Tag: Rock & Roll

Rockin’ Robin – Bobby Day

randydafoe24 Comments
“Rockin’ Robin” by Bobby Day (1958)

As I’m sitting at my desk and looking out the window I can see a lone Robin perched in the Mountain Ash, accompanied by a few house finch and the ever present mourning doves. Now the sparrows are getting in on the act. The sky is a bit hazy but the sun has broken through in the east and the first sure fire sign of spring around here is the Robin. Furry underground rodents aside. There is still a chill in the air but it’s warming up and I suspect by days end all the snow on the grass will have melted (for now). So it’s what the Scots would call a bonnie day, today poetic license makes it a Bobby Day.

“Rockin Robin” by Showaddywaddy (2002)

To provide a bit of the back story, in 1957, working for Leon René at Class Records, Bobby Day had written and recorded a song called “Little Bitty Pretty One” (Bobby Day and The Satellites). It was decided to put it on the B side of a 45 rpm to a remake of “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”, a song written by René himself that was first recorded back in 1940 and had been a big hit for The Ink Spots.

Well, very quickly they knew they made a huge mistake, DJ’s liked the flip side and as “Little Bitty Pretty One” was getting popular another small and independent label called Intro Records had Thurston Harris record the song. A note for note copy was released as the A side on a new record, a week or two later Dick Clark ‘preferred’ the Thurston Harris version and he played it on his show. This relatively new format of the 45 rpm single was based on the A side as the new release. So in this business, you introduce a single it apparently can’t be the B side. Now I can’t say for certain this was one of the 33 record labels or one of the 150 or so songs Dick Clark got a cut of (according to his own admission), but hey, we’ll just blame Alan Freed for all that nasty Payola stuff shall we.

Oh my that took a turn did it not? Ok then how about this clip, in 1960 Dick Clark had the 17 year old Frankie Lymon on his Saturday Night Beechnut Show to perform a cover of “Little Bitty Pretty One”. Of historical note, typically the (mostly teenaged girls) in the audience would get up to dance to the performances. The network Execs (not including Clark) did not want the all White group of young women seen dancing with a Black singer and were told to stay seated. I think you can see the puzzlement in some of their faces.

I think if you ask most anyone who sings “Little Bitty Pretty One”, it’s Thurston Harris. With his release the original was dead and the cover had done it’s job. But wait, pull out those old K-Tel records, that’s where you will find the Bobby Day original.

So, back to our feature song, Leon René at Class Records has to come up with something to keep Bobby Day happy. Some months later he just happened to have been awoken by a mocking bird that had been singing in a tree outside his window, inspiration for a songwriter can come from anywhere. He already had success with a ‘bird’ song and the little bird had some pretty good riffs going. Leon wrote down a ditty and gave the bird some company as named in the lyrics and the swallows appear once again but the mocking bird did not make the cut. The songbird would get it’s due when “Mockingbird“, (based on “Hush Little Baby”) written and performed by Inez Foxx and Charlie Foxx was released in 1963.

Thinking it a just novelty song and not worthy of his own name, Leon used the alias Jimmie Thomas for the first time. And the rest of the story as they say, is history.

Hold on just a minute more here, I have always had a problem with this part of the song;

A pretty little raven at the bird-band stand
Taught him how to do the bop, it was grand
They started going steady and bless my soul
He out-bopped the buzzard and the oriole

So our titular character, Rockin’ Robin would be at most about 11, maybe 12 inches long, your pretty little raven is, even on the small side about 19 to 21 inches long. Anyone else see this as an issue? So maybe, just maybe he can out-bop the “buzzard and the oriole”, but don’t even get me started on that match-up!

This song was Bobby’s biggest hit peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1958. It spent nine weeks in the top 10 but could not get past “It’s All In The Game” by Tommy Edwards. It was however a #1 on the R&B chart. Notably covered by Michael Jackson in 1972 where it also peaked at #2 on both the Hot 100 and R&B. There are 100 other versions of the song. UK singer Lolly charted #10 with it in 1999, I will spare you that one. In general it’s not a song on my usual oldies rotations.

As noted the song was written by, but also produced by Leon René. There was no messing around with the recording of this song, backing Day were Plas Johnson on piccolo, he was also the tenor saxophone soloist on Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther Theme”. The guitar player was Barney Kessel, by no exaggeration he was one of the best players in the business. Also in that category, there was Earl Palmer on drums. Three independent recording artists and all one-time members of the famed studio musicians known as The Wrecking Crew.

“Rockin Robin” by Travis Matte and The Zydeco Kingpins (2004)


No. 2 “Proud Mary”

randydafoe17 Comments

“Proud Mary” by CCR in 1969 was such a good song to peak at #2 it took two songs to keep it there, first it was “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone and next week it was “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe.

The words and music were written by John Fogerty who between 1968 and 1972 would write more that 40 songs and 20 of them hits for CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival). I believe CCR still holds the record at five songs for the most #2 songs on the Hot 100 without ever reaching #1. This didn’t stop them from selling 50 million records worldwide. Including his solo career Fogerty’s songs have sold an estimated 100 million records.

Helping to sell those records was the million selling cover of “Proud Mary” by Ike and Tina Turner released in 1970. The song would hit #4 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the R&B charts in 1971 and win a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group in 1972.

There are currently 381 versions of “Proud Mary” and it may surprise you to hear that there were over 40 versions recorded between the original and the Ike and Tina cover.

The legendary Solomon Burke (1969) was the third to cover the song and he improvised an introduction as well as a slight change to the lyrics.

A total of 70 songs John Fogerty wrote, 65 of them as a solo writer have been covered and all tolled there are well over 1,000 versions of his songs that have been recorded.

No. 2 “Louie, Louie”

randydafoe19 Comments

“Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen is a cult cover song if ever there was one, controversial for the silliest of reasons, the somewhat unintelligible lyrics got it banned at many ‘puritan’ Radio Stations. And investigated by the FBI, though that claim is a tad over blown. That did not stop it from climbing the charts in 1963, yet somewhat ironically a ‘banned’ song was to be stopped at #2, by ‘The Singing Nun’ with “Dominique“. “The Devils Music” indeed! If ever there was a convergence …(A book by Randall J Stephens)

The Kingsmen were the third band to cover the song and the only one I could find that charted it, that’s when all the hype started. It was written and first released by Richard Berry in 1957. And there’s more of a story there as well.

I am sure many of you have read about “Louie, Louie” as the story is widely available ad nauseum. I do however want to talk about claims about the cover versions. I have (as some of you have as well) seen several numbers about the total cover versions out there. Wikipedia says up to 2,000 but the references supplied were articles that quoted numbers without any supporting facts at all. I guess that is my issue, we know there are a lot of versions of the song but I have seen some pretty wild claims in publications that should know better. I’m no journalist but at least I do a little research.

If someone can provide me some empirical date to support any such claims, please do pass it along and I’ll eat or maybe just ‘garble’ my words!

One reference I found to 5,000 versions quoted it as “FACT”, this led me to some sources (I downloaded the available pdf’s) with one that barley listed a hundred versions. There was another one that attempted to give every song with “Louie” in the title, seemingly from every country/language it could find and that was barely maybe a few hundred let alone 5,000. I’ve seen plenty of references to bar bands, live in concert versions and marching bands doing the song, but unless they are recorded and released, these are not “covers”.

There are some songs/artists that have their own sort of ‘committed group’ that researches covers and some are at least plausible, JoniMitchell.com has one for example and it is quite credible. But I have not found one such source for “Louie Louie” except for my go to of Secondhandsongs.com. They list 190 versions that have been documented and over a dozen more listed as “unverified” that they are still investigating. Do I think there are likely more than that? Yes I do. I don’t know what the number is and from what I have seen, some people just like to make one up.

Little Richard Revisited

randydafoe18 Comments

Little Richard

Richard Penniman was born in Macon Georgia, on December 5th, 1932, and since my blog was first posted he has since passed on May 9, 2020 at age 87. He grew up with 11 brothers and sisters and learned music from family, friends and at Church. By 1951 he had a contract with RCA Victor and cut some tracks in Atlanta. Here is his first song “Taxi Blues“. He doesn’t sound like the Little Richard we have come to know, but very few artists find their ‘voice’ on the first attempt. And so there was an evolution to his style, in 1952 he was starting to Rock it up with “Get Rich Quick“. By 1953 he was still recording more traditional blues and some new material from other songwriters, such as “Ain’t That Good News” credited as ‘Duces Of Rhythm & Tempo Toppers’ (with lead Little Richard)”.

But he still had not released his flashy and flamboyant style, even though his live performances were getting fairly raucous compared to the toned down records. He would have seven single releases from 1951-54 before hitting the charts.

Sometime in mid 1952, Little Richard would meet Eskew Reeder and his musical future would start to change. Eskew who’s stage name is Esquerita, was a couple years younger than Richard but a gifted self taught piano player with a flamboyant style and a voice to match. Over a period of time he would tutor Richard and would have a tremendous effect on his music.

He is older here as pictured, but it has been documented that this was essentially Esquerita’s ‘look’ when they met. He was already a traveling stage performer at that time, before he met Little Richard. It certainly appears to me this is where Richard got some of his image and musical stylings. If you listen to this audio I think there is some revisionist history going on in Richard’s recollections of their relationship. While Esquerita’s recordings post date Little Richard’s initial success, his musical style was already there to be observed by Richards.

I’ve read several proclamations from Little Richard saying things as quoted here from Rolling Stone Magazine, “I am the architect” (of Rock and Roll) and how he believes “…from the bottom of my heart, I am the inventor” (of Rock and Roll). Well if that’s true, then Esquerita is the inventor of Little Richard. If we know anything about Rock and Roll it is that no one person or even a small group ‘invented’ it. Was Little Richard a big part of that? Yes absolutely. Was he insanely talented? Of course.

To be fair, Sam Phillips and a few others (Ike Turner comes to mind) also made similar claims. But when did this R&R thing really start to happen? What we know as Rock and Roll music was in little pieces around the US, but it’s real genesis was in the Southern States which of course includes Richards home state of Georgia. Certainly from the late 1940’s and early 50’s there were plenty of opportunities for Richard to pick things up from artists other than Esquerita to help him develop his music and modus operandi. Lest we forget the great Sister Rosetta Tharpe who gave Little Richard his first on-stage opportunity.

The song that launched him into being the Little Richard we know was called “Tutti Frutti” (October 1955). Not uncommonly there is still some dispute as to who actually wrote the song, credited as co-writer Dorothy LaBostrie claims she mostly wrote the whole song. Richard says he did and there is good evidence he had played at least parts of it in prior live performances, so at the very least the genesis of the song and melody is certainly his. Richards could most definitely write and he has many single and co-writing credits on a couple dozen songs and a few of them were his big hits. Joe Lubin also shares a credit on “Tutti Frutti” solely I believe for helping on the ‘cleaning up’ of some of the lyrics and technical composition (as it was not an uncommon practice), Lubin’s seasoned songwriting talent would lie more with Pat Boone and Doris Day stuff than Little Richard.

Regardless, it is one heck of a Rock and Roll song and it really did have a huge impact on the type of songs and performance styles of the day. The tune combines boogie-woogie piano, blues, gospel, creative lyrics and along with the inspired delivery it’s earned the #43 spot on Rolling Stone Magazines The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time. In 1956 it rose to #2 on the R&B chart and contrary to what I’ve seen written that it reached #17 (Biography.com among others) it actually peaked at #21 for the week ending February 8, 1956 on precursor to the Billboard Hot 100 and #18 on another chart. There are 172 versions of the song covered by 162 artists. Say what you will about it but (with an amended version) it was first covered by Pat Boone in January 1956, followed by Elvis Presley. Little Richard himself said those covers helped him out. Here is a live performance by Queen from the Wembley Stadium shows in 1986.

Richards was on a hot streak in 1956, songs making it huge on Billboard’s two charts; on the Hot 100/R&B were “Long Tall Sally” #13/#1, “Slippin’ and Slidin‘” at #33/#1, “Rip it Up” at #27/#1, “Ready Teddy” at #44/#1. Out of five songs he had four that went to #1 on the R&B charts and the only reason “Tutti Frutti” got stalled at #2 is because “Great Pretender” by ‘The Platters’ would not budge from the #1 spot from the beginning of January through to the week ending March 10. Richards would not ever gain a #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, nor did Chuck Berry for that matter, until 1972 with the novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling”.

Just to put things into perspective, Little Richard was a dynamic performer and although he did develop his own style he did not always present himself on stage with his signature pompadour and glitzy outfits. In part that was due to requirements of TV show hosts and producers. We should remember Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley had already started recording at the same time and had established their own sound and style prior to the release of “Tutti Frutti”, and any opportunity to see him perform in person. There is no evidence that happen in either case prior to 1956.

So any claims or even opinions that support Richards ‘inventing’ R&R and his impact have to be tempered just a bit. Even Jerry Lee Lewis who released his first record late in 1956 had already started to develop his wild style and reputation during stage performances, again without the benefit of seeing Little Richard in person. As had James Brown, though that was a slow build. James Brown who was strongly influenced by Richard would emulate him in some ways and take it a step further by recording a live album at the Apollo.

What Little Richard did that few others could is bring the energy and excitement of the live performance to the recording studio and have that come out of your radio or record player. He was the one to popularize this type of recording, so to me this is Little Richard’s biggest contribution to R&R.

I don’t want you to think I’m down on Little Richard but some of his statements and support requires a bit of balance. These inventing R&R assertions really have done a disservice to his reputation as he has been at times written off and his importance watered down as a result. You need only watch some of these clips of Little Richard to see and hear he was a tremendous talent, a truly groundbreaking performer that opened the door for Rock and Roll to really spread its wings and show it’s wild side. The man is truly a Rock and Roll Legend. Of course today the stuff he did does not seem to be very controversial, but at the time his exciting performances pushed boundaries. He was also quite a brave person as he had to deal with many issues as a gay black man performing in the 1950’s.

His life and career would have it’s challenges, musical tastes are a fickle thing and after three years in the limelight and topping the charts, by 1958 all that would start to slowly disappear, though he did have a couple songs enter the charts in the UK up to 1964. He ‘found’ religion and continued to perform and record and his legend earned him a revered spot in the hearts and minds of those who understood his talent and the importance of his contributions. For example there is a great live version of “Rip it Up” with Little Richard on the ‘Tom Jones Show’ from 1970.

Here are more great original tunes from Little Richard. “Lucille” #1 R&B, #21 Hot 100 and #10 UK, “Send Me Some Lovin‘”#3 R&B,  “Good Golly, Miss Molly” #4 R&B, #10 Hot 100, #11 UK, covered over 120 times, Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969).

“Jenny, Jenny” #2 R&B, #10 Hot 100 and #11 UK was a reworking of this song, “Johnny, Johnny” by Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers with Mari Jones. (yep Johnny and three guys all wearing you guessed it, blazers! Oh yes and one Mari, pretty sure she wore a dress.

“Keep A-Knockin’” #2 R&B, #8 Hot 100 and #21 UK was a very pumped up cover of this song from 1928 “Keep a Knockin’ and You Can’t Get In” by “Boodle It” Wiggins. There is a bridge version or two such as from Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra, Vocals by Helen O’Connell (1939).

In all Little Richard would cover about 60 songs excluding the times he covered his own songs for his collaboration album, ‘Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka’. Other than the above mentioned I’m not aware of any of his covers that made the charts in a big way except “Baby Face” from July of 1958 which was his highest charting song in the UK at #2, #12 R&B and #41 Hot 100. The original is from Jan Garber and His Orchestra in 1926, written by Harry Akst and Benny Davis it was a #1 hit at the time and in total covered over100 times, Richard was about the twentieth artist to record it.

References:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & Specialty Records Archives.

Many thanks as always for reading my blog!

No. 2 “You Don’t Own Me”

randydafoe12 Comments

“You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore and written by John Madara and David White was one of five songs she had hit the charts in 1963 and another “It’s My Party” did make it to #1. Released late in the year “You Don’t Own Me” would move into 1964 and so would Lesley’s success but it got stopped at #2 by The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand“.

SAYGRACE cover
SAYGRACE “You Don’t Own” Me ft. G-Eazy

There are 73 documented versions of this song.