Fishin' In My Pond (Chicago Blues Bands)

Side A:
01) Sit And Cry - Buddy Guy And His Band
02) Try To Quit You Baby - Buddy Guy And His Band
03) Meet Me Half Way - Arbee Stidham
04) Fishin' In My Pond - Lee Jackson
05) You Don't Treat Me Right - Guitar Shorty
06) Don't Leave Me - Clarence Jolly
07) Maybe Blues - Morris Pejoe

Side B:
01) You Sure Can't Do - Buddy Guy And His Band
02) This Is The End - Buddy Guy And His Band
03) Screaming And Crying - Morris Pejoe
04) I'll Just Keep Walkin' - Lee Jackson
05) Please Let It Be Me - Arbee Stidham
06) Changing Love - Clarence Jolly
07) Irma Lee - Guitar Shorty

Fishin' In My Pond (Mega)

Fishin' In My Pond (Zippy)

Another great blues LP from contributor Charlie B. The Buddy Guy sides are quite polished but the rest, thank goodness, is rollicking roughhouse blues which is the way it should be. Despite the prominence of the Cobra label on the front cover, not all of the featured sides were released on that label. The Arbee Stidham and Morris Pejoe sides were released on Abco which was a short lived predecessor label of Cobra.

Abco was owned jointly by Joe Brown of JOB Records and Elias Toscano. The label's recording sessions lasted only a few months from January to July in 1956. The partnership split shortly afterwards with Brown returning to JOB and Toscano starting a new label called Cobra. The July sides which had been recorded for Abco by Otish Rush, Shakey Horton, The Calvaes and The Clouds, were released on Cobra in September. One of the Rush sides, "I Can't Quit You Baby", became a national R&B hit, giving the label the basis for a somewhat longer life than its predecessor.

Cobra was reasonably successful for a couple of years with a strong roster which included Rush, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Harold Burrage and Betty Everett. The Buddy Guy sides were released on a subsidiary label, Artistic.

The full story of the label, which went out of business in 1959, can be found on The Red Saunders Research Foundation, the go to website for Chicago blues and R&B. The Abco article can be found here - Abco and click on: Cobra and Artistic for the longer story of those labels.

Release Details

Arbee Stidham - I''ll Always Remember You / Meet Me Half Way - Abco G100 - February 1956

Morris Pejoe - Screaming And Crying / Maybe Blues - Abco G106 - June 1956

Arbee Stidham - When I Find My Baby / Please Let It Be Me - Abco G107 - June 1956

Lee Jackson - Fishin' In My Pond / I'll Just Keep Walkin' - Cobra 5007 - February 1957

Clarence Jolly - Changing Love / Don't Leave Me - Cobra 5016 - July 1957

Guitar Shorty - You Don't Treat Me Right / Irma Lee - Cobra 5017 - July 1957

Buddy Guy - Sit And Cry (The Blues) / Try To Quit You Baby - Artistic 1501 - September 1958

Buddy Guy - You Sure Can't Do / This Is The End - Artistic 1503 - March 1959

With thanks to Charlie B.

The Best Vocal Groups In Rhythm And Blues (Dooto DL-204)

Side 1:
01) Earth Angel - The Penguins
02) Hey Senorita - The Penguins
03) Kiss A Fool Goodbye - The Penguins
04) Ookey Ook - The Penguins
05) Love Will Make Your Mind Go Wild - The Penguins
06) Baby Let's Make Some Love - The Penguins

Side 2:
01) The Letter - The Medallions
02) Buick 59 - The Medallions
03) Heaven And Paradise - The Meadowlarks
04) I Got Tore Up - The Meadowlarks
05) Teller Of Fortune - The Dootones
06) Ay Si Si Mambo - The Dootones

The Best Vocal Groups Of Rhythm And Blues (Mega)

The Best Vocal Groups Of Rhythm And Blues (Zippy)

Again it's thanks to Marv for this reconstruction of an LP originally issued on the LA indie label Dootone in July 1955. Founded in 1951 by Dootsie Williams, Dootone flirted with the big time in 1954 / 1955 when "Earth Angel" by The Penguins became not only a national R&B hit in late 1954 but also entered the pop chart, peaking at number 8 in early 1955.

"Buick 59" / "The Letter" by the Medallions was the first vocal group record released by Dootone, becoming something of a West Coast regional hit in 1954 Another regional vocal group success was "Heaven and Paradise" also released in 1954. This LP (and a concurrent series of EPs) can therefore be seen as an attempt to surf the early success of Dootone's R&B vocal group issues and it must have achieved reasonable sales as it was re-released several times throughout the '50s and into the early '60's latterly as "Dooto" issues when the Dootone label changed its name following a lawsuit by the Duo Tone company.

So thanks to Marv for this great selection of West Coast vocal group sounds, and thanks to the original uploader of the artwork.

Little Willie John - Sure Things (King LP 739)

Side 1:
01) Sleep
02) A Cottage For Sale
03) There's A Difference
04) I'm Sorry
05) My Love - Is
06) I Like To See My Baby

Side 2:
01) Walk Slow
02) The Very Thought Of You
03) Heartbreak (It's Hurtin' Me)
04) Loving Care
05) You Hurt Me
06) I'm Shakin'

Sure Things King LP 739 (Mega)

Sure Things King LP 379 (Zippy)

...And Be Bop Wino returns. Happy New Year my little blues 'n' rhythm chums. Now that was a bit of an unexpected break for which I must apologise. There were reasons, however. Firstly, I caught some kind of  'flu / tummy bug which laid me low in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. Secondly, I blew my speakers when I sent a bunch of feedback through them while experimenting with connecting my turntable directly to my laptop via USB, and thirdly, my digitising software (Magix Audio Cleaning Lab) went haywire, making it very difficult to convert vinyl to WAV. I don't think I've ever been so close to chucking this blogging lark as I was during those weeks.

BUT - new speakers have been purchased and I now realise I haven't been hearing my music properly for years. New software is now in place, although the different interface takes a bit of getting used to. Oh yes and the shivers and sweats have subsided so I'm good to go again. Most importantly I'm getting a taste for the music again, so stand by for more rockin' and  jazzy R&B sounds coming your way.

There's now a backlog of stuff to upload - more reconstitutions from Marv, a couple of wild, wild blues / R&B LPs from Charlie B which just came in today, and a massive edition of Joan Selects. And of course there's my own stuff, so we're gonna be busy around here for a while. So busy, in fact, that there will now be a change to the blog. The majority of posts will just be the music with a minimal write up. I may do the occasional "special" but time is tight so let's just get the music out there.

As for requests during my absence for re-ups, etc, I'll do my best to deal with them.

The first offering is from Marv and features Little Willie John whom I am pretty certain has barely featured on the blog. This King compilation was issued in February 1961 and consists mainly of singles released in 1959 / 1960. "I Like To See My Baby" a duet with Hank Ballard wasn't released as a single.

 The Cash Box, 2nd February 1961

With thanks to Marv.