This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And today a special on a record label that existed from '49 to '51, the Regal label. It brought us some hot and upcoming acts of the moment - Paul Gayten, Larry Darnell and Annie Laurie - and a few real veterans of the scene like Memphis Minnie, Alberta Hunter and Cab Calloway. Well not all of them are in today's show, this covers the first year only. I'll get back to you with this label some later show.
And the first one features what sort of became the house band of the label for the New Orleans recordings - Paul Gayten's combo. On this Regal number 3230 - an odd number to start with - and prominently featuring the saxophone of Lee Allen - here is Backtrackin' - a.k.a. Dr. Daddy-O.
3230 - Paul Gayten & Lee Allen - Backtrackin' (Dr. Daddy-O)
3231 - James 'Blazer Boy' Locks - Blazer Boy Blues
Blazer Boy Locks apparently has listened closely to Charles Brown and Johnny Moore's Three Blazers with this Blazer Boy Blues - and also the instrumental backing, credited to the Four Drifters comes much in style. Straight from the 78 - number 3231 was this in the Regal catalog and it's this Regal label that I feature today here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.
Regal was a venture of the brothers David and Jules Braun and it was headquartered in Linden, NJ. Now the Braun Brothers were not new to the recording industry - they had owned DeLuxe records until they sold the majority of the interest to Syd Nathan of King Records in Cincinnati. It was a troubled relationship with Nathan ending up in a long legal battle and all of the interest in DeLuxe getting to King. Still many of the DeLuxe artists found their way to the new Regal label - including New Orleans acts Paul Gayten and Annie Laurie.
For the next one we also go to New Orleans with Erline Harris and her Jump and Shout is, just like her previous record Rock and Roll Blues, a good example of the jumping Rhythm & Blues that was so influential for Rock 'n Roll. This one features the saxophone of Plas Johnson. On Regal 3233 here is Erline Harris.
3233 - Erline Harris - Jump And Shout
3236 - Larry Darnell - I'll Get Along Somehow Pt.1
3236 - Larry Darnell - I'll Get Along Somehow Pt.2
(jingle)
3239 - James 'Blazer Boy' Locks - New Orleans Women Blues
3242 - Wild Bill Moore - Mean Old World1
3242 - Wild Bill Moore - Mean Old World2
A whole lot of great Rhythm & Blues with Detroit based saxophonist Wild Bill Moore and his band and he's probably best known of his hit We're Gonna Rock, We're Gonna Roll that he cut in December of '47, another of these Rhythm & Blues hits that featured the words Rock and Roll. You got the Mean Old World on Regal 3242 - and in the background you hear the flip Dynaflow.
Bill Moore was one of these musicians that had a boxing career behind them - he won the Michigan Golden Gloves in '37. After a few years in Los Angeles, he'd returned to the Motor City in '47 where he recorded this Mean Old World that you just got.
There was more - before that you got the New Orleans Women Blues of James 'Blazer Boy' Locks - we heard him earlier in this show - and then that ballad before the jingle was a double-sider titled I'll Get Along Somehow of Larry Darnell - his debut on record and he got to number 2 of the R&B hit list. It was somewhat of a slow start for this record, interest for it took up after Darnell's second record, For You My Love that made it number one.
Next a singer and drummer with the odd name of Dr. Sausage. His real name was Lucius Tyson and with his band the Five Pork Chops he'd done shows in New York in the thirties, and he done a few recordings for Decca in 1940. Ten years later he resurfaced with this Regal label as Doc Sausage and His Mad Lads. Here he is with She Don't Want Me No More.
3248 - Doc Sausage and His Mad Lads - She Don't Want Me No More
3249 - Ernie Fields - T-Town Blues
The T-Town Blues of Ernie Fields and this must have sounded somewhat old-fashioned in 1950 when it was recorded. Ernie Fields was a veteran swing band leader and he continued this style into the fifties. He even had a million-seller hit with his recording of Glenn Miller's forties hit In The Mood - one of the titles that immediately come in mind when you think of a swing classic.
Well nowadays all of the music I play is out of fashion - but it's a contrast with the new generation of fifties stars that also featured the Regal label. Like the next one, that was number 3250 on the catalog. Chubby Newsom had been with the DeLuxe label together with the band of Paul Gayten with the Hip Shakin' Mama - the hit that gave her the addition of Hip Shakin to her stage name. Her sides for Regal were done with the band of Howard Biggs. Here she is with the Hard Lovin' Mama.
3250 - Chubby 'Hip-Shakin' Newsome - Hard Lovin' Mama
3259 - Memphis Minnie - Kidman Blues
Another veteran of the blues - Memphis Minnie with the Kidman Blues on Regal number 3259. She'd been dropped from the roster by Columbia, together with a lot more blues singers of her generation and that brought her to Regal. By 1950 her blues got somewhat out of fashion - and still she stood out with her powerful voice and electrical guitar, but it didn't move towards Rock 'n Roll like the current trend in Rhythm & Blues did, that was played by a newer generation of African American artists.
And that brings us back to one of that younger generation of blues singers. Here is once more Larry Darnell with Pack Your Bags And Go.
3260 - Larry Darnell - Pack Your Bags And Go
3266 - Teddy Brannon - Don Newcomb Really Throws That Ball
In the background you hear the flip Mixon' with Dixon - this tune was titled Don Newcomb Really Throws That Ball - and that was about the first Black baseball pitcher that came out in a world series game, and winner of several prestigious awards in baseball.
Pianist Teddy Brannon did some backup and songwriting for doowop groups but he is most remembered for his jazz work - for as far as he's remembered at all. And that's not fair cause he's a top jazz pianist and he worked with all of the greats of the fifties. His cousin Babs Gonzales got more fame, mostly for being more excentric.
Next one more of Chubby Newsome. Here is Poor Dog, or in full Please Throw This Poor Dog A Bone.
3268 - Chubby Newsome - Please Throw This Poor Dog A Bone
3269 - Roosevelt Sykes - Rock It
Rock It and with that Roosevelt Sykes played his part in the rocking fad where every Rhythm & Blues singer had to sing about rocking and rolling - whether the style can be seen as a forerunner of Rock 'n Roll or not.
Sykes is another of the old-generation musicians in the twilight of their career that got signed with Regal. And that again gets a nice contrast with New Orleans blues shouter Sammy Cotton - his blues were rather in the new pre-Rock 'n Roll style like this Cool Playing Mama.
3270 - Sammy Cotton - Cool Playin' Mama
3271 - David Wylie (Little David) - Shackles Around My Body
3273 - Annie Laurie - I Ain't Gonna Let You In
And with Regal number 3273 another star of the label that before was on DeLuxe - Annie Laurie. Guess they rather stayed with the Braun brothers than with the label that had gone to King in Cincinnatti. I Ain't Gonna Let You In was that and that will be the last one of today's show.
Before that some acoustic Piedmont style blues that hark back to the thirties with Little David - also known as David Wylie. This is an Atlanta based bluesman - like Curley Weaver and Blind Willie McTell and this Shackles Around My Body is from the only session he done for Regal, in Atlanta in August of '49.
Now according to the bluesman he later travelled to New York for another session, together with Washboard Sam, Curley Weaver and Harry Slick Johnson. If so, nothing was left of that - and no traces of the gigs they done on their way back, like ads in local newspapers. Back in Atlanta, Wylie found out he was no longer welcome on the job he'd left behind when he went to the Big Apple, so this was not at all a fortunate trip.
I'll get you another show on this label later cause there was much more to play, but there's just one hour. I hope you liked the show and well of course you can always let me know - the e-mail address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And all that I told you today, you can read it back, and review the playlist on this program's website, and easiest way to get there is to search the web for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. This is show number 212 in that long list of episodes that you will find there.
I'm done for now - next week I'll be back with more hot Rhythm & Blues. So be on the lookout for more Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!