Little Bit Of Blues

Slim Harper

Wil-Row WR-203/WR-204

1957

Newark, New Jersey

Slim Harper and his brother Rocky as kids back in Virginia used to listen to the Blue Sky Boys and The Bailes Brothers on the radio out of WBT in Charlotte, N.C.,

“Every day at noon they’d come on and we’d listen to ’em. That’s what got us started really,” Rocky Harper recalled. “We started playing trying to imitate those guys. I played the mandolin and Slim played the guitar.”

In 1952, Slim Harper, formerly with WXGI, Richmond, Va., joined WLVA, Lynchburg, Va.,  replacing Curley Garner,.  In 1957 he was running the “Midnight Jamboree” over WVNJ-Newark,  In 1958, the Slim Harper Show featuring Billy Sage and the Virginia Playboys had been booked by Smokey Warren to hold forth indefinitely each Friday and Sturday night at the Scandia Club on Route 28, Garwood, New Jersey.

While in New Jersey, Slim Harper also recorded  for Anchor Records and Wagon Records. (1957-1958)

Slim moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona in the sixties where he recorded for the Goldrose label

Little Bit Of Blues


Blues On Parade

Mr. Blues

A five-foot blond bombshell from East Orange, N.J., Mundy Lee recorded this song in 1961 for Embassy Records, a Newark, New Jersey label. Her record, arranged and conducted by Bucky Harris and written by Paul Dino, was leased the following year to Seg-Way Records. The following years Mundy Lee toured with U.S.O's Music Makers Organization in Iceland (1963) and Japan (1964)...

Mr. Blues

Rock 'n Roll Music

Bob Lenox
with the Promenade Orch. & Chorus

Rock 'n Roll Music

 1957

Budget label, a product of Synthetics Plastics Company of Newark, New Jersey.

Bob Lenox, whoever he really was, got his assumed name when he did first a Hula Love cover, originally a hit for Buddy Knox, for Promenade Records.

That was the gimmick often used at Promenade, recording sound-a-like covers of the hits of the day, and billing the singer-for-hire with a moniker vaguely reminding the original.  That's how you can find on Promenade such artists as John Garrison (Wilbert Harrison, Kansas City), The Grasshoppers covering The Crickets, Dottie Gray covering Doris Day, Dick Stetson (Stood Up, Ricky Nelson), or even Eli Whitney (Elvis Presley)

Bob Lenox, who are you really?

Let's Dance

Little Becky Cook

With the Mad Lads

Let's Dance

CBM Record Co. 45-504
59 Court St., Newark, N.J.
1961

CBM Records discography

45-313
Gene Granville With Delresse, Music By The Intruders

Horror Rockin Dance / Don't You Know 

words & music : Gene Granville &  Harry Jubin, Cape Ann Publishing Co, Nashville, Tenn
Arranger : Cliff Houston
Produced by Harry & Lisa Marlo
CMB Records

79 Willow Street , Carteret, N.J.
1964

45-314

Little Becky Cook And The Rag Mops, Music By The Intruders

The Itchy Scratch / God Bless This Moment ‎
Arranger : Cliff Houston
Produced by Harry & Lisa Marlo

1965

no cat. number

The Abstrack Sound
Your Gona Break My Heart / Judge Him If You Can
Publisher : Rambed Publ. Co., BMI
Arr. and produced by Catena & Monetti

1966

Possibly the same CBM label (unconfirmed) :

45-501

Tommy O'Tan 

Blue Moon / Sunset Rock

Oh Boy !

The Grasshoppers
with the Promenade Orch. & Chorus

Oh Boy !

Promenade Hit 24
1957

After a cover of "That'll Be The Day" (Promenade 14), here is again The Grasshoppers covering another Buddy Holly hit.   The versatile Grasshoppers can be found also on other subsidiaries of the Synthetics Plastics Company of Newark, New Jersey, such as Peter Pan (children subsid) and Diplomat (budget albums)

Sing along with the Grasshoppers : The Chipmunk Song

Sing the Beatles hits and other Liverpool sound

Beach Party

The Echoettes and Johnny
Music by Big Fat Mike and his Fatheads

Beach Party
Sprofera-Hilliker; M E Inc., BMI

Swell Records
Music Enterprises Inc.
744 Broad St., 

Newark, N.J.

1959

From the sunny shores of New Jersey come The Echoettes, who are probably Grace Hilliker & Judy Sprofera, composers of Beach Party.  They made locally enough splashes for catching the attention of George Goldner who issued two of their compositions  "Your Love" and "Donny" on his Goldisc label in 1960. The record was issued as by "Dee and Lee"

Nothing more is known about this record.  This is not the Swell label releasing The Humanoids "Space Walk/The Flight Of GT-5". And this is not the Echoettes on Train Records, who were Betsy and Laura.  

The other side is by Johnny and The Echoettes which can be heard on YT.  Johnny is possibly Johnny Pascale.

Who Can I Believe

Judy Stewart

and her Beatle Buddies

Who Can I Believe

Mayhew-Stride

Janon Music ASCAP

Diplomat 45-0101
Synthetic Plastics Co.

Newark, N.J.

1964

b/w I'll Take You Back Again.  Both songs were also on the album issued by The Beatle Buddies on Diplomat Records (#2313).  The album doesn't have the Judy Stewart credit, doesn't have any songwriter credits.  But it does have a picture of the anonymous ladies on the cover.

Aubrey Mayhew, composer of the song and also probably producer of the Beatle Buddies, grew up in Washington and went into the music business in the late 1940s, first as a booker, then as director of the Hayloft Jamboree on the radio station WCOP in Boston.
After working for budget record companies such as Pickwick Records and Diplomat Records, he formed Little Darlin Records.He was also known as passionate collector of John F Kennedy memorabilia.

Aubrey Mayhew was in Houston in November 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. At the time, Mayhew was working for the New York-based Diplomat Records. “I was staying at the Shamrock Hotel in Houston, trying to buy some George Jones tapes from Pappy Daily [the owner of Jones' Starday record label],” he said. “The Kennedy assassination happened right there on television. I immediately called a friend in Houston, who brought over two tape recorders and all the tape he could carry.

“We recorded everything off the television for about 12 hours. I rushed the material back to New York, and we put out the first ‘Kennedy Speeches’ album. At that time, we had 300 Woolworth stores in our pocket. We got prime display. We sold about 3 million albums in four months.”

This incident led Mayhew to his affinity for Kennedy memorabilia.  His prize possession is the Texas School Book Depository. “Why did I buy it?” he asked me. “It was a premium item for my collection. I paid $600,000 for it.”

Mayhew removed the original window where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy. Mayhew claims the window is stored in Nashville, but some in Dallas argue that it is not the original window. “There’s a debate over everything in life,” Mayhew said emphatically. “I don’t lie! I don’t cheat! I don’t steal! I saw them take that window out.”

Mayhew, 81, died in 2009 at hospice care facility in Nashville.

Jailhouse Rock

Eli Whitney

 

Jailhouse Rock

 

Promenade
1957

One of the many budget labels operated by the Synthetics Plastics Company (or SPC) of Newark, New Jersey 

 

Eli Whitney, whoever he really is,  wasn't the most prolific name used on the label.  I've found only four titles performed by this pseudonymous artist, whose name was obviously devised to cover the Elvis Presley hits of the day.

The three others are Wear My Ring (58),  I Got Stung (58) and I Need Your Love Tonight (59).

He's Gone

Pearl Reaves

with Paul Farano Trio

He's Gone

Pearlsfar 101

1958

Pearl Reaves, a singer originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, moved to Rahway, New Jersey in the late 40s. After winning some local talent shows, she started singing at the Palace Blue Room, owned by bandleader/drummer Paul Farano. She not only sang, but played guitar with the Paul Farano Trio there for two years (and ended up marrying Farano).  She mostly limited her career to singing with her husband's band.

For more info, see The Concords, article by Marv Goldberg here

The Lovely & Incomparable Pearl Reaves

and Paul Farano Trio

Dry Bones

La Cille Watkins' All City Chorus

Dry Bones

(Watkins & Bell Arrangement)

Cecil Records

314 Norfolk Street, Newark, N.J.

1954

 Also issued on Jaguar #202

Billboard ad, April 24, 1954

Born in Newark (New Jersey) in 1923, La Cille Christine Watkins started her musical career as a gospel and opera singer.  In 1954, according to Jet Magazine, she became a night club entertainer. She was singing the blues in five different languages.  (Jet April 1, 1954).

 Her long time partner in songwriting and music was Wilbur Bell (her husband?) who also recorded as Johnny Bell (Cecil and Fleetwood Records).

Toegether, they recorded spirituals as by the Watkins-Bell Singers for Bandwagon Records (and Arlington, its folk and race subisidary) in the late forties.   LaCille Watkins had also at least two releases under her own name.  The first on Jaguar Records backed by the Volumes. The second on Kapp, backed by the Belltones.

 Songs they penned together have been recorded, among others, by Marie Knight ("  Up In My Heavenly Home", Decca, 1949),  Earl Connelly King  : "Nothin'  ", King 5038 (57),  Annie Laurie : Please, Honey, Don't Go (Deluxe 6135),  Kenny And Moe (The Blues Boys) :  Yes I Will (Deluxe 6139) and John Lester And Mellow-Queens : "Getting Nearer  " (C&M, 1959)

   

La Cille Watkins & the Belltones

picture credit

Next Door To An Angel

Bob Mitchell

Next Door To An Angel

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.   

Sherry

Glitters

Sherry

B. Gaudio, Bobob ASCAP

Yes C-6-A

S.P.C. Newark, N.J.

1962

Cover of the Four Seasons first number one hit on Yes, a budget label, product of S.P.C of Newark, New Jersey.

According to Bob Gaudio, the song took about 15 minutes to write and was originally titled "Jackie Baby" (in honor of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy).  At the studio, the name was changed to "Terri Baby", and eventually to "Sherry", the name of the daughter of Gaudio's best friend, New York disc jockey Jack Spector. One of the names that Gaudio pondered for the song was "Peri Baby," which was the name of the record label for which Bob Crewe worked, named after the label owner's daughter.   [Wikipedia)