The Freshest Live Albums in 50 Years plus

Another Bobsluckycat post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin!

After the recent passing of blues Icon B.B. King, I read somewhere and probably more than once that his recording of "Live at the Regal" was the definitive live blues performance on record. I bought that record when it first came out and it was a favorite of mine and my now 50 years old son used to dance to it in his playpen. He also still likes it (I warped him early. He's a blues freak still.) In any case, I get the record out and gave it a play, and yes it's still fresh and alive as the first time I heard it. I wondered how many "live" recordings from the late 1950s and the 1960s would still be fresh after 50 years the way they were when they debuted.

♫ B.B. King - "Every Day I Have the Blues"

I thought immediately of "James Brown Live at the Apollo" recorded on October 2, 1962, and I knew it was a multi-million selling LP. I played that and confirmed again that it was also as fresh and dynamic as the first time I heard it. Let me digress for a moment. From 1959 well into 1961, I had the opportunity to catch both performers live doing pretty much the same program and in the same order in San Jose, California, along with the likes of Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Bobby 'Blue' Bland, and others. So I was familiar with the programs, somewhat, before the LPs were ever recorded. Also just for the record, I got to see and hear Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mtn. Boys in concert in much the same time frame, but later, at lesser venues in the East, probably late 1962 or early 1963. The James Brown LP was more theatrical in nature and had to be seen to get the whole picture, but the sound version is indeed a ground-breaking historical R&B definitive live show unmatched to this day. The sound quality of the recording is fantastic. James Brown produced this recording and the sound engineer was Chuck Seitz of Columbia Records in charge.

♫ Introduction to James Brown by Fats Gonder

♫ James Brown - "I'll Go Crazy"

Live LPs from about 1951 forward were in monaural and on small jazz labels such as Fantasy and Verve among others. Big Bands were breaking up due to the financial considerations more than anything else and were not doing live recordings. Occasionally a big pop star such as Lena Horne would do a live LP and have a hit record. Her recording of "Lena Horne Live at the Waldorf Astoria" on RCA-Victor jumped high onto the Billboard charts giving her a major hit LP for several weeks in 1957. She became the largest selling female artist on RCA-Victor for quite some time after this hit. As the recording techniques improved during the late 1950s, with the introduction of first, high fidelity sound and then stereophonic recording, "Live" became more practical and sold very well in the jazz and popular music categories, while at the same time most of the new music (rock'n'roll, country, R&B and the such geared to a younger audience) was being served by the 45 RPM 7" record (the 78 RPM went defunct in 1957). Sometimes it crossed over but most of the jazz and pop music was by and for older adults who had a lot of money to spend and they bought LPs and "Hi-Fi's" and stereo's and such and in some cases in elaborate furniture pieces with 12 inch stereo speakers. However, now 50 years later or so, do any of those live recordings still stand up as fresh and contemporary as back then?

Most of those musicians and their audience is long deceased, but as for the music... I have two great examples coming up. Ahmad Jamal had been a jazz/lounge style piano player for a few years with a light style and touch with a trio consisting of piano, bass and guitar and it was bland but successful, somewhat, and did some early recordings for CBS/Epic records. When he changed out the guitar for more percussion in the person of Vernell Fournier, the entire trio seemed more complete. On January 16, 1958, at the small Pershing Club in Chicago, Jamal recorded the entire 43 song evening for Chess Records, 8 cuts were released as Argo LP 628. "But Not For Me" and a rather long version of "Poiniciana" at 8:07 caught the ear of the American public and the album took off like no other into the "Pop" music scene with a vengeance. 107 weeks in the Billboard album charts, millions of units sold of the LP and more with follow-up and repackaged LPs over the next several years. A footnote today. The one thing I always liked about Jamal was his sense of whimsy. He played a variety of songs, pop song hits, show tunes and others that allowed him to play with the music and in doing that play with the musical sensibilities of the audience. On this LP I have chosen "Music, Music, Music," a pop hit for Teresa Brewer and the Ames Brothers in 1950 to illustrate my point. 

♫ Ahmad Jamal - "Music, Music, Music"

Frankie Carle, pianist and band leader from the 1930s had a string of hits and covers on Columbia Records into the 50s at which time he signed with RCA-Victor Records and put out several albums which sold well enough to warrant a live LP, "Top of the Mark" as by Frankie Carle & His Orchestra (RCA-Victor LSP-2233?) was recorded on May 7, 1960, a deluxe LP with many pages about San Francisco in words and pictures and short on songs. It's as slick as it could be, but I doubt it made its negative cost back. It's a great overlooked LP. I was in the San Francisco area at the time, but alas I had no tuxedo nor the $50.00 dollars per ticket to get in either. What's a twenty year old to do in such a sophisticated world, anyway? I ran across this LP still wrapped several years later. I love it. (Truth behind the story.) My father was a giant Frankie Carle fan for years. He played Frankie Carle records all the time. I heard them all from a very young age. The opening song "Beg Your Pardon" was a personal favorite of my father's and it's included here. So sue me.

♫ Frankie Carle and Orchestra - Intro and "Beg Your Pardon"

In the late 50s and early 60s, the two major labels doing live LPs were RCA-Victor mostly out of L.A. (Hollywood) and Capitol Records which was doing recordings of Louie Prima and Keeley Smith with Sam Butera and The Witnesses in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, and other locations as well. On May 4, 1959, at the first Grammy Awards in L.A., Louie Prima & Keeley Smith got the award for "Best Vocal Performance," on the strength of an album cut which went to the top 20 and a gold record for "Old Black Magic" in November of 1958. With a lot of million selling "groups" having hit records, it's a little dubious that they should win the Grammy, but they did. Vegas? Reno? You do the math. The first commercial country music LP was "Hank Thompson at the Golden Nugget" (Capitol Records LP S1632) which was recorded in March 1961. It was a fine showcase for Hank and his large western swing type band featuring Merle Travis on lead guitar and it is still fresh today as far as traditional "golden age" country music goes.

♫ Hank Thompson & the Brazos Valley Boys - "Honky Tonk Girl"

"Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys at Carnegie Hall" (CBS/Columbia CS8845), recorded on December 8, 1962, is the definitive live recording of the group and it also included Merle Travis. In 1998, however, the tiny label Koch Records reissued the complete concert of 32 songs on Koch-CD 7929 and that CD is the more definitive Flatt and Scruggs live concert. It is beyond that even. It is the only bluegrass album you really need to own. Those 32 songs run the gamut of bluegrass as defined then in 1962 and now. Even if you came down from Mars or somewhere, this is the only Bluegrass album you need to have to know the genre.

♫ Flatt and Scruggs - "Salty Dog Blues"

Jerry Lee Lewis over the years recorded several live albums and they run from grade "A" to grade "D" and never doing a really bad one. Jerry's first live LP was recorded on April 5, 1964. "Live at The Star-Club" for the Dutch label Phillips and it was a "grade A" monster LP across Europe, very popular LP with a terrific number of units sold and due to legal conflicts was never issued in North America. This is the opening song attached.

♫ Jerry Lee Lewis - "Mean Woman Blues" (live at the Star-Club)

Three months later on July 1, 1964, at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham Alabama, Jerry recorded what was supposed to be the American equal to the "Star-Club" LP. It wasn't. It was a much larger room, the sound was somewhat off, the song selection somewhat off as well. The opening number tells all. The LP "The Greatest Live Show on Earth" as it was titled, wasn't. It came onto the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 albums before falling off quickly and was in the cut-out bins by years' end. "Grade D."

♫ Jerry Lee Lewis - "Jenny, Jenny, Jenny" (live in Birmingham, Alabama)

Johnny Cash had two "Live at" LPs in 1968 and 1969. "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison" in 1968 and "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" in 1969 and they are bookends. One pretty much equals the other. The "Folsom" album sold well and was high in the charts. The "San Quentin" album was a smash album and went to number two on the album charts. The song "A Boy Named Sue" was number one on the country charts and number two on the pop music charts. Written by humorist and sometime Playboy cartoonist Shel Silverstein, the song went on to win a Grammy award and a CMA award as "Single Of The Year."

♫ Johnny Cash - "A Boy Named Sue"

With a nod to my European readers, I am including a live album cut from 1968 by Israeli singer and light comedian Aliza Kashi, who was taking America by storm in the late 60s both in live performances and on television on many national programs with an eclectic mix of songs in various languages and from many different sources. Her last American album was "Hello People" (Jubilee JGS-8012) recorded live at the Caesar's Monticello supper club in Framingham, Massachusetts. Aliza was 28 years old at the time and at the very top of her game. I chose the song from the LP that I've always liked "Mala Femmana." Except for the English language songs, it's the only one I understand all the way through. It could have been recorded yesterday. Viva Aliza!

♫ Aliza Kashi - "Mala Femmena"

Finally this final cut is from July 22, 1954. "Wailin' at the Trianon" (Columbia LP CL711) by Lionel Hampton And His Orchestra and it's a train wreck. The Trianon Ballroom until shortly before this point in time was a segregated white only venue, even though it was located in the blackest section of South Chicago. On this night, after Lionel himself kicks off the opening line to the song "How High The Moon," a pop hit from 1951, the band, the audience and all got into the act as the various forms, big band, jazz, R&B and whatever else came to mind, came together on a jam session that has to heard to be believe. It will wear you out listening.

♫ Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra - "How High the Moon"

  ♫ Download all files here   Enjoy all of these. My best to you all.

Country Instrumentals

TOTALLY OBSCURE COUNTRY INSTRUMENTALS THAT YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF OR HAVEN'T HEARD ALL THE WAY THROUGH  
(for the most part)


Another Bob O'Brien post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin

The 31 cuts that support this essay were songs that got air-play on American radio during the 50s and 60s, but never sold a great amount of records. Many of them were records that D.J.s loved to play as "theme songs," so that when you scrolled across the dial you would find the appropriate program at the appropriate time on American AM Radio on both powerhouse 50,000 watt stations and on lowly little 250 watt stations and everything in between. With the advent of FM and the changes in radio over the years in general, this is a relic of radio past. It is, however, all good country and bluegrass music and maybe a couple of oddballs along the way. So bear with me and I'll get started. I might make note that for the most part the big names have been passed over for some of the more obscure recordings. 

Let's start off with a mystery. Spade Cooley & his band recorded their version of "Steel Guitar Rag" on 05-03-1946 as Columbia 38054. Later that year, Nelson King started the "WCKY Jamboree" over 50,000 watt WCKY AM in Cincinnati, Ohio. This version here has a full orchestra including a concert sized harp and two accordions, and was obviously played by certain members of the band from written charts. The WCKY version played from 1946 into 1964 when the program left the air is note for note the same arrangement but with two differences. There is no harp and as best as I could tell only one accordion. I had a chance to discuss this with Dale Sommers, the "Truckin' Bozo" on WLW, who was on the air overnight out of Cincinnati for many years . He had a dub in a cart of the original WCKY theme and he played it on his show infrequently, but he had no clue where it originated from. Maybe, he thought, it was an "alternate take" to the 1946 release. Otherwise no clue. 

In 1952, after the WCKY Jamboree was a national hit radio program and Nelson King was THE number one country D.J. in the country, Big 4 Hits Records was formed by Carl Burckhardt in Cincinnati to sell, via mail order, EP's of sound alike country singers doing big country hits over the air. This venture was an immediate success. Strangely enough, "the powers that be" King and others had a stripped down version of "Steel Guitar Rag" recorded and inserted in one the earliest packages, if not the first package. It is also included here and it is note for note the same as the WCKY theme but with a lot less instrumentation and no musicians credit listed. The only other difference I can tell is the up front steel string flat-top rhythm guitar which comes in and out. It's a good version in any case. So between the two you have a good idea of what was heard on WCKY for 18 years. 

Paul Howard was a minor Grand Ole Opry star in the years after WWII and had records out on Columbia and King, but made no major impression at the time. His "Cotton Picker's Special" is noteable for being a "Bob Wills Western Swing type number" recorded with drums which historically were still years away from being allowed on the Opry and was recorded in late 1947 to beat the recording ban of 1948. 

Everybody should know the story of Johnnie Lee Wills (1912-1984) and his on and off association with his brother Bob Wills and his own recordings and radio transcriptions and his Oklahoma bands from various re-issue LP's and CD's in later years. At the time this instrumental was issued, 1950, Wills was riding a big hit record of "Rag Mop" and didn't get much notice at the time.
 

The Wills clan (from left to right): Billy Jack Wills, Luke Wills, Johnnie Lee Wills,
Bob Wills, and father John Tompkins "Uncle Tom" Wills

Hank Snow was a country legend and Hall Of Fame member and appeared from the number of recordings he made over the years to be frequently in the studio at RCA-Victor, many of which to this day have not been released. This spritely instrumental was recorded in 1952, but wasn't released until 1957 and then passed by mostly unnoticed. 

Eddie Smith had his first release on King in 1951 with a cover of "Down Yonder" (which we profiled in a previous blog post concerning the song.) I know nothing of him, except that I remember that he made an appearance on the Gannaway filmed Grand Ole Opry TV show in 1956. He recorded for King Records into 1954 and had no hits. The songs were used as theme songs and instrumentals by various D.J.'s and really some of them, I think, were experimental in nature to sort of gauge the teen-age buying public. Copies went out to D.J.'s and record jobbers and juke-box operators for evaluation more than anything else and never really reached the general public. They are a mixed bag. Let's look at the songs. 

"Back In Your Own Back Yard" was a smaltzy oldie much in the vein of what Johnny Maddox was doing on Dot Records and it was perfect as a record intro to small multi purpose radio programs such as AM or PM music shows or "Trading Post" and "Swap" programs and call-ins. 

"Exhibition Special", the next instrumental on the master tape is a jaunty, smaltzy number with a saxaphone lead. Strange song, including the flute. "Red Suspenders Blues" was recorded in Feb. 1953 and was going for Country with that old 1-2-and then rock refrain used a few years later by Kay Starr on "Rock-n-Roll Waltz." An experimental recording to be sure, but I heard it late at night on country radio in those days. "Eddie's Blues" the next recording on the master tape from Feb 1953 was a sort of country boogie. Actually a hodge-podge of things which don't quite gel, but it's an under appreciated piece to be sure. 

The York Brothers split the session in the first part of January with Eddie Smith and The Chiefs. The musicians are the same and again both were experimental recordings aimed at the "teen" audience and missed, never to heard from again anywhere. "St. Joseph High School Bounce" and "Lakewood and John Marshall Blues" couldn't be more obvious and more obscure, but they were good listening and still are. 

"Little" Roy Wiggins was the steel guitar signature behind Eddy Arnold for a number of years and this 1953 recording for Dot Records had an instrumental of Arnold's "It's A Sin" on the B side. The A side "Cimarron (Roll On") was a much earlier hit/standard written and recorded by Johnny Bond. Not given label credit, Del Wood's piano is featured on the record to good use. Another D.J. favorite. 

Eddy Arnold, "the Tennessee Plowboy," and Roy Wiggins on steel guitar and
Hank Garland on electric lead guitar

Chet Atkins had a break out hit with "Country Gentleman" in 1953 and it was a favorite for many years with Country D.J.'s as a theme. Supporting Chet was Jethro Burns on mandolin and Homer Haynes on rythm guitar. The high powered day time only radio station WPDX in Clarksburg, WV, for one, used it for a theme for its Dee Wyatt Show every afternoon for a number of years. 
 
Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith had several instrumental hits on M-G-M Records from the late 40's on and after Hank Williams, was the most popular and most sold country artist on the label. Smith also was fortunate to have a lot of radio play on the big stations such as WCKY and WJJD in Chicago which regularly broke his records to the public. He and his Crackerjacks held forth for years on both radio and TV at WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina. Most of his recordings were done at his own recording studio. "Hi Lo Boogie" is a good example of his early use of over-dubbing and experimental use of tape a la Les Paul. It must be noted also that Smith was also a vigorous businessman in Carolina. As one person expressed to me once "Ole 'Guitar Boogie' is making money, even when he isn't making money. He recently passed away in his 90's.

Speedy West (steel guitar) and Jimmy Bryant (electric lead guitar) were studio musicians at Capitol Records in Hollywood, CA, backing all kinds of recording artists on Capitol and other west coast labels. They also were members of Cliffie Stone's TV Show in L.A., "Hometown Jamboree."  In 1951, Ken Nelson started producing single records by the duo which immediately found favor with radio D.J.'s and record buyers and they put out quite a number of winning instrumentals into 1956. Probably 1953 and 1954 could be considered their best years. "Bustin' Thru" is a quality example of their work.

Hank Thompson's Brazos Valley Boys was a leading country/western swing band for a number of years sometimes including Merle Travis as a sideman and recorded many instrumentals in various sessions in the 50's. D.J.'s picked up on them as B sides and played them as themes on their radio programs. They would fit anywhere. Opening or closing, didn't matter. "Red Skin Gal" was especially noteworthy as a closing theme because you could fade it out anywhere, or start talking over the beginning of the music and then "pod it up" until the end of the program.

There is a break in the Don Reno & Red Smiley recordings for King Records between August 1956 and November 1958, when they were signed and produced at Dot Records by Mac Wiseman, and while King had a good backlog of Reno and Smiley recordings in the vaults, Syd Nathan and people at King went out and found and/or put together a replacement bluegrass band which was Leon Jackson, Johnny Bryant and the White Oak Mountain Boys. "White Oak Mountain Breakdown" was their first release in late 1956 and "Buttahatchee" was their second, at least I saw a D.J. copy of the 45 RPM somewhere along the way and it also was the theme song of "Cherokee Sue's" daily radio program over WPDX in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where she sold baby chicks, song books, and a variety of other mail order products and had sponsors such as long gone patent medicines. "Rocky Roads", I haven't a clue, but all three were on a King-Audio Lab budget LP in 1962, which I own.

"Raisin' the Dickens" and the B side "Bud's Bounce" were recorded as part of a Little Jimmy Dickens recording session in 1956. This double sided instrumentals became almost instant country standards before Buddy Emmons was 20 years old. Emmons and the Dickens Band recorded 4 instrumentals at the time. These first two got a lot of airplay and juke boxes ate a lot of nickels for these songs and sold a lot of copies as well. "Raisin' the Dickens" went on to be the title song on Little Jimmy Dickens' first LP Columbia 1047 in 1957. Emmons is the most famous steel guitar man in the world not only for long stints with Dickens, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price and others and for countless sessions worked as a sideman down through the years. He also is responsible for the "Shobud" steel guitar along with Shot Jackson and as an inventor and modifier in steel guitars to this day. A true musical genius.

Bill Duncan and Cecil Surratt & Smitty Smith also had tracks on this album in bluegrass style and while they are good'n obscure, I know nothing about them.

"Hayride Rag" attributed to George Jones and his back-up band was released in 1958 on Mercury Records after Mercury and Starday Records parted company after a short union. This was propably recorded in 1955-56 at "Pappy" Dailey's studio in Texas. It's not bad either.

Herb Remington's "Station Break" is probably the most well known D.J. record in this essay. It was used for years by Country D.J.'s and was acquired by Starday Records in the early 60's, based loosely on "Choo Choo Ca-Boogie".

Leon McAuliff And His Cimarron Boys had a big hit recording of "Panhandle Rag" on Columbia Records in early 1949. This later version from a radio transcription found favor with D.J.'s as a theme as well.

Sandy Coker was a young teenage guitar player in California in 1957 when this two-sided instrumental "Gitfiddle Rag" and "Rock Island Ride" was released.  It got a lot of air play and was a juke box favorite as well.This is his only release under his name. His father and his sister also had a few Decca and Coral releases in the same time frame.

Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys recorded over 200 hundred songs in 1946 and into 1947 at a recording studio in San Francisco, which was state of the art at that time, for a series of Tiffany Transcriptions for a company formed and owned by Wills, Cliff Sundin and  radio personality Clifton Johnson (aka "Cactus Jack"). Before it got off the ground, the company went out of business with a lot of acrimony on all sides. Sundlin got custody of all the physical property associated with the business and kept it in his basement until his death in 1981 when cooler heads at his estate decided to release several discs over a period of several years. Sundlin was still incensed with Wills that in the time after Wills's death, he would not talk to Wills' biographer or open his files to him. We do offer here both the opening and closing themes used on those Tiffany Transcriptions.

From a very obscure Cimarron album from 1962, Ron Barlow program director/announcer at WMNI radio picked "Little Red Wagon" to be the theme for a used car dealership in Columbus, Ohio, for several years. This album was self-produced  by Leon McAulliffe and distributed through Starday Records. McAullife's next two albums were recorded  in Hollywood for Capitol Records, both instrumental albums are extremely rare as well.

Enjoy this y'all. Bob O'Brien (aka Bobsluckycat) 

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In the Beginning: My 78 RPM Collection

IN THE BEGINNING: MY 78 RPM COLLECTION

An essay with music

Another Bobsluckycat post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin

Most of the people out there reading this besides being followers of Mellow's Log Cabin and interested in music are probably record collectors or now in the digital age "music collectors" of one sort or another. I am and have been a record collector since 1948 when I was eight years old, and I'm now seventy-four. I have been at one time or another a novice, an avid collector, a fanatic, a buyer or a seller and now probably just an "emeritus" old timer.

In 2011, I felt I had gathered most of my original 78's Collection to issue a very limited edition 2 CD set of them in mp3 from newer sources of the original material, mostly from Europe and the followings songs resulted. So here is the story.

In early 1948, a family friend, Joe Yost, was moving to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl., and he gave me a solid steel "portable" Vogue phonograph and several records, basically because he couldn't fit them in his car. Those few records were the start of my record collection. A few months later, our family moved to an apartment over a juke-box and pinball machine vendor by the name of Roland Raney. I started hanging around his shop and soon he was giving me "take-offs" from the juke-boxes, well worn on one side or another for the most part. Over the next two years I collected from him a few hundred records. To skip a few years for a moment, after moving into a much larger home in 1952 and the 78 RPM discontinuation of manufacture in 1957, I sold all of my 78's (BIG mistake) to a record dealer and received a $50.00 check which bounced. I spent every year since then trying to get the songs from that original collection back in my possession, which can be and was frustrating at times. I really liked them then and still do. Many are still not available for a variety of reasons, but thanks to the digital age, a lot of them are and they never sounded better.

All of the listings released before 1948 were part of the original batch from Joe Yost, except for two new Ernest Tubb records that my Aunt Gladys gave me, since she had no phonograph. Most of the rest came from the juke-box take offs and later on, a few I bought with my own money.

This started out to be a single CD collection but it grew to two on it's own. These are the original recordings as I had them on 78's. The sound quality is mostly excellent and re-mastered in MP3 audio. Each of the songs listed have been extensively researched as to recording dates, record labels and numbers, and in many cases both sides of a recording is listed, mainly because I liked both sides then and still do now.

One interesting fact that I discovered was that some juke-box records had two different "hits" and were not part of the general catalog. Note the King records by Lonnie Johnson and Homer & Jethro for example.

I could have put a lot of other songs on this collection from the same time frame, but these are the authentic records that I had and liked and I find are still as fresh as way back when. It is an eclectic mix to say the least. However, it's where I started from in my travels through recorded musical history. I currently have from 40,000 to 50,000 songs in some form or another in my collection, and I am, if I can say this with modesty, somewhat of an expert on American music. Age has a way of doing that to a person. My hope that in listening to these songs you also appreciate them and get an idea of where my musical roots are. Enjoy. - Bob O'Brien (aka Bobsluckycat)

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE RECORDINGS AND MY COMMENTS

This is divided into two parts; POPULAR MUSIC and COUNTRY MUSIC in general terms.

• Cuts 2-3-4 were already "standards" by the 40's. I like their old time feel and they are classic cuts.
• Cuts 1 and 5 to 15 were pop hits by top artists of the day. They are still fresh.
• Cut 7 is the complete unedited recording of the song from the vaults of Capitol Records, never released.
• Cuts 9 & 10 was a two-sided hit which was classic in every way. My father was also a Frankie Carle devotee and he loved this record and a large part of my collection has a ton of Frankie Carle in it.
• Cut 13 was such a poorly pressed copy that for years, I though the vocalist was female as listed only as R. Nance, only much later did I found out it was a man, Ray Nance.
• Cuts 16 and 17 were unique piano recordings which topped the charts well into 1949 and actually put little Bullet Records on the map and in financial clover for many years to come. Another two recordings my father loved and played every Saturday for years. He played my records while house cleaning.
• Cut 18, cut 23, cut 24 and cut 25 were jukebox hits that blared out over the whole town or so it seems.
• Cuts 19 and 20 was the first R&B recording I ever owned, such as it is. It is so simple and straightforward and unadorned it's as fresh now as then. I had heard The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and a few others previous to this but never owned any R&B (race records) before this. Now, and I'm guessing here, a full 20 - 25% of all my collected recordings would fall into this general category.
• Cuts 21 & 22 are two Frankie Yankovic recordings which were big hit records. Polka and ethnic recordings were popular after World War II and he was the King. He was famous out of Cleveland OH, but well known locally as he was born just up the road a few miles away in or near Davis West Virginia.
• Cuts 26 through 33 were in the original batch of records from Joe Yost.
• Cuts 34 through cuts 42 were from the Roland Raney take-off 78's.
• Cuts 43 and 44 was a two sided pop/country hit which I can't remember for sure, but I think I bought it myself as well as cuts 45 and 46.
• Cuts 47 through 51 are important here as they are the last 78 RPM records I ever bought. Besides being top hits for Ray Price and Hank Snow and now are "true" Country classics and "Steelin' Home" was a great instrumental and got a ton of air play besides. For Christmas of 1954, My father gave me a brand new 3 speed record player and some 45 RPM records and himself a 10" LP recording of familiar polkas. The 78 era for me had ended, but I must admit I still played these old 78's every so often. Now I am enjoying them again and you can too.

Jimmy Dean

Another bobsluckycat post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin

This is not meant to be a "be all know all" article about country music legend and Country Music Hall of Fame member Jimmy Dean (1928-2010), but a brief overview. I recommend his autobiography published in 2004 "30 Years Of Sausage, 50 Years Of Ham," which gives the full story in his own words for that.

Jimmy Dean was born outside of Plainview, Texas, in 1928 in abject poverty and struggled through the Great Depression. He was musical and always funny but at age 16, left home for the Merchant Marines towards the end of World War II, after that an enlistment in the U.S. Air Force took up his time for the most part but he spent some free time around the Washington, D.C., area, even then playing in local bands. He had a good smooth voice and he could play piano, accordion, guitar and even harmonica fairly well. After mustering out of the Air Force, Jimmy stayed in the Washington, D.C., area with his own band "The Texas Wildcats" and eventually caught on with country susic entrepreneur Connie B. Gay and his "Country Music Time" radio program on WARL-AM in Arlington, Virginia. Around the same time he signed a contract with an east coast associate producer of 4-Star Records in Pasadena, California. His first record was to become a country music standard over the years, "Bummin' Around." Jimmy's version was the label's local hit in the east (4-Star #1613). 4-Star - upon hearing the song - had T. Texas Tyler record a better sounding version and leased it to Decca Records which became the nationally known hit version. Jimmy's version died on the vine. Two other 4-Star records were released between 1952 and 1954 and went nowhere. Jimmy claimed that he made little or no money in royalties from these recordings, even though they were re-issued again and again on "budget LP's" after he was famous.

  Jimmy Dean - Bumming Around (4 Star 1613), 1954

In 1955, the radio show moved to television in Washington, D.C., on WMAL-TV in the afternoons. It was live, spontaneous and an immediate hit owing mostly to the wit and good humor of Jimmy Dean. Also in 1955, Jimmy signed a new recording contract with Mercury Records in Chicago. The first release being Mercury #70691 "False Pride" b/w "Big Blue Diamonds" which went nowhere. He released two more records on Mercury and then nothing for some time as recordings went.

In the mean time, he was on a regional TV hook-up live daily on Virginia and Maryland stations and a Saturday night live three hour TV show for Connie B. Gay called "Town and Country Time Jamboree." CBS picked up the daily show for 28 weeks into 1957 which was on WTOP-TV, and after a pilot was made, became the CBS Morning Show for 8 months into 1958. In September 1958 until June 1959, CBS had "The Jimmy Dean Show" live week days and at noon on Saturdays on the full network.

In the mean time, as to recordings, Jimmy had stalled out but was still under contract to Mercury in 1956 with no new recordings scheduled to be made, when and it get fuzzy here, depending on what I know and what other versions appear to be, Jimmy was called down to Nashville over a week-end to appear on the Grand Ole Opry and record enough recordings to fill out an album, which eventually became "Jimmy Dean's TV Favorites" (Mercury LP MG 20319) released in early 1957 which was a rehash of some old standards and a new version of "Bummin' Around" which was very "pop music" oriented with very sparse accompaniment, but still decidedly country. Also recorded was a ballad entitled "Losing Game" which had just enough of a pop and teen flavoring to be a hit record. The problem was the single was to be a "Mercury-Starday" release. Mercury and Starday merged around the time Jimmy made that recording session in Nashville and was only paid union scale for the session on "spec", according to him. Mercury and Starday had a short and acrimonius partnership, and by the time they settled who got what, Jimmy's "Loosing Game" had been released and the advance copies to DeeJays nationwide was getting a lot of air play. It was going to be a hit, but in the separation of the two companies, no more copies were pressed after the initial run and was "stillborn". The song appeared on the last Mercury-Starday LP 20358 as well. It wasn't a hit. Jimmy also told me that he never made a dime in royalties off on any of his Mercury recordings. They also had been re-issued countless times and in countless forms. He was adamant about this late in 1978/79 when I had the opportunity to question him about it. Compounding the problem, by his own admission, was the fact he signed a new long term recording contract with Columbia Records in mid-1957. Jimmy's first Columbia release went nowhere as did several more into 1959. His first album, the gospel LP Columbia CL-1025 "Hour Of Prayer" also did nothing when released.


Jimmy Dean - Losing Game (Mercury 71120X45), 1957
When his CBS television show was over, and since he was good especially "live" as most shows were, he hosted the "Tonight Show" from time to time, did game shows and others and toured promoting minor recordings. He was also a frequent guest on the Arthur Godfrey Radio Show over the CBS Radio Network out of New York.

Then in 1961, on his second Columbia LP and a single release, Jimmy struck gold with "Big Bad John", which went to the top of the charts in America, number 1 country and pop for many weeks in late 1961. He took home a Grammy for it as well and it became his signature song. This is the original undubbed version.#


Jimmy Dean - Big Bad John (Columbia 4-42175), 1961

This song brought ABC Television calling, wanting Jimmy Dean to host a new variety show which would be decidedly town and country with a full orchestra and a chorus of featured singers. This program lasted 3 seasons 1963 through 1966 and was almost always at the top of the ratings. Jimmy also took this show on the road pretty much intact and made millions. A lot of up and coming young country stars got their first national exposure on his show, notably Roger Miller and Charlie Rich to name two.

At the end of his Columbia Records contract, Columbia released Jimmy Dean's last big hit record and it also sold a million copies "The First Thing Every Morning" in 1965. I should note here that over the years two very maudlin and sweet readings, to me anyway, sold over a million copies each, "Too A Sleeping Beauty" and "I.O.U.". They are not included here if for no other reason their extreme length.


Jimmy Dean - The First Thing Ev'ry Morning (Columbia 4-43263), 1965
In 1966, Jimmy signed an RCA Victor recording contract and had some very minor hits over the next 7 years. His energies had drifted elsewhere. He was in films and television series and in Las Vegas and in 1969, as an investment to save his now considerable fortune, started The Jimmy Dean Meat Company with his brother Don in Plainview, Texas, which was an immediate success. The rest they say is history.

Down Yonder

"Down Yonder" by L. Wolfe Gilbert 

Another bobsluckycat post presented by Mellow's Log Cabin!

Recently, while rummageing through the collection, I came across the 45 EP on Republic Records by Del Wood from 1953 which contained the original version by her hit record of "Down Yonder" from 1951-52. I played the record and got to wondering about it since it was now a very old and in the public domain standard. So I did some research and here's what I now know.

L. Wolfe Gilbert was a Russian born, American raised songwriter who found early success in 1912 with "Waiting For The Robert E. Lee", which became a hit and stardard. In 1921, he did a follow-up of sorts in "Down Yonder". By this time he was already an established songwriter of note. Gilbert would go on to write a wide variety of hit songs and well known pieces including "Ramona", "Green Eyes', and even the theme for the Hopalong Cassidy TV Show in the early '50's and the list goes on. This was to be, in his mind anyway, a minstrel show type song and perfect for the vaudville of its day. It had a very short lyric set and the melody was simple enough that Rag Time and Old Time Country musicians could learn it by ear fairly quickly. Which they did. Unfortunately, I have no early recordings to show this, but it was a favorite dance piece as an instrumental as well.


Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers - Down Yonder (Bluebird BB-5562), 1934

Gid Tanner

In late March of 1934, A very popular rural group reformed for a lengthy recording session in San Antonio Texas, they were Gid Tanner And The Skillet Lickers which had been on Columbia Records for many years previous to this and now were cutting records for RCA Victor. The group was known for rural music, fiddle tunes and heavy doses of comedy as well. The group consisted of Gid Tanner, fiddle and occasionally banjo, his son Gordon Tanner on fiddle (actually a better fiddler than Gid), Riley Puckett a blind guitarist and well known in his own right and Ted Hawkins on mandolin. Their recording of "Down Yonder" (RCA Bluebird 5562, recorded on 03-29-1934) was the biggest seller the group had and was quite probably the record used by many later musicians to learn the tune.

In 1951, a rag time piano player named Del Wood prefessionally (Polly Hazelwood) was playing on studio sessions and was signed to Tennessee Records. The A&R men at Tennessee wanted Del to record another piece of music which she did not know, so "Down Yonder" was chosen instead and with the addition of some rhythm accompanyment became an instant hit record on both the Pop music and Country music charts on Billboard. It entered the charts on 08-24-1951 and stayed in the charts for 25 weeks, well into 1952. Her version peaked at number 4 on the Pop charts and it was the preferred version by radio deejays and jukebox operators across the nation. Several cover versions in several different styles came out by late fall and stayed for varying lengths of time in the Billboard charts, but none touched Del Woods' version. Cashbox for the week of 12-15-1951 gave the the song the #1 position on its charts based on the aggregate totals of the original and cover versions of the song. Del wood would eventually sell over a million copies and earn a "Gold Record" which was an unheard of feat in 1951.


Del Wood - Down Yonder (Tennessee 775), 1951

Spade Cooley

One week after the Del Wood version went on the charts, Spade Cooley recorded a cover version for Decca Records in Hollywood CA on 07-31-1951. This was a very well done version in the popular Western Swing style of the day, but Decca A&R decided against releasing it until much later on an album. It still is, however, a very good version. Cooley had a large band with many well known musicians and a large California following via his long running TV show, not too well known outside the area. After leaving Columbia Records and splitting with Tex Williams, his recording output which included backing such stars as Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, The Sons Of The Pioneers and others on both RCA Victor and then Decca was not the stuff hit records were made of.

In 1960, an early "garage" band, Johnny & The Hurricanes out of Toledo Ohio, having had hits with Warwick Records in 1958 and 1959, signed with Big Top Records, a division of Hill And Range Publishing Company and their first release was "Down Yonder" (Big Top 3036 May 1960) and with the addition of a typmpany for accent had a hit record that went to the top 15 in the USA in June and #9 in the U.K. at the same time. It was a raw rock-n-roll record to be sure with solos by sax, guitar and organ at full speed. Now a well received oldie after 50 years.


Red Foley - Down Yonder (Decca LP Dear Hearts and Gentle People), 1962

Red Foley

In 1961-62, In Nashville a trend was emerging called "town and country' which had a heavy dose of pop music to it and the biggest stars at the time gravitated to it. Red Foley did a version of "Down Yonder" for a 1962 album with a full chorus which gives us the only vocal version in this mix and it is about as "town and country" as it gets.

To further illustrate the popularity of "Down Yonder" in the 1960's, I've chosen two recordings from 1967 which are vastly different but both probably are under the umbrella of Country music. The first version is by Wade Ray on fiddle, Sonny Osborne on banjo, "Jethro" Burns on mandolin and probably Buddy Spicher on second fiddle and other unamed players, and is a very good version in Bluegrass which was on an RCA Camden budget label release, later re-released on Pickwick.

The second 1967 version is by guitarist Jimmy Bryant which was recorded in Los Angeles for an Imperial Records LP #12360. This version has a jazz sound to it by the addition of a flute and some different percussion, but still "country" don't you think?

All seven versions can be downloaded here