Helene Smith Vinyl Records
Coined as the first lady of Miami Soul, Helene Smith's career began when Johnny Pearsall, owner of Johnny's Records hired her to manage the shop while he worked. She would not only be the first artist to record for Clarke-Pearsall Productions (Miami's first independent black production company), but would also marry Pearsall before the end of the 1960s. Clark and Pearsall would cut Smith's "The Pot Can't Talk About The Kettle," a Motown-lite number about blacks trying to hold other blacks back at Empire, a tiny storefront outfit with a four-track recorder. The duo brought the track to WMBM and WAME radio stations where it was an immediate local smash.