Jailhouse Rock

Jimmy Zicari on Ted Mack Amateur Show (August 16, 1958)

James "Zack" Zicari, Port Richey, FL/Rochester passed peacefully Tuesday December 10, 2013 at age 67.  James was a United States Army Veteran who served his country during the Vietnam War.

These Boots Are Made For Walking

 

These Boots Are Made For Walking 

 

The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits says “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” was a huge hit for Nancy Sinatra. The tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in 1966, becoming Sinatra’s first and only solo No. 1 single in the United States.  So much played on radio and TV and at so many places in 1966, but also in expected places like Waco, Texas in 1993 as a part of the FBI playlist trying to disturb David Koresh and his disciples [1] or even in the eighties at the Roxy, a raunchy peep show theater at the edge of Eighth Avenue in New York City or at many of S/M venues. [note 2]

note 1 : David Thibodeau was a follower of David Koresh who survived the Waco siege. In his 1999 book Waco: A Survivor’s Story, Thibodeau discussed how the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives treated the Branch Davidians.

“The cacophony of speeding trains and hovering helicopters alternates with amplified recordings of Christmas carols, Islamic prayer calls, Buddhist chants, and repeated renderings of whiny Alice Cooper and Nancy Sinatra’s pounding, clunky lyric, ‘These Boots Were Made for Walkin’,” he said.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/alice-cooper-nancy-sinatra-songs-got-played-waco-siege.html/

note 2 : according to the Williams fields notes, quoted by Terry Williams,a professor in the Department of Sociology at the New School for Social Research. in his book The Soft City (Sex for Business and Pleasure in New York City). (NB: how come these academics have always a good alibi?)

"I offer my notes on the peep-show industry from the 1980s to reveal how these
particular venues have changed since then.    Something that has emerged is how
the main action in these spaces engages some kind of physical, sensual stimulation, one derived from some aspect of the scene itself: the smell of leather, semen, perfumes, cigarette smoke, powders, body odor. Other sources of stimulation include body motion and touch, taste, and sound. The music is often raunchy, ribald, and risqué. A song heard at many of the S/M venues I encountered was Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”.

 

I Like It Like That

 

For a good overview of Dora Hall musical career, see The World's Worst Records.  Not all her records are bad, as Darryl Bullock readily admits : 

The difference between Dora and other similar artists is that Dora could actually sing. When she sings kid-friendly songs such as Tony the Pony she’s actually quite charming. Her failings, if you will, become most apparent when she tries to sing pop songs; her vaudeville-trained voice just isn’t right for contemporary music and it’s here she starts to sound ridiculous.

For a Dora Hall enthusiast's point of view, it is better to go to hallofdora blogspot :

Dora created a body of work that is diverse, entertaining, and sometimes questionable [...] The work of Dora Hall is flawed, but it's very entertaining.  The fact that she was shooting to become a pop star when she was well past the average age for such pursuits is questionable, but it's made all the more fascinating because her husband (the founder of the Solo Cup company) freely gave her the financial backing to make her dreams come true.  Her singing abilities have been widely criticized and dismissed, and yet she's often backed by amazing session musicians.  For many people, the draw of Dora Hall is that her song choices and abilities are often just plain bad.  If they can get beyond that, however, they'll find a body of work that is charming, enthusiastic, and entertaining in ways that they might never have expected.

Another opinion is expressed by the Left and to the back blog :

There appear to be two popular views on Hall's output. The first is that the woman was dire, couldn't sing or perform very well, and wasted her life pursuing a ridiculous fantasy. The second is that actually some of her output is pretty good with superb production values and some of the best session musicians available (The Wrecking Crew were known to be involved with some Dora Hall sessions). 

In this 1966 cover of  "I Like It Like That" (Chris Kenner, 1961) Dora Hall, in my opinion, sounds good and absolutely charming.

 download link

 

 

Don'a Wan'a

 

Wanda Jackson

Don'a Wan'a
(Boudleaux Bryant, Acuff-Rose BMI)

Capitol F3863
1957

The song that Wanda doesn't want you to listen ! According to her autobiography "Every Night Is Saturday Night" :

When I got into recording rock and roll, I never abandoned country. I thought of them as different branches of the same tree, and Capitol really latched onto the practice of releasing one of my rockabilly songs on one side of a single and a country song on the other. I give Ken a lot of credit in being open minded to let me try different things. Because of that I was usually willing to try things that he brought to me, even if I was a bit skeptical. Sometimes, however, there were some things I was really unsure about.

One of those songs was «Don’a Wan’a,» which honestly, I «don’a wan’a» anyone to ever hear again. There was a small window of time when calypso music was very popular, thanks to the success of Harry Belafonte. He scored some big hits in the ’50s with songs like «Jamaica Farewell» and «Day-O.» And, of course, whenever one artist gets a hit with something unique, everybody else then tries to do the same kind of song. «Don’a Wan’a» was written by Boudleaux Bryant, who was one of the greatest country songwriters of all time. This is probably proof that even the great ones have an off day. I don’t know how Ken Nelson got the song, but he wanted me to record it to try to get in on the Calypso craze. He suggested I adopt an islander accent, but it sounded like I was mocking that kind of music. I didn’t want to do it at all. I said, «Ken, I feel silly, so it’s bound to sound silly.’ I was horrified by the whole thing. Capitol wasn’t great at rushing to get releases out, and by the time they did, the record got no attention. I’m not kidding you, it was almost like the day that song was released was the day calypso died. I don’t know for sure, but I may have been the one who killed it!

Actually, I like that song. Wanda sounds to me a little bit Japanese . . .

Somethin' Else

 

It's hard to do it better than Eddie Cochran. Quite a few have tried. Some have managed to do good, but not all. 

On above picture is Scott Kernaghan from a video recorded, it seems to me, in a church. Perhaps he’s a pastor ? I’ve not included his Cochran cover in my playlist, but his video is here. As Pierre de Coubertin said: the most important thing is to participate.

18 covers, the original and a tutorial are included in this file. All taken from this YT playlist

10 City Run - Somethin' Else                                                                             
April Mae & The June Bugs - Somethin' Else                                                           
Done Again - Somethin' Else
Eddie Cochran - Somethin' Else                                                                           
Gavin Stanley - Somethin' Else                                                                           
Hector & Mediators - Something Else (french?)                                                                  
Jez Quayle - How to Play 'Somethin' Else' (tutorial)                                                     
Joe Eddie -Somethin' Else                                                                                
Johnny Hallyday - Elle est terrible (french)                                                                     
Kathi McDonald - Somethin' Else - 1974                                                                   
Kazu, Iishi & Chuck - Somethin' Else                                                                     
Keith Richards - Something Else - Live '93 Boston                                                        
Little Richard & Tanya Tucker (1994) (live)                                                                   
PJ. Proby - Somethin' Else                                                                               
Rummagin' Ray - Something Else                                                                           
Sex Pistols - Something Else                                                                             
Sylvie Vartan - Elle est terrible (french)                                                                       
The Head Cat - Somethin' Else (Bass Cover With Vocal)                                                    
The King - Something Else                                                                                
Trophies - Somethin' Else                                                                                
 

Nine Pound Hammer

 

Carroll Arnold

Nine Pound Hammer (re-up)
(Merle Travis)

Munited Records
A Music-United Production
1965

Most probably a Nashville recording, perhaps related to Canary Records in the same town.  Carroll Arnold recorded several singles in the early seventies for the American Radio Artist label.

No further info, alas.....

Some Sad Day

 

Ronnie Patton

Some Sad Day
(Louise Shields & Wayne Vitatoe, Tiki Music BMI)

Moon Lover
(Ronnie Patton, Nubia Music BMI)

Coaster Records #248
1964

Ronnie Patton ((Ronald Wayne Patton, b. 10 Dec 1943 Kerrville , Texas), was a Stephen F. Austin High senior when he was signed to Kool Records on his 18th birthday (You Made Me Cry/You're An Angel, Kool 1017) before trying his luck in Nashville.

Traveling between Nashville, Hollywood, and Austin, gathering wives, divorces, fans and addictions, he left the music business, managed a pizza restaurant in San Antonio. 

He came back to Nashville in the seventies, married Deborah Irene Brown, who as Debbie Luv recorded with Ronnie Patton several singles and one album on their own Jade Records.
He was now Jade Stone.

Subliminal Sounds (of Sweden) re-issued their album "Mosaics Pieces Of Stone" in 2008, adding eleven bonus tracks (live and rehearsals.)

 

Ride Little Renee Ride
(a bonus track from their Subliminal Sounds CD)

That's All Right

 

Sonja and Smoke Band

That's All Right
(Arthur Crudup)


Weller And Water
(Richard Pike, Pikea Music BMI)

Rickin label
Produced by Richard Pike

Recorded at Hendersonville, Fort Worth, Texas

Sonja Jean (Mann) Toten (1953-1988)

Sonja was a licensed nursing home administrator for 7 years, having run the Brookhaven Rest Home. When she started singing professionaly, she left Brookhaven to dedicate all her time to singing.

Going Down To Bloomfield Center

 

Komik-Kazee

Going Down To Bloomfield Center

Going Down To Bloomfield Center (instrumental)

Stardust Records SR-8301
1983


Vocalists (pictured on the sleeve) were Elizabeth Kast, Jack Keller, Thomas Gilpin, Kevin Reid, Sallie Schoneboom, Lisa Siccone, Ken Schwartz

The band :
 Jeff Hays, bass
Bob Marino, guitar
  Jim Thomas, drums
Ken Schwartz, piano
plus
Nantara, synthetiser
Joe Passaro, percussion

This is  the second record engineered and produced by George Louvis for his own Stardust label, located on Valley Road in Upper Montclair, New Jersey.

Komik-Kazee was a group of comedians. Ken Schwartz was the guy who put the group together and wrote this song and did most of the writing for a lot of the skits that they did.

Kevin Reed, one of the members of the group, happened to work at George Louvis dad's restaurant. So Kevin told they were going to be doing a show at Rascals and he invited everybody from the restaurant to come see him.  So they all ran up to Rascals in West Orange to watch them and one of the things they did was this song, Going Down To Bloomfield Center.

George Louvis :

And when the show ended, I talked to Ken and I was like, that's a great song, you know, what are you doing with it?  And he didn't have anything to do with it. So we got to talking, we negotiated a deal. I signed him to Stardust and we put the record out. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. They only had one song, so for the B-side, we did an instrumental version, like a dub version