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, for today a selection of rocking fifties and great stories, and I want to start with one of them. We go back to the year 1951 when a young woman by the name of Mary Jo went up to Alaska with the sole purpose of to melt the snow. She'd probably been forgotten if the Four Blazes didn't make a song on her lovemaking talents and that song hit number one on the R&B chart in 1952. And that'll be my first tune for today.
01 Four Blazes - Mary Jo - United 114 1952
02 Hadda Brooks - Jump Back Honey Jump Back - Okeh 6924 1952
From the Okeh label in 1952 Hadda Brooks with a great jump blues, Jump Back Honey Jump Back and I happen to know a completely different song by the same title from somewhat later in the fifties. Here's the pretty obscure group the Four Flares with Jump Back Honey.
03 - Four Flares - Jump Back Honey
04 - Premiers - The Trap Of Love - Fortune 527 1957
A very imaginable song, the girl back there, she's the trap of love. You heard the premiers, from 1957. Next Clara Streat with the Holey Boogie - holey not in the sense of sacred, but with holes in it.
06 Clara Streat - Holey Boogie - SMR Starmaker
08 Dolly Cooper - Tell Me, Tell Me - Dot 15535 1957
Dolly Cooper, one of these forgotten women of the Rock 'n Roll or late R&B era, a pretty lady with a remarkable appearance. She had a few releases in the mid-fifties that weren't very succesful until she disappeared back in the unknown at the end of the decade.
Next Ann Cole's I got my mojo working from 1956 - it's probably better known by blues legend Muddy Waters. Ann Cole cut it first at Baton records but had not yet released it, and on a tour Muddy Waters got to hear it and recorded his own version. By coincidence, the two were released the same week and were listed together in the R&B charts, on #3 for Ann and #7 for Muddy Waters.
08 Ann Cole - Got My Mojo Working - Baton 1956
09 - Ruth Brown - A New Love - Atlantic 1166 1957
The great Ruth Brown with A new love. From 1949 to 1955 she had 16 top ten hits including 5 #1 hits on the Billboard R&B list and with that she helped establish Atlantic records and make it one of the major independent labels of the fifties. Atlantic manager Ahmet Ertegun must have foreseen her potential, because on her way to audition for Atlantic she had a severe car accident and Atlantic paid for her expenses until she'd recovered again.
Next Little Willie John who was the singer of many classics in R&B, including Fever, Need your love so bad, Talk to me and Leave my kitten alone, all of them covered by other artists that made even bigger hits of them than he did. He had a short career; in 1964 he was convicted of manslaughter and he died in prison in 1968 under suspicious circumstances, at the age of 41. After that Anita Tucker with A Million Thanks from 1954.
10 - little willie john - look what you've done to me - King 5045 1957
11 - Anita Tucker - A Million Thanks - Guyden 602 1954
(rocking dutchman jingle)
Imagine yourself back in time. A fifties dance hall, full of dancing teenagers, called the Rocket Room. Somewhere in the crowd, you are dancing to the rock 'n roll with your high-octane, supersonic date. Suddenly the mood of the music changes, not the beat, just the mood. You cannot help but kiss your partner, and everything around you vanishes, you are lifted up straight to the moon. Just for the moment, until the music takes off again. You know - that happens when you're rocking in the rocking room.
12 Larks - Rockin' In The Rocket Room - Lloyds 1954
Rocking in the Rocket Room, you heard the Larks and I can't get enough of that minor key middle of this song where all the vocal tricks are exposed to create that sudden change in atmosphere that I just told you about.
What can you play after that? Only something completely different. Big Mama Thornton, the famous blues shouting woman that we know from her immortal original version of Hound Dog. Here's a similar rough one - Stop-A-Hoppin' On Me.
13 - Big Mama Thornton - Stop-A-Hoppin' On Me - Peacock 1954
14 - Little Sylvia Vanderpool & Mickey Baker & His Band - Fine Love - Cat 102 1954
Little Sylvia Vanderpool on the Atlantic subsidiary Cat from 1954 and it's Mickey Baker playing the guitar on this, the Mickey Baker that later she did the famous duo Mickey and Sylvia. Sylvia Vanderpool remained active in the music business for a long time, with a disco classic Pillow Talk and later by founding Sugar Hill and Bon Ami records, both pioneering in funk and hiphop.
Next Wynona Carr - one of those singers that never got a real recognition of their talent. After a few years of recording gospels that weren't overall succesful, she began doing R&B in 1955 for the Specialty label and had a few minor hits. After she got tuberculosis two years later, her career was effectively over. This is from 1956, listen to Till the well runs dry.
15 - Wynona Carr - Till The Well Runs Dry - Specialty 1956
16 - Four Blazes - Rug Cutter - United 1122 1952
From 1952 on the United label, The Rug Cutter, a song originally from Duke Ellington and we heard the Chicago based Four Blazes once again and they left the bass solo in it that was so typical for Ellington's music.
We'll make the jump back to the end of the decade, when Rock 'n Roll swept the nation and another typical change was that the audience for the music changed from adults to teenagers, and so were especially the members of the vocal groups. The gritty subjects of the blues had changed into light-hearted teenage love songs and one of the new stars was the teenage group the Six Teens. Lead singer Trudy Williams was only 12 years old when she joined the group and must be forteen or fifteen on this recording. Listen to Love's A Funny That way, from 1958 on the Flip label.
17 Six Teens - Love's A Funny That Way - Flip 1958
18 Naomi Caryl - If - Ember 1006 1956
And another typical teenage sound - Naomi Caryl with a song by the short title of If, on the Ember label from 1956.
Not just the Rock 'n Roll was raging, but also the soul era knocked on the door and that brings us new names again. One of them was Donnie Elbert who had a pretty unique hard counter tenor that he did songs with that, well at least, were remembered when played on the radio. From 1958 this is on the DeLuxe label, Believe it or not.
19 Donnie Elbert - Believe It or Not - DeLuxe 1958
20 Carol Blades - When Will I Know - Gee 1029 1957
On the Gee label Carol Blades with When Will I Know from 1957 and I can't help but mix this song up with Why Do Fools Fall In Love that was a hit for the Anita Humes and the Essex much later in the sixties.
Well I still got time for two more - one other thing that I think remarkable is that the songs were so much shorter in the late fifties than they were in the forties and early fifties. At least I never managed to squeeze 22 songs in one hour before. Here is Hank Ballard and his Midnighters with We'll never meet again on the Federal label from 1955.
21 Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - We'll Never Meet Again - Federal 12243 1955
22 Orioles - Dem Days (Are Gone Forever) - Jubilee 5115 1953
And with Dem days are gone forever, a very gospel influenced song of the Orioles we end this episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman where I mixed rocking fifties songs with some remarkable stories. I hope you liked them and as usual you are invited to give feedback on this show by email, the address is rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. Or find me on the web, it's easiest to do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first. As for now, time's up so byebye, and have a real rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!