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!
*
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.
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