Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Jimmy Beasley & The Rockers - Johnny's House Party Pts. 1 & 2

I think this was one of dad's all-time favorite 78s in his collection and was enjoyed at many a partying occasion.

Released on Modern Records in February of 1957.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Fats Domino - Ain't It A Shame

"Ain't That a Shame" is a song recorded by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew, in New Orleans, Louisiana, for Imperial Records and released in 1955. It was previously recorded in 1901 by Silas Leachman. The recording ("Ain't It a Shame") was a hit for Domino, eventually selling a million copies. It reached #1 on the "Black Singles" chart and #10 on the "Pop Singles" chart. The song is ranked #431 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.





Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Hawks - Joe The Grinder

Joe the Grinder is the name of mythical ladies man in blues tunes who seduces the wives and sweethearts of prisoners and soldiers. He’s also known as Joe De Grinder and Joe D. Grinder. The term dates to at least 1939. Grinder is from an old slang verb, to grind, meaning to copulate. The military use of jody was introduced to the U.S. Army by African-American soldiers. Jody is a clipping of the name of Joe the Grinder, a slightly older character in jazz and blues mythology.
"Joe The Grinder" was cut by The Hawks for Imperial in December of 1953 and with lead vocal duties going to bass vocalist, Willie Thrower.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Little Walter - Juke

"Juke" is a harmonica instrumental recorded by then 22-year-old Chicago bluesman Little Walter Jacobs in 1952. Although Little Walter had been recording sporadically for small Chicago labels over the previous five years, and had appeared on Muddy Waters' records for the Chess label since 1950, Juke was Little Walter's first hit, and it was the most important of his career. Due to the influence of Little Walter on blues harmonica, Juke is now considered a blues harmonica standard.
"Juke" was recorded on 12 May 1952 at the beginning (not the end, as commonly thought) of a recording session with Muddy Waters and his band, which at the time consisted of Waters and Jimmy Rogers on guitars, and Elga Edmunds on drums, in addition to Little Walter on harmonica. The originally released recording of "Juke" was the first completed take of the first song attempted at the first Little Walter session for Leonard Chess; the song was released at the end of July on Chess's subsidiary label Checker Records as Checker single #758. The song was recorded by recording engineer Bill Putnam at his Universal Recorders studio at 111 E. Ontario St. on the near north side of Chicago, Illinois.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Roy Hamilton - You'll Never Walk Alone

Roy Hamilton (April 16, 1929 – July 20, 1969) was an American singer, who achieved major success in the US R&B and pop charts in the 1950s. He is best known for his recordings of "You'll Never Walk Alone", "Unchained Melody" and "You Can Have Her".

"You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.
Roy Hamilton's version was a Billboard R&B number-one single March 27, 1954 - May 15, 1954




Dad would have loved this!