Let The Good Times Roll

The Del Counts

Let The Good Times Roll

Soma Record Co. 1430

1965

The Del Counts were started by Charles Schoen, who was inspired to start a career in music after learning to play the guitar while he recovered from a serious injury.  He named the band after his first drummer, Del Leon LaFave. "We were called the Del Counts from the start," Schoen said. "Del counted the songs — funny how that came about."  

 

Soon, Tony Preese replaced LaFave on drums Bill Soley played bass and Tom Aspenwall was the guitarist..

The band’s breakout song, “Let the Good Times Roll,” was released in 1965 and caught the attention of listeners. When the song was first released, it became an cue for local gangs to start brawling on the dance floor when the chorus began. The band realized that they may need to hide behind their equipment while performing the song to avoid injury.

In 2019, Governor Tim Walz has declared Friday, April 26, Del Counts Band Day, as the band celebrate with a 58th anniversary show. The Del Counts, who have been performing since 1961 and are widely considered the longest-running rock group in the state, continue to play shows decades later to nostalgic followers.

See https://garagehangover.com/delcounts/

See https://blog.thecurrent.org/2019/04/gov-walz-officially-declares-del-counts-day-in-minnesota/

Sonya and the Avons sing for Riceland Rice

Sonya and the Avons
sing for
Riceland Rice

Pressed by Southern ¨Plastics in Nashville in 1964. A promotional record for Riceland, a company founded in 1921 with headquarters in Stuttgart, Arkansas.

Produced by Noble-Dury, a nationally known advertising and public relations firm. Noble-Dury reigned supreme for a 30-year period that spanned from the 1940s to the mid-1970s. The agency is widely regarded as the most successful ad firm in Nashville’s business history, and for a time, it even ranked as the largest agency in the Southeast. Noble-Dury represented leading national and regional consumer brands, as well as banks and insurance companies, but the firm’s reputation and fortunes largely hinged on relationships with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.

Les Beasley (of The Florida Boys gospel group) and Jan Doughten (or Jane Dowden?), vice president of Noble Dury, developed and co-produced the television show Gospel Singing Jubilee, an hour-long television program hosted by the Florida Boys that featured a number of other Southern gospel groups as guests.  The Gospel Singing Jubilee, which became the most watched gospel program on television, began in 1964 on a Sunday morning . The show ran for twenty-five years.

Backing Sonya, the lead singer, are certainly The Avons, whose first taste of the studio was an initial one-off hire for budget label Hit, providing uncredited backing vocals to Peggy Gaines’ cover of The Marvelettes’ “Playboy” (Hit 17).  Much more info on The Avons by E. Mark Windle here

I'm fairly confident that this is the same Sonya of Sonya & the Capris on Scarlet (1959) and Sonya (alone) on Dot (two singles in 1961 and 1962 and also (why not?) Sonya And The Sensations (Dont Feel Like The Lone Ranger) On Gend (1963)

 

May the new year bring me some info about the mysterious Sonya and (am I asking too much?) a picture of her...

Riceland Rice ad from 1965

Hey Little Girl

Tommy Moore

Hey Little Girl
Tommy Moore, Tweety Music & Skyrocket Music (BMI)

A Kelly Owens Production
Distributed nationally by Stroll Records
201 W. 49th St. - CO 5-9693

My Brother's Record Co.
Record No.103 C-O

Tweety Music was owned by Kelly Owens. According to a mickey rat comment , active & always informative 45cat member :

I'm pretty sure Kayo was owned by Kelly Owens and affiliated with his Tweety Music publishing firm. Kelly Owens was a very busy pianist/arranger in New York in the 1950s and early '60s and was involved with countless R&B and pop sessions for Savoy, DeLuxe/King and Morty Craft's various labels, often in collaboration with producer Fred Mendelsohn. He was also part-composer of numerous songs, notably Elvis's "I Beg Of You" with Rose Marie McCoy. Earlier Kayo releases were distributed by Lou Krefetz's Poplar Records, but by this stage Morty Craft's United Telefilm was doing the job.

Skyrocket Music was owned by Bennie (or Benny) Clark. His full name was Benjamin Franklin Clark, a much obscure player on the New-York musical scene in the late fifties/early sixties.

Related labels:

https://www.45cat.com/label/kayo
https://www.45cat.com/label/my-brothers
https://www.45cat.com/label/stroll
https://www.45cat.com/label/fountainhead
https://www.45cat.com/label/skyrocket-us

For the record, the coat of arms found on the label is also seen on Kayo 101 (The Regents), Fountainhead 105 (Bobby Long), Sky-Rocket 107 (Danny Robinson) and Stroll 109 (Duke & The Ambers). This is (my own research) the coat of arms of...Venezuela.

According to Wikipedia :

The shield is divided in the colors of the national flag. In the dexter chief, on a red field, wheat represents the union of the 20 states of the Republic existing at the time and the wealth of the nation. In sinister chief, on a yellow field, weapons (a sword, a sabre and three lances) and two national flags are tied by a branch of laurel, as a symbol of triumph in war. In base, on a deep blue field, a wild white horse (perhaps representing Simón Bolívar's white horse Palomo) runs free, an emblem of independence and freedom.

Above the shield are two crossed cornucopias (horns of plenty), pouring out wealth. The shield is flanked by an olive branch and another of palm, both tied at the bottom of the coat with a large band that represents the national tricolour (yellow for the nation's wealth, blue for the ocean separating Venezuela from Spain, and red for the blood and courage of the people).

But after all, this surprising borrowing (probably an idea from Mr Clark) is not that intriguing, as his Stroll label also had as well a stroller copied probably from some New York cartoonist and a fountainhead on his Fountainhead label copied from an old 78 rpm from the Fountainhead Record Company

I've not been able to find any info of this Benny Clark (another and later Benny Clark musician is/was from Buffalo, New York).

There was a Bennie Clark who was the elevator operator at Ziegfeld's New Amsterdam Theatre, a Broadway theatre located at 214 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Theater District of Manhattan.  This Bennie Clark had been running the car for years, and he knew all the girls [of Ziegfeld].  Perhaps this is the same Bennie Clark? Perhaps he saw once (and liked it) the coat of arms on the door of the Consulate-General of Venezuela in New York City (located today at East 51st Street)?

Anyway, are you still there?, the song on flip is "You've Got To Reap What You Sow"

Call Me Skinny

Jim Climer

Call Me Skinny

Rolando 45-202
Produced by Roland Janes
Late sixties?

Memphis (or West Memphis, Arkansas?) artist and radio personality (on KWAM), Jim Climer had two records issued in 1962 : on the Kris label, Little Twister/On Top Of Old Smokey and on Fernwood : Tall Mack The Lumberjack/he Clown With A Broken Heart.  According to Wayne Jackson, trumpetist with The Mar-Keys, Jim billed himself in these days as "Jim Climer, Ninety Pounds of Rock and Roll".

A friend of Eddie Bond, he co-wrote with him a song entitled "Ballad of Buford Pusser." 

Mansion On The Hill

Killer Warren Waid
and his Musical Saw

Mansion On The Hill

RM 42981

For the musical saw enthusiasts there is a dedicated website :  https://sawnotes.com/ 

Among the famous people who played the musical saw, there was — I didn't known that — German movie star Marlene Dietrich. According to arts in exile

Marlene Dietrich was taught to play on the musical saw during shooting in summer 1927 by her fellow actor Igo Sym, who gave her the instrument as a farewell gift. She took the saw with her to Hollywood and astonished directors and crew with her playing on the set of at least six films. But the musical saw was never used in any of her films. It was only during her engagement entertaining US troops in 1944/45 that Marlene Dietrich performed with the instrument. There were roars of enthusiasm whenever she hitched her skirts to play on the saw for hundreds of soldiers on a stage improvised from the loading areas of two trucks. Some of her performances with the musical saw were also broadcast on American radio, e.g. in Milton Berle’s road show Let Yourself Go on 20 June 1944.

Today, the real modern musician (like Jackyl) uses the chainsaw :

Acknowledgments: Scott Rogers (YouTube) and Jackyl (YouTube also)

Let's Hide Away and Dance Away

Freddy King

Let's Hide Away and Dance Away

(strictyl instrumental)

King 773

One of the best guitar instrumental albums by one of my favorite guitarist, Mr. Freddy King!
Twelve tracks recorded in Cincinnati in August 1960, April 1961 and July 1961.

01 - Hide Away
02 - Butterscotch  (aka Onion Ring)
03 - Sen-Sa-Shun  (aka Bumble Bee Sting)
04 - Side Tracked 
05 - The Stumble  
06 - Wash Out     
07 - San-Ho-Zay   
08 - Just Pickin' 
09 - Heads Up     
10 - In the Open  
11 - Out Front    
12 - Swooshy

Ripped from the King CD 773.(Made In Canada)
 

Hootchy--Koo

Wayne Tursso
and Tim's Galaxies Orch.

Twayne T-100 (PE-802)
1963


Hootchy--Koo


Playing For Keeps

Two covers (Larry Williams & Elvis Presley).  "Playing For Keeps" penned by Stan Kesler was first recorded as a demo for Elvis by Barbara Pitman.

Wayne Tursso (1938-2016)

Wayne Charles Tursso was born in St. Paul, MN, on September 18, 1939. He grew up and received his education in South St. Paul, MN, and later attended Brown Institute, in Minneapolis, MN.

From May of 1962 until February of 1965, Wayne served in the US Army. After his discharge, he lived in Minneapolis, Des Moines, IA, and Detroit Lakes, MN, before coming to Fargo, ND. He worked at several radio stations and sold insurance for AAA and Prudential. He worked in sales and circulation for the Fargo Forum, until he retired in 2014.

In 2015, Wayne became a resident of Golden Living Center, Moorhead, MN, where he died on November 2, 2016, at the age of 77.

I'm Coming Down Mama

I'm Coming Down Mama

Aaron Love is an Arkansas singer and drummer whose nickname is the Jonesboro Blues Man. He returns yearly to the Blues Fest held in his hometown of Jonesboro, AR, to attend the reunion of Alley Records recording artists. "I'm Coming Down Mama," an Alley Records release, was a local hit for Love.

Some info here

Mack The Knife

Willie Restum : Mack The Knife

From The Gone Records LP "Willie Restum At The Dream Lounge"

1959

Willie Restum, Allentown's irrepressibly effervescent baritone saxophonist and lounge entertainer died in Los Angeles from a stroke in 2006 . He was 76.

Dressed in his trademark outfit of black Clark desert boots, black socks, Bermuda shorts and loose, loud shirt with kangaroo pouches, the well-known entertainer performed at venues from the Allentown Fair to the Dream Lounge in Miami Beach to the Playboy Club in Hollywood. Mixing stardust standards, Arabic dance numbers and jokes of all stripes, he shared bills with Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett and other stars.

Meg Andre : Mack The Knife

Another interesting version of "Mack The Knife" by the unknown Meg Andre from 1968 on the Al Furth's AlphaPop label.

[The Jeff Gray version has been posted here two years ago]