Doin' The Waddle

The Tangiers

Doin' The Waddle

Ann Smith, Buna Music BMI

A-J Records

1962



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Spatzal!

Two girls, one guy and a transvestite make up Molvania’s most successful pop music act, the award winning Spatzal !, who made it to fifth place in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with their catchy dance tune ‘Vlarsh ei Czolom’ (« Your Boogy I am Shaking »). Sadly, the group split up in 2001 (bass player Vron Gzapaov reportedly has a solo album in the works) but such was their influence that there are numerous Spatzal ! tribute bands still touring the Baltic region.

Following the success of their previous LP’s ‘I’m Ready From Yuo ! » (1993) and « Hey Beutifulls ! (1994), Spatzal’s « Let’s Rock !) (1996) proved to be an historic album, described by Rolling Stone as Molvania’s first ever correctly spelt English language release.

Information above is from the essential jetlag travel guide "Molvania, A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry". Strongly recommended.

More info about jetlag travel guide HERE


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Wizard Rock

Gene Anderson

** WIZARD ROCK – Up-tempo ditty receives a fair vocal from the chanter. (Sage & Sand, SESAC)
Billboard October 10, 1960

Sage Records



Label picture credit : Rockin' Country Style / Henk Netten
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Livin' Lovin' Temptation

Eddie Cash

"Livin' Lovin' Temptation"

Todd Records

Eddie Cash : We recorded at the Fernwood Studio, downtown on the Main Street. Bill Harris wrote one side called "Thinkin' Man" and he got the idea from a Marlboro slogan. Then I wrote the other side "Livin' Lovin' Temptation". On the session we used Jackie Hartwell (g), Gerald Hunsucker(rg), Prentiss McPhail (eb), Tommy Bennett (p), Dennis Smith (d) and Martin Willis (ts). We had female vocal group The DeLons, which also appeared on Thomas Wayne's recording of "Tragedy".

From Bo Berglind's Eddie Cash article found HERE.

Edward Allen Cash (1941- )



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Hillbilly Polka

Boyd's Solo Band

Hillbilly Polka

Cuca Records #1049

1961

This is Boyd Skuldt (1919-2006), one-man band from Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.

The picture on the record was a mural they had at the photography studio. I went in the studio over in Sauk Center at Cuca. He was in a hurry that day and I wasn’t happy with the record. That guitar wore out. Whetever I would go, they would call up the tavern and book me. Word of mouth. A couple came over to Monroe to pick me up ; they insisted I come out to Jersey. That was a long way to go. Lefty Frizzell played out there and so did Car Smith around the time I did. I’ll tell you I was shakin’ in my knees that night. A six piece band comes walking off the stage and I’m up there all alone. A big crowd, there was a big crowd. They made me feel good. Then I stayed out there for a hundred bucks in 1960 for the fun of it. I pissed off a lot of musicians, too, when I was out there. « you ain’t gonna be cuttin’ prices, » they said. They were probably getting fifty or sixty a night and, well, I could put prices ‘cause I was one man. I pratically got beat up. The mob was in control of the clubs out there, too. I just wish somebody would have copied me. No one copied me ! I heard so many guys say when I was playing « Well, I’l show that Boyd off ! They never did. I think what killed ‘em was that snare drum, that fooled ‘em. That was tricky. Bass drum, the foot, no problem. I made a gizmo that attached to my knee that would hit the snare drums. Why couldn’t anyone copy me I don’t know. There was a guy from over in Jefferson, I tried to help him, but he couldn’t get that rhytm. I said you got to get that rhythm, sing or something. He died a few years ago, nice fellow. There was a one man band from Dodgeville who played the bass drum only. I played lead on the guitar, too, and the mouth organ. It was hard work standing in one spot, but I didn’t mind it. After a while it was just like shifting a car. I started playing the mouth organ when I was fve or six and it took me about twenty-five years to get that thing together. See how I really started out was playing with my neighbor who was an accordion player. He was very young and very good. We started out playing in the night clubs. First thing you know they found out his age and he was out. I already played the mouth organ and I thought that would take care of the accordion. I played nothin’ but country songs. Played at a drive-in over by Madison before the movies would start ; it was the Badger Big Sky Drive In. Played all over down through La Crosse, Bear Valley, Monroe, Dodgeville, New Clarus, Ridgeway, Mt. Vernon, all down through there. Mostly taverns, but hospitals, and wedding dances, too. I did have a good rhythm and made it easy for them to dance. Five piece one man band !

(from Badger Bars & Tavern Tales: An Illustrated History of Wisconsin Saloons, book by Bill Moen and Doug Davis.)

The Man In The Moon

Utah Carl

The Man In The Moon




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Power Pak label : cover art (?)

Three crappy covers courtesy of Power Pak Records, budget division of Gusto Records (Nashville, mid-seventies)



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Two early Ruby Starr records

Connie Little

Boy For Me

Elmor Records

Connie and The Cytations

Boogie Rock

Town And Country Records

Recorded at Hanf Recording Studio in Toledo, Ohio in1961 when Connie was 12 years old and released on the Town and Country Records label. Written [and possibly produced] by 1960's Toledo music impresario Murray Cohen




Ruby Starr (November 30, 1949 - January 14, 1995) was born Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak in Toledo, Ohio. Starr started performing at the age of nine under the stage name Connie Little.

In 1961, she recorded as 'Connie and The Cytations' on Town and Country Records.

Another early band, Connie and the Blu-Beats, died their hair blue. Ruby dropped out of high school at age 16 to front the band the Downtowners, then fronted the Blue Grange Ramblers.

She later joined Ruby Jones in 1969. In 1971 they were signed to Curtom Records and recorded their first album, Ruby Jones. Shortly after that album's release, Black Oak Arkansas lead vocalist Jim "Dandy" Mangrum saw Starr singing in an Evansville, Indiana, club and convinced her to join his band. At this point she assumed the stage name of Ruby Starr.

...

In the '90s, Starr was diagnosed with cancer, eventually passing away at home in Toledo in January of 1995.



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I Feel Thunder

Bill Berry

I Feel Thunder

GMA Records

230 North Michigan Ave.
Chicago, Illinois

1964

Of Bill Berry, I known nothing.

Seymour Schwartz, head of Hearbeat Records in Chicago, has formed GMA Records in 1964. Motto : That Million Dollar Sound. I've counted 18 singles issued on the label, the first was "Summertime Blues" by The All-Niters.

Writers -- and producers -- are Neaville and Miller (Arlie and Arlie).


Arlie Neaville recorded also as Dean Carter for his own Milky Way Records

Dean Carter discography

Artie Miller (And The Bullets) recorded for Lucky Records ("Lou Ann", 1960)




16 unissued sides of the two Arlie were released by Buffalo Bop in 1985 (LP The Bop That Never Stopped, Vol. 40).






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Don't Fight Juvenile Delinquency

Bad Boy

Steve Bair and his orchestra

Bad Boy

Cherokee Records

Steve Bair had a second release on Cherokee in 1962 as by Steve Bare. Was he a relative of Bobby Bare who made some demos for the same label before he was drafted ?

Cherokee Records Discography (source : Dan DeClark)
Owner : Orville Lunsford

7 Broadway
Wellston, Ohio

58 777 Steve Bair : Bad Boy / You Are the One
--- 778 Earl Reed and his Rhythm Rockers : Drink Wine / Mama
--- 779 Earl Reed and his Rhythm Rockers : Flat Foot Sam / Playing With My Heart
59 780 Cherokee Rhythmaires Vocal by Billy Parsons What I Get For Lovin' You / My Everything
59 781 A.G.I. : Dear Mama / From Now on Til Never

1106 Lake Drive
Chillicothe, Ohio

62 785 Steve Bare Daisy Mae / Smooth
62 778 Sunny Harris Friendship Seven / Sad Sacks

Orville Lunsford
(LIFE, May 16, 1960)

"In late 1958, future country star Bobby Bare fell in with Bill Parsons, an old friend from Coalton, Ohio, who was trying to get on record. 24 year-old Parsons had just come back from army service in Germany and was working in small Ohio night-spots for $10 a night. Parsons and a 40 year old half-Irish, half-Cherokee drifter named Orville Lunsford had penned "All-American Boy", a talking blues parodying Elvis' rise to fame and his subsequent call to duty. Parsons actually had greater faith in another song "Rubber Dolly", a trite rocker adapted from a folk song, and set up a session at the King Records studio in Cincinnati on 4th November, 1958.

Dik de Heer has the details HERE

777 was the number of the Cherokee initial release. Several label owners seeked luck in the same way as Orville Lunsford :

Be-kay
Colvin
Cowtown Hoedown
Dandy
Dash
Edsel
Guitar
Heart
Holiday
Leeds
Mills
Mr. Maestro
Parliament
Praise
Radar
Ray Star
Shannon

Most of them had very few releases and for some, this was their first and last...




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There'll Be A Crown For Me

David Beatty and the Continental Quartet

There'll Be A Crown For Me

Friddell Records

Cleveland, Tennessee

1958

Friddell Records issued only a handful of singles in 1958 and 1959. This David Beatty release is not listed in Rockin' Country Style or by any other reference books. The label was owned by Gene Woods. There was also two singles by Jimmy Swaggart in 1964 on Friddell, but it may be another label.

Note : several songs on Friddell were published by La Dee Music owned by Dee Marais out of Shreveport, Louisiana.

Gene Woods, 1974

Singer, songwiter and producer Gene Woods recorded at least two singles on his own Friddell label. In 1960 he was on Hap Records, a subsidiary of the Mountain City recording studio, Chattanooga, for which he recorded the Marshall Pack penned "The Ballad of Wild River" at the occasion of the filming of "Wild River" at Cleveland.

The Elia Kazan film starred Montgomery Clift as a TVA administrator who's supposed to persuade local landowners to sell their land to the utility for a dam. Jo Van Fleet was the matriarch who refused to be budged and Lee Remick was the granddaughter who captured the TVA man's heart.

In 1961, Gene Woods was on Choice Records for one single, then had several 45s on Chart Records. In the seventies he was exec of Arrow Records, Cleveland, Tn.


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Goin' On Baby

Big Dave and the House-Rockers

"Goin' On Baby"
(Dave Myott)

Cordé Records

Newark, New Jersey

Late fifties

No info about Big Dave. Some sources assume that Dave is possibly Dave Myott, credited as the writer of the song. The only reference I can find to Dave Myott is that he wrote "Washing Dishes" with bluesman Brownie McGhee. The song was copyrighted in 1963, but I can't find any release of this song?

Cordé Records was the in-house label of the Hertz Recording Studios located at 38 Halsey St. in Newark. A label "Famous for Cordite Quality" who issued Break Resistant records. Not much really, three as listed in Rockin' Country Style. I've seen two or three regional gospel groups listed on the same label and reference to sixities band recording there : The Sey Heys, the Viscanes, the Creations, The Riptides. In the mid-sixties, the motto of the Hertez Studios was then : "Our Records Speak For Themselves".

But the history of the studio is much older : 20 y. old Harold Ford, later a band leader, made a demo early in the forties at Hertz Studio and was hired by owner to work there playing piano.

According to one source, the studio was an old Church converted into a recording studio. Research shows at the same address, at various times : Robinson Aerial Surveys Inc., High Impact Anti-Crime Program and Johnson's Barber Shop.

The Cordite effect?
Halsey Street today (thanks Google!)
Was the Hertz studio there, where the parking lot is now?

Cordite - A double-base smokeless powder made of gun cotton, nitroglycerin, and mineral jelly and shaped in long cylindrical strands.

In short, a now forgotten explosive...


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Jelly, Jelly

Sonny Hines

Jelly, Jelly

Seeburg 5021 (Stereo)

Blues

note : the other side of this record has been posted HERE

Few information available on this Ohio singer . He recorded in the late fifties and the sixties. Here is a list of his records compiled by myself, list probably incomplete.

58 Esta
I'm Glad You're Jealous Of Me
This Morning

61 Decca 31290
Give me back my heart
Teardrop Avenue

-- Decca 31373
Look for me
Follow your heart (Benny Joy wrote it!)

62 Terry 111
Sonny Hines - Nothing Like Your Love
Anytime, Any Day, Anywhere

63 Terry 113
All My Love Belongs To you
(I Finally Found) Someone to Believe In Me

65 Terry-Gregory 1001 (label on cover; on label it's Terry only)

All My Love Belongs To You*
I Finally Found Someone To Believe In Me*
Nothing Like Your Love*
Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere*
If I Had You§/
Let The Good Times Roll§

65? Seeburg 5013
Out Skirts Of Town
I Can't Wait

65? Seeburg 5021
Has Anybody Seen My Kitty?
Jelly Jelly

68 Airtown 2005
You Send Me - Bring It On Home
Nothing Like Your Love

The two Seeburg singles are likely from 1965. Produced by the Seeburg juke-box company based in Chicago and leased, not sold, to the juke-box operators, as explained by Seeburg officials (Billboard May 22, 1965) :

CHICAGO – In introducing its Coin Operators Phonograph Performance Society (COPPS) concept around the country in some 48 separate meetings, Seeburg officals were bombarded by operators questions and comments. Here’s a sampling :

Q. Why are Seeburg records leased –not sold ?
A. Two reasons. First, according to present copyright law, one a company sells a record, it can be recorded by other companies. Operators would lose their exclusivity. Seeburg is restricting use of its records to juke box operators. The material can’t be played anywhere else. Second – since the record is not sold, it is legally a « transcription, » and Seeburg can utilize artists bound « commercially » to other labels.

Several numerical series were used, 3000 is the Discoteen series, 5000 the Rhythm series, 7000 C&W series... And few more probably. In these series, earliest records are all credited to the Seeburg Spotlite Band (members were certainly "artsts bound commercially to other labels"...).

Real names were later printed on the label. In the Rhythm series, Tommy Wills was the first artist to be named (Seeburg 5011).

Full page advertising
the new Country and Western series
Billboard July 17, 1965

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Right Now

Zilla Mays

Right Now

(Danny Taylor- Leroy Kirkland, Flip & Skip Music BMI)

Groove Records

1955

Jet Magazine, December 23, 1954

Zilla was the late night DJ on one of the most important black radio stations of the 50's WAOK in Atlanta where she did the late night show from around '52. WAOK apparently could be heard over an eight state area.

She passed away in September of 1995.

Read more : The Dream Girl : Zilla Mays

Zilla, on strike, 1973

The employes of Atlanta Black-oriented WAOK station went on strike againts station management. The incident that sparked the strike began when a WAOK employe, Mrs. Grace Davis, was fired.

Most of sthe striking employes have returned to their jobs when the strike ended, but Zilla Mays and three others were not rehired.

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Sonny and Cher at least reunited

Well, actually I've reunited their pictures.

Well, actually the picture of their dolls are reunited...

Sonny : over 12 inches tall & poseable. The small print says " 1976 Mego Corp..manufactured exclusively for Mego Corp., New York, N.Y. 10010 in the British Colony of Hong Kong."...# 62401.

Cher : Turn a knob on back of doll and her hair can grow.

Amazing. The quantity of information available on the net is quite incredible! Surely this post would help to boost the number of my blog's visitors, like the "Fat Girls" post has doing recently.

Like the late (but great) french writer Alexandre Vialatte concluded his columns : "Et c'est ainsi qu'Allah est grand!"



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I’m Looking For A Girl

Sugar Bob Kirkland
And
Frankie Pecora Orch.

I’m Looking For A Girl
(audio file from the Buffalo Bop CD "Struttin'", #55169)

Reno Records #BK-2

6006 Broadway, West New York, New Jersey

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It's the only release of this label that I know of. The artist is backed by another orchestra on "Donda" the other side (Bobby Bloom Orch.).

On Broadway
(West New York, New Jersey that is)

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R.I.P. Orangie Ray Hubbard

Orangie Ray Hubbard passed peacefully September 1, 2011 in his 78th year.

Just Moved In

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Hey, Hey, Baby

Marlene
The Nite Shades

Hey, Hey, Baby
(Marlene Thumm, Knotty Music BMI)

Seattle, Washington

1959

Billboard ad curiously credits the artist as
Marlene and her tomahawk (?)

The label is best known for its 1961 release by Ray Gentry and the Rovin' Gamblers (Willie Was a Bad Boy / Do The Fly) and also perhaps for the unusual yodelling "Chime Bells" by Sheri Lee Douglas and the Gondoliers. Both records are listed in the Rockin' Country Style website.

Maverick Records was not, as wrote Billy and Jeff Miller in their liner notes of "Everybody's Boppin'" Northwest compilation on Norton Records. a short-lived label.

Maverick Records was a subsidiary of Knotty Music Inc, established in Seattle in the mid-fifties by Ernest Powell (Ernie) Vigars.

Vigars was already active in the music business in the forties (he wrote in 1947 a 17 pages booklet titled "Deal Yourself A Tune").

In 1952, there was an advertisement for The Northwest Songwriters, Inc. for eight new songs. Persons interested were invited to write to Hazel (Blondy) Vigars, corresponding secretary. (wife of Ernie Vigars?)

The online BMI database contains 23 songs written by Blondie (or Blondy) Rule and Slide Rule, all published by Knotty Music. I assume that Blondie Rule is Blongy Vigars? But who is Slide Rule?

Three labels came out of the Vigars diskery : Knotty, Embassy and Maverick. The result of my research regarding these labels can be found below. The discography is probably incomplete. Any comments or corrections would be appreciated.



KNOTTY RECORDS
12065 Beacon Ave.
Seattle 88, Wash.

5581
The Borland Sisters -Billboard Oct. 15 1955
I'll Be With You When The Roses Bloom / Tomorrow's Too Late

5582
The Borland Sisters - Billboard Oct. 15 1955
Chapel In My Heart / Tattoo

5641
Bobby May & The Knotty Four - Billboard June 16,1956
Put On Your Hat / Have Yourself A Ball

5642
The Sunliners And The Knotty Four - Billboard June 30, 1956 C&W
Ain't Goin' Nowhere / Uh-Huh

Knotty Records, in Billboard ( July 15, 1957) placed a "Coming Soon" ad : Shirley Strand, The Three J's, Henry Day, John Engebretson, Michele Morgan With Jerry Anderson were the artists listed. But except the Three J's (see below), no releases by these artists can be found.



EMBASSY RECORDS (1957)

571
Shirley Hovey & Jerry Anderson - 1957
Gee, But I’m Lonesome / Meannest

572
The Three J’s & Lilyce & Jerry Anderson (Dec 57)
How About Me / Spin A Web



MAVERICK RECORDS
12065 Beacon Ave.
Seattle 88, Wash.

591
Marlene / The Nite Shades / Jack - John - Bill - Billboard ad, Dec. 21, 1959
Hey, Hey, Baby / I Love You Baby
NOTE: The Billboard ad mentions "Hey, Hey Baby" credited to Marlene and her tomahawk (?)

592
Bobby May - Billboard Oct. 12, 1959
Why Do You Treat Me This Way / I Kissed You

601
Sheri Lee Douglas / The Gondoliers - Billboard July 25, 1960
Chime Bells / Gray Skies

606
Duane / The Gondoliers - Billboard May 1, 1961
Wilderness / Lonesome Light

614
Ray Gentry / The Rovin' Gamblers Willie Was A Bad Boy —
The Rovin' Gamblers / Vocal - Ray Gentry Do The Fly

618
Don Thompson / The Yellow Jackets - 1961
Don't Let Me Go / Kathy



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Ronnie Reno on Reno

Ronnie Reno

Somebody Left Another Youngin' At Our House

Lasses

Reno Records

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File under "Music To Suffer By"


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Bop-Cat Rock

Young Mark was listening Country and Western show to the family radio every Saturday night. He much admired Hank Williams and Webb Pierce. With no musician friend(s) in the straight surrounding area of Billerica, he had the idea to place an advertisement in the Billboard magazine :

Rhythm Guitarist, singer and M.C. Country and Western swing. Young, dependable and sober. Single, gave all equipment, and new car. At liberty Sept. 13, 1954, for work with 3 or more (will consider trio). Exeperienced and a real hustler. Want radio, TV, night club or personal appearance work. Must be flat rate pay. Write or phone Mark Cleary, 5 Park St. Billerica, Mass. Phone Billerica 8582. (Billboard, September 18, 1954)

Young, dependable and sober Mark was bitten by the rock 'n' roll bug after seeing Elvis live at his first Massachusetts show (in Foxboro in September '56) and started a rock 'n' roll band, playing weddings and local bars. Soon he was discovered by a local gay undertaker who was willing to pay for a recording session and the Bop Cat label was born. The label owner lacked connections in the music industry, but he knew he had a hit in the second Bop Cat release "Bop Cat Rock" issued in July 1957.

Small Record co. In Boston, with first release (R&R) « moving fast , » needs a major label to « take over » or a public relations man, agent, promoter, distributor, an individual party or group who have connections, to promote this label and first single nation-wide. Will consider selling master. Bop-Cat Records, 70 Beacon St., Somerville, Mass. Billboard August 5, 1957

Apparently, diskery honchos never read the Billboard small print...

The two Billboard excerpts above are real, but everything else is totally imagined.

I've posted a piece (that's all i've got) of the song at YouTube where I've just opened an account : i'am ATOZ176 , pseudo randomly attributed by Youtube and I've tried to make myvery first video as dumb as possible like so many other Youtubers do. I think I've been successful. (?)

As you will hear, it's rockabilly. And a good one.

Massachusetts rockabilly!

In 1957!

Why the song has never be re-issued is totally beyond my understanding. ..

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Bo-Did-It

The Monterays

Bo-Did-It
(Hockensmith, Visual Hits BMI)

Recorded live
Introduction by Terry McGrew
Arr. by Tom Hays

T-Hee Records
Midwest City, Oklahoma

The first commercial release of guitarist Hadley Hockensmith, later lead guitarist for Neil Diamond's tour band.


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Heartbreak Hotel

Delbert Barker
and the Gateway All-Stars

Heartbreak Hotel

Gateway Records

May be there is some sort of conspiration around here : this cover version by the great Delbert Barker is unavailable anywhere on re-issue compilation or on YouTube or on any blog!

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