This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And what sort of a legend are you getting from me today, as in this episode I will feature one of the most obscure groups that I know of - the Ray-O-Vacs. A group curiously named after a battery brand that still exists today - unlike the band. And a group that you can find surprisingly litte information on, so that means not too much talk and a lot of music. But that's what you came here for, isn't it, so let's start with the first record they brought out on the Coleman label - I'll Always Be In Love With You. Here are the Ray-O-Vacs.
01 - Ray-O-Vacs - I'll Always Be In Love With You
I'll Always Be In Love With You. Today on the legends of the Rocking Dutchman, I want to shine a little bit of light on an absolutely obscure group from New York, the Ray-O-Vacs. And this was their very first record, from 1949, on the Coleman label that in total released five singles for the group. As I said, it's pretty hard to get some information on this group. Most information are from an obscure web page, from a weblog of a Scottish friend of mine, and the liner notes of an eigties LP of this group on the Danish Official label, and I'm happy that the information on that is in English as my Danish is as bad as your understanding of Dutch probably is. That LP also comes with a complete discography, so that I can place in time the music from that LP. And then there's also a pretty obscure CD called Party Time, that is out of print for quite a few years, and that comes with no information at all. Well I could lay my hands on that recently via Amazon.com. I'm afraid that's what you'll have to do with, only one original 78 for today as they are extremely rare, after all one of the things that make this group so obscure it that none of their releases sold anything. And that's a shame for such wonderful music. Listen to I'm the baby now, that was also on Coleman records, and I think you must agree.
02 - Ray-o-Vacs - I'm The Baby Now
03 - Ray-O-Vacs - Hot Dog
A bit unlike that typical Ray-O-Vacs sound - that was Hot Dog released on Coleman 112, and after Savoy had bought the masters, on their subsidiary Regent as number 1039 and that's what you heard it from.
In 1950, the group signed with Decca and it's again one of these unsolved mysteries how a group so unknown got a deal with a major record company, but Once upon a time that I'm going to play next was their first release for Decca, recorded in January, 1950. From the same session is What's Mine Is Mine that you will get after that - was their second Decca single.
04 - Ray-O-Vacs - Once Upon A Time
05 - Ray-o-Vacs - What's Mine Is Mine
(rocking dutchman jingle)
06 - Ray-O-Vacs - Besame Mucho
Now I must say that I never heard a better version of this Mexican-originated pop standard. Bésame Mucho means Kiss me much, and it was originally written in 1940 by the Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velasquez. The English translation by Sunny Skylar still kept the words of the title in Spanish.
On this version you hear that typical style of the saxophonist of the group, that became so much the trademark of the Ray-O -Vacs and I never managed to find out what his name was. That smoky voice is Lester Harris, who sang the lead until he left the group in 1952.
More stuff that they did on the 48000 "Race" series of Decca. Here is Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle from September, 1950.
07 - Ray-o-Vacs - Take Me Back To My Boots And Saddle
08 - Ray-O-Vacs - A Kiss In the Dark
A kiss in the dark - well you can't say they weren't productive in the studios of Decca. In five sessions between January, 1950 and October, 1951 they'd recorded 17 songs. So I'm going to play two more from Decca. First a song with the quirky title Let's and after that their cover of the pop standard When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano, that had been done so succesfully by the Ink Spots a year before.
10 - Ray-O-Vacs - Lets (Make With Some Love)
11 - Ray-O-Vacs - When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano
Now after two years of disappointing sales Decca called it quit and dropped the Ray-O-Vacs from their roster. Also, Lester Harris left the band and signed with RCA for a solo career, that would never come as he died just a few months later. Again, none of the sources that I could find on this group, tell me how he died, but he was only 33 years old. The Ray-O-Vacs signed with Jubilee and it's Herb Milliner who takes over the lead vocal.
By this time they play succesfully in two Philadelphia clubs and apparently also in other places, as in May 1953 the Pittsburgh Courier organizes a reader's poll where the Ray-O-Vacs are chosen as the best small combo - preferred before Paul Gayten and no-one less than Louis Jordan. This prize does make up a little for the disappointing sales of the group. The prestigious Gale agency signs the group to represent for live performances and they are one of the main features of the Operation Music Show that helps to benefit the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Record sales though are still very moderate. On Jubilee they record four sides, one of them I will play here. Listen to What can I say.
12 - Ray-O-Vacs - What Can I Say
13 - Ray-O-Vacs - Ridin' High
Riding High, their only instrumental came out on Jubilee's subsidiary Josie 763 and was recorded in New York in 1954. The flip is titled Darling, with Herb Milliner on lead.
14 - Ray-O-Vacs - Darling
15 - Ray-o-Vacs - All About Daddy
All about Daddy, on Josie 781 is perhaps the most mysterious take they did. First of all, who is the lady singing on there? The liner notes of that Danish LP say that she is unknown, still on the discography on that same sleeve some Babs Hallama is mentioned. But who is Babs Hallama? I never heard of her and neither does the all-knowing Google. Another source mentions Babe Hutton as the lead.
Then the record label credits Flap McQueen and the Ray-O-Vacs. Now Jackson "Flap" McQueen was the former bass player in the Pancho Diggs Orchestra from Newark, back in the thirties and early forties. During the war that big band folded - like so many of them - but *when* Flap joined the Ray-O-Vacs is another piece of the puzzle that is lost.
Next - I still love you, the other side of this record.
16 - Ray-O-Vacs - I Still Love You
17 - Ray-O-Vacs - Party Time
Party time - an apparent attempt to give a more rock 'n roll feeling and perhaps try to sell a few more records than they'd been used to. By that time they'd signed to the Kaiser label. Vocals were from Bill Walker this time. Now it didn't help them anymore. The rock 'n roll craze swept the nation and the Ray-O-Vacs' jive sound had become too old-fashioned, too much rooted in the forties. And so this became another forgotten song of a forgotten group.
Well for one thing you can say this group had a unique sound. The combination of the smoky voices of Lester Harris and later Herb Millinder with the typical style of the saxophone, they would do well in a crowded cafe where the air is blue of smoke. Their jive sound wasn't loud, it wasn't shouting, it wasn't rocking but it was absolutely cool. Some kind of effortlessly cool - and there were just very few groups in Rhythm & Blues who managed to excel in that. In some way you can compare them with the Four Blazes, a combo from Chicago who were just slightly more succesful than the Ray-O-Vacs. Both have in common that they were among the hottest bands around but their records just weren't in demand. The Four Blazes sound completely different from the Ray-O-Vacs but their common thing is that what I just called effortlessly cool.
There is another similarity between the groups and that is that a lot of their recorded music sounds alike. I deliberatly left out several of the Decca recordings, simply because they sound so much like the other ones. Decca must have understood that too, and gave them several pop standards to record - but they again sound like the Ray-O-Vacs and not like the pop standard. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that Decca tried to get more sales out of the band. My absolute favourite is and will always be Besame Mucho, simply because there's no song of them that so much sounds like the Ray-O-Vacs, but also because they still kept it the over-romantical song that it is.
Music of the Ray-O-Vacs is pretty difficult to obtain. That Danish LP, titled Besame Mucho somehow must have got a re-release on CD and two other CDs have been around: one titled Outside of Paradise and the other Party Time. All are long-time out of print, but still in limited amounts available through affiliates of Amazon.com, either new or used. And what's more, the numbers on the CDs have quite an overlap.
The Ray-O-Vacs weren't just one of the obscurest bands of the fifties, I must say it's pretty odd to name your group after a battery brand. That brand exists still today, and no, this episode was not sponsored by them. And it's funny to find out that more bands chose to take that name. Like a garage band from Los Angeles somewhere in the nineties that I found on a forgotten earthlink.net page. Or a 1994-formed, but now defunct rock band from Knoxville, TN, that advertises on the local website Metropulse.com as Knoxville's only surf-rock instrumental band, that dogmatically resists all temptations to take themselves too seriously - now there's a lesson for all of us in that.
And I wonder if they've been inspired by the existence of a group in the fifties with the same odd name or that they'd come up with the name themselves. If that's the case, we still have to wait for the Duracells and the Energizers to stand up.
18 - Ray-O-Vacs - Crying All Alone
19 - Ray-o-Vacs - Wine-O
And Wine-O from 1957 marks the end of another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman, that was dedicated to the Ray-O-Vacs. Before that you got Crying all alone. Both were released on the Kaiser label and Wine-O was their last release. The group disbanded that year and the members, for as far as we know them, disappeared off the radar.
I hope you liked the music and I guess you must agree that this group had a very own sound. If you want to let me know what you thought of it, or if you have questions, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail. The address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or visit me on the web, just do a google search on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and it will show up first. As for now, byebye and have a great day. No, have a rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!