Junior Jordan And The Rock-A-Boogie 7

 

Junior Jordan And The Rock-A-Boogie 7

Down Boy! Down Boy!

The Rock-A-Boogie Piggy (Booglie Wooglie)
 
Arranged and conducted by Stan Free

Roc Records #901
January 1958

Here is an intriguing record. Almost no information on the artist, neither before 1958, nor after. The only mention of Junior Jordan can be found the Billboard magazine (issue dated 27 March 1958) who teach us that he played club dates in a ski suit during the New York blizzard in the winter of 1957-1958 and has adopted the winter wear as his permanent performance garb. We also learn that Roc is his own label and that George Goldner distribute his platter.

Both songs were composed by Roy Jordan. The A-side, Down Boy! Down Boy!, on 16 January 1958, and the B-Side, also composed by Roy Jordan, is an old ditty from 1941 brought up to date : Booglie Wooglie Piggy retitled Rock-A-Boogie Piggy.

 

Credited to Roy Jacobs, a pen name pseudonym, The Booglie Wooglie Piggy has been recorded, among others, by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, vocal refrain by Tex Beneke and The Four Modernaires (Bluebird Records), by the Andrew Sisters (Decca), and by Les Brown and his Orchestra, vocal chorus by Doris Day (OKeh Records).

Roy Jordan (b. New York 1916 - d. 1998) was a prolific songwriter.  Gene DePaul and Sid Bass were the main composers associated with him, as Roy Jordan or Roy Jacobs, from 1939 until the fifties. His songs have been recorded by Glenn Miller, The Andrew Sisters, Billie Holliday The Ink Spots, The Four King Sisters, Johnny Long, The Mills Brothers, The Merry Macs, Una Mae Carlisle, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Ella Mae Morse, The four Tunes, Eileen Barton, etc.

Not much is known about his life. And when his ex-wife Kappi Kaplan died in 2008 (then wife of Lenny Ditson), her obituary failed to have a word about Roy, yet the father of her daughters. I would think it the thing usually done ?

★

My first idea, considering the autorship of the songs and the last name of the artist and of the composer, was that Junior was the son of Roy, or perhaps a close relative.  I did find he married a young music agent/song plugger) named Kappi Kaplan [born 1917] around 1940. 

Downbeat Magazine published in August 1952 an article (This Jordan Rolls behind Patti's Pages) about Kappi Jordan, Patti Page's "disc jockey exploitation gal". On top of the article, there is a picture of Kappi and her three daughters, Kim, 10, Leslie, 8½, Noele, 7. No mention of a son.

★

If not a son of Roy, then could it be Roy himself?

I think it's a strong possibility. especially since Roy Jordan, essentially a songwriter and not a singer, has cut two originals for Manor Records, making his debut as a vocalist, so we are informed by Billboard (26 February 1949).

Record info found here

No need to say, this Manor 78 RPM is a quite obscure release and not available for a listening anywhere. Mention of "Lay Me Out In Me Green Suit, Mudder" can be found in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (January 31, 1949) :

Have you heard the title of the newest novelty song-one Tin Pan Alley expects to be a "sleeper?" Hold on, now. It's called "Lay Me Out In Me Green Suit, Mudder." Ray Jordon wrote it in two hours on a train from New York to Erie, Pa. Track followers are excited about a filly in Liz Whitney's stable. A potential world beater, they think.  

Audio files are from volumes 2 & 7 of Twisted Tales From The Vinyl Wasteland, a CD series issued by Trailer Park, a compilation label run by Mark Lee Allen (a reference!)