Bill Haley, plus two Haley covers

We'll be hearing Bill Haley's 1953 Top 20 hit, Crazy Man, Crazy (how do you like that crazy punctuation?), featuring Haley's Comets, and two 1952 tracks featuring Bill Haley and The Saddlemen--Rock the Joint (a cover of a 1949 R&B hit) and Rockin' Chair on the Moon. The former track features Danny Cedrone's famous Rock Around the Clock guitar solo, only two years earlier.

All three were ripped from my Somerset label copy of Rock with Bill Haley and the Comets, an LP which originally appeared on Essex. The sound has a lot of punch--perfect for breaking in my new Sennheiser HD-280 headphones, which yield more detail than I'm used to. Which is good, of course.

The two "fake" Haley tracks come from the Tops and Bell labels--See You Later Alligator, credited to Danny Daniels (was there such a person?), and an excellent version of Dim, Dim the Lights by Marion Colby. Alligator, of course, was a cover to begin with, but this version follows the Haley version, making it yet another cover of a cover.

Enjoy.

Click here to reach zip file: Bill Haley--3 originals, 2 covers.

PLAYLIST

CRAZY MAN, CRAZY--Bill Haley w. Haley's Comets, 1953.
ROCK THE JOINT--Bill Haley and The Saddlemen, 1952.
ROCKIN' CHAIR ON THE MOON--Bill Haley, Saddlemen, 1952.
SEE YOU LATER, ALLIGATOR--Danny Daniels (Tops R275-49)
DIM, DIM, THE LIGHTS--Marion Colby, 4 Belles, 1955. (Bell 1083)



Lee

Crazy Man, Crazy!--Bill Haley covers to rock your Thursday

Mostly cheap label covers of numbers made famous by Bill Haley, starting with the 1953 (?) cover of Ralph Marterie's cover of Bill Haley's Top 20 hit, Crazy Man, Crazy. Don't you love covers of covers? The TunePac label is one I'd never heard of. Sound isn't great, but if you saw the disc (a 78 rpm EP), you'd know why. Not much groove material left.

Shake, Rattle and Roll was originally recorded by Big Joe Turner, of course, but the Candy-Rock Generation (the who??) is covering Haley, down to the last "Go!" From the 1969 Columbia 3-record set Super Rock. Now you know.

Artie Malvin's cheap-label cover of Rock Around the Clock (one of five featured in our playlist) follows the song as originally written, mostly, except that he sings the chorus a little differently (I'll have to relisten to confirm). The minor-mode verse/intro is very Leroy Anderson-ish.

And I've always wanted to type "very Leroy Anderson-ish."

The Bill Warren version of RATC, which I ripped from a Big 4 Hits 78, was also released on the Tops and Gilmar labels and credited to one Fred Gibson. I also have it on the Broadway and Variety labels, where no one gets credit for it. Same track--just five editions thereof.

The Gabe Drake version also showed up in a number of places, including a Peter Pan LP, from which I ripped the version for our playlist.

Here's the link to the Savefile "project": Crazy Man, Crazy!--Bill Haley covers. This time around, I made a link for each mp3.


PLAYLIST

CRAZY MAN, CRAZY--Ray Brankey, Bernie Saber O. (TunePac 5002)
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Jack Richards, Vic Corwin O. (Broadway 301)
BURN THAT CANDLE--Jerry Parker (Prom 700)
CRAZY MAN, CRAZY--Ralph Marterie Orch., 1953.
DIM, DIM THE LIGHTS--Bob La Mont, Lewis Everette O. (Gateway 1104)
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Artie Malvin, Light Brigade (Waldorf Music Hall)
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Four Bells, Jimmy Carroll, 1955. (Bell label EP)
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Gabe Drake (Peter Pan LP, orig. Prom 45)
ROCK-A-BEATIN' BOOGIE--Buddy Morrow, v: Jerry Mercer, 1954.
SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL--The Candy-Rock Generation, 1969.
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK--Bill Warren (Big 4 Hits 144)


Lee

Another week older....

The press declared Barack Obama (which they pronounce "Bir-ocko-bumma") the presumptive nominee on June 3. As we all recall, it took a near-eternity for Hillary Clinton to concede--four days! Well, actually, somewhere between three and four days, but still an eternity.

Yesterday, on the 10th, the talking heads at CNN or MSNBC were wondering what Hillary's supporters were thinking and feeling one entire week after Barack "clinched" the nomination. How far we had come, and so on. Well, I can only speak for myself, but here goes....

Frankly, it's been an amazing week. I finally got married, had kids, and waited eagerly for my kids to have kids. Five grandchildren later, I can't imagine any lifestyle except a family lifestyle. Nor can I remember any, to be honest. It's as if I've been a granddad forever.

Since Obama's win, I've written two best-selling non-fiction titles: How to Have a Fairly Successful Blog and Not Make Anything, Part 1 and Part 2, and a host of duds. Old age finally caught up with me around June 9, at which point I talked my insurance into covering a course of age-reversing therapy. Took an eternity of back and forth, but they finally agreed, and am I glad, or what? Gone were the wrinkles and white hair, that tired and dragged-down feeling, and those achy bones. It was like being 22 again.

Of course, that was an entire day ago, and by now I've re-aged (see photo). Meanwhile, the United States is still trying to recover from the recent, utterly unexpected population boom that added 35 million people to our nation's head count. Most of these folks, of course, are in college and studying to become PR (personal rocketship) techs. How time flies.

In fact, in the time it's taken me to type this, the Earth's night sky looks very different--normally, it takes at least a week for the positions of the constellations and such to change significantly, but it's been a busy ten minutes.

Ha! For some odd reason, I was just remembering back to the days when HDTV was such a big deal. And the price of gas mattered to anyone. Ah, yes. More and more, my mind drifts to the distant past.

Oops. There goes another Earth revolution. Gee, I hope this bitter winter gives way to nice wea.... Never mind. It's summer again.

Things are happening so fast. I must be getting older. Or maybe I'm running on media time. In fact, a housefly just advised me to slow down and enjoy the moment.

Talking flies--wow. They must have evolved sometime this afternoon. I'll bet it was on the evening news.

Sunday morning gospel--Rock of Ages Quartet, The Southern-Aires Gospel Singers

Dang it all, I thought I had some photos to go with these tracks. I don't. Nor do I have the LPs handy, else I'd have taken down the labels and numbers.

Okay--no photos, no numbers. But are we going to let that get in the way of our enjoyment of The Rock of Ages Quartet and The Southern-Aires Gospel Singers? Are we?

Yes.

I mean, heck, no!

The following is info from my original posting of the material:

The members of the Rock of Ages Quartet hailed from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The Southern-Aires Gospel Singers were originally from West Virginia. Both ended up in Ohio, where they recorded these wonderful tracks. That's one great thing about living in the Buckeye State, I suppose--finding music like this at the thrifts.

Yes, indeed.

Enjoy. Meanwhile, I reckon I can get some group photos from the LP jackets (once I find them) and post them after the fact.

Click here to reach zip file: Sunday morning gospel, June 8, 2008.


PLAYLIST

Rock of Ages Quartet

MY HOME IN GLORY
I'LL MEET YOU
JOY IS COMING
WE NEED THE LIGHT
THE COMING BYE AND BYE
TRAVELING THROUGH A WEARY LAND
THE RAINBOW IN THE CLOUD OF DEATH
TRAVELIN' SHOES

Southern-Aires Gospel Singers

I'LL HAVE NEW LIFE
GONNA RISE UP AND SHINE
HEAVEN IS MY HOME
JESUS IS COMING SOON
ECHOES FROM THE BURNING BUSH
JUST A LITTLE TALK WITH JESUS


Lee

Savefile has gone bye-bye for the moment....

When Savefile's back up, today's Sunday morning gospel post will happen.

Until then, here's Peter Lupus, Peter Graves, Greg Morris, and Lynda Day George from Mission: Impossible. Nothing to do with today's music, but they're cool photos.