Rosa Lee

Norman Juliano and The Realistics

 Rosa Lee

N. Juliano, J. Martin
Phantom Music BMI
A Peg & James Production
Pegames Records
1964

Norman Anthony Juliano (1943-2022) passed away peacefully on March 24, 2022 in Canton, Georgia after a long battle with dementia.  Many remember Norman through his Homewood and Pelham Italian restaurants, Juliano’s.  With a strong love for people and his Sicilian heritage, you would find him working feverishly, along with his family, serving up incredible pizzas and Italian favorites.
But mostly, he will be remembered for his music.  A talented and accomplished guitarist and songwriter, Norman delighted family, friends and audiences with his love for song.  Whether it was a wedding, an anniversary, a club gig or any celebration suited for amazing music—you would find Norman and his band, Tuxedo Junction, at the forefront.

Born in Hartselle, Alabama, Jerry Don Martin began playing guitar when he was child, learning the instrument from his friend and fellow successful songwriter Al Turney. During high school, he and friend Norman Juliano recruited other musicians, forming The Realistics in 1964. The band signed a contract with Pegames records, releasing their first single with regional success and acclaim. For the next two years, they had a series of minor hits, highlighted by 'Paula' in 1966. The group dissolved in 1968 as Jerry entered the United States Navy. After his military duty, Jerry decided to pursue a solo career and was quickly signed by the independent label Treetop Records in 1975. His first release, 'Going Home', received heavy airplay and he was soon signed by Fraternity Records. His first Fraternity release, Little Ragged Clown cracked Cashbox's Top 5. Jerry would release eight singles over the next several years, with 'Easy Loving You' and 'Widows Eyes' again gaining national attention. Throughout the 80's Jerry concentrated on his duties as a staff writer for Hurdy Gurdy Publishing and eventually his own label, Pinewood Records based out of Louisville, Kentucky. The label saw regional success with several of Jerry's releases and R&B act 'Us Posse'. In 1998 Jerry signed with DiMar Records, releasing his first full-length album 'Devil From Dallas' in 2000. 2008 saw the release of 'Lonely Guitar Man', an album of digitally remastered demos, lost recordings, and test pressings throughout his career. In 2009 Jerry has returned to the studio under the LRC Recordings label for work on his next album 'This Time Around', due out December 2009.

James ‘Les’ Hollifield, born in 1938, has always been a Birmingham person – living most of his life in Woodlawn.

Les’ interest in music began in high school when his ushers club allowed him to usher for “South Pacific”, “The Moon is Blue”, “Oklahoma”, and other shows that came to town. Les was also a member of the Cavaliers, a singing club at school, appearing in the minstrel shows hosted by the Warblers, another highly-recognized singing club at Woodlawn.

In 1957, a few of Les’ friends were in a band and had written a song. Les also had written a song and along with the band, decided to record the songs at Homer Milam’s Artist Recording Studios downtown. Les’ first and only attempt at singing produced Les and the Jokers “Get on the Phone”/”Barbara Sue” on his newly-formed Squire label. For backing him up, Les produced the Jokers, recording as the Shifters, doing the instrumentals “Count Down”/”Ameri-Mexicani Rock,” also released on his Squire label.

At this point, Les decided he truly wanted to help other groups get their start. In 1960, Les produced the Ramrods — an up-and-coming local Birmingham band — recording of two instrumentals “Slouch-ee” /”Slee-zee”. He knew a record contact with the national King record label and sent the master to him. King loved the songs and released them on a subsidiary label – Queen. This was the second record for this band whose talented members went on to join some big name bands all the way into the 80’s.

In 1964, local teenager Henry Levoy, came into Les’ life, bringing his song called “Baggie Maggie”. After Les had him clean up the lyrics somewhat, he produced Henry’s song backed by “Hong Kong, Mississippi” and released them on his newly-formed Staff label – so-named because he had planned to do some gospel releases on the label. This, Henry’s first record, with its killer guitar work, is revered as a great in rockabilly music. Henry is still playing – having enjoyed a long career in performing. That same year, Les recorded “Little Mama” and “No One Can Tell” for Slick Lawrence, introduced to him through singer Piney Brown, and released these cuts on the Squire label as well.

Another local teenager from the west side of town, Norman Juliano, came to Les where Les recorded his “Rosa Lee” and “No One” – two good teeners – one uptempo and one ballad. Since Les’ wife Peggy wanted to be a part of this venture, Les combined her name Peg and part of his first name to form the label of Pegames on which to release this record.

In 1970, Les produced Don Jones, a coworker and friend at O’Neal Steel, as Don J, performing “Making Promises” and “Welcome Mat” – released on the Staff label. Fast forward to 1987 when Les recorded some progressive rock songs by some of his daughter Elizabeth’s fellow classmates of the 1980 graduating class from Huffman High School. These guys had a band called “White Lies” and Les produced “Born to Rock” and “White Lies” – releasing them on his newly-formed Camellia label – a name derived from the name of the street where he lived. In 1992, while watching Ed McMahon’s “Star Search”, Les was pulling for John Blaylock,.a 2-time winner from Warrior, trying for his third win. Les had 2 songs he wanted recorded, so he went to Fame Studios. Here he found John working as a studio musician. Les had him record “I’ve Already Heard It Before” and “Grandpa’s Memories (Alabama Sky)”. Les pressed these on his Camellia label as well. A short time later, while working on a cruise ship, John became ill and and passed away. The “Grandpa’s Memories” song which, once heard, one would agree, should be the official State song of Alabama. Les pursued this with many politicians with no positive results.

Les saw talent in his own daughter, Elizabeth, who is a promising Patsy Cline sound-alike. She recorded “Lipstick on Your Collar” and “Only Time” – a really good ‘advice’ song written for Elizabeth by her loving Dad when she was in his lap crying because a boyfriend had broken up with her. These were also pressed on the Camellia label.

An idea came to Les while watching Fernando Lamas on television doing his famous catchphrase “You look mahvelous!”. Les had a singer perform a comedy parody called “You Look Marvelous” with the same accent on ‘mahvelous’. Months later, and completely unrelated, actor/comedian Billy Crystal came up with and performed the same routine on the “Saturday Night Live” TV show and it took off. Les also heard on the “TC and John Ed” radio show in the mid 1980’s a comedian named Captain Tyrhea Moore describing his unique food recipes. Les located the comedian and recorded 4 of his best recipes and pressed 500 copies of it. He gave 250 copies to the comedian to sell for charity and he gave John Ed the other 250 to sell at his ‘hanging grapes’ Rossi’s Italian Restaurant for charity. He sent a copy of it to the famous chef Julia Child who replied with a humorous and complimentary letter.

In the early 60’s, a young performer attending Auburn University sent Les a demo tape. It was instrumental with some weird cricket sounds intermixed. Les’ wife Peggy liked it, but with no vocal demo, Les rejected him as a no-talented wanabee. How shocked Les was when this Bobby Goldsboro later had a #1 nationwide hit with his song “Honey”.

Les has written many songs throughout his long career but none as remarkable as his “Red, White, and Blue” – a patriotic song inspired while watching troops not getting to come for Christmas from the Vietnam war. It is a heartfelt tribute to our servicemen as he feels for them throughout four annual holidays. Before he recorded it, he sent a copy of the words to President Lyndon Johnson’s office. He was then contacted by the Department of Defense who purchased the rights to the song.