I have this tape called Television’s Greatest Hits and it disappointed me
when I got it because of The Beverly Hillbillies. See this is a long story. Flatt & Scruggs did “The Ballad Of Jed Clampett” and that was used as the theme for the TV show and the singer’s name was Jerry Scoggin. I always thought that it was Jed Clampett himself, but not so. It was Jerry Scoggin, whose greatest accomplishment was undoubtedly his recording of the Ballad Of Jed Clampett. Columbia put the record out as a single, and it appeared on the Flatt & Scruggs album Hard Travelin’ Featuring The Ballad Of Jed Clampett. But the singer on the record wasn’t Scoggin, it was Scruggs, (or Flatt I’m not sure which), and listen to Television’s Greatest Hits and you hear the songs as heard on the record, not as heard on TV. So that’s why I was disappointed.So Rhino had an album of TV themes, a different collection entirely, and nothing much of interest, but Rhino had so much integrity, that I assumed that they would have the TV version of Jed Clampett, but I was disappointed again. So in the end I used my portable cassette recorder and taped it off the TV with the built-in mike. Lucky for me that some station had The Beverly Hillbillies running in syndication.
So that Rhino LP, that’s where I got Bandstand Boogie by Les Baxter. That’s why I told that story. It is an orphan child here. The song, not the story. I will explain that later.
This is a collection of pre-rock and roll stuff, from here and from there.
Some tracks are from various various artist collections from Atantic: Stick McGhee, Faye Adams, The Chords, The Cookies. Then there was Echoes Of A Rock And Roll Era, which was several LPs, different volumes featuring slightly different eras but al pre-Beatles anyway, that’s old stuff that the library used to have. That’s a long time ago, I picked it up maybe 30 years ago. And some random R&B collections, and some more tracks from From The Vaults, that we heard from already.
“Drinkin’ Wine”: an early song about substance abuse, covered later by Jerry Lee Lewis.
"Gee": Great doo-wop by a classic bird group (The Crows)
"Good Rocking Tonight": This is the original. There are more versions of this song than you can shake a stick at, Elvis did it on one of his early Sun singles, and Pat Boone, and Paul McCartney years later.
"Cara Mia": the operatic original, a top 10 single in 1965 for Jay & The Americans, I love this, corny as it is.
"Hound Dog": the original, with the original lyrics, a huge hit of course for Elvis later. Eric Clapton restored the lyrics on Journeyman.
"Reconsider Baby": another one covered by Elvis on the celebrated Elvis Is Back lp, considered a powerhouse performance
"Don’t Start Me To Talking": covered by The Doobie Brothers on Toulouse Street.
"Sh-boom": The original by the Chords. The Crewcuts rode this to number 1 in summer 1954, but The Chords version was also in the top 10, which, in 1954, wasn’t supposed to happen.
The Cookies: I do believe became the Raelettes in due course; that was Ray Charles’ backing group, they were not the group that did “Chains.”
Les Baxter:
- Bandstand Boogie
Stick McGhee & His Buddies:
- Drinking wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
Faye Adams:
- Shake A Hand
The Chords:
The Crows:
- Gee
The Four Knights:
- Oh Baby Mine
- Dreamy Eyes
The Gaylords:
- From The Vine To The Grape
Pee Wee King:
- Bonaparte's Retreat
Roy Brown:
- Good Rockin' Tonight
Big Mama Thornton:
- Hound Dog
The Cookies:
- In Paradise
David Whitfield:
Lowell Fulson:
- Reconsider Baby
- Don't Start Me To Talking
Woody Guthrie:
- This Land Is Your Land
Goldie Hill:
- I Let The Stars Get In My Eyes
Grady Martin & His Winging Strings:
- Pork Chop Stomp
Rod Sovine and Webb Pierce:
- Why Baby Why
Danny Young with Roger Miller;
- On This Mountain Top
No comments:
Post a Comment