FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 24, 2002

DEAR JERRY: I hope you don't mind yet another plea for help solving a musical mystery.

Mine involves a song that was a hit in the Huntsville area about 30 or 40 years ago. Despite that, it seems there isn't one person in the county besides me who now knows anything about it.

By a male singer, the story focuses on Hank Williams, as well as a guitar he once owned and played.

This is all I have to go on, but is it enough for you to work with?
—Donna Whitman, Hunstville, Ala.

DEAR DONNA: It is good you decided to extend your search across county lines — about 2,500 miles as the mail flies.

You definitely provided enough details. In fact, you included all three words of the song title in your fourth sentence.

It is “Hank Williams' Guitar,” a Top 25 C&W hit in 1965, by Freddie Hart & the Heartbeats (Kapp 694).

Lest you think this music mystery yours alone, an e-mail just arrived from “Cathy,” asking on behalf of her uncle, for help identifying “Hank Williams' Guitar.”

DEAR JERRY: For many years, I have tried so hard to find “Time to Make a Turn,” by Crow.

Every “expert” I ask says it doesn't exist and tries to convince me that I am confusing it with some other song.

Is there such a song or has my memory failed me? It would have been in the early '70s.
—Marianne Thies, York, Pa.

DEAR MARIANNE: No memory deterioration can been detected here.

“Time to Make a Turn” is a summer 1969 Crow single (Amaret 106) that became the first hit for this Twin Cities quintet.

As you would expect, this track is also featured on their first album, “Crow Music” (Amaret 5002), also issued in '69.

The single should be available for about $5.00, and the album for around $20.00.

Are you sure those so-called experts are not named Heckle and Jeckle?

DEAR JERRY: I have been debating with a friend over the Major Harris song, “Love Won't Let Me Wait,” which I bought on vinyl when it became a hit in 1976.

My friend says that the Major Harris recording is a remake. He claims to remember the song being out in 1967, by another singer.

Is he right? If so, who recorded the original and how well did it do?
—Annie

DEAR ANNIE: Major Harris, who scored a No. 1 R&B hit in 1975 (not '76) with “Love Won't Let Me Wait” (Atlantic 3248), is definitely the first artist to chart with the tune.

As for an earlier version, I find no mention in any reference materials of a release of the song before Major Harris in 1975.

After the Harris hit, many noted vocalists recorded “Love Won't Let Me Wait.” Among them are Hank Crawford, Buddy Greco, Isaac Hayes, Luther Vandross, Nancy Wilson, Jackie Moore, and a duet by Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams.

IZ ZAT SO? Before recording as a solo, in 1968, Major Harris sang in the early '60s with the Jarmels. He joined the group after they made their most famous hits, “Little Lonely One” and “A Little Bit of Soap.”

From 1971 until '74, he sang with the Delfonics. Interestingly, the title of one of their 1973 hits, “I Don't Want to Make You Wait,” sounds a whole lot like a companion tune to “Love Won't Let Me Wait.”

In either situation, impatience seem to be running amuck.