Vincent Romano & Miss L.L.
DIGRESSION: REST IN PEACE?
o Clair E. Weldon—a.k.a. “Eddie Weldon,” “Mr. D.J. USA,” the “Panting Panther,” and the “Shooting Star of North America”—recorded and broadcasted under his various performance monikers throughout the 1950s and 1960s
o Under the moniker “Panting Panther” on a song titled “Cooler Weather,” Weldon became one of the first popular musicians to cross what then was known as the “color line,” singing with the backing of an African-American blues combo
o Today he continues to work in entertainment, largely under the name “Eddie Weldon”
o A recording firm, having heard nothing of the “Panting Panther” in decades, re-released “Cooler Weather” on an anthology CD with liner notes describing the artists as intellectually inferior “white trash”—and with a somewhat bizarre cover photograph
o Having made no effort to consult Weldon either prior to or after the re-release, they mistakenly assumed the “Panther” to have panted his last
o (Lawsuit, anyone?)
Picture credit : Rockin' Country Style/Udo Frank
Lola Records 101"You’d be coughing up the wrong Christmas conifer if you thought this track was cut in 1955.Final remark, this Bill Parker is obviously NOT the Bill Parker on Goldband, who was a black Louisiana drummer and bandleader.
Although there are no clues to the release date on the label, the number scratched into the run-off groove (TSS Y650930A) traces the mastering to Jeff Smith’s Texas Sound Studio, San Antonio, on 30th September, 1965. This dating code, usually found on later Texas Sound Studio recordings made for labels like Sarg and Wildcat, is missing on the Bob Granato side (…) a daft, echo-clad, sentimental ballad backed by a tinselly xylophone – presumably meaning that it was cut elsewhere »
