Don't Knock Elvis (MP3)

Felton Jarvis - Don't Knock Elvis

In celebration of what would've been Elvis Presley's 77th birthday, here's an odd artifact from a very early stage in the career of songwriter and producer Felton Jarvis (1934 - 1981).

Jarvis was Elvis Presley's producer between the years 1966 and 1977, when Presley died. While still struggling to make a name for himself, he recorded this Elvis Presley tribute 45, which was released on the tiny VIVA label in August, 1959. While in the Marines in 1955, Jarvis experienced a life-changing event when was lucky enough to catch a live Elvis Presley show in Norfolk, Virginia.

Upon getting out of the Marines, he returned to Atlanta and went to work as a sheet music printer at Bill Lowery's National Recording Company (NRC). At the time, the label was over-flowing with talented performers who, in less than a decade, would be national stars: Jerry Reed, Mac Davis, Joe South, Ray Stevens and Freddy Weller. Jarvis moved into songwriting and producing, making a name for himself in 1961 by producing Every Beat Of My Heart, the first R&B #1 hit (of eleven, in all) for a local band called the Pips, soon to be renamed Gladys Knight & The Pips. From NRC, Jarvis went to work for the ABC label, where he produced "Sheila" a huge national hit for Tommy Roe, another graduate of Lowery's NRC concern. After a few years at ABC, he moved over to RCA where he and Presley established a solid working relationship that worked out pretty well for both of them.

Marvin Rainwater - The Haircut (MP3)

Marvin Rainwater - The Haircut (2:37)

Marvin's problem? His kid refuses to get a haircut, so Marvin rounds up one of his pals and they hatch a plan give the kid a haircut that even Sgt. Carter would love. Let's just say things don't exactly go according to plan.

All I Want For Christmas Is A C.B. (MP3)

Jim Hubler - All I Want For Christmas Is A CB

Arthur Alexander Month

Bobby Flores - Every Day I Have To Cry

Liza Jane

Cecil Surratt & Smitty Smith - Liza Jane (2:03)

Cecil and Smitty absolutely nail it here with their 1960 instrumental country take on an old standard.

Wife Of The Party

Liz Anderson - Wife Of The Party (2:28)

Esquerita Awareness Month: "As Time Goes By"

    It's time for the closing ceremonies of Esquerita Awareness Month, so if you start listening to this as soon as it's posted, it'll end right on time a few seconds before midnight. We're going to play you out with the B-side of Esquerita's last single (the flip can be heard here), his version of the 1931 standard better known for Dooley Wilson's version from ten years later, as heard in Casablanca. I was going to offer up my 78 of that version as well, but I can't seem to locate it, and I have a vague memory that it might have cracked beyond playability some years ago. C'est la guerre. And it's not as if you haven't all heard it, anyway.

    Self-indulgent personal note: As a kid growing up in upstate South Carolina in the '70s and '80s, there wasn't much evidence of anything good ever having happened there, so getting my copy of Kicks #3 and learning that Esquerita was from right up the road in Greenville... well, that was pretty gratifying. At last, a fellow South Carolinian who wasn't an embarrassment. I've learned a lot more about local music history since then , -- maybe sometime I'll tell you about the Monstabuckings, from Anderson, for instance-- but that was the first indication that maybe my homeland had spawned something greater than the Marshall Tucker Band*. And for that I'm grateful.

Magnificent Malochi - "As Time Goes By"


*To be fair, there's a lot worse to be found along the "Southern Rock" spectrum, but growing up in a redneck college town (the worst of both worlds!)gave me an exceptionally low tolerance for all AOR music, whether British- or Southern- accented, which has remained with me throughout life.

Esquerita Awareness Month: "Mama Your Daddy's Come Home"

As Esquerita Awareness Month draws to a close, we offer up the great man in another of his many aliases (to refresh your memory: Stephen Quincy Reeder, Jr. AKA Eskew Reeder/Eskew Reeder, Jr. AKA Esquerita AKA Esqrita* AKA S.Q. Reeder AKA Eskew "Esque-Rita" Reeder AKA Magnificent Malochi AKA Mark Malochi AKA Fabulash, and probably more that aren't documented) with a fine entry from 1968. The last solo record he'd release during his lifetime, it doesn't seem to have charted anywhere I can find, despite Billboard's prediction:

On a personal note, this is a particular favorite of my lovely wife. I hope you like it , too!

Magnificent Malochi - "Mama, Your Daddy's Come Home"



*This is how it's rendered in the songwriting credits on Little Richard's "Dew Drop Inn" and "Freedom Blues". Richard apparently nicknamed him "Excreta", so I guess we should add that one to the above litany of names.

Esquerita Awareness Month: Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

     Today's tune, released in Spring 1970 by Little Richard and co-written by "Esqrita," was the first single off of The Rill Thing, his first new album in three years and was the flip side of "Freedom Blues", also co-written by Mr. Reeder, . It was Richard's biggest hit in the post-Specialty era, charting in Billboard at #47, and in Cashbox at #62, which I suppose makes it the best-selling disk that Esquerita was ever involved in.

     While the song is a tribute to the famous New Orleans night spot (located at 2836 LaSalle Street), it also serves as something of a eulogy, since it was at about this same point that the club breathed it's last gasp.  Jeff Hannusch has a good article about it's history at the Iko Iko website that I recommend.

     Esquerita's own version of this tune was recorded in the '60s. but not released until 1991 by the good folks at Norton Records. It can be had either as a 7'' or as a bonus on the CD version of Vintage Voola. Maybe you should just get both, to be safe!

Little Richard - "Dew Drop Inn"

Honeymoon With The Blues (MP3)

Eddie Noack - Honeymoon With The Blues

Esquerita Awareness Month: "Sweet Skinny Jenny"

      This is the A-side to Mr. Peek's first solo single; the B-side may be heard here, where its context, and the origins of this particular copy are discussed at length. Besides Peek and Esquerita, this session also included future NRC recording artists Joe South and Ray Stevens.

     I held off on posting this last week because I was hoping to relate an amusing anecdote about Mr. Peek, but the person I heard it from some years back no longer remembers the details, so I'm gonna skip it. It wasn't that great anyway, I guess.

    Paul Peek (with Esquerita) - "Sweet Skinny Jenny"

I'm Gonna Tie One On Tonight (MP3)

Wilburn Brothers - I'm Gonna Tie One On Tonight

Esquerita Awareness Month: "The Rock-A-Round"

     
     Paul Peek and Esquerita were both from Greenville, SC, and met while Mr. Reeder was headlining there at the Owl Club in 1958. Paul was justifiably impressed with Mr. Reeder's act, and introduced him to his boss at the time, Gene Vincent, who would soon use his influence to get him signed to Capitol records. Before that point, though, he helped arrange for Esquerita and his band to cut several demos in Dallas, as well as today's selection (this material is all collected on Vintage Voola, from Norton records). This was Mr. Peek's debut record, as well as the first NRC single, and was co-written by Peek and "Esque-Rita" (if by "co-written", one means "swiped from Ahmet Ertegun and Ray Charles"--- but why nitpick?).
      This particular scratchy sound file, however, is not from that album. It's from the single pictured above, which I and an accomplice "shoplifted" from a Kroger supermarket, circa 1993! Perhaps this requires explanation: at that time, the now-defunct Broad St. Kroger here in Athens, GA was doing a goofy "Back To The '50s" promotion, with the store haphazardly decorated for the occasion. There were posters and crepe streamers throughout the store, the freezers had an assortment of pedal cars on top for some reason, and the deli section had dozens of 45s dangling on ribbons from the ceiling. They had clearly just gone to the Potter's House thrift store and grabbed up a six-or-eight-inch stack of singles from the top of the pile, and the bulk of them were '70s & '80s junk: Osmonds, KC & The Sunshine Band, and worse. On maybe my second or third visit during the promotion, though, I was shopping late, around midnight, and happened to see a familiar label out of the corner of my eye, and looked closer to see the above record (no sleeve-- I added that later). Looking around a lot more carefully, I saw nothing else of interest, except for a second copy! THey were hanging just out of my reach, so I went home, grabbed a couple of junk 45s, then went next door and fetched a fellow record hound, the slightly-taller Mr. Jim Tucci, and returned to the grocery store. he yanked down the records, we tied the ribbons to our replacement singles and left them on the floor (see? It wasn't actual thievery!), selected our groceries, and went home.

Paul Peek (with Esquerita) - "The Rock-A-Round"

Trouble In Teepee (MP3)

Deb Wood - Trouble In Teepee (2:01)

H.M. Subjects

There's a pretty good chance that, as the sort of person who reads this blog, you're aware of Miami, Florida's legendary Montells. It's also not unlikely that you're aware of their cover of the Pretty Things' "Don't Bring me Down," which was reissued as part of the Montells/Evil split compilation released on Corduroy in 2002 (apparently out of print). It's at least possible that you own the 45, and if you do, it might look like this:

...or it might look like this:

My copy, however, looks like this:

...and it sounds like THIS (i.e. pretty scratchy). Any of you record hounds seen one like this before? This copy just has the "censored" version on both sides with loud bleeps over the mildly suggestive lyrics, which makes it sound a million times dirtier. The gimmick, as well as the new, more "British" name (shades of the Sir Douglas Quintet!), was the brainchild of their manager, local WFUN DJ "Doc" Downey. Say what you will about  the late Morton Downey, Jr (and there's plenty that you could say!), he knew a few things about getting people's attention.

A Change Of Tense

While Johnny Cash claims to walk the line, Don Costa does not make that claim for himself at present, but aspires to that course of action at some unspecified future time. Regrettably, Mr. Costa failed to provide any vocals that might clarify the issue.

Don Costa - "I'll Walk The Line"

Hillbilly In The Whitehouse (MP3)

Jeff Raymond - Hillbilly In The Whitehouse (2:44)

Country Music Hall Of Fame & Museum (MP3s)

SIDE A
Tex Ritter
Loretta Lynn
Nat Stuckey
Buck Owens
Charley Pride

SIDE B
Eddy Arnold
Roy Acuff
Hank Snow
Charlie Walker
Jimmy Newman

Lift Ring, Pull Open (MP3)

Jim Ed Brown - Lift Ring Pull Open (2:55)

That Jim Ed sure was a helpful dude. Here he's chiming in with directions, just in case you were too bombed to be able to figure out how to open a can of beer all by yourself.

Country Music Week 1962

As you already know, this is Country Music Week here on the Ichiban blog. Here are some promotional recordings for the big event made by some of the usual suspects and, perversely enough, some not-very-country acts like Connie Francis and the Kingston Trio, who were obviously striving for some crossover success. The 1961 promotional announcements were uploaded to Ichiban yesterday and can be found here.

SIDE A
Faron Young (:30)
Connie Francis #1 (:23)
Connie Francis #2 (:32)
Connie Francis #3 (:37)
Flatt & Scruggs (:26)
Patsy Cline #1 (:26)
Patsy Cline #2 (:37)
Patsy Cline #3 (:35)

SIDE B
Roy Acuff #1 (:36)
Roy Acuff #2 (:35)
Eddie Arnold #1 (:19)
Eddie Arnold #2 (:35)
Chet Atkins (:35)
Kingston Trio (:29)
Tommy Hunter (:37)
Gordon Lightfoot (:24)
Jim Reeves (:38)