GOTTA GET HOME by THE MIXED BREED

In the 1960s, Washington, D.C. was a highly segregated city, with the northeastern H Street corridor being just a few families shy of 100% black. There, the Rosenburg's owned a car wash, where the very white Burt Rosenburg started Sound Innovations, his own booking and talent management agency, in 1968. The roster's most important group, the Young Senators, would issue two 45s on Innovation Records, Rosenburg's in-house imprint. When Eddie Kendricks poached the Senators, Rosenburg moved on to finance a 1973 session at Silver Spring, Maryland's Track Recording with Mixed Breed. The group formed in 1969 around Charlie Oliver, Jimmy Lewis, Kenny Wylie, Paul Greenwall, Wayne Cooper, Robert Talford, Billy Pierce, and Tommy Anderson. The single, "Gotta Get Home" b/w "Wise," didn't lead to many more bookings, and when buyout offers reached Rosenburg, he didn't hesitate. In 1976, Mixed Breed's Sound Innovations contract was bought out by RCA, and although a single was tracked, the band fled what they felt was a bad deal. Afterward, the gigs came sporadically, until they stopped coming altogether.