Johnnie White - Happy Birthday Cake Boogie - M-S
Johnnie White - My Tattooed Wife - M-S 45
M-S Records
M-S 225
1970
Songs obviously inspired by those recorded in 1950 on Fortune Records while Johnnie White was the leader of his group featuring Skeets McDonald. Today, Skeets McDonald is held in much higher regard than Johnnie White, and well remenbered : Bear Family has issued on him a five CDs boxset and Nick Tosches in his book "Unsung Heroes Of Rock ‘n’ Roll"has devoted.a full chapter to him : Whom In The End The Tattooed Lady Slew.
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M-S label : 1960s-1970s label based in Dearborn, Michigan, and founded by Frank Martin and Jerry Snyder as a sub-label of M.S.K. Productions.
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Johnnie White (1925-2013)
Johnnie graduated from Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee in 1946, after serving his country in the United States Marine Corps from 1944 to 1946. He was the second most celebrated alumni of Humes; in first was a fellow by the name of Elvis Presley.
During his stint in the 2nd Marine Division, he served with distinction and earned the rank of field music corporal and received a Purple Heart from his experience in the battle of Saipan.
Johnnie became a 32nd Degree Mason in the Scottish Rights while he was living in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. His rapid advancement to that level was matched by only one other person, former senator and vice-president Hubert H. Humphrey.
Their stint on WNAX included several radio programs. Johnnie and his group "Rhythm Riders", later to be known as the "Sons of the West" and then finally as "The Johnnie White Show" did two shows that were on Monday through Friday. Their morning show was at 5:30 to 6:00am called "Good Morning Neighbor" and the other was "Sons of the West" that aired from 3:05 to 3:30pm.
When Saturday nights came around, Johnnie White was one of the stars on the "Missouri Valley Barn Dance" that was heard over WNAX from 8:30 to 9:30pm.
And if that wasn't enough, they would appear on Sundays from 1:00 to 1:30pm on the "Sunday Get-Together".
The group was a bit pioneering in that they were the first live musical group to play over the then new television station, KVTV, channel 9. The station was began by WNAX and located in Sioux City, Iowa. Their work on KVTV was no less time consuming. The boys worked on two daily, Monday through Friday shows over KVTV. One was on from 4:00 to 4:30pm and the other was 5:30 to 6:00pm.
In addition to KVTV, in the 1950s and 1960s, Johnnie also did shows on KELo, KPLO and KDLO in Sioux Falls.
Sources :
https://hillbilly-music.com/artists/story/index.php?id=12795
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/argusleader/name/johnnie-white-obituary?id=19790911
