Acquisto, Bobby DJ, Walter Gibbons. A lot of fun back then. And so many of them are dead now. It’s sad. Especially because these guys; they all loved music, they really did. They would rather be admired by their peers than be super-successful.

Taken from an interview with Tom Moulton.  

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