Arkie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys - Arkie's Talking Blues (Gilt-Edge 5078), 1952
Arkie Shibley's "Hot Rod Race" became the first song to capture the enthusiasm of automobiles and racing. It introduced cars into American popular culture, especially in youth's culture. It also caused a string of similar themed songs in country music and rock'n'roll, namely such songs as "Maybellene" by Chuck Berry. Other similar themed songs were Charlie Ryan's "Hot Rod Lincoln", the Beach Boys' "Fun, Fun, Fun", "Little Deuce Coupe" or their "Little Honda", and a seemingly never ending list of rock'n'roll songs variously named "Hot Rod", "Hot Rod Baby", "Hot Rod Boogie", or other combinations with the term "hot rod".
The man behind "Hot Rod Race" was Jesse Lee "Arkie" Shibley, born on September 21, 1915, in the growing city of Van Buren, Arkansas, near the Arkansas River. His parents, David Monta and Prudence Shibley, were farmers and life was simple but hard. Shibley became a cattle farmer himself and married Evelyn Marie Breeden in 1935. The next year, the couple moved to Bremerton, Washington state, where Shibley found work building Illahee State Park for the "Works Progress Administration", which was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Later on, starting in 1941, he also worked as a sheet metal worker at Puget Sound Navy Yard. In Arkansas, Shibley was initially called "Buck" due to his deer hunting skills but in Washington, he became known as "Arkie" due to his origin.
After moving to Bremerton, he had bought a $5.00 guitar in a pawn shop and taught himself how to play. Soon, he was confident enough playing Bremerton's venues by night with an uptempo, swinging, style of country music. Bremerton was a US Navy town with lots of young male sailors looking for an opportunity for entertainment. Shibley first performed solo as the "Lone Cowboy" but by 1939, had teamed up with Earl Dobeas, performing in taverns and on radio. Eventually, he changed musical partners and met up with guitarist Leon Kelley from Fort Worth, Texas. The addition of Bill Drinkard made it a trio and gave birth to the "Mountain Dew Boys". However, Drinkard, who was later known on local radio and TV as "Montana Bill", soon left the band and was replaced by bassist and banjo player Jackie Hays from Oklahoma. This line-up played the bars, joints, and dance halls for sailors, loggers, and shipyard workers. They also performed regularly on local radio, first on KBRG and then on KBRO, and Shibley acquired a night club he called "Arkie's Corral" in mid 1949. However, he was not a good business man and by the end of the year, the club had gone back to its original owner.
Shibley, Kelly, and Hays were also the core line-up for Shibley's recordings a little later on. By 1948, Phil Fregon on fiddle and "Dockie" Dean Manuel on piano and fiddle had joined the band, too. Manuel became a member of Jim Reeves' band in 1959 and died in the same plane crash as Reeves in 1964.
By 1947, Shibley had set his mind on California-based record companies and made connections with a small record label, Hal Sarb's MaeMae Records from Hollywood. Several records were released during that year but none of them had any greater impact. Then, Shibley visited Bill McCall of 4 Star Records in Pasadena. Shibley and the Mountain Dew Boys had worked up a song called "Hot Rod Race", written by 17-years old Ronald George "Ron" Wilson from Washington state (contrary to some beliefs this was not a pseudonym for Shibley). Reportedly, Wilson's father George Erwin had approached the band while they were playing the Peedle Weezer Tavern and he shared his son's work with Shibley, who took it up for his band's act. They performed the song instantly that night to an enthusiastic reaction of the crowd.
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| Arkie Shibley on the front cover of "Songmakers Magazine", August 1950 |
When Shibley played the record to McCall, he was rejected (an event Shibley later reworked as "Arkie's Talking Blues") but Shibley in turn set up his own small label, Mt. Dew Records, in Bremerton to release the song backed by "I'm Living Alone with an Old Love" (Mt. Dew #101) on both 78rpm and 45rpm formats. He managed to press those early 200 discs through the 4 Star company and the songs appeared around August 1950 and soon became a hit in the Bremerton area. Bill McCall got word of it, overthought his initial decision and soon purchased the master for reissue on his Gilt-Edge label (#MD-101/#5021, December 1950).
With McCall promoting the song heavily, it took off (although some eastern radio stations refused to play it due to the line "we were rippin' along like white folks might") and eventually peaked at #5 of one of Billboard's C&W charts in February 1951. The song saw several releases over the years and caused rivaling cover versions at the time, including those by Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan (Capitol), Red Foley (Decca), and Tiny Hill (Mercury), which were successful as well. According to the Coeur d'Alene Press, it sold over one million copies, although this number is not assured and possibly includes combined sales figures of the original releases, reissues, cover versions or is simply exaggerated. It is undisputed, though, that it became a big influence on rockabilly and rock'n'roll music. Chuck Berry cited "Hot Rod Race" as a big influence on him to write "Maybellene", a similar themed song that became his breakthrough hit, and Charlie Ryan based his "Hot Rod Lincoln" on Shibley's original. Though some recognize the song as a rockabilly song, which would make it the first ever recording in that style, it is rather "hopped up country music", or to put it more eloquently, a primitive country boogie, which makes it an influential precursor to rockabilly and rock'n'roll.
During the 1950s, Shibley released his recordings on the Mountain Dew label and Bill McCall would pick out some of them to release on Gilt-Edge, including several continuations of "Hot Rod Race". For some time, Shibley lived in California, where probably most of his recording sessions took place but none of his later discs could match the initial success, however. Apart from his automobile saga, Shibley recorded country boogie tunes in various forms and songs aimed at the Navy audience of the Pacific Northwest areas: "Uncle Sam Has Called My Number Again", "Shore Leave", and "Three Day Pass".
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| The Montana Stardard, April 6, 1952 |
Eventually, Shibley moved back to his home state Arkansas, where he spent his final years. Arkie Shibley passed away on September 7, 1975, in Van Buren at the age of 59 years shortly before his 60th birthday. He is buried at Macedonia Cemetery in Uniontown, Arkansas. A definitive reissue of his complete material is still missing but Dutch Collector Records compiled 25 songs of Shibley's onto their CD "Hot Rod Race" in 1997.
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Sources
• Entries at 45cat and 45worlds/78rpm
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