Sunny & The Sunliners' Key-Loc Singles "Get Down" & "Cross My Heart" Re-issued for The First Time In 50 Years (Big Crown Records)

Sunny & The Sunliners were a San Antonio-based Chicano Soul band fronted by Sunny Ozuna that were originally active from about 1964-81 or 1988. Sunny & The Sunliners consisted of members Jimmy Edward, Amos Johnson, Jr. Johnny Zaragosa, and of course, namesake Sunny Ozuna, as well as various members through the years. The Sunliners released countless albums and singles on labels and imprints such as Tear Drop, Crazy Cajun, Freddie Records, Scorpio Productions, Inc. Okeh Records, Three M Records, Black-Whale Records, London Records, Darla, and Ozuna & Zaragosa's own imprint, Key-Loc. Sunny & The Sunliners' plethora of Funk-oozing material touches on styles ranging from Tejano to Rock "N" Roll, Soul/Funk to Latin-American, Jazz to Pop, etc. over their nearly 20-year career. However, almost 30 years after their disbandment, Sunny & The Sunliners garnered a bit of a career resurgence, as recently as 2017, when Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) & Danny Akalepse's newly-minted Big Crown Records released a 17-track CD/LP compilation called Mr. Brown Eyed Soul. It was soon followed by The Missing Link and Smile Now... Cry Later album re-issues through 2017, as well as Big Crown's 2018 re-issue of The Sunliners' 1968 Key-Loc album, Little Brown Eyed Soul.


Now, Big Crown Records have decided to properly re-issue two tracks from their own past re-issues: "Get Down" from from Mr. Brown Eyed Soul and Little Brown Eyed Soul opener "Cross My Heart." Sunny & The Sunliners' "Get Down" was, according to Discogs, originally released as the B-side to "We Can Make It Together (Do You Want Me)" on an extremely sought-after Key-Loc DJ copy/promo 7-inch at an unknown date. Although, I'm guessing, it had to be released at some point after 1971, when the original version of "Get Down" was released on War's All Day Music album on United Artists/Island Records. Side B's "Cross My Heart" was first released on Sunny & The Sunliners' aforementioned 1968 album, Little Brown Eyed Soul and was penned and released by Billy Stewart just one year prior on a Chess Records 7-inch single. "A sweet Soul classic recently made popular again, via Jay Electronica's Just Blaze-produced underground hit, "Exhibit C," which sampled the Stewart version," Rap & Soul Promo explains within a recent press release. Sunny & The Sunliners' freshly-pressed "Get Down" B/W "Cross My Heart" 7-inch is now available to purchase, via Big Crown Records.