By: Lennard James
Dr. Logan Westbrooks understood that musical movements don’t just happen, they’re introduced, nurtured, and strategically placed in front of the right ears. In the late 1970s, as Washington, D.C.’s homegrown Go-Go scene surged in neighborhood clubs, one act towered above the rest: Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. Their percussive call-and-response jams anchored by congas, timbales, crisp guitar vamps, and an unshakable pocket—had already made them the hottest ticket in D.C. and nearby Baltimore. Yet, for all its electricity, Go-Go remained a fiercely local sound. It needed a champion with national relationships and the will to deploy them. Westbrooks became that catalyst, and Source Records became the platform.
In 1978, Westbrooks signed Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers to Source Records, the new label he was launching. It was a decisive bet that a regional phenomenon could be translated into national demand without diluting its identity. He began by building the essential scaffolding: a manufacturing and distribution arrangement with MCA/Universal to ensure that once the record moved, product would be available wherever the momentum landed. Later, he complemented that domestic muscle with an EMI relationship tied to international distribution, especially throughout Europe—so the sound could travel as far as the curiosity it sparked. With the infrastructure in motion, he turned to the delicate art of timing and placement.
Releasing a record in the fourth quarter—when Christmas titles, superstar releases, and greatest-hits packages crowd every shelf—can bury a newcomer. Westbrooks knew that. Still, he pressed ahead, using his network to “stage” the single so it could slice through the holiday noise. He leaned on relationships he had cultivated across radio programming, retail buyers, club promoters, and television bookers. The goal wasn’t simply to ship units; it was to choreograph a breakout: airplay timed with club demand, club demand synchronized with retail inventory, and media moments that explained what made Go-Go different and urgent.
Early in 1979, one of the first singles Source Records pushed was “Bustin’ Loose.” The track distilled the essence of the band’s live show raw, syncopated, and audience-driven—into a radio-ready statement. Westbrooks immediately mounted a national campaign. He flew the group to Los Angeles and ushered them through the city’s tastemaker circuit, from influential DJs and residencies to industry rooms where a single night could change a record’s fate. He fine-tuned the group’s presentation—right down to putting them in sharp new uniforms—so that every TV hit, photo, and newspaper image communicated a unified brand and a confident identity.
Television exposure on Soul Train, the era’s most visible music platform, proved pivotal. For millions of viewers who had never set foot in a D.C. club, Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers suddenly became the face—and sound—of Go-Go. Print coverage reinforced the moment. Local and national newspapers ran features that explained the groove, the culture, and the community that made Go-Go the anthem of its time in the district. On the ground, radio station “bases” in key markets began spinning the record, creating a virtuous cycle of club demand, airplay, and retail sell-through. The choreography was intentional: when curiosity peaked in a market, MCA/Universal ensured physical product was on hand; when interest spread abroad, EMI’s European reach allowed the buzz to echo beyond U.S. borders.
Behind the scenes, Westbrooks’s strategy was deceptively simple: make the band the movement’s vanguard and place them everywhere tastemakers converged. He wasn’t trying to polish Go-Go into something else; he was packaging authenticity with discipline. By synchronizing media moments with inventory, tightening the live show’s look, and aligning radio, retail, and press, he transformed a local sound into a national conversation. The effects were immediate and measurable: people didn’t just ask for the single, they asked for the band. Demand for Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers grew in markets where they’d never previously toured, and Source Records rode that wave with professional consistency.
Crucially, Westbrooks used “Bustin’ Loose” and the band’s momentum to launch Source Records itself. New labels often struggle for credibility buyers hesitate, radio waits for proof, and press coverage can be elusive. By leading with a record that felt both fresh and undeniable, he flipped that equation. Source Records wasn’t merely another imprint vying for shelf space; it was the label that brought Go-Go to the national stage. With manufacturing and distribution first stabilized through MCA/Universal, and later amplified internationally through EMI across Europe, Source had the channels to keep up with demand once the spark caught.
What made the push unique was the balance of instinct and infrastructure. Westbrooks trusted the street the neighborhoods where Go-Go was born—and then built the business case around that energy. He understood that timing a single at the height of holiday clutter required more than confidence; it demanded access and follow-through. By leveraging his relationships, he secured placements, airtime, and coverage that most new labels couldn’t touch. He paired that access with operational rigor, ensuring that when a market leaned in, there were records on shelves, stories in the papers, and a live show ready to deliver on the promise.
The result was a playbook that has aged well: start with authenticity, invest in presentation, align media with retail, and let distribution be the tide that lifts each local win into a broader swell. In D.C. and Baltimore, Go-Go had long been a community heartbeat; under Westbrooks’s guidance, it became a national and international talking point and a commercial force. “Bustin’ Loose” wasn’t just a single it was a statement of intent for Source Records and a blueprint for how regional movements can scale without losing themselves.
In the end, the story of Source Records’ launch is inseparable from Dr. Logan Westbrooks’s connective tissue across the industry and Chuck Brown’s singular command of a sound. Go-Go may have started as a local anthem, but Westbrooks’s orchestration national TV exposure, targeted club seeding, coordinated press, and airtight distribution—turned “Bustin’ Loose” into a national statement. That statement did more than sell records; it announced Source Records as a force and proved that a regional rhythm, properly introduced, could move the entire country and, with EMI’s European footprint, point the sound toward international horizons as well.