This week's feature artist is Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns
The latest Record Shack show and article are at WTZQ.com
7/17/10: Featuring Helen Shapiro
Listen to the show here: A complete playlist of artists and songs is available under the “playlists” tab above.
“Foghorn”.
A nickname suitable for a cartoon rooster for sure- but for a proper British schoolgirl? However, it was the name hung around Helen Shapiro at a very young age, and the rich, distinctive voice that inspired the good-natured tag would make her Britain’s biggest female singing star by the time she was fourteen.
Of Russian Jewish heritage, Helen was born in London’s East End in 1946. She played banjo as a child and sang with her brother’s jazz group. When she was only eleven years old, she met guitarist Marc Feld (who would later change his name to Marc Bolan and make musical history with his glam-rock outfit T.Rex) through their mutual friend Stephen Gould. The trio, along with Helen’s cousins Susan and Glenn Singer and buddy Melvyn Fields, started a group called Susie & the Hula Hoops. Helen’s voice was already quite remarkable, but the musical accompaniment didn’t always measure up. Helen recalled, “Stephen and Mark couldn’t really play. The guitars were twice as big as them anyway. But they looked good.” Their debut performance was at Stoke Newington Cafe. “We didn’t get paid”, Helen says, “we just got endless cups of free tea.” The group also played a few times at their school.
While still at school, Helen began to take singing lessons with the Maurice Berman Academy. Berman was so impressed by Helen’s talent that he waived the fees to keep her as a student. He also wrote to several record labels on Helen’s behalf, and EMI Records sent producer John Schroeder, who heard her strong, deep timbre at one of the classes and was impressed enough to record her and play it back for top EMI producer Norrie Paramor. He, in turn, thought her good enough to record. For her first recording session, Helen turned up wearing her school uniform with her satchel over her shoulder.
“Don’t Treat Me Like a Child” (listen to it here) was the tune chosen to introduce her to the nation. It made number three in the UK charts in May 1961, and the record company’s publicity department went into overdrive to hype the novelty value of her age. Her second release, “You Don’t Know” (listen here), was issued three months later and sold in excess of 40,000 daily. In August 1961, it made 14-year-old Helen the youngest female artist to reach number one in the UK. The song stayed at the top of the charts for two weeks and eventually sold over a million copies.
In September that year she turned 15 and left school to pursue her career in earnest. Live appearances, including a headliner spot at the legendary London Palladium – virtually unheard of for such an young performer – showcased Helen’s confidence as a performer.
Helen built up such a fan base that her third single, “Walkin’ Back to Happiness”, had orders in excess of 300,000 prior to its release. It was a song Helen was reportedly dubious about recording because she thought it was a bit silly, but she was assured that by the time the big studio orchestration was added, it would sound a lot more substantial. Her delivery of the song lifted it above the corniness she feared and it is now considered to be her signature tune. Read more…
7/10/10: Featuring The Amazing Rhythm Aces
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“Roots music” and “Americana” are a couple of labels that have been tossed about frequently in recent years to describe music that is a combination of country, blues, and rock. The Eagles were notable practitioners when they hit the scene in 1972, and they had stiff competition for a couple of years from the Amazing Rhythm Aces. The Aces’ very first single got all the way to #14 in the spring of 1975 and they followed it with a couple more Top 100 hits, but the band was never able to repeat the success of “Romance.”
This may seem like a good time to get out your hanky and weep for yet another “one-hit wonder”, but save your tears. The Aces picked up a Grammy in 1976 for “The End is Not in Sight (The Cowboy Tune)”, have had solid sales figures for their 18 albums, just released a new CD, and three decades after their debut still command a fanatical fan base.
The seeds of the Amazing Rhythm Aces were planted in Knoxville, Tennessee in the late 1960s to early ’70s. Singer/guitarist Russell Smith, bassist Jeff Davis, and drummer Butch McDade were finding steady work in a band called “Fatback”, playing mostly covers in the clubs around town. One day when Davis and McDade were discussing their mutual admiration for BB King, they decided to take off for Memphis in search of a musical environment that would better suit their eclectic and rootsy tastes. Russell Smith soon followed. He recalls, “The reason the band came into existence is probably the same reason nobody knows what kind of music we play. When Butch and I got things started we were disaffected musicians. We didn’t want to play heavy metal in bars; we didn’t want to play disco; we wanted to play what we wanted to. So we kind of got together out of a dissatisfaction with other things going on and kept adding and dropping people until we got a group that fitted together with what we had in mind.” Keyboardist Billy Earhart III, lead guitarist Barry “Byrd” Burton, and pianist James Hooker settled in with Smith, Davis, and McDade, and by 1974 the Amazing Rhythm Aces were honing their unique blend of pop, country, blues, and soul.
Davis and McDade had played with singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester in their post-Fatback, pre-Aces days, and Winchester had recorded Smith’s composition “Third Rate Romance”. A number of other artists began to pick up the tune, so the Aces decided they should make their own recording of it. Smith fills in the details: “I was a guy who played rhythm guitar and wrote an occasional song.’Third Rate Romance’ was the first song I ever got published. My drummer got an offer to go on the road with Jesse Winchester, and he went. He took a bunch of tapes with him and that song was on the tape. Jesse put that one and a couple of others on his show, and when it got time for him to do an album, he put them on his album. That’s what really started it for the Amazing Rhythm Aces. We got signed and that was it.” Read more…
7/3/10: Featuring The Hi-Lo’s
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When you look back at American popular music from the final days of World War II up until the dawn of the rock’ roll era in the mid 1950s, the one word that seems to sum it up best is “safe”. The dangerous and uncertain war and depression years were behind us, and collectively we seemed to take a much-needed rest in the arms of the comfortable and familiar. The hit parade was dominated by mild numbers like Kay Kyser’s “Old Buttermilk Sky”, “Heartaches” by Ted Weems, “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window” by Patti Page, and Perry Como’s “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes”. All pleasant songs to be sure, but the musical landscape was so unchanging that it was quite common for one record to hold down the #1 spot for months on end.
But tucked away in the final years of that slice of time were the Hi-Lo’s, who looked about as “square” as they come, but whose vocal abilities and arrangements were so innovative and daring that they delighted critics and arrangers while often leaving producers and record buyers scratching their heads. Steve Allen called them “without a doubt the best vocal group of all time”, and Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, and Nelson Riddle were hard core fans. At the same time, future rock ‘n’ roll movers and shakers Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and John Phillips of the Mamas & Papas were soaking up the harmonies of the Hi-Lo’s and laying the foundation for some of the defining sounds of the swinging ’60s.
Downbeat Magazine profiled the members of the Hi-Lo’s in 1957:
“The Hi-Lo’s were the brainchild of Gene Puerling. Puerling was born in Milwaukee, Wis., and acquired experience with various vocal groups in that city while in his teens and early twenties. In 1950 he became a disc jockey with radio station WEMP there, but soon departed for the west coast. He freelanced with various singing groups, including those of Les Baxter and Gordon Jenkins, before forming the Hi-Lo’s.
Bob Strasen had been a Milwaukee friend of Puerling’s. He was born in Strasbourg, France, where his father was a missionary. Although he studied for the ministry, Strasen’s desires turned to music. After considerable experience in choir work, he joined Puerling on the west coast.
Clark Burroughs was born in Los Angeles. He had been an actor since the age of 3, playing movie bit parts as a teenager. He had nine years of choir experience, including work with Roger Wagner’s chorale. He attended Loyola university and Los Angeles City college. Before joining the Hi-Lo’s, he was a member of Billy May’s Encores vocal group.
Bob Morse is from Pacoima, Calif. He had band vocalist experience in the Los Angeles area and was a member of the Encores, too. He studied at UCLA, the Chouinard School of Art in Los Angeles, and Westlake college. He designs clothes for the group. Read more…
6/19/10: Featuring Baby Washington
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Music writer Ron Wynn, in the All Music Guide to Soul, observes, “Baby Washington could sound like a hard-edged, no-nonsense wailer one moment and a wounded sparrow the next. She never enjoyed much pop attention, but equaled Dionne Warwick and Maxine Brown among female light soul singers”. Dusty Springfield was quoted as saying that Baby Washington was her all-time favorite singer, and she proved it by covering several of Baby’s songs. Unfortunately, Justine “Baby” Washington’s work was largely overlooked at the time it was released and has been mostly forgotten since. But those who do stumble across it or seek it out come away with the realization that Baby Washington was one of the great soul singers of the 1960s. If she had had access to more top-notch material or had been with a record label with the resources to properly promote her, Baby Washington would most likely now be mentioned in the same breath as Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Irma Thomas.
Justine Washington was born in 1940 in Bamberg, South Carolina, and her family soon relocated to New York. In the city, she started singing in church and then in a rehearsal studio in Harlem. There she was heard by Zelma “Zell” Sanders, who ran the J & S record label. (It was rare for a woman to hold that position, and Zell, by all accounts, was an extraordinary woman: an ex-security guard who controlled the artists she managed with a firm hand, sometimes fining or sacking them on the spot if they broke her rules.) Zell was looking for a new member of the Hearts, a female doo wop group she had taken under her wing. Justine was hired for the group in 1956, and since she was the youngest, the others nicknamed her ‘Baby’. The name stuck. (You can hear Baby singing lead with The Hearts on this song.)
Soon, Zell was recording Baby as a solo artist as well. Her last release on the label was also leased out to the Chess label, but by the time it hit the streets in 1959, she had moved on and was with Neptune Records. She had a decent-sized R&B hit for them in 1959 with “The Time” (which she wrote), and the label released a number of her singles over the next three years, when she moved on yet again for a short stint with ABC Records. Her output at ABC was relatively unremarkable except for “Let Love Go By”, a Washington composition that is now considered a soul classic. (Listen to it here.) ABC billed her as Jeanette Washington. Read more…
6/12/10: Featuring The Easybeats
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In the early 1960s, Australia had a bit of a split personality. While still honoring the traditional British ties of its immigrant population, Aussies were becoming more and more obsessed with American pop culture. But teenagers Down Under had yet to rebel against their elders, and it was quite common for kids and their parents to listen to the same music. Whereas British teenagers were often able to hear American rhythm and blues records fresh from the colonies broadcast from ships just off the coast, the geographic isolation of Australia prevented any such exposure to the raw elements of rock ‘n roll. The few Australian entertainers that did dabble in rock ‘n roll were nothing more than pale imitations of the real thing. This was all about to change.
The Easybeats came together in the Villawood Migrant Hostel during 1964. They were all emigrants who had been exposed to the “real thing” in their homelands. Englishman Stevie Wright, already residing in the country for some years, was singing with a group called The Langdells. The other four members of the band were new arrivals: Scotsman George Young (whose brother Alexander played in Tony Sheridan’s Big Six), Snowy Fleet from Liverpool (formerly with the Mojos), Dutchmen Harry Vanda (guitarist with the instrumental combo the Starfighters) and Dick Diamonde, also from the Netherlands.
Other Australian groups began to spring up in response to Beatlemania, but the Easybeats immediately stood apart due to their dapper appearance, musical seasoning, songwriting chops, and frontman Stevie Wright’s showmanship. Sometimes the slightly-built, energetic Stevie would even explode into a backflip in mid song, prompting one observer to refer to him as a “screaming, kinetic hobbit”. Read more…
6/5/10: Featuring Janis Martin
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In September of 1956, just a few months after fifteen-year-old Janis Martin had kicked the door to the pop charts wide open with her first record, Country Music Jamboree magazine wrote: “…if Janis’s style and her recorded works continue in their present stride, she’s bound to be a mighty popular and busy teenager, plus, for a long time to come… Janis says her fan mail, the majority of which comes from teen-age boys is reaching unbelievable totals, but she loves getting the letters…”
When that magazine hit the news stands, it did indeed seem that Janis Martin had the exciting new world of rock ‘n roll by the tail. The annual national disc jockeys convention of that year voted her “Most Promising Female Artist”. However, her career would effectively be over just two years later.
Janis Darlene Martin was born in 1940 in Sutherlin, Virginia. She was instinctively musical, demonstrating a powerful voice when not much more than a toddler, and mastering basic guitar chords by the time she was six. Recognizing her daughter’s potential, Mrs. Martin turned into a classic stage mother and saw to it that Janis worked hard to polish her delivery. Janis later recalled, “I had a typical show-business mother who put me in the business when I was eight years old. I never was allowed to play with other children my age. She was grooming me.” Between the ages of eight and ten, Janis was entered into a dozen talent contests in Virginia and surrounding states. Sassily delivering the country hits of the day, she won top prize at eleven of them.
Before her twelfth birthday, Janis became a regular on the WRVA Radio Barndance show out of Danville. She traveled with Glen Thompson’s band for two years and then went on the road with Jim Eanes, a veteran of Flatt & Scruggs and of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. In 1953, she appeared at a Tobacco Festival with Ernest Tubb and Sunshine Sue. As a result of the favorable impression she made with that performance, Janis was invited to become a regular member of the Old Dominion Barndance in Richmond, which was the third largest such program in the nation, ranking only behind the Grand Old Opry and the Wheeling, West Virginia Barndance. Stars like Jean Shepherd, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Sonny James, Martha Carson, and the Carter Sisters appeared on the show, and many of them told Janis she had what what it took and uged her to aim for the big time. Read more…
Moon Mullican
Moon Mullican was featured on the 5-22-10 show. Listen to an archive of this show here: (It may take a moment to load)
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From King of the Hillbilly Piano Players by Phil Davies (with a few editorial changes):
Aubrey “Moon” Mullican was born to a farming family in the small rural community of Corrigan, Polk County, in east Texas on March 29th, 1909. Living on the Louisiana border, Aubrey would have heard musical influences from both states in his formative years.
The surrounding area was forested and logging was a major industry. The mainly black laborers would seek solace from their daily grind by rousing it up in the evenings at the hard drinking juke joints that sprang up around the work camps. Particularly popular were the raucous barrel house boogie woogie piano players as well as the gutbucket country blues guitar pickers. Joe Jones was a sharecropper working on the Mullicans’ farm, and he taught 8 year old Aubrey some rudimentary blues licks on the guitar. The Mullicans were a very religious family,and Mr Mullican senior paid $20 for a pump organ for his daughters to learn to play in church. However, his blues-smitten son soon commandeered the instrument, rapidly developing his driving keyboard style. Read more…
