The Ultimates

The Ultimates were formed as a result of the untimely deaths of Ray Railey and Alvin Freeman from the CVS outfit, The Enchanted Five, whose remaining members were Donnie Scales, Earl Railey (brother to Ray) and Jimmy Radford. The CVS label emanates from Clarke, Venieriee & Smith. Arthur Venieriee was one of the original managers for Ohio Players and Joseph Peppy Smith was a buyer and marketing rep at J & R Music World. The passing of those 2 band members led the survivors of the Columbus, Ohio outfit to bring in new blood in the form of Nate (Nathanial) Hayden and another member whose name has long been forgotten to form the Ultimates. Bruce Clark recorded the Ultimates in New York. They stayed in town for three or four days, completing a session of tracks, which appeared on their later album ”You’re my lady” and when that was over, they left again. Clarke didn’t have any control of the group or what they did workwise except for the recording on Br-Roma. The Ultimates reputedly completed one other recording after Clarke lost touch without knowing what name they did it under.