Sunday, September 25, 2011

Jay Franks & His Rockets of Rhythm - Stripped Gears

Jay Franks recorded this jumpin' record for RPM in 1952.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Ges Jenkins - Spark Plug

Piano player & singer Gus Jenkins (1931-1985) first recorded in Chicago for the Chess label with Big Walter Horton before moving to the west coast where he recorded with Flash Records in Los Angeles. This 78 is from 1956.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Fugitives - Freeway (Update! 9/3/11)



I was recently contacted by Dion(Alan) Smith, the man who wrote this song. This is from the email he sent me.
I can give you the whole back story...I wrote it ("Freeway") and played it when I was in high school.
Also placed it with the label (when I was about 16 years old), driving my mom's '59 Hudson
Hornet from Phoenix AZ to "Hollywood".
It was first released on Arvee, then Russel Sims, who had made stampers unbeknownst
to myself (and then 'run out of Phoenix') saw Dollar $igns and released the same session on his
own label from...Memphis, I believe. There's quite a story there, including some 'teenage
espionage', another session of the same tune with the help of LeRoy VanDyke
("Just Walk On By, Wait On The Corner" fame).

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