Moondog Boogie

It looks like I’ve caught the compilation bug. A few weeks ago I posted a collection called “Doo Dob Sha Bam” which I’d put together for the esteemed Rocker Stomp blog (see sidebar for link). As I said in that post, Rocker Stomp is the outstanding blog for all things rockin’ on the Spanish scene, so it was a pleasure and a bit of a challenge to compile another selection of stompin’ rhythm ‘n’ blues which would appear on both Bebopwino and Rocker Stomp.

This time round there’s an Alan Freed theme behind the collection. The opening title track by Freddie Mitchell was later adapted as “Rock ‘n’ Roll Boogie” when Freddie joined the Alan Freed Rock’n’Roll Band. It was used in the film “Rock, Rock, Rock!” as you can see from the cover pic which is a screen capture from the film and shows Freddie honking away happily while Freed claps in encouragement. Further Freed connections in the collection are “The Moondog”, a 1952 tribute by The Treniers, the instrumentals “Big Heavy” and “Blues For The Red Boy” which Freed used as themes on his radio shows, and a spoken Freed intro to Jesse Belvin’s “Goodnight My Love”, a tune which Freed often used as a show closer.

Mind you, I’m not sure if Freed would have included “Wine-O” or “Slow, Smooth and Easy” in his playlists, but what the heck, both tunes are on my current playlist. Anyway there’s plenty of hot sax work, bloozy chantoozies and riotous rockin’ goin’ on here. I’m sure the Moondog would have approved of such shenanigans.

Every track is ripped from vinyl. Even when I had a CD version of the track already available in my media player library I went to my vinyl vault to rip a fresh version. Thanks to Joan K for the label shots which are included in the download.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps. Download from this Rocker Stomp link:

http://www32.zippyshare.com/v/ZZXqDG3c/file.html


01. Moon Dog Boogie - Freddie Mitchell – Derby 1952
02. Them There Eyes - Varetta Dillard – Savoy 1952
03. This Little Girl’s Gone Rockin’ - Ruth Brown – Atlantic 1958
04. Paquino Walk - Red Prysock – Mercury 1956
05. Party Time - The Ray-O-Vacs – Kaiser 1956
06. Hot Tamales - Noble Watts – Baton 1958
07. Peanut Vendor - Alvin 'Red' Tyler – Ace 1961
08. Slow, Smooth And Easy - Anita Tucker – Capitol 1955
09. Rock And Roll Wedding - The Midnighters – Federal 1955
10. Shufflin' Home - Sil Austin – Mercury 1956
11. Night Crawlin' - Big John Greer – Groove 1955
12. Grey Hound - Amos Milburn – Aladdin 1952
13. The Moondog - The Treniers – Okeh 1952
14. Thunderbird - Maxwell Davis & His Rock'n'Roll Orchestra – RPM 1955
15. Preachin' - Freddie Mitchell – Rock’n Roll 1955
16. Old Time Rock'n'Roll - Art Neville – Specialty 1958 (unreleased)
17. Big Heavy - Cozy Eggleston – States 1952
18. Wine-O - The Ray-O-Vacs – Kaiser 1957
19. I'll Never Let You Go - Big John Greer – Vic 1952
20. Jim Dandy - Ruth Brown - Philips 1962
21. Ridin' The Riff - Big Bob Dougherty – Decca 1951
22. You Ain't Ready - The Flamingos – Chance 1953
23. Back Up - Eddie Chamblee – Mercury 1957
24. My Country Man - Big Maybelle – Okeh 1952
25. Mr Freddie's Boogie - Freddie Mitchell – Brunswick 1953
26. Pog Wog - Red Prysock – Mercury 1957
27. Cool Diggin' - Maxwell Davis & His Orchestra – RPM 1956
28. Blues For The Red Boy - Todd Rhodes – Sensation/King 1948
29. The Voice of Alan Freed - Alan Freed
30. Goodnight My Love - Jesse Belvin – Modern 1956

Joan Selects – Volume 2

Ding dong! Seconds away … round 2! Yes folks it’s the second volume of Joan’s series of obscure R&B and doowop all ripped from the original 45 (and perhaps a couple of 78s?) rpm discs. That means some crackle and hiss and very occasionally a thump or a skip, but that’s the only way you’re ever going to get to hear many of these records, so download and tune in to the real 50s vibe of Joan’s Record Hop. And this time round Joan has not only been slaving over a hot turntable to bring you the platters that matter, she’s also been multitasking on the scanner to make you all a folder of label shots so that’s another reason for everyone to express their gratitude for this tremendous post.

And now some comments from the hostess with the mostest:

- Be Bop Baby on Excello is an entirely different song than that done later by Ricky Nelson. It is by all accounts one of the two hardest to find from the 45s issued on the Excello label.

- Darlin' I Know b/w Christine on Checker records was the earliest recording by a group from Chicago who would later become known as The Dells. It was their only opus on Checker before shifting to Vee Jay. As the Dells they would, much later, move back to the Chess/Checker group.

- Writing this Letter by The Fairlanes (1961) on Continental Records in San Francisco, featured a young Ramona King as lead vocalist. She would subsequently launch out into a solo career, first with Eden Records, with the amazingly lovely "Oriental Garden", then on to Warner Brothers where she recorded "It's In His Kiss" among several other singles in the early 1960's. Rumor is that Ramona and Clyde King (Little Clydie and the Teens on RPM w/ "A Casual Look") were brother and sister.

- "My Heart Cries For You" The Larks - An early 78 rpm disc only was issued in 1951, and in the opinions of many, is one of the most beautiful ballads of the early group harmony era.

- Tell Me by the Master-Tones on New York's Bruce record label was their only issue on the label. Original pressings of this 45 are exceedingly scarce.

- The "Vadunt-Un-Va-Da Song" by the Ramblers is reportedly really by none other than Bobby Hall and The Kings (who recorded mostly for the Jax Label, and the Harlem label.

- Originals on 45 rpm of The Sparks, The Spinners, The Bucckaneers, The El Rays, The Kings-Men, The Master Tones, The Castelles, The Peacheroos and The Swans can run into triple figures for top of the line copies.

Thank you, Joan. Well whaddya waitin’ fer? It’s download time!

Ripped at 128 kbps, apart from a couple of tracks at an unfeasibly low bitrate.

Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

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Thanks again Joan.

01 The Closer You Are - The Magnificent Four - Whale 506
02 Blueberry Sweet - The Chandeleirs Quintette - Angletone 521
03 Love Call - The Ebonaires - Lena L-1001
04 Run Run Run - The Sparks - Hull 723
05 My Love and Your Love - The Spinners - Rhythm 125
06 Lovely Dee - The Untouchables - Liberty 55335
07 Lamplight - The Deltas - Gone 5010
08 Be Bop Baby - The Peacheroos - Excello 2044
09 Doom Lang - The Tokens - Gary 1006
10 You Did Me Wrong - The Bucckaneers - Rama 24
11 Darling I Know - The El Rays - Checker 794
12 Red Hots and Chili Mac - The Morroccos - United 193
13 Writing This Letter - The Fairlanes - Continental 1001
14 Don't Say You're Sorry - The Kings Men - Club 51 108
15 I Really Love You So - The Solitaires - Old Town 1044
16 Feel Like Lovin' - The Sheppards - Apex 7752
17 After Graduation - The Four Fifths - Hudson 8101
18 My Heart Cries For You - The Larks - Apollo 1177
19 Tell Me - The Master-Tones - Bruce 111
20 For You I Have Eyes - The Crickets - MGM 11507
21 My Heavenly Angel - The Cherokees - United Artists 367
22 Hey Rube - The Rocketeers - Modern 999
23 Do-Li-Op - The Four Kings - Fortune 517
24 Over A Cup Of Coffee - The Castelles - Grand 109
25 Rosalie - The Jewels - R & B 1306
26 My True Love - The Swans - Rainbow 233
27 Vadunt-Un-Va-Da Song - The Ramblers - MGM 11850
28 Alone In This World - The Trojans - Tender 516
29 Vippity Vop - The Honey Boys - Modern 980
30 My Only Love - The Falcons - Falcon 1006
31 Okey Dokey Mama - The 5 Delights - Newport 7002

Percy Mayfield - The Voice Within

One for The Hound. I picked this up second hand in one of Glasgow’s few remaining independent record stores, just a couple of months before it closed for good. A store situated in what was once the closest thing that Glasgow had to a Bohemian quarter, where you could while away a whole afternoon or more checking out record shops, book shops and pubs. But no longer, for now every other shop seems to be a coffee/fast food outlet owned by some big franchising company. Fellow Glaswegians will recognise that I’m talking about Byres Road, close to the University. Maybe it’s the time of year for nostalgia as the nights begin to draw in and the sun stays low in the sky. But “nae man can tether time or tide”, as the bard says and I’m sure that Percy Mayfield would agree for, like Robert Burns, Mr Mayfield was wont to wax philosophical in the midst of his song writing.

So heeding the words of the lamented Rabbie, we move on to the contents of this superfine Mr R&B compilation. This is an outstanding collection of blues, blues ballads and the occasional up-tempo jump tune from one of the West Coast’s greatest singer/songwriter talents. Percy’s recording career started on the small Supreme label in 1949 where he had a big local hit with “Two Years Of Torture”. The first two tracks on this disc are from Percy’s spell with Supreme and like the Specialty tracks which make up most of the rest of the album, they were arranged by Maxwell Davis. Fans of the much underrated Maxwell will be pleased to learn that we are all in for a special treat very soon thanks to an anonymous donor to the blog.

Percy Mayfield signed for Specialty in 1950 and had a massive hit with “Please Send Me Someone To Love”. In August 1952 he was badly injured in a car crash in which he sustained severe facial injuries. However his recording and performing career continued. In the mid-fifties he left Specialty and released occasional discs on a variety of labels. “Are You Out There” and the previously unissued “My Story About A Woman” are from a 1955 session for Chess, while “The Bluest Blues” was released on John Dolphin’s Cash label in 1956 but may date from a much earlier session for Supreme. Percy eventually became a contracted songwriter for Ray Charles, penning “Hit The Road Jack” and other great songs.

As is the case with most of these wonderful Mr R&B LPs from the 1980s, this album has superb liner notes including an extensive interview with Percy. The notes are contained on the back of the record cover and on one side of the inner sleeve and I have included scans in the download. The 1980s? Now that was a time.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps.

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1. How Wrong Can A Good Man Be
2. Leary Blues
3. The Hunt Is On
4. Hopeless
5. Two Hearts Are Greater Than One
6. Lonesome Highway
7. I Dare You, Baby
8. How Deep Is The Well
9. The Lonely One
10. The Bachelor Blues
11. Sugar Mama - Peachy Papa
12. The Voice Within
13. My Heart
14. Are You Out There?
15. The Bluest Blues
16. My Story About A Woman *

* previously unissued

Joan Selects - Volume 1

While I was working on the Rocker Stomp compilation “Doo Dob Sha Bam”, I thought I would ask Joan if she would like to make up a compilation for Be Bop Wino. And here it is, the first of perhaps twenty volumes of the obscurest Doowop, Rock ‘n’ Roll and R&B on the planet – all ripped from 45 rpm discs.

Here are some comments from Joan on some of the tracks:

The Drifters "Your Promise to Be Mine" (Johnny Moore on lead) is one of the great 5-part harmony songs of the entire doo-wop era. A fantastic ballad.

Ralph Mathis (lead on "Never Let You Go") is Johnny Mathis' brother.

Johnny TwoVoice is none other than Johnny Morrisette, who went on to a solo singing career on Sam Cooke's SAR label.

The Chuck Higgins + group song: "Shotgun Wedding" on Kicks records is not listed anywhere, and my copy, while gently used is the ONLY copy of this 45 I've ever encountered in my 30+ years of collecting. I do not know who the group is backing him. (Kicks records had several outstanding vocal groups at that time, including The Squires.)

The Dreamaires (Little Flaytus and the Dremaires) is a Doctor Dave Antrell effort. He was an eminent collector who actually put this record out in 1988.

The Blue Dots recording "Saturday Night Fish Fry" is an outstanding 5-part harmony remake of the Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five original from Decca Records.
Boogie Woody back on the mike! I would like to state that “Shotgun Wedding” by Chuck Higgins and Group is one of the weirdest records I have ever heard.

Ripped at 128 kbps mostly, with three tracks at 96 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

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1 Buy a Van – The Dreamaires - Antell 101
2 Geraldine – The El Venos - Groove 0170
3 Just Like Before – Tony Allen & the Twilighters – Bethlehem 3002
4 Tonight I Fell In Love – The Tokens – Warwick 615
5 Deep Freeze – The Roamers – Savoy 1147
6 Mama’s Daughter – The Checkers – King 4751
7 Saturday Night Fish Fry – The Blue Dots – Ace 526
8 Do Be Do Be Wop Wop – The Squires – Mambo 105
9 Now That I Have You – The Willows – 4-Star 1753
10 Just For You And I – The Supremes – Ace 534
11 Dear Ruth – The Buccaneers – Southern 101
12 My Pretty Baby – Johnny TwoVoice & the Medallions – Dootone 373
13 Walking With My Baby – The Vocal Tones - Cindy 3004
14 Come On Baby – The Youngtones – Brunswick 55089
15 What Did She Say – The Solitaires – Old Town 1012
16 Woe Woe Baby – The Personalities – Safari 1002
17 Loving A Girl Like You You – The Harptones – Bruce 123
18 Your Promise To Be Mine – The Drifters – Atlantic 1089
19 All Night Long – The Du Mauriers – Fury 1011
20 In Each Corner Of My Heart – The Nitecaps – Groove 0176
21 Shotgun Wedding – Chuck Higgins and Group – Kicks 3
22 Come On Baby – The Cordovans – Johnson 701
23 Nobody Loves You – The Leaders – Glory 239
24 Love My Baby – The Re-Vels Quartette – Atlas 1035
25 Never Let You Go – The Ambers – Ebb 142
26 Gonna Catch You Nappin’ – The Avons – Hull 726
27 The Other Night – The Five Dots – Dot 1204
28 Darlin’ Be Mine – The Earthquakes – Fortune 534
29 I Wrote A Letter –The Serenaders – Chock 101
30 Gumma Gumma – The Mello-Harps – Casino 104

Thank you Joan for all your hard work and willingness to share these blasts from the past.

Bill Doggett - Hot Doggett (King LP 514)

Many thanks to the anonymous donor who sent in this original 1956 Bill Doggett LP. These tracks are from the pre- Clifford Scott line up which features Percy France on tenor sax. There are some tremendous tunes on this album, especially those in which the tenor sax and guitar (Billy Butler) are given space to trade licks. The download includes the back cover and liner notes. Boss stuff!

Ripped from vinyl at 192 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

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1. High Heels
2. Honey Boy
3. True Blue
4. Wild Oats
5. Gumbo
6. Squashy
7. Percy Speaks
8. Oof!
9. Shove Off
10. Quaker City
11. Who's Who
12. Early Bird

Dizzy Gillespie - Dee Gee Days (2LP Set)

Finding himself without a recording contract in early 1951, Dizzy Gillespie (with the help of businessman and jazz fan Dave Usher) started his own label, Dee Gee, and released a series of 78rpm discs recorded at five sessions between March 1951 and July 1952.

It’s obvious that these sides were released with commercial success in mind as many of the tracks come under the category of hep/jive/novelty/ with Joe “Bebop” Carroll or Dizzy himself on hepcat vocals, plus there’s a couple of Billy Eckstine type ballads with Melvin Moore taking over on vocal duties. It’s all good stuff though, with small group backing which includes John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Budd Johnson, Percy Heath, Milt Jackson, and somewhat surprisingly, swing era violinist Stuff Smith.

UK downloaders may be rather disorientated by the inclusion of “Umbrella Man” in the band’s repertoire as this song (under the title “Any Umbrellas”) is invariably associated with music hall act Flanagan and Allen.

Ripped from vinyl at 320 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

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Or here:

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Disc 1

1. Tin Tin Deo
2. Birk's Works
3. We Love To Boogie
4. Lady Be Good
5. Love Me Pretty Baby
6. The Champ
7. I'm In A Mess
8. School Days
9. Swing Low Sweet Cadillac
10. Bopsie's Blues (unreleased)
11. Bopsie's Blues
12. I Couldn't Beat The Rap

Disc 2

1. Caravan (unissued)
2. Caravan
3. Nobody Knows
4. The Bluest Blues
5. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
6. Stardust
7. Time On My Hands
8. Blue Skies
9. Umbrella Man
10. Pops' Confessin'
11. Ooh-Shoo-Be-Doo-Bee
12. They Can't Take That Away From Me

James Brown and Others - Night Train (King LP 771)

Many thanks to the anonymous donor who sent in this original King LP. “Night Train” was originally released in 1962 and was subsequently reissued several times under the titles “Twist Around” and “Jump Around”. Of the twelve instrumentals on this compilation, half are credited to James Brown with contributions from others including Bill Doggett Combo sax player Clifford Scott (of “Honky Tonk” fame) and organ combo leader Hank Marr. “Night Flying” is a note by note rip-off of Bill Butler’s guitar solo on “Honky Tonk”.

Ripped from vinyl at 192 kbps. Password = greaseyspoon

Download from here:

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1. Hold It / James Brown
2. The Scratch / James Brown
3. Night Train / James Brown
4. The Wobble / The Wobblers
5. Night Flying / James Brown
6. Just A Little Bit Of Everything / Herb Hardesty
7. Doin' Everything / Henry Moore
8. Suds / James Brown
9. Tonk Game / Hank Marr
10. Switch-A-Roo / Henry Moore
11. Bushy Tail / Clifford Scott
12. Cross Firing / James Brown

Doo Dob Sha Bam - A Rhythm & Blues Dance Party

One of my favourite rock ‘n’ roll blogs is Rocker Stomp where you can find not only music but features on all aspects of the rockin’ scene in Spain – cars, clothes, gals and festivals. The music on the blog is in the form of compilations put together by DJs and guest compilers and it covers the gamut of rockin’ music including rockabilly, doowop, rhythm ‘n’ blues and instrumental rock ‘n’ roll. So you can imagine I was very flattered to be invited to put together a compilation for Rocker Stomp.

What I’ve come up with is a whole mess of 1950’s R&B put together with dancers in mind. Most of the artists and tracks on the comp are well known to long time R&B fans, but there are a few rarities thrown in. If you’re fairly new to this kind of music then this is an ideal intro to real rockin’ rhythm ‘n’ blues. If you’ve already got most of these tracks download anyway and enjoy the program! Thanks to Javi at Rockerstomp for the covers.

Bitrates are between 224 and 320 kbps. No password.

Download from here:

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Go to Rocker Stomp here:

http://rockerstomp.blogspot.com/

Tracklist:

1. Rock & Roll - Red Prysock
2. Big Fat Mama - Chuck Higgins
3. Doo Dob Sha Bam - The Spence Sisters
4. Teardrops From My Eyes - Ruth Brown
5. Drive It Home - The Clovers
6. Hey Little Girl - The Larks
7. Camel Walk - T.J. Fowler
8. Slow Walk - Sil Austin
9. It's Love Baby (24 Hours a Day) - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters
10. Oh Babe! – Lucky Millinder with Wynonie Harris
11. Love Don't Love Nobody - Roy Brown
12. Cry Hard Luck - Jimmy Nelson
13. Nervous Man Nervous - Big Jay McNeely
14. Jam Up - Tommy Ridgley
15. Early Morning Blues - Haji Baba & His Arabian Knights
16. Laundromat Blues - The "5" Royales
17. Little Side Car - The Larks
18. Back Biter - T.J. Fowler
19. Walk That Walk - Eddie Bo
20. Jockomo - James "Sugarboy" Crawford
21. Be-Bop Wino - The Lamplighters
22. Wango Blues - Preston Love
23. Driving Home, Part 1 - Paul Gayten
24. Driving Home, Part 2 - Paul Gayten
25. Bloodshot Eyes - Wynonie Harris
26. Butcher Boy - Mr Sad Head
27. Down Boy Down - Wynonie Harris
28. Flip Flop and Fly - Big Joe Turner

Lionel Hampton - In The Bag!

Here is another album in Charly’s “Big Band Bounce & Boogie” series, and this is the second of the Lionel Hampton issues in the series. See the earlier post “Leapin’ With Lionel” for another helping of the hardest swinging big band of them all.

Tracks 1-12 were recorded between 1942 and 1950 in the heyday of the Hampton outfit and are a mixture of swing, jazz and R&B. Musicians include Illinois Jacquet, Jack McVea, Charles Mingus, Morris Lane, Arnett Cobb, Johnny Griffin and Johnny Sparrow. There’s also a fine blues shouting vocal from Sonny Parker on “Hamp’s Gumbo No.2”.

The final four tracks were recorded live at the Silver Supper Club in Las Vegas in 1963 and are pleasant enough jazz, but don’t really stand comparison with the earlier tracks from the great days of swing and early R&B.

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1. In The Bag
2. Dig Those Vibes
3. Jack The Fox Boogie
4. How High The Moon
5. Million Dollar Smile
6. Turkey Hop (Parts 1 & 2)
7. Double Talk
8. Empty Glass (Normania)
9. Hamp's Gumbo No 2
10. Mingus Fingers
11. Three Minutes On 52nd Street
12. Hamp's Got A Duke
13. Dancing On The Ceiling
14. Blues For Little 'T'
15. Memories Of You
16. Silver Slipper

Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra - Ram-Bunk-Shush

This is a 1989 Official LP of tracks recorded by Lucky Millinder for the King label between 1950 and 1955, the year when the band finally broke up. In some ways the Millinder outfit was an anachronism by the mid-fifties as they were one of the last big bands left on the R&B circuit. The music is mainly a mixture of jivey instrumentals (the title track – later recorded by Bill Doggett and even later by The Ventures, “Ow!”, “Old Spice”, and “Heavy Sugar”), good swinging ballads (“Loaded With Love”, “I’m Waiting Just For You”) a couple of duffers (“Please Open Your Heart”) and three standout vocal efforts: Wynonie Harris on “Oh Babe!”, Myra Johnson on the salacious “Silent George” and Pigmeat Pederson on the bluesy “Please Be Careful”. Bubber Johnson’s semi-rock ‘n’ roll effort “Goody Good Love” is also goody good.

Download from here:

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1. Ram-Bunk-Shush
2. Oh Babe! (vocal – Wynonie Harris)
3. Please Open Your Heart (vocal – Lee Richardson)
4. Silent George (vocal – Myra Johnson)
5. I'm Waiting Just For You (vocal – Anisteen Allen)
6. No One Else Could Be (vocal – Anisteen Allen & Melvin Moore)
7. It's Been A Long, Long Time
8. Please Be Careful (vocal – Pigmeat Pederson)
9. Loaded With Love (vocal – Corky Robbins & Johnny Bosworth)
10. When I Gave You My Love (vocal – Corky Robbins & Johnny Bosworth)
11. Heavy Sugar
12. Old Spice
13. I'm Here Love (vocal – Cathy Ryan)
14. It's A Sad, Sad Feeling (vocal – Cathy Ryan)
15. Ow!
16. Goody Good Love (vocal – Bubber Johnson)