Walking After Midnight

Calvin Coolidge

Walking After Midnight

Hidin' Out

4 Star CC-15
Promotional Record

This is the kind of recording you can do. Here's the recipe ::

1/ Take the two originals "Walking After Midnight" and "Hidin' Out" by Patsy Cline

2/ With Audacity (a very nice freeware) or any other sound editor, modify the speed from 45 rpm to 33 rpm

3/ That's it, a new artist is born, Calvin Coolidge. Simple, no?

Ellis Nassour has the details. From his book "From Honky Tonk Angel" :

    The record was a practical joke cooked up by Bill McCall, head of 4 Star Records.

    Suddenly, with the incredible sales of "Walkin' After Midnight," there was a cover recording, as often happened with a major hit. Disc jockeys everywhere were inundated with Calvin Coolidge's rendition and received calls from the label's irate promotion director wanting to know why they weren't programming it.

    "This is a hot record," he'd say, "the first male version." The deejays responded that the record was terrible. "Oh, you think so, huh?" he replied. A typical answer was, "It's nothing like Patsy Cline's record." The promotion man would counter, "That goes to show how much you know. Take that record and speed it up and we'll see about that!"

    The prankster was none other than Bill McCall, who slowed Patsy's version to 33 1/3 rpm, then pressed a 45 rpm single.

Using Audacity, I've created in a similar manner a cover of Walking by Lil' Hillary, 8 y. old, the latest teenage sensation.

The two Calvin Coolidge tracks and the two other versions of Walking converted from the "Calvin Coolidge" recording (Patsy Cline & Lil' Hillary) can be found in this archived file

One If

Ed (The Great) Gates

One If

E. White-M.Hurley

Publ. 4 Star Sales, BMI

You Are My Love

E. White-G.Love-M.Hurley

Publ. 4 Star Sales, BMI

4 Star 1712
September 1957

*

Ed Gates 

(cover of the Krazy Kat LP)

Edward Gates White was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1918. He moved with his family to the west coast in 1932.  He worked for a dry cleaning business until he turned professional in musiic.  

He started to record in the late forties. His records were released by Selective, Kappa, Miltone, Gotham, 4 Star, Rex Hollywood, Recorded in Hollywood, and States (in Chicago).  

From 1954 onwards,  Gates apppears to have been associated with Mark Hurley, a white entrepreneur based at Los Angeles.  With Hurley involved he recorded for Aladdin and again for 4 Star.   After that session he abandoned blues recording in favor of instrumental organ recordings of jazz rather than blues interest.  

Gates then changed from being a singer to an organist. As an organist he recorded for Speciality and Robins Nest.  In the eighties he was still living in Los Angeles and still singing and playing the Hammond organ at cocktail lounges, billed as "The Man On The Moon" and still using the name Ed Gates. 

His early sides were compiled on an album published by the Krazy Kat label (UK) in the mid-eighties (cover above)

Chandler Family Day

Chandler Family Day today at Dead Wax with Elaine Chandler and her brother Wayland Chandler from San Angelo, Texas.  

Elaine Chandler Tiptoein' thru the Teepee (4 Star 1700, 1956) : later known as Elaine Kiser, Elaine Chandler was born around 1937.  She recorded her only (I believe) record in 1956,  that was also the year she broke the heart of poor Gene Cody "She jilted me for a chance to be a recording star." (From YouTube comment)

Wayland Chandler : Bop With Me Baby (acetate, unissued) was recorded at the Wood Music Center in San Angelo on April 20, 1956.  Wayland recorded later, like his sister, for "4 Star" and two of his songs were recorded by Patsy Cline. 

Wayland Chandler, Sid Holmes and Danny Duseck started out as the Texas Tumbleweeds. They played the usual school gigs, and some stage shows.   The big thing that spurred these teens into action was the appearance of Sun Records own Elvis Presley on tour in West Texas, where he appeared in January & February of 1955.

Wayland Chandler died recently, in November 2014.