Remarks, Corrections, Opinions, etc.
Some corrections from issue #1 are in order-courtesy
of noted vocal group maven (that's a NY word) Marv Goldberg, who
along with Peter Grendysa, has been correcting my mistakes for years.
The guitarist on the Midnighter's release of Henry Got Flat Feet (singular Henry on my European Parlophone release) is Cal Green not Alonzo Tucker.
Johnnie Saunders and Baby Washington were not yet members of the Hearts (Baton) at the time of "Lonely Nights"
Junior Denby was of course in The Swallows not The Larks as I had written. Eugene Mumford was the lead for The Larks.
The lead singer on The Drifter's "Your Promise To Be Mine" was Gerhart Thrasher not Rudy (Johnny ?) Moore.
And one I
had no inkling of-The Empires and The Whirlers had identical
personnel !
Sometimes you never know what unknown treasures you will find among
the many CDs of re-released material of the 1950s. CD technology has
certainly been a treasure trove of long unavailable music by the
vocal groups of years gone by. There was a little known group called
The Hurricanes that I always liked, even though their records got
very little airplay and they were not an everyday name back in the
fifties. I could never find the old King label 45s around, and I have
always refused to pay exhorbinant prices for these sides on principle
(except once when I weakened and paid out $12 for a used copy of "You
Are So Beautiful" by The Five Notes.) So the other day while waiting
for my daughter to pick out the latest CD by her favorite screaming
hard core punk band (what garbage-dont tell her I said that !) lo and
behold I see an Italian import CD by The Hurricanes ! And it was
subtitled - American Heritage Series ! Only in Europe. It had the
tunes I remembered - Poor Little Dancing Girl, Dear Mother,
Priceless, Fallen Angel, and especially "Yours" and best of all "I'll
Always Be In Love With You". It was for the last two that I bought
the CD. Besides these six however was some other great
stuff-alternate takes on Fallen Angel, Priceless, and Now That I Need
You, plus some tunes where they were uncredited backup singers and a
couple of tunes recorded as The Memos. The real treat however are two
live cuts from those great days, of "I'm So Glad" and "You May Not
Know". Mario Capurso wrote the liner notes which reveal that The
Hurricanes recorded as The Toppers on the infamous "Baby Let Me Bang
Your Box". The discography is by the afore mentioned Marv Goldberg
and Ronny "I" of UGHA.
Recently a local area radio station had a "Stardust" day honoring the
great pop song of Hoagy Carmichael. This tune has always been one of
my favorites as well, and so I was an interested listener. They
invited call-ins to relate their favorite rendition of the song. Not
having heard my favorite-Eugene Mumford and The Dominos, I called up.
got through, and told the program manager. He said he had never heard
of this record, and was I sure I had the correct artist. When I said
the record sold about 2 1/2 million copies (a slight exaggeration I'm
sure) he said he would find out about it. Never heard another word.
You would think that they would have at least the Joel Whitburn chart
books at their elbow ! This is what the fight's about-there is more
to the history of this music then Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, At The
Hop, and My Boy Friend's Back !
There is always talk about who you idolized or wanted to be when you
were young-who made the greatest impression on you, that sort of
thing. I always get a who? when I mention mine. The person I wanted
to be when I was a young teen was : Berman Patterson of the
Cleftones. I just liked his singing, the moves, and the "cool". This
transcended any race, class, age, geography, any of that. No I didnt
want to be Elvis, Sal Mineo, or even Ersel Hickey ! I imagined myself
as BP wowing all the chicks with my intro and ending on "Can't We be
Sweethearts" or the lead vocal on "Neki Hokey" and "Happy Memories"
or trading verses with Herbie on "See You Next Year". I always manage
a smile when I think of those long ago days and the continuous
soundtrack of the time.
And finally - thanks to all those who e-mailed me and accept my
apologies for not getting back to most of you. I am constrained a bit
by time, but more so I am cybernetically challenged. I am amazed I
got the first issue up and running-I still am unable to post photos
but am working on my computer literacy. I am at :
jaymar41@earthlink.net