This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And legends is what you're gonna get from me, again, and today I feature the Cat label, a little record label that was a subsidiary of the great Atlantic records. It only existed for two years and issued 18 records, most of them good quality rhythm & blues. So let's not waste time with talk and start with the first release of the label, Cat 101, that was Mike Gordon and the El Tempos with Why don't you do right.
01 - Mike Gordon & the El Tempos - Why Don't You Do Right
02 - Little Sylvia Vanderpool & Mickey Baker & His Band - Fine Love
Little Sylvia Vanderpool backed up by Mickey Baker & His Band with Fine Love and this was the first occasion where she recorded together with Baker, on Cat 102 in 1954. Of course we know them as the duo Mickey and Sylvia with their monster hit Love is strange.
Cat record was started by Atlantic in 1954 and the label featured a cartoon-like picture of a man with a hat and a woman in a dress dancing - not together but doing some wild swing separated by the hole in the middle of the record. All records were released on 78 with a black label and on 45 and these labels were maroon. Of course cat had been a slang word for a hip guy for a long while, and the label featured a few of the best of Atlantic's roster, but overall not very different from what went on the main label.
As Cat 103 a fine blues song - here is Jimmy Lewis with Last night.
03 - Jimmy Lewis - Last Night
04 - Chords - Sh-Boom
The Chords with their immortal song Sh-Boom. On Youtube I saw an interview with first tenor Jimmy Keyes, and he explains about how the many scat sounds in this song originated.
"Boom" was the slang word, as he reveals, like hey, man, boom, how yer doin'. And to make it sound like a bomb, they added the sh in it - like sh-boom.
There more scats in this song with a story. De-dong-de-dingdong, A-lange-de-lange-de-lange-de-lang were the church bells you could hear in their street in the Bronx, and then there's that sound Bip, a flib-ba-doo-da-dip. Now Bip was lead singer Carl Feaster's uncle, who was always drunk and had an odour so they could smell him even before they opened the door, so they said uh-oh here comes Bip, a flib-ba-doo-da-dip.
It's a great vocal song and it hit number 3 on the Rhythm & Blues list in the early summer of 1954 and number 9 of the pop list, and that was one of the few occasions back then where black music was introduced to the mainstream white audience.
And like we would see often, later with the rock 'n roll craze, the song was a public dispute on whether this was an unimportant ditty or a classic-to-come. The host of the popular TV program Juke Box Jury wondered whether this would be ever remembered within five years leave alone re-released. He proved to be wrong. In the famous listing of 500 greatest songs of all times of Rolling Stone Magazine, Sh-Boom was rewarded a number 215 ranking.
Time for a little more music. Here is Cat 105 - Prince Patridge with Co-operation, a pretty humorous talking blues, for its length stretched out over two sides of the record.
05 - Prince Patridge - Co-operation Pts 1 and 2
06 - Floyd Dixon - Moonshine
Moonshine - one of Floyd Dixon's best drinking songs was released on Cat 106. Next up Millie Bosman, one of the women trying to get as famous as her Atlantic colleagues Ruth Brown and Lula Reed with Really Satisfied.
07 - Millie Bosman - Really Satisfied
08 - Playboys - Tell Me
And that bring us back to the vocal groups in this theme episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman on the Cat subsidiary of Atlantic Records. Cat 108 - the Playboys with Tell me.
We're in September, 1954 when Cat 109 is released, the Chords with Zippity Zum and it's a great song but it gets nowhere compared to Sh-Boom. Later pressings of this record have the name of the Chordcats on the label. With the national success of Sh-Boom, the group had to find out that another Chords existed, and that was why they were forced to change the name. So here are the Chords or Chordcats, with Zippety Zum.
09 - Chords - Zippety Zum
10 - Collegians - Rickety Tickety Melody
The Collegians with a very pop sounding song Rickety Tickety Melody - that was Cat 110 in the fall of 1954. The instrumental backup is done by the Sid Bass Orchestra.
Cat 111 was Rose Marie McCoy with Dippin' in my business. Though she's a good singer and she shows that off in this song, her greatest contribution to Rhythm & Blues has been the songwriting she did for numerous artists.
She'd already written many songs including Big Maybelle's Gabbin' Blues and Louis Jordan's If I Had Any Sense I’d Go Back Home and House Party, and then she started working with another great songwriter of the era, Charlie Singleton. Their songs were recorded by artists like Faye Adams, Elvis Presley, Ruth Brown, Nat King Cole, Little Willie John, Big Joe Turner, Little Esther and many others.
After the cooperation with Singleton ended she continued songwriting, leaving a legacy of 800 songs. Here is Rose Marie McCoy with Dippin' in my business.
11 - Rose Marie McCoy - Dippin' In My Business
12 - Chordcats - A girl to love
Cat 112, another song by the Chordcats, A girl to love, that gained no attention at all. The next Cat release was an obscure group calling themselves Scott & Oaks. It was due to the effortless plugging of disc jockey Alan Freed that this song gained some attention. Listen to Cat 113, Tick Tock.
13 - Scott & Oaks - Tick Tock
14 - Floyd Dixon - Hey Bartender
Floyd Dixon with his second single on Cat, catalogued as 114, with Hey Bartender - another song on the booze.
Next up the second relase of the Playboys. Here is Good Golly Miss Molly and that is a completely different song than Little Richard's song from 1958.
15 - Playboys - Good Golly Miss Molly
16 - Sheiks - Walk That Walk
Another vocal group, the Sheiks with Walk that Walk. This group was another one than the Sheiks that recorded for the Federal label. Walk that Walk was Cat's 16th release, and as Cat 117 we see the Chords back again, now again they changed their name, as the Sh-Booms after their first big hit that you heard earlier on this episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Here is Could It Be.
17 - Sh-Booms - Could It Be
18 - Margie Day - Ho Ho
And Margie Day's Ho Ho was the last release on Cat, number 118. Atlantic discontinued the Cat label and instead came a new subsidiary that we all know much better, Atco, short for Atlantic Corporation. Apparently the end of the label came together with several of the artists leaving Atlantic, that is, you find several of them recording afterwards for other labels, and a few others just disappeared.
Cat had yielded just one really big hit, Sh-Boom, but a significant percentage of their releases were good quality Rhythm & Blues sides and most people agree that the Cat label may have been short-lived but it was significant.
This is also the end of this show, and I hope you enjoyed the stories that I've told and the music that I've played and if so - or if not, or if you have questions or any remark on this program, please don't hesitate to write me an email. The address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or find me on the web, just do a google search on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will pop up first. As for now - byebye and have a great day. No, have a rocking day. See you next time when I play more of that great rollicking music, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!