The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 31

The Rhythm & Blues Chart

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, top legends, because today I'll bring you the number one hits of 1948 and 1949, two very important years in the development of Rhythm & Blues and the making of Rock 'n Roll, and I start off where I left you last time, that was in October, 2 of 1948 with Hal Singer's Corn Bread. So the number one of the 9th of that month was Dinah Washington. She made it only one week on the top of the Race Records list, with her ballad Am I asking too much.

01 - Dinah Washington - Am I Asking Too Much
02 - Pee wee Crayton - Blues After Hours

Peewee Crayton with the Blues after hours off the Modern label topped the list on November, 6 for three weeks. There are several stories how Connie Curtis Crayton got his nickname PeeWee, the most heard is the version that he gave in Living Blues magazine, where he stated that Roy Brown gave him that moniker, but there's also a version of the story where he got the nick from his father after a local piano player. The late forties were Crayton's most succesful period. In the fifties he was the first blues guitarist playing the Fender Stratocaster.

I go on with a typical Orioles ballad, It's too soon to know. Listen to the voice of notorious womanizer Sonny Til with his first number 1 hit, on November 27, It's too soon to know. Here are the Orioles.

03 - Orioles - It's Too Soon To Know
04 - Amos Milburn - Chicken Shack Boogie

And that was Amos Milburn with the Chicken Shack Boogie and that was most played in juke boxes on December, 3, where best sold record was the Red Miller trio with Bewildered. Like I told you, Billboard kept two lists of race records by then, and I use the wikipedia list of number ones, that actually merges these two, and that's how one date can have two number ones. So let's listen to that other one - here is the Red Miller Trio with Bewildered.

05 - Red Miller Trio - Bewildered
06 - Roy Brown - 'Long About Midnight

From the Deluxe label tht was Roy Brown with Long about Midnight, a classic blues that peaked the Race music list for one week on December, 18.

On Christmas day of 1948 we find another version of Bewildered on number one, again the great Amos Milburn. Here is Bewildered, that made it three weeks on the top of the chart.

07 - Amos Milburn - Bewildered
08 - John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen

John Lee Hooker with Boogie Chillen that peaked number one on February, 19 as most played in juke boxes, for one week. That means that it never got to most sold record on Billboard's list, because on that particular day that was Big Jay McNeely with the Deacon's Hop. Despite that, Boogie Chillen has become an influential blues covered by many artists and one of Led Zeppelin's greatest hits, Whole Lotta Love, was based on this song.

Now it was recorded in John Lee Hooker's hometown Detroit, where he'd moved in 1943, but producer Bernard Besman leased it to Modern records of Hollywood, where he saw more potential for making it a hit - and he proved to be right.

Let's go to that other number one of February, 19, the most sold one. Here is Big Jay McNeely with the Deacon's Hop.

09 - Big Jay McNeely - Deacon's Hop
10 - Paul Williams - The Hucklebuck

The master of all dance craze songs - the Hucklebuck. That was Paul Williams and here we have another influential blues that lasted way into the rock 'n roll era. Now this was an instrumental but the numerous covers were vocaleses, they had lyrics over the main melody line that told people how to do the Hucklebuck.

The Hucklebuck peaked #1 on May, 5 and kept that position on and off for a total of 14 weeks, together with Charles Brown and his trio that led the list for 15 weeks from June, 4. Listen to the Trouble Blues.

11 - Charles Brown - Trouble Blues
12 - Jimmy Witherspoon - Ain't Nobody's Business

Jimmy Witherspoon with his version of Ain't Nobody's Business - a song originally from the early twenties when Anna Meyer and the Original Memphis Five recorded it. By then it was popular in the black vaudeville circuit and through the years everyone who sung it seems to have altered the lyrics.

Jimmy Witherspoon peaked the list of Rhythm & Blues records - as the list was called since June of that year - on August, 20.

From September 10 it was Amos Milburn again peaking the hit parade with the Roomin' House Boogie

13 - Amos Milburn - Roomin' House Boogie
14 - Wynonie Harris - All She Wants To Do Is Rock

Wynonie Harris successfully tried to cash again on his great success Good Rocking Tonight and the recent dance craze the Hucklebuck, with this sequel All She Wants To Do Is Rock. Now unlike the original, it's clear that this is about his gal is exhausting him with sex: all she wants to do is stay at home and hucklebuck with daddy all night long. When it comes to loving she knows what it's all about, and the way she hucklebucks knocks me out. Instead in Good Rocking tonight, no refereces to any lovemaking is made, and in the end of that song a party is thrown where Elder Brown, Deacon Jones, Sweet Lorraine, Sioux City Sue, Sweet Georgia Brown and Caldonia will show up - so I assume that they meant a dancing party. Well the dirty blues sure weren't new to Wynonie Harris.

All She Wants To Do Is Rock was most played in juke boxes from September, 17. Listed for the same date as most sold in retail were the Orioles with Tell me so.

15 - Orioles - Tell Me So
16 - Dinah Washington - Baby Get Lost
17 - Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five - Beans and Cornbread

And Beans and Cornbread mark the end of another episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. They went hand in hand on number one on October, 8 on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues list, that was Louis Jordan of course, and before you heard the queen of the blues, Dinah Washington who peaked the list for two weeks from September, 24 with Baby get lost. And that is where I'll have to leave you, in the fall of 1949, and in a few weeks we'll end the decade and go into the fifties with another parade of number ones.

Now these were the key years of Rhythm & Blues, writing history and laying the foundation for Rock 'n Roll that was to come within a few years. And I hope you agree you can't possibly get them hotter than today, so let me know what you think of the music and this program. Send me an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com or find me on the web, just google after the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my web site will show up first in the search results. I said what I had to say and played the music that I had to play, so byebye, and have a real rocking day. See you next time on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!