mp3: Noble Watts - Hard Times Last year I posted Dave Bartholomew’s cover version , now here’s the original. Hard Times was the biggest hit from tenor saxophonist Noble "Thin Man" Watts & His Rhythm Sparks. In 1957 it climbed into the pop charts for 9 weeks, peaking at #44. They even got to play it on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Watts was a hot honker in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, playing with a who’s who of R&B and early rock’n’roll; Tiny Bradshaw, Amos Milburn, Ruth Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, [...]
You don’t need a weatherman to know that it was a chilly London night in March when Lady Kamikaze joined us for Heavy Sugar at The Alibi. In no time though, she had the whole club positively sizzling with this eclectic mix of vintage tunes. From swinging soulful shimmyers to spicy Latin shakers, Lady Kamikaze had us in the palm of her hand all the way through. The tracklisting below is not wholly complete, there’s a large slab of Cumbia in the middle which you won’t miss. It was a massive privilege [...]
mp3: 'Cile Turner - Crap Shootin' Sinner Crap Shootin’ Sinner is a gospel-style ditty about a gambler trying to get into heaven. So far so normal. It’s sung by ‘Cile Turner, who was born Lucile Turner in Virginia in 1895. Apart from today selection being an entertaining tune, what’s interesting is that Turner was a white woman who from a young age embraced African-American folk songs and spirituals. This was an against the grain cultural choice that, at the time, would have challenged many in the deep South on both racial and [...]
I’m super excited to announce that legendary DJ Gaz Mayall will join Fritz and I at our next Heavy Sugar club night. Gaz’s Rockin Blues is London's longest running one-nighter club. It’s been going since 1980! I’ve always had a rollicking time there, dancing the night away to incredible tunes every time. I can’t wait to hear what heat Gaz brings for Heavy Sugar. Friday May 24th is the date we’ll be back at Dalston’s funnest late night party spot, The Alibi. It's an ideal way to start a long weekend in London. Come early [...]
mp3: Faye Adams - Hurts Me To My Heart Wow, what a strong, powerful voice Faye Adams has. No wonder that around the time of this recording she was known as Atomic Adams. Released in 1954, Hurts Me To My Heart was the third and final in string of #1 R&B hits for Adams. That run started with Shake A Hand, which, through its use in the moving and poetic Killer Of Sheep film, is the song that introduced me to Adams' immense talent. Hurts Me To My Heart was written by [...]
mp3: Bill Doggett - Ram-Bunk-Shush Bill Doggett was pianist and organist who worked with Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald, Wynonie Harris and Johnny Otis among others. He also spent some time in the band of Lucky Millinder, the guy who wrote and released Ram-Bunk-Shush first in 1952. Doggett's version came out in '57 and, thanks largely to Clifford Scott's honking lead sax, made both the pop and R&B charts, peaking at #10 on the R&B. Ram-Bunk-Shush was also released by surf group The Ventures in '61. Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five played [...]
I'm going to be treated to a couple of nights of top-shelf garage rock'n'roll this coming weekend. On Friday 17th May, yours truly will be joining DJ Phil Istine behind the decks at Deviation Street , a night held every month at the The Alleycat in Soho. We'll be spinning records between and after The Ladykillers, Thee MVPs, Limozine and Kepler Rising. Then, the very next night, I'm heading to the Shacklewell Arms in Dalston for the Dirty Water Club . I'll be rocking out [...]
mp3: Red Prysock - Fruit Boots Recorded in 1956 in New York, today's selection features the jiving instrumental sounds of the Red Prysock Nonet. That's tenor saxophonist Prysock and eight others, including bassist Herb Gordy who gets credit for writing the wonderfully named Fruit Boots.
mp3: Bobby Peterson Quintet - Mama Get Your Hammer Here’s a real wild rocker from pianist Bobby Peterson. Mama Get Your Hammer is the flip of One Day. Released in 1960, it was the quintet's fifth single on V-Tone (you may recall that last year I posted their first, The Hunch ). Mama get your hammer, with the refrain, a fly's on the baby's head, is a pretty twisted lyric. I would like to think that this is a playful answer record to a song with the line “mama get your [...]
mp3: Yvonne Fair - I Found You Today’s selection would fit in well with other original versions of songs I didn’t realise weren’t, such as Gloria Jones' Tainted Love or Denise by Randy & The Rainbows . Of course, since he wrote it, it’s a bit harsh to describe James Brown’s I Got You (I Feel Good) as a cover version. Still, in 1962, three years before I Got You was released, Brown recorded and released the same song as I Found You with Yvonne Fair on vocals and her name [...]
mp3: The Majestics - Oasis Pt.1 mp3: The Majestics - Oasis Pt.2 I had assumed that The Majestics of today's selections, were the same group who released The Boss Walk ( Blop-Up 's opening stormer), but now I'm not so sure. They are both killer two-part instrumentals and, without over-analysing it, have a similar saxophone and guitar based rock'n'roll sound. However, the songwriting and production credits are totally different. Before being issued by Chess, Oasis was released in 1961 on Tennessee's Chanson Records. A second The Majestics record [...]
Yesterday's episode of the Diddy Wah radio chronicles is now up on an internet near you, ready to be streamed or downloaded. For this one, I play all the tracks from my new Blop-Up mix, in the same order, but with a little chat about the artist, song, label, year, etc. in between tracks every now and again.
It got to the point recently, because I’d acquired so many killer new 45s, that I realised the drip, drip method of sharing them as single file vinyl rips through this blog wasn’t going to be enough. There was a backlog developing and it dawned on me that even though it had only been two months since the last one , it was time to embark on another mix making project. The result of that endeavour is Blop-Up, 50 minutes of rockin’ blues bliss. Several of these records took some chasing to find, others found me. Almost all have [...]
On Friday, in the evening time, DJ Fritz and I will be catching a Southern train to Brighton to meet up with Rebel Juke's DJ Karl Kaos. Together, we will embark on a wild escapade of 45 spinning madness and you're invited to join us. This rock'n'roll soundclash will occur between the hours of 9pm and 3am at The Globe on Middle Street. It's free to get in and will be a lot of fun. All the details are on the Facebook event page . See you on the dancefloor!
mp3: Frankie Ford - Alimony Frankie Ford lives where he was born, just across the mighty Mississippi River from New Orleans in Gretna, Louisiana. He grew up absorbing the amazing Rhythm & Blues music that part of the world was producing in the 1940s and '50s. He sang and played in bands during high-school and shortly after released his first record on Ace. Alimony came out in 1959 as Ford's third single. It was the follow up to his biggest hit, Sea Cruise. Like Sea Cruise, Alimony features the backing of Ace's [...]
mp3: Lillian Offitt - Miss You So mp3: The Gladiolas - Little Darlin' These two 45s already featured on my most recent Utopia mix, but I thought I'd offer them here in single-file mp3 format as well. And, since they were both released on Nashville's Excello Records, it's neat to post them as a pair. Miss You So, from 1957, was Lillian Offitt's first hit. It's a beguiling tune with solid blues guitar licks and fantastically eery vocals. Offitt moved to Chicago the [...]
DJ Fritz and myself have been busy recording sets from our Heavy Sugar club nights. Here's an hour long mix taken from early last month, when we played big hitting party records to help celebrate the 3rd birthday of The Alibi. Starting off with mini-sets, we progressed to a straight up gun fight (one track each). We'll be teaming up again, along with Brighton DJ Karl Kaos for a wild night of 45 spinning at The Globe on Friday April 26th. All the info will be on the Heavy Sugar facebook group . Hope [...]
mp3: The Delcos - Arabia Here's a slightly exotic sounding tune from a group who named themselves after a battery. The Delcos met as high school students in Indiana and even though Arabia is a relatively obscure record, it was their biggest success. An early recording of it was released in 1962 on Ebony Records and started selling well. Too well for that new label, so a deal was struck with Monument Records. The Delcos travelled to Nashville to re-record Arabia with the Boots Randolph's band featuring Bill Justis. That version was [...]
mp3: Jack Eely - Louie, Louie '66 Happy International Louie Louie Day! I'm celebrating by posting this cracking version of Louie Louie by the guy who's vocals helped cement its place in musical history. In 1963 when The Kingsmen recorded the best known version of this party rocker, Jack Ely was the singer. At the time they had no idea it was going to take off the way it did, so Ely left the group to go to college. When their Louie Louie was all over the radio, he tried to rejoin [...]
mp3: Little Milton - Long Distance Operator Singer, songwriter and guitarist "Little" Milton Campbell recorded for Sun, Chess and Stax. That's quite a CV! Rufus Thomas also achieved this feat, but how many others? Long Distance Operator, however, was released on his own St. Louis based Bobbin label in 1959. It’s a new breed blues bopper with tasty horns and plenty of swing.
Diddy Wah
Boards of Canada – Reach For The Dead
Black Hippy - U.O.E.N.O.
Macklemore + Ryan Lewis – Can’t Hold Us (Major Lazer Remix)
HAERTS: “All The Days”
