Fantastic Oldies Game!

[AlexBrowne]

Thanks GLB, and happy holidays to all from the frozen Midwest. I'll be off the board for a few days while we visit family on the East Coast, but I'll leave you with this one with a Christmas theme and an R&B beat...

"White Christmas" is, indeed, one of the most recorded songs in music history, but you'd be hard-pressed to realize that if you listen to all-Christmas music radio stations where Bing Crosby rules with his 1942 original; not to take anything away from der Bingle, but I was delighted to hear, on my way home tonight, the wonderful version by The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter and Bill Pinckney which was recorded in 1953, a big hit on the R&B chart in 1954, and first appeared on the pop charts in 1955 -- it was the first charted hit for The Drifters in the rock era (their "Honey Love" had charted in 1954 in the pre-rock era).

Happy holidays, everyone!

 

[GridLeakBias]

Thanks GLB, and happy holidays to all from the frozen Midwest. I'll be off the board for a few days while we visit family on the East Coast, but I'll leave you with this one with a Christmas theme and an R&B beat...

"White Christmas" is, indeed, one of the most recorded songs in music history, but you'd be hard-pressed to realize that if you listen to all-Christmas music radio stations where Bing Crosby rules with his 1942 original; not to take anything away from der Bingle, but I was delighted to hear, on my way home tonight, the wonderful version by The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter and Bill Pinckney which was recorded in 1953, a big hit on the R&B chart in 1954, and first appeared on the pop charts in 1955 -- it was the first charted hit for The Drifters in the rock era (their "Honey Love" had charted in 1954 in the pre-rock era).

Happy holidays, everyone!

Bill Doggett was with the legendary Inkspots for two years in the early 40s, during which time he became the groups arranger and pianist. He stayed with the group two years during which time he recorded five singles with them. After stints with Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald and Lionel Hampton, Doggett joined with Louis Jordan and was a featured performer on many of Jordan's classic Decca recordings including "Saturday Night Fish Fry' and "Blue Light Boogie." The 50s came, Bill Doggett formed his own trio, and he recorded successful R&R/R&B instrumentals with “Honky Tonk” (Parts 1 & 2), "Ram-Bunk-Shush", "Leaps and Bounds", and "Slow Walk”.

 

[amfmsw]

OK, This one's a stretch.

The bankrupt Lionel Trains was rescued and reformed by Neil Young (CSN&Y). It was a hobby that he could share with his handicapped son...electric trains. When he could no longer get the toys for their hobby, he purchased the company and resurrected it. It seems he really did have a "Heart Of Gold".

 

[AlexBrowne]

Before they formed MFSB and gave us the #1 "TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)," a group of top Philadelphia studio musicians got together in 1969 to record the instrumental "Keem-O-Sabe," which peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100; the group called themselves The Electric Indian.

 

[GridLeakBias]

Before they formed MFSB and gave us the #1 "TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)," a group of top Philadelphia studio musicians got together in 1969 to record the instrumental "Keem-O-Sabe," which peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100; the group called themselves The Electric Indian.

A real cowboy, born and raised in Arizona, Rex Allen became a popular entertainer in country music in the late 40s, and as a singing cowboy in nineteen Hollywood western movies beginning in 1950. Over his career, Rex Allen wrote and recorded many songs, a number of which were featured in his own films. One of Allen's most successful singles was "Don't Go Near the Indians," which reached the top 5 of Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart in November 1962.

 

[AlexBrowne]

Hank Williams' backing band on his great hits of the late 40s and early 50s -- including "Lovesick Blues," "Cold, Cold Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)," "Kaw-Liga," and "Your Cheatin' Heart" -- was His Drifting Cowboys; the group went through several lineups, but among the better known members were fiddler Jerry "Burrhead" Rivers, steel guitarist Don Helms (who later led the band for Hank's daughter Jett Williams), guitarist Clent Homes, accordianist Pee Wee Moultrie, bassist Herbert "Lum" York, guitarist Joe Pennington, and guitarist Hillous Butrum.

 

[GridLeakBias]

Hank Williams' backing band on his great hits of the late 40s and early 50s -- including "Lovesick Blues," "Cold, Cold Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)," "Kaw-Liga," and "Your Cheatin' Heart" -- was His Drifting Cowboys; the group went through several lineups, but among the better known members were fiddler Jerry "Burrhead" Rivers, steel guitarist Don Helms (who later led the band for Hank's daughter Jett Williams), guitarist Clent Homes, accordianist Pee Wee Moultrie, bassist Herbert "Lum" York, guitarist Joe Pennington, and guitarist Hillous Butrum.

Don Helms, a living legend in the steel guitar world, passed away in Nashville August 8, 2008 at the age of 81, after having played steel guitar professionally for more than 63 years. He got his start at age 17 (circa 1944) playing an 8-string double-neck non-pedal Gibson, backing up-and-coming star Hank Williams. As history notes, Helms' steel playing became the distinctive signature sound on all of the Williams hits of the 50s. In the years after Hank Williams, Helms would go on to record with some of the greatest Country/Western artists, including but not limited to, Ray Price, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Jim Reeves, Webb Pierce, Ferlin Husky, Johnny Cash, and even…Hank Williams, Jr.

The next time you listen to the Patsy Cline recording of “Walkin’ After Midnight” listen closely, that’s Don Helms doing the intro and turnaround.

At the time of his death, Don Helms was the last living member of the Hank Williams band, The Drifting Cowboys. Helms was voted into the Steel Guitar Hall Of Fame in 1984.

 

[AlexBrowne]

The country singer Bobby Helms is best known for his Christmas classic "Jingle Bell Rock" and his only top 10 song on the pop chart, "My Special Angel"; "My Special Angel" was a #1 country hit in 1957 as was his first single to chart, "Fraulein" -- which had the additional distinction of remaining on Billboard's country chart for 52 weeks!

 

[GridLeakBias]

The country singer Bobby Helms is best known for his Christmas classic "Jingle Bell Rock" and his only top 10 song on the pop chart, "My Special Angel"; "My Special Angel" was a #1 country hit in 1957 as was his first single to chart, "Fraulein" -- which had the additional distinction of remaining on Billboard's country chart for 52 weeks!

The Crests, a racially integrated group out of New York, with Johnny Mastrangelo (later shortened to Maestro)as lead vocalist had a number of Top 40 hits in the late 50s, including "Sixteen Candles" ( Hot 100 #2 in 1958), "Step By Step", "The Angels Listened In" and “Six Nights A Week”.

 

[AlexBrowne]

The late Harry Nilsson first came to the public's attention (on record labels just using his last name) in 1969 with his Top 10 single "Everybody's Talkin'," the theme song from the movie Midnight Cowboy, and then "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City," a song written for but not used in the same film; a close friend of the Beatles, in addition to his own hits in the 1970s, he also contributed backing vocals to two of Ringo Starr's hits, "You're Sixteen" and "No No Song."

 

[GridLeakBias]

The late Harry Nilsson first came to the public's attention (on record labels just using his last name) in 1969 with his Top 10 single "Everybody's Talkin'," the theme song from the movie Midnight Cowboy, and then "I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City," a song written for but not used in the same film; a close friend of the Beatles, in addition to his own hits in the 1970s, he also contributed backing vocals to two of Ringo Starr's hits, "You're Sixteen" and "No No Song."

Harry Belafonte, Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist popularized the Caribbean musical style in the 1950s. His first wide-release single, which went on to become his "signature" song with audience participation in virtually all his live performances, was "Matilda," recorded April 27, 1953. Belafonte is perhaps best known for his #5 Pop hit, "Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O”.

I first saw Belafonte in the 1957 screen production of "Island In The Sun". My memory tells me the movie soundtrack contained the "Banana Boat Song", but I'm unsure. Anyone know?

 

[AlexBrowne]

After having a string of modest hits in the late 1950s -- including "A Very Special Love" and "The Teen Commandments" (a spoken recording with fellow ABC-Paramount artists Paul Anka and Geo. Hamilton IV) -- and then disappearing from the charts, native Houstonian Johnny Nash travelled to Jamaica in the late 1960s, where he signed reggae singers Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh to his JAD record label; although their JAD singles were not successful, Nash, himself, recorded some of Marley's songs (reportedly the first non-Jamaican to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica), and had a #1 reggae-sounding hit of his own in 1972, "I Can See Clearly Now," backed by Marley's group, The Wailers.

Sorry I can't answer your question, GLB, about Island in the Sun.

 

[GridLeakBias]

After having a string of modest hits in the late 1950s -- including "A Very Special Love" and "The Teen Commandments" (a spoken recording with fellow ABC-Paramount artists Paul Anka and Geo. Hamilton IV) -- and then disappearing from the charts, native Houstonian Johnny Nash travelled to Jamaica in the late 1960s, where he signed reggae singers Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh to his JAD record label; although their JAD singles were not successful, Nash, himself, recorded some of Marley's songs (reportedly the first non-Jamaican to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica), and had a #1 reggae-sounding hit of his own in 1972, "I Can See Clearly Now," backed by Marley's group, The Wailers.

"Eddie My Love" (RPM 453), a ballad by the Teen Queens, peaked at #14 on the pop charts in March 1956, despite pop covers by the Chordettes, and the Fontaine Sisters -- all three cracked the pop Top 20 the same year.

RPM had two releases of this single, one on their black label and one on their red label. A copy of the single on the red label is currently valued at about four times that of the black label.

 

[AlexBrowne]

In his 1972 song "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard," Paul Simon, who grew up in Queens, New York, sings about "Rosie, the Queen of Corona" (Corona is a neighborhood in Queens); Simon has said that Rosie is fictional -- in fact, there is no "Queen" of Corona, but there is a "king": a well-known stop for refreshment on a summer day, the Lemon Ice King of Corona on 108th Street!

 

[GridLeakBias]

In his 1972 song "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard," Paul Simon, who grew up in Queens, New York, sings about "Rosie, the Queen of Corona" (Corona is a neighborhood in Queens); Simon has said that Rosie is fictional -- in fact, there is no "Queen" of Corona, but there is a "king": a well-known stop for refreshment on a summer day, the Lemon Ice King of Corona on 108th Street!

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an influential blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues. Jefferson had an intricate and fast style of guitar playing, and he was an important influence on other blues singers and guitarists, including Lead Belly, Lightnin' Hopkins and B.B. King. Jefferson was the author of many tunes covered by later musicians, including the classic "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", covered in 1962 by Bob Dylan on his eponymous debut album Bob Dylan. Another of Jefferson’s tunes, "Matchbox Blues", was recorded more than 30 years later by the Beatles in a rockabilly version credited to Carl Perkins, who himself did not credit Jefferson on his 1955 recording entitled simply, “Matchbox”.

 

[AlexBrowne]

According to one of its original band members, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, the Jefferson Airplane, the psychedelic rock group from San Francisco, adopted part of its name as a tribute to blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson; but others note that the term "Jefferson airplane" is slang for a used paper match split to hold a marijuana joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the hands -- basically an improvised roach clip.

 

[GridLeakBias]

According to one of its original band members, guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, the Jefferson Airplane, the psychedelic rock group from San Francisco, adopted part of its name as a tribute to blues pioneer Blind Lemon Jefferson; but others note that the term "Jefferson airplane" is slang for a used paper match split to hold a marijuana joint that has been smoked too short to hold without burning the hands -- basically an improvised roach clip.

Eric Clapton, British blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Yardbirds, the short-lived supergroup Cream, and as a solo performer. Clapton varied his musical style throughout his career but remained grounded in the blues. In spite of this focus, he is credited as an innovator in a wide variety of genres, including blues-rock and psychedelic rock. One of his most successful recordings was the hit love song "Layla," which he played with the band Derek and the Dominos. Clapton had his best years as a soloist with his memorable 1970s recordings of “After Midnight”, “I Shot The Sheriff”, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "Lay Down Sally", and "Wonderful Tonight".

Clapton favored Fender guitars during his career, and his 1956/57 Fender Stratocaster, “Blackie”, was his favorite until it was retired in 1985. In 2004, Clapton sold "Blackie" at Christie's Auction House, New York for $959,500 to raise funds for his Crossroads Centre for drug and alcohol addictions. Another moment involving Clapton's guitars resulted in the world-wide chain of Hard Rock Café's unique and gigantic collection of memorabilia. In 1971, Clapton, a regular at the original Hard Rock Café in Hyde Park, London, gave a signed guitar to the café to designate his favorite bar stool. Pete Townshend, in turn, donated one of his own guitars, with a note attached: "Mine's as good as his! Love, Pete." From there, the collection of memorabilia grew, resulting in Hard Rock Café's atmosphere.

 

[AlexBrowne]

The Swingin' Medallions, an eight-man rock band from Greenwood, South Carolina, are best known for their one moderately successful single "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", which was originally released on the 4 Sale label in 1965, but charted as a re-release on Smash in 1966.

 

[GridLeakBias]

The Swingin' Medallions, an eight-man rock band from Greenwood, South Carolina, are best known for their one moderately successful single "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", which was originally released on the 4 Sale label in 1965, but charted as a re-release on Smash in 1966.

Composer-conductor-arranger Bert Kaempfert created a sensation in the 60s with the million selling hit recording of the hauntingly beautiful “Wonderland By Night”, followed by a bright succession of original Kaempfert hits, including “ African Beat”, “Swingin Safari”, and “That Happy Feeling”, a big band sound with brilliant trumpet passages and beautiful intrusions of massed strings.

 

[AlexBrowne]

Muppet creator Jim Henson's characters (with Henson's voice) recorded two popular tunes that charted as singles in the 1970s, "Rubber Duckie" by Ernie (the Sesame Street sidekick of Bert) and "Rainbow Connection" by Kermit (from the original soundtrack of The Muppet Movie).