Obieshabooten Baby

Tony De Feo

Obieshabooten Baby

Marculli-DeAngelis

Myers Music Inc (ASCAP)

 

Richloy 45-103

1956 (or early 1957)

Of Tony De Feo I known nothing.  He was perhaps the Tony De Feo who was a member of The Hallmarks (Ricky and the Hallmarks on Amy Records, early sixties).

Owner of Myers Music and Richloy Records was James E. Myers.  James Myers started as drummer and performer, leading his own band, Jimmy DeKnight & His Knights of Rhythm.  

My father made portable metal bandstands for us, put lights on them, with a drawing of a knight in armor, holding a lance, riding a musical note, and that was our trademark. For a long time we went under that name and performed all over the Delaware Valley. We had a 22 piece orchestra at some locations and if they couldn't afford that, we'd cut down to 15 or whatever they could afford. Sometimes, we'd play clubs with just a trio or a quartet.

In 1946, after four years of combat in the South Pacific, and being away from performing music for so long, Jim Myers didn't feel like going back to playing drums.  He became a music publisher, a record producer and a promoter.  Then he wrote his first big hit :

 I wrote and copyrighted "Rock Around The Clock" in 1953.   I had written the melody and about half of the lyrics, but I was having trouble with the rest of it.   Max Freedman, who had written some other songs with me, walked into my office while I was fooling around with it one day and said, "That sounds pretty good, can I help you with it?"  I said, "Why not?" When we finished it he said, "What are you going to call it?" I said, "Rock Around The Clock."    And he said, "Why Rock, what's that mean?  Why not "Dance Around The Clock? And I said, "I just have a gut feeling and since I'm half writer and whole publisher, I'm the boss! Right!" So, we called it "Rock Around The Clock."  

When I showed it to Bill Haley he flipped over it, but his record company at that particular time, said it would never sell.   He recorded two versions of it, but they never released them.  

Then Jack Howard, who had Arcade Records at that time, said he wanted to record it with a group that he had called, Sonny Dae & His Knights.   They were first to release the song and it was a big hit locally.   It sold thousands of records in the Delaware Valley, but Jack didn't know how to promote it nationally.  

A year later, Haley came to me and said, "Jim, my contract is up, can you get me on a major label?"   I said, "I think so, what's the deal?"   He said, "I'll record one of your songs on one side of every release." I said, "That sounds good to me!"

The major label was Decca and the first song recorded by Bill Haley was "Rock Around The Clock", It's sold over 200 million copies to date, it's been recorded by more than 500 artists in 32 languages, 

Walkin' In My Sleep

Connie Snow

Walkin' In My Sleep

C. Snow, Alfay Music Co. (BMI)

Midas UN-04

Midas Record Company

607 S. Aspen, Roswell, NM

1961

Connie W. Snow (1935-2009)

    “Snowball” Connie Snow 74, was born in Henryetta, OK on June 8, 1935. On August 27, 2009 he lost his battle with cancer and joined his Lord and Savior. After growing up in Artesia, NM area he moved to Washington State and went to work for the Boeing Company, retiring January 1, 1995 from the Auburn plant.

He is survived by his wife Darlene Snow after 25 years at their home on South Hill Puyallup. He is also survived by 8 children, Jaime (Bev) Snow, Roby (Patti) Snow, Cindy Snow (Hosam) El Dakhakhni, Hayley (Kevin) Klein, Theresa (Doug) Barr, Tammie (Gene) Hoffert, Lori (Scott) Resop, Tom, Jr. (Tammy) Osborne, several grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Sue Snow, once his wife, was murdered in 1986, in an horrific poisoning case :

She was the innocent pawn in Stella Nickell's plot to kill her own husband, Bruce, by lacing his headache capsules with cyanide.   After Bruce was dead and buried from what the doctors thought was natural causes, Stella bought more bottles of headache medicine and put cyanide-laced capsules in them, also.   Afterwards, she placed the bottles on the store shelves of local grocery chains.

Sue Snow was unlucky enough to buy one of the tainted bottles and died from the effects of the poison.   Stella's scheme was to wait for the media attention surrounding Sue's death from the poisoned capsules, then claim her husband was also the victim of product tampering.   She would then receive a substantial amount from Bruce's life insurance, due to accidental death, and any amount the drug manufacturer might pay in a lawsuit.   Stella's plan was foiled by good detective work, and she was sentenced to ninety years in prison.

The case was the subject of the book "Bitter Almonds" by Gregg Olsen and was also featured on the TV program "Medical Detectives" on The Learning Channel.  (bio by: Karen Valentine)

At Sue funeral, her longtime hairdresser did her hair.  She looked pretty, almost as she did when she was alive.  

Connie Snow's recording of an old “beer-drinkin' country tearjerker” he had written, called “Darlin' Sue,” [the flip of Walkin' In My Sleep]  was piped in after some music by the Judds, Sue's favorite musicians  :

Dark clouds again 

Shadows are falling
I keep remembering Darlin' Sue.

Pink Shoelaces

Honey Gabore 

and Coastiers Hot Shots

Pink Shoelaces

A Coast To Coast Top Hit Records 1275

1959

A cover of the 1959 Dodie Stevens hit. 

 This record is not listed in this Coast To Coast discography.
This label is a continuation (in the same series) of the Gateway Top Tune label owned by Rite Records of Cincinnati.

Justine

The Hi-Fi's

with The Reveleers

Justine

Harrington, Blue Hill Music Pub. ASCAP

AVR 5001
A production of Audio Visual Record Co. Hingham, Mass.
1960

Information below courtesy of Lennie Petze :

The HiFi's on AVR only recorded the one single. "Mr. Bee" and "Justine". 

The group consisted of three girls and a boy all in their young teens. They were Judi Harrington, Judy Harris, Carol Finch and Billy Mossman. The girls were all from North Weymouth but I'm not sure where Billy was from. During that time I had a band called The Rhythm Rockers and we would do record hops together and she introduced us to Lenny Collins who eventually joined my new band The Rondels.  

 Judi also married the lead guitar player in my group my cousin Jimmy Petze. Sadly Jim passed away in 1993. Judi lives on Cape Cod and we see each other frequently.  

Carol Finch tragically was killed in a car accident at 16 probably a year after the record  came out.

As far as The Reveleers, Len and Bobby Collins are doing well, Woody Cope became a Weymouth policeman now retired and I did hear that Jimmy Olsen had passed away.

The label was owned by Bud Winsloe (William E. Winsloe) who issued at least another 45 on the label by The Cymbols, also with the Reveleers backing (but Lennie Petze has no recollection of the Cymbols). Billboard magazine was rather pleased by the record which was reviewed in the Good Sales Potential section on April 25, 1960 :

THE CYMBOLS WITH THE REVELEERS ★★★  A False-Hearted Lover— AVR 5002 — Fresh-sound group does a folk-flavored piece of material. Lads have a good style here, with beat and zest. (Blue Hill, ASCAP)
★★  Springtime —  Fresh-sound vocal group does a ballad in legit style.  Group needs a more commercial arrangement, but has a pleasing effect nevertheless (Blue Hill, ASCAP)

More info about the Rhythm Rockers / Reveleers / Rondels here at their own website.

Bony Maronie

The Sentinals

Bony Maronie

(Larry Williams, Venice Musi BMI)

Point 5101
1964

The Sentinals made a couple of albums for Del-Fi in 1963-64 and achieved a good deal of regional popularity, although only drummer Johnny Barbata (later in the Turtles and Jefferson Starship) would go on to name groups. They formed in 1961 in the Californian Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo.

 

More info, band line up and discography here

The Sentinals

cover of the Sundazed re-issue of their second single

Rock-A-Lolita

Bobby Jones

Rock-A-Lolita 

(Ook A Jook A Jook A Jook A)

Eddie Curtis, Amelia Music ASCAP
Arranged, conducted and produced by Marty Edwards

Kitten 707
Division Of Bearcat Productions

1961

Not the soul Chicago singer.  This was possibly his sole record.   Also possibly the sole record on this Kitten label.

Eddie Curtis, the songwriter (and owner of Amelia Music) was also an arranger and a singer. He was born in Galveston, Texas, on July 17, 1927.  He became interested in music at an early age, and by the age of 15, had led his own band.  Curtis composed hundreds of songs, including the R&B hits “Lovey Dovey” (recorded by the Clovers and other artists) and “It Should've Been Me” (made famous by Ray Charles). He also wrote several songs that were recorded by Connie Francis. 

His records can be found on Gee (as Eddie "Tex" Curtis), Atco, Okeh, Dot, Bear Cat, etc.  

 

Curtis died of prostate cancer on August 22, 1983, in New York.     

Marty Edwards is a much obscure figure.  One thing is intriguing : his name is only found on Eddie Curtis related records (as composer or singer), including a credit as music composer and lyricist on the Raftis single "The Louisville Lip" issued in 1971.  Marty Edwards was almost probably a Eddie Curtis pseudonym, I guess.

One If

Ed (The Great) Gates

One If

E. White-M.Hurley

Publ. 4 Star Sales, BMI

You Are My Love

E. White-G.Love-M.Hurley

Publ. 4 Star Sales, BMI

4 Star 1712
September 1957

*

Ed Gates 

(cover of the Krazy Kat LP)

Edward Gates White was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1918. He moved with his family to the west coast in 1932.  He worked for a dry cleaning business until he turned professional in musiic.  

He started to record in the late forties. His records were released by Selective, Kappa, Miltone, Gotham, 4 Star, Rex Hollywood, Recorded in Hollywood, and States (in Chicago).  

From 1954 onwards,  Gates apppears to have been associated with Mark Hurley, a white entrepreneur based at Los Angeles.  With Hurley involved he recorded for Aladdin and again for 4 Star.   After that session he abandoned blues recording in favor of instrumental organ recordings of jazz rather than blues interest.  

Gates then changed from being a singer to an organist. As an organist he recorded for Speciality and Robins Nest.  In the eighties he was still living in Los Angeles and still singing and playing the Hammond organ at cocktail lounges, billed as "The Man On The Moon" and still using the name Ed Gates. 

His early sides were compiled on an album published by the Krazy Kat label (UK) in the mid-eighties (cover above)

5 Sable Sisters

5 Sable Sisters

 Little Wee Lady

R. Trivanovich Starday BMI

Hope Chest

C. Sable, Starday BMI

Dixie 45-868

July 1960

Teen-age group from Ohio.  Bob Fenster, New York, was their personal manager.  That's all I can find and that's not much.

 Billboard,     April 11, 1960                                                        Aug. 1, 1960 

Black Duck (With The Baby Blue Eyes)

Ray Whitaker

Black Duck (With The Baby Blue Eyes) 

Whitaker, Whirl Music, inc.

Ray Note S-3   
6331 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood 28
1959

Ray Whitaker wrote his first concerto at 17, which won him a musical scholarship.  Following 3 years in the Air Force with the Special Services Division, he headed various orchestras and appeared in clubs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. 

In 1957, he failed to impress the Billboard reviewer of his Tropicana album (Rock and Roll Your Bones, Ray Whitaker at the Hammond) :

A mediocre attempt to capitalize on the rock and roll craze via the heavy beat of a Hammond organ on tunes like "Tuxedo Junction," "St. James Infirmary," "Darktown Strutters Ball," etc. 

After few sessions at Surf Records, where his orchestra backed Del Erickson and Jeff James, he started his own Ray Note Records.

Some ten singles and several albums were issued in 1959-1960, including three singles by Darla Hood and the very last recordings of  Western String veteran Spade Cooley ("Fidoodlin", Ray Note LP 5007).

After the label folded, Ray had labored for three long years upon one truly bizarre musical instrument called the Musicade.  It consisted of a Hammond organ, a Lowrey organ, a baby grand piano, xylophone, vibraharp, drums and more than 30 other percussion instruments--all. combined into a gigantic device which was to be played by Whitaker while seated before four keyboards.   The Musicade was first played at the Mardi Gras, an entertainment lounge, located on Chapman Avenue in Orange one night of December 1965 :

He later moved to Tucson, Arizona where he lived with his mother, Stacia, who helped him to wire another Musicade.  According to the Tucson Daily Citizen (June 6, 1970) :

Ray says he owes most of the wiring of the musicade to his mother. "At the age of. 64, I quit show business," she says laughingly, "and became an electrician. I got so I was wiring that thing in my sleep and at times it seemed like a nightmare. I can't believe I really did it."   Some of the plugs between the various units, she explains, contain more than 100 wires. "Friends used to drop around and watch us during the three and a half years it took us to build it. 

According to the same newspaper, the Musicade was unfortunately destroyed by a fire which destroyed the bar where it was. (June 1971).

Ray Whitaker died in 2003 in San Diego, Calif.

To-To-Mo-To

Vocal Jo-Jo
Obie (Count) Jenkins & Orchestra

 

To-To-Mo-To

 Josephine Joseph - Opal J. Lantz- Bill Husarik, Dauphin (BMI)

Ace 113

Ace Records 

1650 Broadway, N.Y.C.

1957

Ace Records was headed by Johnny Ponz (Ponzillo).  Musical director was Vincent Vallis. The label was active from 1956 until 1961.  

 

Jo-Jo (Josephine Joseph ?) was probably a regular vocalist with the Count Jenkins Orchestra.  Obie Jenkins, Jr., an alto and tenor sax, was from Malvern, Ohio.  He organized the Count Jenkins Band in the late forties.

 

Rock 'n Roll Jump-Stick

Wally Hester

Rock 'n Roll Jump-Stick

(Wally Hester-Gladys Blackford, Mountain City Pub. Co., BMI)

Hap 1010 

Hap Records Dome Building Chattanooga, Tenn.

1961

 

Happy Herbert Schleif, manager of a Chattanooga clothing store and part-time country music promoter launched the Mountain City Recording Studio in 1960 in partnership with Carl Allen.  

Partial discography of the label can be found here at the Mellow's Log Cabin blog.

An earlier Wally Hester release on University is listed at 45cat

Lover Please

Gene & Chris The Long Brothers

Lover Please

Scotty 45-GQP-651

1964

Eugene Drew Long (1946-1998) and his younger brother Chris were both of Wheeling Island (West Virginia). They began their career at a very young age as part of the Long Family.  .The duo ended with the drafting of Gene to Vietnam. Later, Gene continued by singing with a local group called The Blenders for many years.

Discography

Scotty 651    

Gene & Chris The Long Brothers , 1964    
Rock Around The Clock /  Lover Please

Prod Joe Gorlock

Agogo No #, 

Gene & Chris The Long Brothers ,   1965?

Don`t Worry, / Linda,    

 Jubilee 5541 

The Long Brothers,   1966
Dream Girl / Lonely Time 
Prod Lou Guarino

★ 

Scotty was a subsidiary of Gateway Records owned by Bob Schachner.

Robert Schachner, a native of New Jersey, was the son of an audio aficionado.  His father owned sophisticated audio equipment and a cutting disc to manufacture records.  Schachner came to Pittsburgh to study drama at Carnegie Tech but transferred to Duquense University to study journalism.  While in school he worked part time selling records and produced recordings of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans.  He quit school in 1961 to open Gateway Recordings with an initial investment of $341.

Scotty discography

Division of Gateway Recordings, Inc. Pittsburgh, Pa.

424 Flecker And The Countdowns
615 John Ivey, With The Chapelaires
645 Exciting Avantis
651 Gene & Chris The Long Brothers
652 Patti And The Playboys  
811 Tony Coz
818 The Marlins
822  Ronnie King And The Passions
939 Ollie And The Go-Go's
No# The Hides

Express yourself

Express yourself : always place the sticker in the right place

courtesy of ebay