The LTG Exchange -

The LTG Exchange was an American funk band from N.Y.C. that made a 1974 self-titled album on Wand/Fania, followed by the 1975 RCA release Susie Heartbreaker.

Members: Kevin Beverly (guitar), Melvin Barton (bass), Walter Chiles (piano, keyboards), Victor Santos (drums), Bruce Slade (percussion)

Background

The LTG Exchange came together in New York City when bassist Melvyn Barton and keyboardist Walter Chiles co-founded a five-piece band with guitarist Kevin Beverly, drummer Victor Santos, and percussionist Bruce Slade.

Chiles played piano in his father’s church at age four and worked Baltimore nightclubs before middle school. After Air Force service during the Korean War, Chiles studied at Berklee School of Music in Boston under the GI Bill. He later played jazz in New York with Chiles & Pettiford, a duo with double-bassist Oscar Pettiford. Their album, Live at Jilly’s, appeared in 1964 on Atlantic.

Santos played on the 1970 album ¡Salsa Navideña! – La Salsa de Puerto Rico by percussionist Johnny El Bravo.

LTG made its Wand/Fania single debut in January 1974 with “Corazon” backed with “A Young Mother’s Love.” The LTG Exchange followed in May with “Waterbed,” then released “Keep On Trying” backed with “Tsen Si Yen Yen” in July. Those singles led into the self-titled LTG Exchange album later that year.

LTG Exchange

LTG Exchange released their self-titled debut album in 1974 on Wand/Fania.

The album presents Latin-accented soul and early disco, performed by bassist and singer Melvyn Barton, conga player and singer Bruce Slade, drummer and singer Victor Santos, guitarist Kevin Beverly, and keyboardist and singer Walter Chiles. Chiles, Barton, Ross, and the full group account for six album credits; Bruce Wheaton, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Paul McCartney, and Carole King.

“Waterbed” rides a thick dance pattern, with the vocal version fixed around a compact title refrain. “Waterbed (Instrumental)” strips the lead from the same pattern and leaves the clipped ensemble figure in front. “Corazon” glides through a lighter Latin-accented song form, with the vocal line set against cleaner rhythmic spacing. “Keep On Trying” extends the album’s longer-form side with a sustained title phrase and denser ensemble pressure. “My Love (Does It Good To Me)” closes the set with a broader vocal lead and repeated backing response.

A1. “Waterbed (Vocal)” (3:35) – Chiles, Barton
A2. “Waterbed (Instrumental)” (3:47) – Chiles, Barton
A3. “Saint Or Sinner” (3:36) – Ross, Barton
A4. “I Like What I Like” (4:29) – Wheaton
A5. “Keep On Trying” (5:44) – Ross, Barton

B1. “Give It Love” (3:20) – Mann, Weil
B2. “Tsen Si Yen Yen” (4:51) – LTG
B3. “Trouble On the Run” (5:17) – Chiles
B4. “My Love (Does It Good to Me)” (7:19) – McCartney
B5. “Corazon” (3:23) – King

Jerry Ross produced the album at Bell Sound Studios. Malcolm Addey engineered and mixed the sessions. Ron Levine designed the teal sleeve, which depicts the LGT logo as a choo choo train.

Wand/Fania lifted “Corazon” as a January 1974 single (b/w “A Young Mother’s Love”), which reached No. 66 on the Billboard R&B chart.

The label issued “Waterbed (Part One)” as a May 1974 single (b/w “Waterbed (Part Two) [Instrumental]”), which reached No. 79 on the Billboard R&B chart. “Keep On Trying” followed in July 1974 (b/w “Tsen Si Yen Yen”). In January 1975, “My Love (Does It Good To Me) Part One” reappeared as a single (b/w “My Love (Does It Good To Me) Part Two”).

Susie Heartbreaker

LTG Exchange released their second studio album, Susie Heartbreaker, in 1975 on RCA.

The album presents a staged black-rock operetta score in a soul-funk frame, performed by pianist Walter Chiles, conga player Bruce Slade, and singers Melvyn Barton, Kevin Beverly, and Victor Santos.

The story is a raw, tragic blaxploitation-style tale told in comic-strip panels on the album cover.

Early life (1956 onward): Susie is born in the projects on June 7, 1956, at 5:36 a.m. A pretty Gemini child, she grows up in poverty and is already obsessed with money from a young age. At 10 she is raped, a trauma that scars her deeply. By 14 she is kicked out of both school and home. With nowhere to go, she turns to prostitution—“makin’ big bucks ’tween the sheets by night”—to survive.

Adult life & downfall: Susie becomes entangled with a pimp/lover named Joe. Joe convinces another woman (Codie) to start “trickin’” for money. Susie is arrested for the first time (mugshot #73182) and sent to jail. After release, she hides when Joe brings home a new lady; a violent fight erupts, Susie gets caught up in it, and she’s sent back to jail.

Broken by repeated trauma, incarceration, and betrayal, Susie “loses heart” and deliberately lets herself die.

Ending: The final panel shows Joe casually walking away with his new woman, seemingly unaffected, as the narrator remarks, “There goes Joe and his new lady… I guess they’ll never learn.” The story closes on a bleak note about the cycle of ghetto life, exploitation, and hopelessness.

It’s presented as the tragic, cautionary “short story” of Susie Heartbreaker, the “Money Mad Trickin’ Gemini Girl.”

“Susie Heartbreaker” opens the score with a compact title lead and a dance-leaning surface. “Gemini Girl” circles the album’s stage-minded side with an extended vocal scene. “Stone Broke” and “Money Mad” state the score’s money text in paired title language, with “Money Mad” carrying the longer single section. “Trickin’” tightens the second side around a clipped title phrase. “Cop & Blow World” snaps from an intro break into the album’s street-toned closing scene.

A1. “Susie Heartbreaker” (2:43) – Chiles
A2. “Gemini Girl” (5:12) – Ross, Chiles
A3. “Stone Broke” (3:19) – Barton
A4. “Dinero” (3:23) – Beverly, Santos
A5. “A Child Will Show You The Way” (3:15) – Chiles
A6. “Satisfied With Your Love” (2:31) – Chiles

B1. “Money Mad” (5:20) – Beverly, Barton, Chiles
B2. “Trickin'” (4:07) – Beverly, Barton
B3. “Sky High” (4:53) – Ross, Chiles
B4. “Cop & Blow World” (2:50) – Chiles

Jerry Ross produced the album at Sigma Sound Studios. Carl Paruolo engineered the sessions with assistant engineer Dirk Devlin. John Davis arranged the horns. Morgan Harris illustrated the cover, whose image arranges captioned comic panels below a red title block. J. J. Stelmach directed the art package with calligraphy by Carl Dellacvoce.

RCA issued “Money Mad” as a 1975 single; stock copies paired the track with “Stone Broke.”

Postlude

Herbie Man covered “Waterbed” as the title track to his 1975 Atlantic album.

LTG Exchange released one further single: the September 1976 Big Tree release “Huddle,” a Chiles–Barton–Santos number backed with Chiles’ “You’ll Never Learn (About Love),” produced by Jerry Ross.

Beverly co-wrote two songs on Windstorm, the 1978 album by UK-based American R&B singer Gloria Jones.

Discography: