Why Did You Leave Me

Billy Peek

Why Did You Leave Me

B.Peek, Billy Peek Music Co. BMI

RCA press L8OW-4895

Peek Records 101

Produced by Rick Darnell & Ray Stallings

 

April or May 1960

 

Billy Peek was born in South St. Louis, and as a child growing up in the 1950s he lived for a time in an apartment above a bar known as the Peek-A-Boo Inn.   There he began playing the country guitar with his father.   When he was a bit older he heard the music of other burgeoning St. Louis musicians such as Chuck Berry and Ike Turner ...

Not long after the release of his first record (on Carter Records, "Pretty Blue Eyed Baby") Chuck Tillman and Peek were invited to appear on the St. Louis Hop's first anniversary show alongside Chuck Berry.  For Billy Peek this was a chance of a lifetime; not only would he be appearing on television for the first time, he would be doing so with his idol...

Billy Peek's main claim to fame is having played, recorded, and toured extensively with Chuck Berry, and Rod Stewart.

 ★

Billy Peek discography  (note: yes, same Billy Peek on Royal Crest)

Rockin' Country Style

Video Billy Peek with Chuck Berry - It Came Out Of The Sky (Santa Monica, 1975)

Video Producer Patrick Murphy profiles professional guitarist, Billy Peek.

Hey! Eilene

  

 Andy Terra

Hey! Eilene

John Szwaja - Ralph Gifford, Timely Music ASCAP

Conductor : Steve Pulliam

Dauphin Records

late 1959 or early 1960

 

This is Andy Terra's second release on the Dauphin label.  He formed later the Andy Terra Trio - picture above –  a classic "lounge act", Andy Terra sang standards in restaurant lounges, night clubs and country clubs up and down the east coast from the Catskill Mountain resorts to clubs in Miami. 

Conducting the Dauphin Records sessions was Steve Pulliam, trombone player for Buddy Johnson's great band from 1947until the mid 1950s.

Fake

Silent 

(from the Series Imaginary Records)
signed and dated 'Christian Marclay 1997' (on the reverse)
paper collage on record cover
12¼ x 12¼in. (31.1 x 31.1cm.)
Executed in 1997

Fake album cover (but that's ART... not music) sold last week £34,850 (Christie's).  That's 112.7519.475 Vietnamese dongs.  For the readers who are not British or Vietnamese :  please use the currency converter HERE and see if you could afford this kind of folly.

 

Sherry

Glitters

Sherry

B. Gaudio, Bobob ASCAP

Yes C-6-A

S.P.C. Newark, N.J.

1962

Cover of the Four Seasons first number one hit on Yes, a budget label, product of S.P.C of Newark, New Jersey.

According to Bob Gaudio, the song took about 15 minutes to write and was originally titled "Jackie Baby" (in honor of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy).  At the studio, the name was changed to "Terri Baby", and eventually to "Sherry", the name of the daughter of Gaudio's best friend, New York disc jockey Jack Spector. One of the names that Gaudio pondered for the song was "Peri Baby," which was the name of the record label for which Bob Crewe worked, named after the label owner's daughter.   [Wikipedia)

Red Hot Henrietta Brown

 

Sue Thompson

Red Hot Henrietta Brown

Fred Rose (-)

Mercury Records

1952

 

 

Sue Thompson was born Eva Sue McKee in Nevada, Missouri on July 19, 1925.   Sue‘s first successful fling in show business was with the "Dude Martin Show" on KYA Radio in San Francisco, and KGO TV in 1950.    The Dude Martin Show moved to TV station KTTV in Los Angeles in 1951.   She performed with Dude at the Palamino Club in Los Angeles.  Sue was nominated for an Emmy award in 1954 for her work on the Dude Martin Show, but lost out to Lucille Ball.

Sue’s first major hit was a tear jerker titled, "Sad Movies Always Make Me Cry" in 1961, on Hickory Records.  By then she was in her thirties and married to her third husband, singer Hank Penny.     

Sue Thompson discography

Red Rose Tea

no artist credit

Red Rose Tea

Gink Records

As heard on the Zeke Jackson Show

Distributed exclusively by Record Rama

Route 8, Etna, Penna.

1968

From a TV commercial recorded in 1960

(1) British acrobat Gene Detroy (real name Samuel Wood 1909-1986) billed as the “Vagabond Of The Wire,” earned his living in the 1940s as a tightrope walker in the English Music Halls and carnivals. To keep him company, Detroy adopted a pet chimpanzee. When a featured act on the program failed to show, it was suggested that Detroy go onstage with his chimp. They were a resounding hit, so it wasn’t long before other chimps were recruited. Detroy named the new act Marquis and Family, because he thought it sounded elegant.

(2) In 1960 the Marquis Chimps, Enoch, Susie, Baron and Hans were signed to appear in a trio of television commercials......

(3) .......for Brooke Bond Foods, makers of Red Rose Tea. The commercials featured the chimps in parodies of a Wild West shoot out, a golf match and the most popular, a wild nightclub with a swinging chimp band singing the praises of Red Rose Tea.

(4) In 1968, WARO Pittsburgh DJ Zeke Jackson played the music track of the Red Rose Tea commercial on his radio show. Jackson received so many requests for the crazy tune that he and ......

(5) ........local record collector Paul Mawhinney pressed and sold one thousand 45 rpm records, which quickly sold out. 

The disk was released under the GINK label, named after the DJ’s mother-in-law (not pictured) and featuring the same song on the flip side.

How many record labels were named after a mother-in-law, I wonder.  Not many I guess.

The whole story of the Red Rose Tea commercial is told by Ed Golik HERE and has a video of the commercial as seen on TV.

Audio file from Collector CD "Rockin' Your Way" (CLCD 4497, 2006)

Function At The Junction

Tommy Brewer

With Bee Kay Sextet

Function At The Junction

Lantz-Goss-Lantz,  Frannan MusicBMI

Crystalette 701

1956

The other side, Drag Brother Drag, has been compiled on Chrome, Smoke & Fire: A Compilation Of Hot Rod Music  (Blast Fire LP, 1991)

 

Can't find much to write about Tommy Brewer or the Bee-Kay Sextet.   Two of the writers are likely Josephine and Barney Lantz, wife & husband,  who, with their son Mickey, were noted as "a trio of talented accordionists".   Barney Lantz was also shortly a member of a trio formed by Mr Goon-Bones (his name is found on several Mercury recordings from 1950-1951). 

Label shot is from Rockin' Country Style

Oh! Mr. Romeo

 The Lassies

Oh! Mr. Romeo

Decca Records

1957

Vocal girl trio

Joan Goldner

The Lassies, were formed in Chicago by Joan Goldner.

A Chicago native, Goldner began singing in church at age 7, studied voice with a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera.


“That was back in the era of the girl trios. … Someone in Chicago was looking for a girls trio to manage, and we ended up with a record contract with Decca Records. We cut three records.”

“We were the opening act for Liberace, we won the Arthur Godfrey Talent Contest and we were on the Godfrey Show for a while,” she recalled. “We traveled around the country, sang with bands, did live TV shows ... .”



More on Joan Goldner



The Lassies Discography

1955
Klick 1605
Russ Eddy and His Orchestra - Vocal "The Lassies"

Gee, But I Hate To Go Home Alone  (Goodwin-Hanley) - Shapiro-Bernstein & Co. ASCAP -
The Magic Carpet Man (J. Faraghan-G. Thompson-B. Curtis) - Surf Music Corp. BMI

1956
Decca 29868
The Lassies, vocal with the Ray Charles Singers and Orch. directed by Jack Pleis

I Look at You (Jean Constantin, Rainey Robinson)
Sleepy Head  (Winfield Scott)

1957
Decca 30298
The Lassies with Jack Pleis and his Orchestra

Oh! Mr. Romeo (Sandra Kent-Jim Morehead)
Dixieland Marchin' Band (Charles-Naylor-Hal Hackady)

Pistol Packin' Papa

Sandy Powell

Pistol Packin' Papa

Dexter, Vogue Music BMI

Impala Records

(Also issued later on Herald Records)

1960

Sandra Pouls, the daughter of a Philadelphia turkey grower, has taking part in several regional beauty contests, Miss Turkey Queen,  Miss Reading Fair, Miss Philadelphia etc  before recording for Singular Records in 1958 as Sandra Powell.
According to The White Doo-Wop Collector, she was married to Lenny Rocco, himself a recording artist.  There was a Sandra Pouls posing for some sleazy magazines around the same time. It's not known if it's the same Sandy.

Impala Records was owned by Fran Williams, aka Franny Williamson.  He also owned the Delsey label. Later, in 1964, he purchased Chancellor Records and produced juke box films.

Hey Baby

The Marauders

Hey Baby

Banyan

A division of Music Industries

Produced by Dick Michaels

1964 or later

Cover of the Bruce Channel hit

A old MP3 file and a picture of label saved on my computer many years ago seems to be the only evidence of the existence of this record.  The MP3 is probably unfinished and the label shot of poor quality.  Absolutely no trace on the net of the very obscure Marauders on the Banyan label.  I was resigned and ready to post it without comment.  And then, a last try was finally successful regarding the Music Industries and  the amazing life of his owner, Jack Millman.

Mike's Riff

Mike Mitchell on sax

Mike's Riff

Mitchell, RoJo Publishing / Jalo Music BMI

Twin Star Records

1958

Square Dance In The Park

Kay-Doll Sisters

With Jomail Trio

Cord Harmonica by Phil Monte
Figure Caller : Johnny Bytheway

Square Dance In The Park

Mike Elias, Blue Grass Music BMI
Bay-Uke 9

 1912 Western Avenue, S. Greensburg, Pa.,  

1964

This is,  there is not much doubt,  a updated version of the song that the sisters Kay and Dolly first recorded in 1954 for Blue Ribbon Records as the Caroll Sisters, and re-issued on Decca in 1955 as by The Karroll Sisters.  You can hear the first version, courtesy of the Hillbilly Researcher HERE

Bay-Uke was owned by song writer and music publisher Matt Furin.   

Billy Sha-Rae was the main working horse of the Bay-Uke stable. He had four records (out of the five first releases)

Matt Furin was previously involved in recording labels ownership with Howard Vokes (Vokes Records, 1955), with Joe Averbach (Round Up Records, 1955) and Fee Bee Records.  He also owned Jo Jo Records and Wig Wag Records, all out of Pennsylvania, before reviving the Round Up label in Nashville in 1965.

Sound file is from "Rock Girls Rock" Collector CLCD4526