This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.
And this is show number 78 - that magical number and so today I'll play from 78's only. So you'll get your portion of cracks in the grooves and original shellac hiss, you knwo that authentic sound that spices up the music.
And I'll start with a vocal group recording from 1946 on the Apollo label. The story goes that lead tenor John Jordan lost his voice for the session in November and the producer succesfully restored it with a bottle of whisky - but the day after he remembered nothing of the session. Well anyhow - this doesn't sound too bad.
01 - Four Vagabonds - Hoe Cake Hominy and Sassafras Tea
02 - Johnny Otis feat. Little Esther - Double Crossing Blues
From 1949 Johnny Otis and his recent discovery Little Esther Phillips with the Double Crossing blues, taken from a pretty clean Savoy 78. Background vocals on this were the Robins, another group that Johnny Otis had brought to the spotlights.
Next from 1950 Billy Ward and his Dominoes with the Chicken Blues and that also is from a very smooth 78 - apart from a few odd pops at the start the sound is excellent. The copy actually still shines - where most 78s look greyish throught the years. The Chicken blues were the flip of Do Something For Me - the debut single of the Dominoes. On lead you hear bass singer Bill Brown.
03 - Dominoes - Chicken Blues
04 - Roy Milton - Blue Turning Grey Over You
Roy Milton with the jazz standard Blue Turning Grey Over You - a composition originally from 1929 and this little goodie was recorded on December 27 of 1947 - yes again a last-minute recording before the musicians recording strike of 1948. Still this remained on the shelf until 1952 when it was released both as a 78 and a 45.
From Roy Milton to the pianist of his band, Camille Howard. This is from 1950 and also on Specialty. Listen to her jazzy ballad Maybe It's Best After All.
05 - Camille Howard Trio - Maybe It's Best After All
06 - Hadda Brooks - Swingin' The Boogie
From Camille Howard to another female pianist - Hadda Brooks. Swinging the Boogie was that on the Modern label from 1945 and this has some more noise on it. There's a lucky thing for you that this show isn't live because on this, the needle kept on jumping back throughout the record, and I had a hard time editing the soundfile to repair that.
Recording a record damaged like that is a hassle too - you have to carefully guide the needle to go staight ahead instead of taking the right turn into the previous groove. But with 78s that is less difficult than with the microgroove vinyl records where grooves are much narrower and closer to each other - and groove skipping occurs much easier and more often.
I'm also under the impression that many 78s tend to have more hiss and noise on the outside of the record than on the inside. Well on this one that was pretty clear - initially Hadda Brooks had a hard time to get her piano sound over it. I thought it had something to do with the speed that the groove moves under the needle - as the number of turns per minute always is 78 that speed is much higher on the outside. And so I put the question on a mailing list of shellacophiles - titled ML-78-L - but the knowledgable members on there had no explaination and even said that my impression was wrong and the sound-to-noise ratio is the same overall.
Many people don't realize that all records with a constant number of revolutions per minute, have that effect that the speed the groove moves under the needle is much larger on the outside. When sound quality of records improved in the vinyl era, this was a serious challenge for the recording industry as the higher speed on the outside enabled much better frequency characteristics and better dynamics - the minimum and maximum volume - then on the inside.
The CD, on the other hand, had a technical requirement that the speed of the material under the laser was constant and with these discs the rotation speed is variable. My first CD player was a first-generation Philips and they were notorious for the problems they had with that constant adjusting of the speed. There has been a record type, back in the twenties, that used the same system of what they call constant linear velocity, and the record player had an ingenious system to constantly adapt the rotational speed.
Dit it ever occur to you, by the way, that 33 and 45 equals 78? 33 RPM records had been around since the early forties for radio transcriptions, and in 1948 Columbia introduced the microgroove 33 RPM long-playing 12 inch record. RCA followed in 1949 with the jukebox-friendly 7 inch microgroove record with the big hole in the middle, and some twisted mind there has set the speed of that on 45 RPM - the difference between 33 and 78.
Well - enough talk for the moment. From a Continental 78 from 1945 here is the great trumpeter and blues shouter Hot Lips Page with a hilarious song about his lazy woman with the lady in bed.
07 - Hot Lips Page - The Lady In Bed
08 - Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers - Last Night Blues
From 1947 off a 78 on the Exclusive label Joe Liggins and his Honeydrippers with the Last Night Blues. By then their monster hit the Honeydripper was two years old and they still were the major hit maker for Leon Rene's Exclusive label.
Next from 1945 Big Bill Broonzy with Oh Baby and that is on a 78 on the OKeh label.
09 - Big Bill Broonzy - Oh Baby
10 - Cab Calloway - Hep Cat's Love Song
Wartime swing of Cab Calloway on an OKeh record from 1941 - that was the Hepcat's Love Song. Now Cab Calloway was among the greats of swing, but could he ever imagine that over seventy years later there are still people enjoying his music still being played in obscure radio shows like mine? I sometimes wonder. Well we don't use the word hepcat anymore, those words were replaced for others, but what stayed is that musicians playing current, popular music always kept appealing to their fans and regarded as cool, and nowadays rappers have that same appeal as the hepcats of the forties.
Next a blues of Peppermint Harris on a Aladdin 78. It's You Yes It's You was released in 1951. Now his real name was Harrison Nelson Jr., the nickname Peppermint he had adopted himself, the surname Harris must have been a mistake of Bob Shad, the boss of the legendary Sittin' In With label, but it stayed throughout his career, and that went to 1995 when he cut an album titled Texas On My Mind after many years of inactivity in the music scene.
Listen to It's You Yes It's You.
11 - Peppermint Harris - It's You Yes It's You
12 - Johnny Moore's Three Blazers - Broken Hearted Traveler
The Broken Hearted Traveller - you heard the voice of Floyd Dixon in Johnny Moore's Three Blazers on a 78 on the Aladdin label from 1953. Charles Brown had left the trio and in this, you can hear how hard Dixon tries to keep the same style as Brown did. It's still a very own and mellow style of blues he does with Moore, but his voice is not as rich as Brown's I think.
Next from the afterdays of the 78, 1956, Little Walter with It ain't right on Checker. The 45 grew more and more popular over the heavy and cumbersome shellac ten-inchers. By 1958 most labels had stopped production of 78s and the 45 was the only format left. In Europe 78s were produced until about 1960, while in some developing countries the format remained available until the mid-sixties to meet the demand of owners of old record players that they couldn't afford exchanging for a modern leight-weight pick-up, as the modern phonograph players were called.
Listen to Little Walter.
13 - Little Walter - It Ain't Right 78 rpm!
(jingle)
14 - Savannah Churchill - Shake A Hand
15 - Amos Milburn - Roomin' House Boogie
Three in a row - after Little Walter and the jingle you got a pretty noisy Shake A Hand on a Decca 78 from 1953 - Savannah Churchill's cover of the monster hit of Faye Adams earlier that year. And once more I had to edit out some backwards skipping grooves. And last was the Rooming House Boogie of Amos Milburn and that was on Aladdin from 1949.
Well there's still time to squeeze in two more if I don't talk too much. So the first one of them will be on the Savoy label from 1951 Varetta Dillard with Them There Eyes.
16 - Varetta Dillard - Them There Eyes
17 - Mel Williams - Hurry Home To Me
And Mel Williams from 1955 on the Federal label ends today's show. Hurry Home To Me was that and that big sounding band was the orchestra of trumpeter Gerald Wilson. And well it's been somewhat a scratchy show today but you know that here on the Legends of the Rockimg Dutchman some shellac hiss, well that don't scare me off.
I hope you liked what I played and of course you can let me know, send all your feedback to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And if you want to re-read what I told you today or see what's on next week, you can go to my website - just do a google search for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman and my site will show up first.
Well - for this week I can put that old Garrard turntable away. You have a rocking day and I hope to see you next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman!