Blast Off with Walt!

Nobel "Thin Man" Watts
Blast Off
Baton - 251
1958

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Apparently, Walt was a DJ at KJIM (Sherman, TX) and this was his theme song. I found this disc among a collection of radio promo discs, a lot of Atlantic stuff from the fifties/early sixties. I was intrigued by the grease pencil writing around the edge of the label. The other side is similarly marked, but says: NO over and over with a lot of X's. Pretty cool...

Mambo Baby

Jim Brown and the Four Bells
Mambo Baby

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This is an odd little number. It's a 7 inch 78, from Bell records. I've seen some of these Bell 7-inchers before and always thought they were kind of curious. Some of the later ones have color picture sleeves which feature some exceptionally great artwork, however the music is often rather lackluster. This one didn't come with a sleeve (that I know of) but when I played it I was surprised to find this nice, rollicking R&B tune. Very appealling... From 1954. For (much) more info on Bell Records go Here

Shootin' The Grease

Jesse Gresham Plus 3
Shootin' The Grease

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Wow, I don't know who the hell Jesse Gresham is and I've never seen the Head label before, but this is one seriously terrific track! This thing starts off strong and just keeps getting better and better as it goes along. Dig it!
p.s. the flipside is Robert Parker's "Barefootin'"

You Are So Rare!

The Three Haircuts
You Are So Rare to Me

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I first saw the above clip, from Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows," on some music documentary that was discussing the cultural impact of rock and roll. In it, Sid Caesar, Karl Reiner and Howard Morris do their impression of what they think rock and roll is about. I love this bit, it's a classic. When I recently found this 45 I was surprised to learn that RCA actually released the song as a single in 1955.

The Gaturs

The Gaturs
Cold Bear

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I'm not a big fan of Funk. As a rule, it just doesn't really do it for me. I generally prefer an earlier sound, but in the case of Willie Tee and the Gaturs, I can definitely make an exception. The Gaturs put out a total of 3 releases* (see comments) on 45. This one is by far the most affordable...

Charline Arthur

Charline Arthur
Honey Bun

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Henrietta, Texas born singer Charline Arthur was an early female rockabilly pioneer and an important figure on the the Big D Jamboree (Dallas' version of the Grand Ole Opry or Louisiana Hayride.) Here's an early cut from around '54, in a pretty straight forward country mode, but just listen to that growl...

Little Gary Ferguson

I first heard of Little Gary Ferguson on the excellent Bear Family DVD Series: The Beat!!!!
Available Here

On the video (from 1966) Gary appears to be about 8 or so and does his best attempt at a James Brown style stage act. A few years later this single was released and he appeared on a bill with Frank Zappa, the Count Five and others (see poster above.) After that, who knows? I can find very little info about him online. Anyway, this funky track, in kind of a Jackson 5 groove, is pretty cool with Gary singing (a little creepily perhaps) about loving those kisses and hugs from Mom! Check it out...
Little Gary Ferguson
A Mother's Love

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*edit* Okay, so upon further consideration, maybe I played down the creepiness of this song too much. Gary is singing in a very adult, sexual sounding way about loving his mother. Perhaps his handlers thought this would play off as cute, since he is a child, but something went wrong somewhere...

If you wouldn't mind...

See that little button over on the right side of your screen? The little one that says: Vote for Me? Give it a little click, if you would... Thanks

WVON LP Label Scan

I found this LP in pretty messed up condition and without a sleeve, but just couldn't resist this label. This is a comp of pretty straight forward doo wop and early R&B songs (like the one below) put out by legendary Chicago radio station WVON, which was owned by the Chess brothers. The faces around the edge are the on air personalities at that time. The Magnificent Montague, for some reason, has been punched out. For a full history of WVON (which is still on the air today), Go Here:

The Vibrations
The Watusi

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The Mighty Cobra

Little Girl
Little Willie Foster

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You just don't see a whole lot of 45s on the Cobra label (at least I don't). I was quite pleased to find this one in good condition...

Percy Mayfiled on Tangerine

Percy Mayfiled
My Jug and I

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Here's a nice single from 1966 by one of my favorite singers, Percy Mayfield. This was put out on Ray Charles' Tangerine Records and the material that he recorded there at least equaled, if not surpassed in quality, the sides he recorded for Specialty in the fifties. All of the Tangerine recordings were compiled on a terrific CD called "Percy Mayfied his Tangerine and Atlantic sides" which I believe is now out of print. The photo above shows Percy in the studio with Ray. His facial injury from a horrific car wreck a few years earlier is clearly visible. BTW, yes that is Ray Charles playing organ on this track...

The Valentinos

The Valentinos
Tired of Livin' in the Country

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From 1964 on Sam Cooke's SAR label. Sam wrote this one too and you can hear a little melodic similarity to his song "Another Saturday Night." The Valentinos featured future soul star Bobby Womack, who controversially married Sam's widow after his bizarre and untimely death. This is the flip of "It's All Over Now" which the Rolling Stones covered a bit later...
*edit - By the way, that skipping thing, where the beat slips? It's not the 45 skipping and it's not a digital glitch. I'm not sure what is going on there. If anyone else has a copy of this song, either on cd or vinyl, I'd be curious to know if this is a bad edit on the original master, or what?

Soulin' on... HBR?

Earl Gains
The Best of Luck to You

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I'm used to seeing cartoon soundtracks, bubblegum rock and garage on Hanna Barberra records, but was surprised to see this sweet, smoldering soul track from Earl Gaines. (the spelling on the label is a mis-print)

Barbara Lynn

Barbara Lynn
I'm a Good Woman

MP3 File
This one's in pretty rough shape, but the excellence still shines through. Released in '66 on Huey Meaux's Tribe label.