The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 90

Girls talk

This transcript of the radio show is an approximation of what I said in the show. The real spoken parts may differ slightly.

Girls talk for today - all female lead singers shouting the blues. Hot mamas, rockin' gals and slick chicks on the menu and to start with the latter as an appatizer. Cause maybe the slickest of 'em all was Dinah Washington with her double entendre blues. Here she is with a song titled Slick Chick.

01 - Dinah Washington - A Slick Chick
02 - Big Mama Thornton - They Call Me Big Mama

Big Mama Thornton and she's being backed up by Kansas City Bill and his band. They Call Me Big Mama was released on the Peacock label and we're talking somewhere 1953 now. The track was included on a 4 CD box titled Fine Brown Gal and I made a small selection from that collection for todays episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.

Next one is from 1945. I've Got Big Bulgin' Eyes For You was recorded in 1945 for the Queen label - then the R&B subsidiary of the King label. Queen was soon to be discontinued and the black artists went to the main label that up to then only had "hillbilly" on it - nowadays we'd say country & western. By the way, in 1945 no-one heard of Rhythm & Blues either - the term was coined in 1948 by Billboard magazine boss Jerry Wexler who'd later got involved in Atlantic records. Before the African-American music was named Race music.

As for Annisteen Allen, these recordings from 1945 were backed up by Bull Moose Jackson and his band but the label billed Annisteen Allen and her Home Town Boys.

Listen to I've Got Big Bulgin' Eyes For You.

03 - Annisteen Allen - I've Got Big Bulgin' Eyes For You
04 - Albinia Jones - What's The Matter With Me

(jingle)

05 - Little Esther - Sit Back Down
06 - Dorothy Ellis - Drill Daddy, Drill

Dorothy Ellis with a nice dirty blues - Drill Daddy Drill and that was from 1952 on the Federal label. Before that Little Esther Phillips with Sit Back Down and that was from 1954 for the short while that she recorded for Decca. And then there was this song before the jingle - you got Albinia Jones with What's The Matter With Me.

Next a lady who got caught in obscurity due to her untimely death in 1952 and the troubles of a small Chicago record label in 1948, the year of the recording ban of the American Federation of Musicians. I'm talking about Kitty Stevenson, who was the favoured singer of Todd Rhodes for a few years. Most of their earlier recordings for the Vitacoustic label remained unreleased due to bankruptcy of the label and some eventually were released on the Chance label when the jump blues style had gone out of fashion, or they saw daylight on a Japanese album in the seventies. This though, was recorded in 1951 for King, still with Todd Rhodes and his band.

Here is Kitty Stevens with Good Man.

07 - Kitty Stevenson - Good Man
08 - Julia Lee - A Porter's Lovesong To A Chamber Maid

A Porter's Lovesong To A Chamber Maid - and with that Julia Lee covered a classic written by James P. Johnson from the twenties. A song a bit out of her usual repertoire that consitsted mainly of double entendre blues or as she used to say "the songs that my mother taught me not to sing".

Next Terry Timmons with He's The Best In The Business and that was released in early '53 on RCA Victor.

09 - Terry Timmons - He's The Best In The Business
10 - Ella Johnson - Till My Baby Comes Back

Definitely one of my favourite female singers. Ella Johnson backed up by the orchestra of her brother Buddy, as always. She joined her brother's band in the late thirties and she stayed with him until in the sixties. Now people often compare her with Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald but I think they're doing her wrong with that. She has a vulnerable and utterly sexy voice and in that she outdoes both of them in her own style - Holiday and Fitzgerald each have other qualities.

Till my baby comes back was recorded in December of 1951 for Decca on their main popular series among the greatest of the era. And I think this orchestra that was steady throughout more than three decades deserves that place.

Next Blue Lu Barker - born Louise Dupont in New Orleans with Here's a little girl from Jacksonville, and that was written by her husband Danny Barker and released on Capitol in 1948. Well let's give it a spin.

11 - Blue Lu Barker - Here's A Little Girl
12 - Mabel Scott - Baseball Boogie

From 1950 on the King label Mabel Scott with the Baseball Boogie. On the piano you hear her husband, the great blues singer Charles Brown in a style very different from what we know him from. This is an uplifting boogie woogie that contrast very much to the mellow blues he did for himself. Scott was married to him only for three years from 1949. After her divorce she quit Rhythm & Blues and returned to how she began her music career, in gospel. There are no recordings of her fifties gospels - she only did them in church.

Next Erline Harris and she was one of these Rhythm & Blues artists who helped define Rock 'n Roll in that short craze of the late forties where the words rock and roll were in every jump blues. For the DeLuxe label she recorded Rock and Roll Blues and Jump and Shout and these two nowadays are regarded as important pre-Rock 'n Roll forerunners.

She later switched to the Chess label but the song I Never Missed My Baby appear in the discographies of neither of them so I guess it went unreleased by the time. Here is Erline Harris.

13 - Erline Harris - I Never Missed My Baby
14 - Alma Mondy - Baby Get Wise

Alma Mondy nicknamed the Lollypop Mama and you heard Baby Get Wise and she recorded that for the Mercury label in August of 1949. The instrumental backup is done by George Miller and his band the Mid-Driffs.

And I continue with Marie Adams and this lady did quite a few releases for the Peacock label in her hometown Houston before she teamed up with Johnny Otis in his Johnny Otis Show in 1957. This is from her time with Peacock, from 1954. Listen to I'm Gonna Latch On.

15 - Marie Adams - I'm Gonna Latch On
16 - Zilla Mays - Nightshift Blues

Zilla Mays on the Brunswick label from 1953 and you heard the Nightshift Blues. And there's still time for even three more so let's not waste time talking. Here's Mitzi Mars backed up by Sax Mallard and his band with I'm Glad and that's from 1953 on Checker.

17 - Mitzi Mars - I'm Glad
18 - Cherri Lynn - Your Money Ain't Long Enough
19 - Camille Howard - Try Try Again

Now I don't often squeeze 19 songs in an hour so I guess I did well restraining myself on the talking today. It was Camille Howard who closed today's episode of the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman with Try Try again and before that you got Cherri Lynn Smith with Your Money Ain't Long Enough and that was from 1954 on the New York based Apollo label.

Well I hope you liked today's ladies and if you want more of 'em, there's that four CD box out there that I made this little selection from, titled Fine Brown Sugar and that is on the Documents label from 2005. Well it made its way to my CD cabinet and it was definitely worthwile to get it. Some vendors say it's out of print but I had no difficulty obtaining it.

I hope you liked today's selection - of course you can let me know if you want to, send me an e-mail to rockingdutchman@rocketmail.com. And on my web site you can read back what I told you today or see what's on for next week. The easiest way to get there is by searching Google for the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman.

Well for now my time's up and it would be nice if you join me next time, here on the Legends of the Rocking Dutchman. Have a rocking day.