My Confession To You

 

 

Dave Larry



My Confession to You
(Dave Larry, Barkip Music Pub.)

B'n KC 102-B
1963

 

Cash Box, March 30, 1963

  

*

The tiny B'n KC (meaning?) from California had only one other release (101 Dave Cullen : Bye Bye Blackbird). 

Thanks to Klepsie at 45cat, who found the following clippings in Cash Box, we know that Dave Larry was a pseudo for Dave Yates. 

 

"Dave Yates mgr. of AMCO’s one-stop has a new release on the B’nKC label, “Only A Dream” b/w “My Confession to You”. Both the lyrics and music were also written by Dave whose professional name is Dave Larry." (Cash Box, "California Clippings", 23 March 1963)

"Dave Larry paid a visit to the California Music Co., promoting his release on the B’nKC label, “Only A Dream” b/w “My Confession to You." (Cash Box, "California Clippings", 18 May 1963)

In 1956, Dave Yates joined Badger Sales which was "doing great business with pool tables, selling many for home use in blue, gold and green felt)". 

Cash Box reported in June 1958, that "Dave Yates, former Badger employee is now recording on the Morocco label with a group called Buddy and The Fads."

AMCO Music & Vending, Inc. and Dave Yates appear in this Cash Box column several times in 1962, 63 and 64. 21 March 1964 issue reported their move to an "enlarged and newly decorated" HQ on Pico Boulevard. 

Manager of AMCO one-stop for several years, David Yates returned to Badger Sales in 1965.  

 *

Note: In late 1962, AMCO Music and Vending Company, Inc. was established in Los Angeles as a subsidiary of an Illinois corporation known as AMCO Industries. This was the Southern California and Arizona distributor for Seeburg Vending equipment. Also a branch office of Amco Music and Vending was established in Phoenix, Arizona, and in conjunction with this firm, Capitol Vending Company, another independant company was establised to handle replacement of vending machines in locations as opposed to AMCO Music and Vending's main function which was to distribute equipment to operators. 

In the early sixties, Phoenix and Los Angeles were the preferred destinations for many organized crime figures who were having trouble breathing in Chicago and were seeking cleaner air.

 

 

Women Of Music Volume 25

 

 

 Women Of Music Volume 25
Grace Slick on cover

 

tracklist

Baby Doll And Her Royal Swingsters - Down By The Wood Shed.mp3
Barbara Evans - Beatnik Daddy.mp3
Barbara Hogue & The Countrymen - Specialize In Love.mp3
Betty Smith - Yeah- Baby .mp3
Betty Spears -Truck Driving Woman .mp3
Elie Marty - Leave Me Like You Found Me .mp3
Flo Fontana   Booze It Up.mp3
Grace Slick - Sally Go 'round The Roses.mp3
Jeannie Owen - Dumb Little Jeannie From Tennessee.mp3
Mari Norleen - Knock Me A Kiss.mp3
Paulette Seymour - We Gotta Have Love.mp3
Stella Della Coonts -  Keep A Walkin'.mp3 

 

 

Scrapper Pratt's Falcons

 

 Oramell « Scrapper » Pratt
1944-2022

63 - Some Sweet Day / Guitar Man's Struggle
64 - I'll Find A Love / Always Be True 
64 - When I Saw Your Eyes / Tell Me
73 - Six Pack To Go / September In The Rain (FL-104)

Scrapper Pratt's Falcons 
file include titles in bold above

Groovy Grooves 2 Jul 2026 DL 60

 

Ben Krass

 

I have only one rule here : always offer you music that meets the highest standards of good taste and quality. No exception today with Bob Krass who was certainly from the class of Mickey Katz, Jerry Lewis and other talented Jewish singers. Must be in the blood.

 

Ben Krass in 1961

 

 

Hippie Of The City
 
Yes, I want more Krass

 

Clothing tycoon turned crooner, Ben Krass was one of the owners of Krass Brothers, a store on South Street in Philadephia. Ben became a celebrity locally because of his short and bizarre commercials, like Krass in a coffin saying "If You Gotta Go, Go In A Krass Brothers Suit." 

Born in 1919, Ben died in 2004 of complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was a successful businesman with the Krass Brothers' clothing store opened in 1947, but his love for music made him found his own record label South Street Records in 1960, a short lived venture in the music biz. 

Other 45s followed  on Krass (1960), Bond (1960-1961) , Raleigh (1961) , Camelot (1961-1962), Diamond and Apex (as Bob Willow, 1962), Foxie (Camelot recordings, 1962), Diatone (as Bob Willow, 1963) and Gamble (as Bee Kays, 1967, as The Boss Man, 1968, as B. K. Marcus, 1971).

In the mid 60's he collaborated with Curtis Mayfield and he reportedly lent money to Kenneth Gamble so Gamble could pursue his own musical dreams. He co-wrote and co-produced some sides with Gamble through Kay-Bee Productions for The Knights And Arthur.

 

Burn your Bra, Baby

 

Alex Houston
and
Elmer

 

Burn Your Bra, Baby

Willex Records 45-72-14
Willex Products, Inc.
Omaha, Nebraska

1972

From I've Got a Song to Write--Kent Westberry's Story: 60 Years in Country Music as a Songwriter, Singer, Record Producer, and Entertainer

I was booked on a date for a Willex party. They had all kinds of products like soap, cosmetics, and cleaners. We went over so well that Mike Peavyhouse, the head of Willex, came over and asked us to play some more shows for them. I took Dale [Dale Turner, Kent’s wife] with me on the next show and they loved us. Mike said, "How would you like to work all our shows exclusively?"  He put us on a salary of five hundred dollars a week whether we worked or not. Back then that was good money. He gave us an expense acount and a new Cadillac to drive. It was great ! […]

Then Mike Peavyhouse wanted to start a record label called Willex Records, and he wanted me to do the producing. I got back to Nashville and started the ball rolling.

Alex Houston, one of the best ventriloquists in the business (his puppet's name was "Elmer") lived next door to us at the time. Years earlier, Alex had been on the Jimmy Dean Show out of Washington, DC. Dale knew him from there. I had a great idea, I thought. Why not record Alex and Elmer the puppet? We have a unique song. Mike Peavyhouse from Willex said, "Why don't you write one about burn your bra, baby?" That whas when burn your bra was the popular thing to do. When Max D. Barnes and I were on one of the Willex shows and in our motel room, we got the guitars out and wrote "Burn Your Bra, Baby."  I cut it on Alex and Elmer. I had a song for the B side, it was "Camp Chuga Chuga." I also produced a Christmas LP on Alex and Elmer called "Here Comes Peter Cotton Claus."  (...) It was weird. In the studio I found myself talking to Elmer the puppet more than to Alex!

 

Willex ad, Record World, October 7, 1972

 

*

Some time later, Benny Johnson recorded a cover of the song issued by Wow Records, operated by William Ovilee “W. O.” White from this home at 2134 Woodard, Abilene, Texas, where he also taught piano and guitar for over 30 years.

 

Benny Johnson
Burn Your Bra, Baby
(erroneously credited to B. Johnson himself, instead of Kent Westberry)

 *

What remains to be clarified is the exact role played by Blanche Butler, Kent Westberry’s co-composer of the song. What do I know is that she had one relase on Wow : ''Boggle Man's palace" in 1970.