Friday, March 29, 2013

Judy Tracy on Young


Judy Tracy

Lonesome Boy / Come On Baby Let's Dance
Wayne Cunningham (Composer) 
 
Young Records
3953 Lees Ave., Long Beach 8, Calif. 
 
mid-sixties
 
 
Judy Tracy is a graduate of the  Woodrow Wilson High School, 1961-1965. No further trace of Tracy.

Certainly young and frail,  this Long Beach label released at least two other singles :

  • Little Davey and his Charms (David Luzitano a.k.a. Davey London) and his all-girl band)
  • The Kordels


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Getaway

 

Terry and the Macs


(Ben Weisman - Al Weisman, Pamasons BMI) 
arr. and directed by Ben Weisman

PaMaSons
6022 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, N.Y.

1955



Terry and the Macs were  Terry Griffin [Terry] and John, Jim, and Bill MacGillivray.[The Macs]   

  • Regular performers on The Big Revue on CBC ,  a Toronto television show  (1952-1953)
  • Vocal background on one of the first Beverly Lea records (Cadillac Records, New-York, 1954).  
  • Recorded for Sparton Records, 1956  (also on ABC Records in the USA).


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Mama Loochie


The Knight Kaps

Label :  Ricky 211

1962

A cover of the Lee Diamond song.    For another version sung by Dennis Smith,  see Mama Loochie

The Knight Kaps, popular local band, gained a claim to fame when they were featured for 24 successive weeks during the Twist rage at the Holiday House in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

Following the Holiday House run, the Knight Kaps joined Canonsburg's Four Coins for two weeks at the Thunderbird in Las Vegas and then returned home for a successful stay at the Peppermint Lounge West in Brentwood.

The Knight Kaps, who also performed at the Trocadero Motor Lodge, the VFW in Charleroi and Patti's in Monongahela,  included Johnny Savo, Joe Kennedy, Jimmy Magnetta, Glenn Brady and Jim Merchant.

Jimmy Magnetta and John Savo
Tri-State Area's most Exciting and Dynamic Duo
still performing in 1972



This is the first issue on the Ricky label.   Tim Tormey,  Pittsburgh record distributor, concert promoter, manager and booking agent, established the label in early 1962.  Few singles were issued (Johnny Jack, Cecil Barber...).  

The label also issued a series of  Pittsburgh  "oldies favorites" — as soon as 1962 ! — albums titled Porky Chedwick presents His All Time Favorite Dusty Discs.
 


They Don't Know

The K-Otics
Photo credit : The Hey Baby Days
 
 
 
Note : picture above : probably not the K-Otics line-up on Sea-Cap
 
Here's the full discography for this Montgomery, Alabama band:

Sea-Cap 1000 — Charlena/They Don't Know —  Aug. 65
Fortune 1000 — Double Shot/I'm Leaving Here  — Mar. 66
Bang 521 —Double Shot/I'm Leaving Here   —Apr. 66
Rick 10276 —  Charlena /Ooh-Wee   — Nov. 66
 


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Charlena


The K-Otics

(Bobby Grant, Sea-Cap Music BMI)

Sea-Cap Records

1965
Label picture from popsike : copy signed by band members : Ray Goss,  Marvin Taylor,  Kim Venable,  Ed Sanford,  Bob Brown.   From Alabama.   Songwriting erroneously credited to Bobby Grant.  Second release of the song by the K-Otics on Rick has the correct credit.

Manuel "Manny" Chavez and Sonny Chaney played since 1955 in the Los Angeles Chicano and R & B band The Jaguars and heard a very young Robert Rodriguez, who sang it to his 12-year-old neighbor Sharleena Romero.   The Jaguars tried for about a year without success, to interest a record company.    Only Cliff Goldsmith , manager of the Sevilles, recognized the potential of the piece and scheduled a session in the end of 1960 in a Hollywood studio. The record was issued on JC Records.
For a list of the various bands who covered "Charlena", see Wkipedia HERE (translated from German).



Saturday, March 23, 2013

Jailhouse Rock

 
Sammy Hawker
And The Hawker Bros. / Virginia Ramblers 
 
 
 Crescent-City Sound Studios Incorporated
1230 Gatewood Ave., Greensboro, N.C.

1973

Band probably from Danville, Virginia.    Crescent-City Sound was founded in 1968.  Walt Copeland was the manager and the chief engineer.


Monday, March 18, 2013

Hommage à Joseph Pujol, dit le Pétomane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Pétomane

Monday, March 11, 2013

Rock Away My Blues


Tommy Brown


Imperial Records

Recorded in August 1957, in New Orleans, with accompaniment by Lee Allen, Red Tyler, Paul Gayten, Justin Adams, Frank Fields and Charles 'Hungry' Williams.  


Born Thomas Brown, 27 May 1931, Atlanta, Georgia

R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, comedian. Tommy Brown has been active in the music business for some 60 years, yet it is quite possible that you've never heard of him.

Tommy Brown, in the late 1940's and early 50's, was the feature vocalist for the Griffin Brothers. He recorded with them for the Dot label out of Gallatin, Tenn., then went solo on the Savoy label, and later recorded for King, United, Imperial, and with Groove as Little Tommy Brown. He was a major influence in late-40's Atlanta for the constellation of rising stars it had at the time, such as a young James Brown, Billy Wright, and Little Richard.



Sunday, March 10, 2013

Rare picture sleeve?


From the personal collection of Quentin Tarantino
used, slightly abused

Friday, March 8, 2013

Impala Records


My road map of the various Impala labels
(and Google is my co-pilot)



Nine Impala and one Impalla

Such explosion of Impala labels in the late fifties and in the sixities is probably explained by the success of the Chevrolet model, with the possible exception of the Mable Weathers Agency's Impala subsidiary who were apparently the only one to think marvel of nature rather than future bucket of bolts  :

The Chevrolet Impala is a full-size automobile built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors introduced for the 1958 model year. Deriving its name from the southern African antelope, Chevrolet's most expensive passenger model through 1965 had become the best-selling automobile in the United States, competing against the Ford Galaxie 500 and the Plymouth Fury when full-size models dominated the market. [Wikipedia]
  



1958
 Los Angeles, Calif
Owner : Mable Weathers
Tornado Pub. Co. BMI
 


1958
Orlando, Florida
RCA press



1958
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Owner : George Bodner
Donnator Music, BMI



1959-1963
reactivated in 1966
 
2915 C Street Philadelphia, PA
Owner Franny Williamson
Ethel Mae Music, BMI
Center Music, ASCAP




Label founded in 1958
Corpus Christi, Texas
Main artist (and owner) : Oscar Martinez



Chicago, Ill.
Artist (and owner?) : Carl Bonafede
Sheldon press



1964
Impalla
Chicago mid-sixties
Chkaren Music BMI
RCA press


1970
Realtone Recordings
Blacksburg, S.C.
Rite press



Mid-sixties?
Asheville, N.C. ?
Curtis Watkins  and Balsom Mountain Boys
Kay Bank press




Thursday, March 7, 2013

Mama


Anita Wood
 
(He Treats Your Daughter Mean)
 
Wallace - Lance
Marvin Mueil BMI

Nita 126
 
 
Ruth Brown cover by the most serious of the Elvis girlfriends (1957 to 1962).  The song was penned by Johnny Wallace and Herbert Lance and issued in 1953 on Atlantic #986.

Anita Wood was not the greatest singer,  but this is  probably her best and certainly her most obscure.  Equally obscure was the Nita label (perhaps) named for her and (perhaps again) owned by Billy Riley.  

More on Anita Wood here
 
 
 Anita Wood discography 

ABC-Paramount 9947  - Crying In The Chapel / I'm Liking This   (October 1958)

Nita 126 -  Mama (He Treats Your Daughter Mean) /  It Hurts Me To My Heart,  1960

Sun 361  -  I Can't Show How I Feel /  I'll Wait Forever ,   May 61

Santo 9008  - Two Young Fools In Love  / Memories Of You   (Moman-McGinnis Prod.) , Bb 18 May 63

Santo 9008  - Memories Of You / -Still   2nd release of 9008 w/alt. flip ,  distr By Dart Record Sales

Santo 9054  – Dream Baby / This Has Happened Before ,  April 64


Nita label discography (all 1960 releases)

126 Anita Wood :   Mama (He Treats Your Daughter Mean) /  It Hurts Me To My Heart
127 J.M. Van Eaton  : Midnite Blues / Bo Diddley 
128 Jimmy Louis    Your Fool  / Gone And Left Me Blues    Re-issued on Phillips Int’l 3565    
129 The Jivin' Five     South / Basin Street Blues


Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Baby I Don't Care

Art Erikson
Slickland Music BMI

Byeric
13362 Hale Avenue
Garden Grove, California
1964 (or 1965?)

(Distributed by)
Allied Record Sales Company 


Art Erikson, backed by The Playboys,  had a previous record in 1963 on the Hawkeye label, a subsidiary of ARC Recorders, South Gate, Calif. :   "Country Lovin'  "  b/w  "San Antonio Rose ".   One side was dedicated to Gayle, and the other to Lee.   Gayle or Lee, if you read this :  I surely would like to known a little bit more about Art than the following cold facts :
Arthur Joseph. Erikson was born on January 10, 1927 and passed away on Wednesday, March 17, 2010.  He was then a resident of Victorville, California.   


Sunday, March 3, 2013

Next Door To An Angel





Bob Mitchell


H. Greenfield - N. Sedaka
Aldon BMI

Big C-14

1962


Cover of the Neil Sedaka hit, a product of the Synthetics Plastics Company factory of Newark, New Jersey.  

Bob Mitchell was previously on Promenade Records, another SPC label.   


Saturday, March 2, 2013

Chicken


Doris Rainville


wr Forrest Rew
Blue River Music, Inc.

Blue River 207
6223 Selma Ave.
Hollywood 28, Calif.

1963 or later

Doris Rainville is possibly this Doris Rainville, now kindergarten teacher in Nevada City, Ca. (Yuba River School).
Doris Rainville was born in Rhode Island in 1951. She was an only child who loved to play in the woods. Her family moved to Southern California when she was ten years old. After high school she attended Cypress College, majoring in Drama. She married in her early twenties and had two children, Joshua and Celestial.  ...
Blue River Records owner, Harry Bluestone was born Harold B. Blostein in England in 1907, he took up the violin at a young age, went to New York as a boy, composed music for TV and movies, freelanced on radio in the 1930s with Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey Brothers.   At a time, production manager for Standard Transcriptions after WWII,   Bluestone established music publishing houses and record companies, and later worked on albums by the Beach Boys, Peggy Lee and the Beatles (on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band).   He died in 1992.


Forrest Rew "Bud" Mathis 1927-2009

Bud Mathis was an all-round mover and shaker on the Sunset Strip throughout the '60s, and in a manner not unlike Kim Fowley, he used his knowledge of what was "hip" and "in" to manage bands, write songs, and even attempt performing himself. 

In the late 1940s, Don and Bud Mathis began working in their parents’ Oklahoma City-based furniture store.  The Mathis brothers opened their own appliance business buying refrigerators and refurbishing them for resale in local stores.  After opening Mathis Brothers Furniture’s doors in 1955, Don and Bud began expanding advertising tactics. They decided to create a variety show, the Country Social, for the entertainment of all Oklahomans. The Country Social attracted some of the largest artists at the time, including George Jones, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Merle Haggard, granting a great deal of exposure for Mathis Brothers Furniture. Bud left Mathis Brothers Furniture to pursue new ventures, 

Prior to his involvement with the music industry he had boxed under the name of Babyface Mathis and was Arizona lightweight champion from 1951 to 1954.  More recently had been working as an actor on TV and films, appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean and several music videos for artist such as Eminem and Gwen Steffani.   He ran several clubs around Hollywood in the late sixties and was a well known figure in hip circles, despite being in his early 40s at that time.

Bud had been battling mouth cancer for many years, caused by material used for gum shields back in his boxing days.