Johnny B. Goode

Janis Darlene Martin 

(March 27, 1940 – September 3, 2007)

Johnny B. Goode
live

To the best of my knowledge, Janis Martin never recorded this song. 

Onion

Sherry Grooms

Onion

Boudleaux Bryant

Acuff Rose Pub. BMI

Southern Artists Records

Mockingbird 1001

1965

Sherry Ann Grooms, fourteen-year old of West Memphis, Ark. has won a number of local contests in 1964.  She had been encouraged in her singing career by Fred Bevis, a Florence resident and the girl's general manager.  In 1965, she appeared four times on the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour and recorded this first record, possibly in Arkansas at Southern Artists Records.

In December 1965, she was the headliner of a variety show at the Florence Coliseum. On the same bill were the Fame Records Studio Band, "Barry" & the Psychos from Memphis, Lendon Smith and the Genteels, Maggie Sue Wimberly, The Travelons, Fred Frawley and band and others

She had further records on ABC (1966-1967), Cotillion (1969), Elektra (1977, with Even Stevens) and Parachute (1978).  Some were minor hits in the country charts.

Fred Bevis, her manager, was the Florence, Alabama resident who had converted an old casket factory at 3614 Jackson Highway (Sheffield, Ala.) into a four-track studio, which he sold in 1969. The new owners named it "Muscle Shoals Sound Studios"

He's All Mine

Miss Judy Wilson

He's All Mine

KaRi Records 101

1962

One of the first production of Foster and Rice.  Both were already recording artists and both had singles issued by Fernwood Records in that year 1962.

 

Foster and Rice crossed paths while working some shows together in 1961 and 1962 on the Missouri nightclub circuit, and as radio disc jockeys at KTCB in Malden, Missouri.  The duo discovered that Rice had a special aptitude for melodies (“His melodies would sing to me,” Foster said), while Foster had a penchant for lyric writing, and together they made for a formidable songwriting team.

The songwriting team of Jerry Foster and Bill Rice have become one of the most successful song writing teams in country music.

Blue Jean Blues

Sharon Strauss

Blue Jean Blues

Richard Kleiner-Jane Douglass White

Opportunity Music, ASCAP

Target EXP 503

If it's on TARGET it's a hit

1957


Sharon Strauss, 1962

Sharon Strauss was raised in Oceanside, N.Y., on the south shore of Long Island, though she spent summers with her grandmother in Danby, Vt., in the shadow of the Green Mountains.

Sharon Strauss, the daughter of  Mike Strauss, a winter sportswriter at The New York Times,  had appeared on Paul Winchell's TV show and was a junior at Oceanside Junior High School, when she recorded her first 45 for Jubilee Records in 1957.

In 1963, she married George Parker, a member of the family that owned the Concord Resort Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y..  Her mother-in-law told her: “Remember, you married a hotel.”  And the new Mrs. Parker gave up her ambitions to be an entertainer and instead became a hostess at the famous celebrity hotspot, greeting visitors as the manager of guest relations.

These were the glory days of the Catskills, and Sharon recalls: “It was pre-cruise ship, and this was like a cruise ship on land.  When people came down to dinner, they dressed.”   The dining room held 3,000.   Guests included the Rockefellers, Kennedys, singers, dancers, “and every famous athlete of the day.”

Discography

57    Jubilee 5275 : A Hole In The Fence / Matchin' Kisses
57    Target 503 : Blue Jean Blues / Rattlin' Around
57    Target 504 : (You're The) Purtiest Thing / Over & Over
62    ABC 10349 : Don't Keep Your Friends Away From Me / Don't Let Him Know (The Truth)

Double Bubble

Larry Brinkley

Double Bubble

Lee McAlpin-Randy Wilson

Lyn-Lou Music BMI

Magic 3011
1965

Earliest releases on the Magic label had a Memphis address, later releases a Middleton, Tennessee address.  Magic Records was owned by Jimmy Darnell and Lee McAlpin. 

From Jackson, Tennessee Larry Brinkley recorded locally for Jaxon (unissued cuts) and Charlie Roach's Westwood.  See his discography in the Rockin' Country Style website.

When the rockabilly days were over, Larry teamed with Lee McAlpin (who played piano with Carl Perkins' band) and they wrote songs together, notably "The Man in the House", recorded by Loretta Lynn.

This is one of the last (or the last) release on the label, more obscure than the earlier Larry Brinkley offering on the label which was "Right String, But Wrong Yo Yo" (Magic 3004)

Nu, Nu, Nu

The Taylor Maids

Bobby Pring's Orchestra

Nu, Nu, Nu 

Romano, Bradford (ASCAP)

Eureka 6752

1954

Eureka, the Gold label, division of Stanley and Livingston, Inc. Hollywood, Calif.

The Taylor Maids, three striking decorative blondes, were sisters who answer to the names of Pat, Beverly and Shirley Taylor.   They began their professional careers singing in army hospitals.    Said one sergeant, "Those girls were so darn pretty they didn't have to sing."     Bob Hope discovered them in 1950 and immediately booked them to accompany him on a Korean tour. Hope was so enthralled by the girls that when he made his TV debut he brought the Taylor Maids to New York. 

After four singles for Capitol Records in 1955-1956, Pat called it quits to devote time to her family.  Beverly and Shirley tried to find a third person to keep the act going, without success, and both wound up getting hired in Florida as airline stewardesses. 

More details can be found here

School Of Love

Cole Younger

School Of Love

 

J. Gazzaruso, Dixsil Music-Carpino Music

Candix 320
1961

This is John Gazzaruso

"School Of Love" was previously issued on Mercury Records (#71587) as by Johnny Raphael, another Gazzaruso pseudonym.  It's also probably him on the Australian W&G label released as by Johnny Daro (I've not heard this one, but it has to be him).

Johnny Raphael first recorded for Aladdin Records in 1958 (Lonely Road To Nowhere/We're Only Young Once, with Frank Gazzaruso and Orchestra.)


He produced some early P.J. Proby recordings (still known as Jett Powers) at an unknown date (probably in 1959).  Unissued at the time, two of these recordings, "You Got Me Cryin'" backed with "I Need Love", were issued only in 1965 on Johnny Raphael's own Surfside Records

His wife was Rosemary Nibali who was the mother of Tommy Rettig, original star of  "Lassie", the TV series.  (Tommy's father was Elias Rettig)

School of Love 

We're only young once 

Let's rock & roll 

Loving Husband, Father & Grandfather
Johnny Raphael Gazzaruso

1928-1974

He's Got The Whole World (in his hands)

Gene Princeton

Big Fat Saturday Night 

Covay-Berry-Dixon

Deaville Music, BMI

He's Got The Whole World (in his hands) 

Vandanburg BMI

1960

This is Gene Rambo.  "He's Got The Whole World" was recorded at the suggestion of Gene Vincent.

“Man”, recalls Gene Rambo, “After I saw Gene Vincent I said forget Elvis – It was pure excitement from the start to finish”. His brother Bobby remembers too: “All of us were Vincent Nuts, Man! If he made some wild stage move, we’d pick up on it and do it too!”

Gene Rambo, a.k.a. Gene Princeton

Gene Rambo and the Flames were key figures on the Dallas scene since '56 when Gene and 16 year old guitar rippin' Lil' bro Bobby caught the Elvis bug.  They lay down a pair of ruff covers of recent Presley faves "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Don't Be Cruel" that never got beyond a scratchy pass around acetate.  It was a cool start for the Flames, but it was the tornado-like roar like Gene Vincent into town that turned the entire Big D, in particular the Rambos, into one mojo jumpin' bean. (from the notes of the No Hit LP "the Desperate Dallas Demos")

The Flames became the house band at Pattie’s Teen Club and later at the Irving Youth Center. In May of ’57, The Flames won first prize at the Big D Jamboree’s weekly talent show and came back for ten weeks with the support from their all chicks fan club “The Flamettes”. Those gals used to flash banners stating “The Flames will burn Forever”. Bobby will also back some other performers on recording sessions like Joe Poovey on “Teen Long Fingers” (Dixie 2018) or Scotty Mc Kay, a Blue Caps, on “Rollin’ Dynamite” (Event 4295).  Back at Sellers Studio, Bobby would record great covers of Carl Perkins “Your True Love” and Eddie Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody”.  In Dec 1957, they will play the Big D Jamboree with Charline Arthur, Darrell Glenn, Joe Poovey and Johnny Dollar. Around the same time they also played on the same bill with Country Johnny Mathis, Johnny Horton, Bob Luman, Mac Curtis …

The Reverend Bob Presents...

The Reverend Bob Presents...
 23 meanest little tracks from the DeadWax Archives

Rocklector 008

Bell 118-Jay Stevens-Tiger.Mp3                            
Blue Star 503-Alice Grant- Pretty Little Brown Eyes.Mp3   
Breeze- Sharlet Sexton - Since My Baby Put Me Down.Mp3    
Brunswick 55169 Inez Johnston-Big Bad Betty.Mp3                        
Crosby 8  Sherree Scott Go Away Shadow.Mp3                              
Diamond 3001 Gloria Wood -Rock And The Roll.Mp3           
Diamond 3001 Gloria Wood Honey Bee.Mp3                                
Duplex 9002 - Bobby Williams So Blue.Mp3                  
Essex 385-Bo Diddley - Jean Dinning.Mp3                   
MCM TK-12--Ray Flowers& Louise Taylor Hip Happy Hippy.Mp3  
Mongoose Johnny Keyes The Rock  N Roll Squaw.Mp3          
Pak 1900   The Hollywood Treets-  Greenstreet Beat.Mp3                             
Pattern 103 Lem Davis-Hot Chocolate.Mp3                   
Pawn 1201 - The Joy Vendors - Popeye-Line.Mp3                                
Point  - Sentinals -Bony Maronie.Mp3                          
Spice 401 Terry Knight - If I Couldn't Cry.Mp3            
Studio City 1026 -The Furys- Little  Queenie.Mp3          
Summit Dick And Libby- Pizza Sure Is Good .Mp3            
Tiger 102 Juil Noel- I'm A Womans Man-.Mp3                
Tom-Tom-Lan 1000 Ding Dong Daddies  - Shortnin' Bread.Mp3 
Valerie 316 Meanest-Little-Woman.Mp3                      

Chick Chick

Donnie Moneymaker

(13 yrs. old)

Chick Chick

Irene Howard, Be Sure Music

Produced by Allen Howard

Mike NR14259

1982

The song was first recorded by  Junior Dean And The Avalons in 1958 for the Mike label, owned by Otha Howard (1957-2006), the father of the producer of this cover version, Allen Howard.  

The label says Donnie is 13 years old, but he sounds much older.  The flip is a Elvis tribute of lesser interest, "Memories Of Elvis", written by Otha Howard and Terry Gragg.  This "new" Mike label was revived by Allen Howard in the early eighties in Taylorsville, North Carolina.

San Antonio Rose

 Art Erikson and The Playboys

 San Antonio Rose 

 (Public Domain)

Hawkeye 6530

1963

Hawkeye was a subsidiary of Arc Recorders, which was a recording studio located at 3291 Tweedy Boulevard, South Gate, California, owned by Jerry Cooper (of Bruce and Jerry on Arwin ?)

Another Art Erikson record (on the Byeric label) can be found here

San Antonio Rose originally was an instrumental written in 1938 by Bob Wills who added lyrics two years later :

"When I was a very young man, I was living in Roy, New Mexico, working as a barber and playing for dancers on Saturday night. Since most of the population of Roy was Mexican, I wrote a tune for them to dance to and called it 'Spanish Two-Step.' When I did my first recording session with Columbia in 1935, 'Spanish Two-Step' was one of the tunes I recorded. On November 28, 1938, I went to Dallas to record again for Columbia. After we cut several tunes, uncle Art Satherley, who was the A & R man on this session, asked me if I had another tune like 'Spanish Two-Step.' I said, 'No, I don't but if you give me a few minutes, maybe I can come up with something.' In a few minutes I had written and recorded the tune. Uncle Art asked me what I wanted to name the tune. I told him I didn't know. So he said, 'Let's name it "San Antonio Rose."' This was an instrumental and it sold very well. The recording company asked me to record it again with lyrics. I worked for two years before finally finishing the words and recorded 'New San Antonio Rose' in April 1940." —Bob Wills