Whoppers! (Jubilee JGM-1119) re-upped

Side 1:

01. Marie - The Four Tunes

02. Take Me Back To Heaven - Billy Ward & The Dominoes

03. I Understand - The Four Tunes

04. Come To Me Baby - Billy Ward & The Dominoes

05. Sugar Lump - The Four Tunes

06. Sweethearts On Parade - Billy Ward & The Dominoes

Side 2:

01. Crying In The Chapel - The Orioles

02. Green Eyes - The Ravens

03. It's Too Soon To Know - The Orioles

04. Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle - The Ravens

05. Tell Me So - The Orioles

06. I'll Always Be In Love With You - The Ravens

Released in June, 1960. A reissue of the 1956 LP "Best Of Rhythm And Blues" (Jubilee LP 1014).

Download from here:

http://www48.zippyshare.com/v/Gs3HkV4m/file.html

The last in the series of Jubilee vocal group compilations released in 1959 - 1960 and a real curiosity. The contents seem to be completely divorced from the teen hoodlums cover picture as the 12 numbers on offer all hark back to an earlier era of R&B and there's little here that could pass as rock 'n' roll. However, the collection is an R&B historian's delight as it includes the record that launched the career of The Orioles back in 1948, "It's Too Soon To Know" plus their big 1953 hit "Crying In The Chapel."

The Four Tunes (originally The Brown Dots) sides "Marie" and "I Understand" were big, big hits in 1953/54, not only in the R&B charts, but also in the pop charts.

Most of the rest of the tracks were issued between 1953 and 1956. The Ravens tracks are the latest releases of the collection, from 1956, long after their 1940s /early 1950s heyday on Savoy. Similarly, the Dominoes tracks are a world away from their early 1950s gospel influenced rockers on Federal with Clyde McPhatter on lead. These 1954-55 sides are from a time when Billy Ward was repositioning the group as a pop act. However, Jackie Wilson leads on "Take Me Back to Heaven."

What did Billboard make of this LP?

Not  a bad review! (June 13th 1960).

The original post of this LP (June 23rd 2008) with label scans by Joan K can be found here:

http://bebopwinorip.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/whoppers-jubilee-jgm-1119_2505.html

Here's some of the scans:

Thanks to Joan K for sights 'n' sounds.

The Dominoes - These Foolish Things

Side 1

1. No Says My Heart

2. Harbor Lights

3. The Deacon Moves In (Little Esther and The Dominoes)

4. I Can't Escape From You

5. Heart To Heart (Little Esther and The Dominoes)

6. When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano

7. Deep Sea Blues

8. Love Love Love

9. No Room

Side 2

1. I'm Lonely

2. Yours Forever

3. These Foolish Things

4. Rags To Riches

5. Ringing In A Brand New Year

6. Can't Do Sixty No More

7. Over The Rainbow

8. O Holy Night

9. What Are You Doing New Years Eve

Link:

These Foolish Things (Mega)

This little homemade "LP" contains all the remaining Dominoes tracks I have on vinyl, outwith the previously featured album "Have Mercy Baby."

The first 12 tracks are from the Clyde McPhatter era Dominoes, with the added attraction of Federal labelmate Little Esther on a couple of the sides. "Rags To Riches" has McPhatter's replacement, Jackie Wilson, on lead vocal.

"O Holy Night" and "What Are You Doing New Years Eve" were recorded and released on King in 1965, long after the early 1950s R&B heyday of the original Dominoes and long after their pop success in the late 1950s. The only connection this final incarnation of the group had with the successful earlier versions of The Dominoes was manager / vocal coach Billy Ward who was determined to keep the group going long after the demand for their style of music had faded.

Track details:

1. No Says My Heart - B side of Harbor Lights, released January 1951.

2. Harbor Lights - Federal 12010, January 1951.

3. The Deacon Moves In - Little Esther and The Dominoes with the Johnny Otis band. B side of "Other Lips, Other Arms", Federal 12016, released February 1951.

4. I Can't Escape From You - B side of "Sixty Minute Man" (Federal 12022), released April 1951.

5. Heart To Heart - Little Esther with The Dominoes (Federal 12036), released November 1951.

6. When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano - B side of  first release of "That's What You're Doing To Me" (Federal 12059), February 1952.

7. Deep Sea Blues - B side of "Have Mercy Baby" (Federal 12068), released April 1952.

8. Love Love Love - B side of reissue of "That's What You're Doing To Me" (Federal 12072), May 1952.

9. No Room - Federal 12105, October 1952. Released as by "Billy Ward And His Dominoes", as were all subsequent Dominoes releases.

10. I'm Lonely - B side of "Yours Forever".

11. Yours Forever - Federal 12106, released November 1952.

12. These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You - Federal 12129, April 1953. Last release featuring Clyde McPhatter.

13. Rags To Riches - King 1280, released October 1953. The group's biggest success with a Jackie Wilson lead vocal, reached number 2 in the R&B chart.

14. Ringing In A Brand New Year - King 1281, B side of "Christmas In Heaven" released November 1953.

15. Can't Do Sixty No More - Federal 12209, released January 1955.

16. Over The Rainbow - King 1502, released September 1955.

17. O Holy Night - King 6016, released in September 1965.

18. What Are You Doing New Years Eve - B side of "O Holy Night".

Sources: "The Unsung Heroes Of Rock 'n' Roll" by St. Nicholas of Tosches

and of course: http://www.uncamarvy.com/Dominoes/dom01.html

Label shots are crops of original scans by Joan K. "LP" cover was adapted from Joan's scan of a Dominoes record in a Federal sleeve.

More rockin' R&B vocal groups are in the pipeline! Stay tuned to the blog that jumps, jives and wails!

The Dominoes - Have Mercy Baby

Side One

1 Chicken Blues
2 Do Something For Me
3 Weeping Willow Blues
4 Sixty Minute Man
5 That's What You're Doing To Me
6 I Am With You
7 Don't Leave Me This Way
8 Have Mercy Baby

Side Two

1 Pedal Pushin' Papa
2 I'd Be Satisfied
3 The Bells
4 I Ain't Gonna Cry For You
5 You Can't Keep A Good Man Down
6 My Baby's 3-D
7 I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town
8 If I Never Get To Heaven

Link:

Have Mercy Baby (Mega)

1951 was the year of the big breakthrough for vocal groups in the R&B charts and leading the way were the Dominoes who were the second biggest selling R&B act (after Percy Mayfield) of the year. Their "Sixty Minute Man" was the top selling R&B record and they had other big sellers with "Do Something For Me" and "I Am With You." Success continued into 1952 with "That's What You're Doing To Me", "When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano", "I'd Be Satisfied", "Have Mercy Baby" and "Love, Love, Love". That year The Dominoes were the 7th best selling R&B act, with The Clovers being the top vocal group and 2nd best selling R&B act (B.B. King was top in '52).

"Rags To Riches", "The Bells", "These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You" and "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down" helped the Dominoes to reach the number four spot in the best selling R&B artists list of 1953, but they were only the third best selling vocal group, coming in behind The "5" Royales (top selling act), and The Clovers (2nd best selling act). 3rd best selling R&B artist of '53 was Willie Mabon. Further down the list was a new group on Atlantic which featured the former star vocalist of The Dominoes, Clyde McPhatter, with The Drifters. Their "Money Honey" was the top selling R&B disc of 1953.

In 1954 R&B record sales were dominated by vocal groups The Midnighters, The Charms, The Clovers, The Spiders, The Chords, The Crows and of course ex-Domino Clyde McPhatter with his Drifters. But of the once dominant Dominoes there was no sign as their records bombed, and thereby hangs a tale.

And you can read that tale on Unca Marvy's R&B Notebooks which is the go-to site for seekers after arcane knowledge of 1950s vocal groups.

http://www.uncamarvy.com/Dominoes/dom01.html

The Dominoes were formed by vocal coach, pianist, arranger and songwriter Billy Ward in 1950. The original line up was - Clyde McPhatter (lead tenor), Charlie White (second tenor), Joe Lamont (baritone) and Bill Brown (bass). A former member of the gospel group The Mount Lebanon Singers, McPhatter was the star turn of The Dominoes, bringing holy roller fervor to rocking jump tunes, heartbroken blues and sentimental ballads. In an extraordinary performance in "The Bells" he weeps and wails his way through the song (or so it seemed to the listening public - in the studio he was actually laughing at his own absurdly over the top vocals).

The Dominoes' Federal oeuvre of 1951 - 1953 places them as pioneers in the development of both rock and roll and soul. "Sixty Minute Man" (featuring the deep honeyed bass voice of Bill Brown) is often cited as the first R&B vocal group record to cross over into the pop charts and it even contained the lyrics "I rock 'em, roll 'em all night long." Two absolute blasters featuring McPhatter on lead vocal, "That's What You're Doing To Me" and "Have Mercy Baby" are surely candidates for "the first rock and roll record."

The Dominoes were dogged by frequent personnel changes as various group members became disillusioned by Billy Ward's authoritarian management style and also by the lack of financial reward compared to the number of discs they were selling. Charlie White left in September 1951, Bill Brown quit in February 1952 and Clyde McPhatter baled out in April 1953.

The loss of McPhatter was a particularly hard blow. He was quickly signed by Atlantic to lead a new group formed to showcase his voice, The Drifters. Although he was replaced in The Dominoes by the very talented Jackie Wilson, somehow it wasn't quite the same as Ward began to move the group away from R&B towards pop. Wilson's biggest success with the group was a cover version of "Rags to Riches" in 1953. The contractual situation became rather messy in 1954 as the group were recording simultaneously for both King and Jubilee.

Pop success was achieved on Decca in 1956 with "St Therese Of The Roses" and again in 1957 on Liberty with "Star Dust." There's a post from 2008 on the blog, "The Dominoes After Federal" which showcases vinyl rips and scans by Joan K of the group's output on Jubilee, Decca and Liberty. I have updated the fileshare link on that post.

The Charly LP featured on this post was originally posted back in November 2007 but this time round I've rescanned the album sleeve and also included label shots. The shots of original Federal singles are from scans by Joan K. The sleevenotes by Bill Millar include a good overview of the Dominoes' glory years in the R&B charts.

The download includes a folder of Joan K's scans of Dominoes' records on Federal and King. Thanks Joan!

Here are some more label scans courtesy of Joan K:

Sources: Liner notes to "Have Mercy Baby" by Bill Millar.
              Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks
              Big Al Pavlow's R&B Book
              Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll by Nick Tosches

"Stardust" - The Dominoes after Federal

Joan K sent these Billy Ward & The Dominoes mp3s and label scans a while back but I thought I would delay posting them as I knew that Marv Goldberg would be writing about The Dominoes in Blues & Rhythm magazine. The second part of Marv’s story on The Dominoes is in the current edition of Blues & Rhythm and you can also read about them on his website at:

http://www.uncamarvy.com/Dominoes/dom01.html

The first four tracks on Joan’s collection were recorded for Jubilee while The Dominoes were still contracted to Federal / King. That contract expired in 1956 and the group signed up with Decca (tracks 5 – 10). Their first release, “St Therese of the Roses”, with Jackie Wilson on lead was a substantial pop hit but they failed to find a follow up hit while with Decca. In early 1957 Jackie Wilson left following the almost inevitable dispute with strict disciplinarian Billy Ward. The group was then signed to Liberty Records with Gene Mumford of The Larks being brought in as lead singer.

“Stardust”, their first release on Liberty, was a big success in the pop charts as was their next release “Deep Purple”. By this stage The Dominoes were no longer an R&B group. It had long been Ward’s ambition to turn them into a pop group and Las Vegas lounge act and he had now achieved his aim. There were further changes in personnel, including the departure of Mumford (replaced by Monroe Powell) but no further chart success. The Dominoes finished with Liberty and moved to ABC Paramount in 1960 for one recording session.

As I’ve already pointed out, the full story can be read in great detail in Marv Goldberg’s articles. It is a story which fascinates as Ward ditched the raw gospel influenced R&B sound of the group’s early days with Clyde McPhatter as lead singer in a ruthless pursuit of pop success. The continual personnel changes and transformation of the group into just another lounge act did in fact bring such success but it was brief and the final days of the group do not make for very happy reading for fans of rhythm and blues.

One LP was released during the group’s Decca stay and Joan has sent a scan of the cover. The Liberty album “Sea of Glass” was a collection of religious songs. Many thanks again to Joan for this post.

Ripped from 1950s vinyl at 192 kbps. Surface noise present.

Download from here:

http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/3632532/file.html

The tracks on this collection are arranged in chronological order of release, each A side being followed by its B side.

1. Gimme Gimme Gimme
2. Come To Me Baby
3. Sweethearts On Parade
4. Take Me Back to Heaven
5. St Therese Of The Roses
6. Home Is Where You Hang Your Heart
7. I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance
8. To Each His Own
9. When The Saints Go Marching In
10. September Song
11. Stardust
12. Lucinda
13. Deep Purple
14. Do It Again
15. Sweeter As The Years Go By
16. Solitude
17. Please Don't Say No
18. Behave Hula Girl

Tracks 1-4 were recorded for Jubilee in September 1954 and released in 1954/55.
Tracks 5-10 were recorded for Decca in June 1956 and January 1957. They were released between June 1956 and December 1957.
Tracks 11-18 were recorded for Liberty between March 1957 and some time in late 1958 or early 1959. They were released between April 1957 and February 1959.