From 1958, a very interesting--and surprisingly good!--LP by guitarist Bob Bain, who had worked with Bob Crosby, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and Nelson Riddle. Naturally, he took easily to rock'n'roll, being a professional on a par with Al Caiola and George Barnes. Which is to say, he had approximately 500 times the "chops" of Scotty Moore (no offense intended). And, even with the Jack Halloran Singers in the background, most of these tracks rock nicely. Or nicely rock--whatever. When I saw "with the Jack Halloran Singers" on the back cover, my first thought was, "This will be a campfest." It isn't, however--save maybe for Strollin' Home, a take on Antonin Dvořák's Goin' Home. That's getting just a little too silly.
And an interesting feature of/from this period of popular music--Namely, dances taking precedence over song titles--hence, the album name, Rockin' Rollin' and Strollin'. And with each selection tethered to a current dance step. This might provide some insight into the 1960-1962 twist craze, in which that particular dance was hyped as a new era in popular music. Never mind that the twist is nothing more than old-fashioned eight-to-the-bar boogie-woogie. With a backbeat. Some of these would easily qualify.
Some of the tracks, including (not surprisingly) The Stroll, are offered up in a slow tempo, but there are plenty of brisk numbers, too. And, many years ago, I met someone whose two chief categories of music were slow and fast. It depended upon his mood. Anyway, four numbers written and/or co-written by Bain, including Keen Teen, written in collaboration with Bain's old friend Freddie Slack.
And the jacket is pretty cool, though few of the young models look all that excited. And... a surprise at my "Shellac City" YouTube channel, which is getting so few views, I'm not sure why I bother. A new subscriber, and one with nice words for one of my restorations: The famous audio engineer Steve Hoffman. Nothing like a compliment from one of the best. And a couple days back, I blog-posted three shellac rips which pleased me a lot, all made on my VinylStudio program alone (my old MAGIX program, alas, is finished). No response, so I deleted the entry. Well, Steve Hoffman likes my work, anyway.
Oh, and the The Rock N' Roll March, as listed on the cover, shows up on the label as The Rock 'N Roll March. Just what in the heck is so hard about 'n' as the contraction for "and"? ("What are you doing?" "I'm n'rollin'!") N'rollin' to The Big Doowah.
DOWNLOAD: Bob Bain--Rockin' Rollin' and Strollin'.zip (Capitol T965; 1958)
The Stroll
Night Train Guitar
Keen Teen
At the Hop
The Rock N' Roll March
The Great Pretender
Raunchy
Yeah Yeah
The Rock and Roll Waltz
The Big Doowah
The Dipsy Doodle
Strollin' Home
(With the Jack Halloran Singers)
Lee
6 comments:
Thanks Lee for this great one!
RecordCollector,
Glad you enjoyed!
This is going to be a great one! I know of Bob's behind the scenes work as a guitarist and an arranger, but I never knew that he cut some solo material until now. Thanks for sharing.
At least I know what happened to that post! If you would put more '30's, '40's, and '50's material frequently in addition to the teens and '20's goodies you occasionally post here, I might check out that YouTube channel more often. Hopefully the three songs that were here will eventually show up over at Shellac City. Hoffman is one of the best: I remember when I saw his credit on MCA Special Markets cassette tapes in the mid-to-late-'80's when I was a young boy discovering the music of my grandparent's generation.
Thanks for this one, Lee, never seen it before. I think people buy up such LPs for the covers, then never listen to them. And you've got to give your stuff time to find an audience. Throwing it up and expecting instant engagement is a recipe for trouble. You've got to post for yourself. I'm sure even Mr. Hoffman doesn't get praise for every LP he remasters... Do it for you, not for us.
Great collection! Bob Bain certainly worked hard to create a unique guitar sound to distinguish himself from other Rock-era luminaries as Duane Eddy and Vincent Bell. At times, the arrangements can sound a little too similar at times, yet there are several sides on here that are par with Gene Vincent's big hits for Capitol around the same time. That could be Plas Johnson doing the saxophone solos, as he was doing a lot of Rock recording sessions in the studios during this time. And you can certainly hear co-writer Freddie Slack's influence on "Keen Teen", the piano almost gives it a B. Bumble & the Stingers flavor. His version of "The Stroll" is a great instrumental counterpart to the hit vocal version by the Diamonds. Some cuts, like the Rock update of Larry Clinton's "Dipsy Doodle" had solid potential to be singles cuts. And I enjoyed "Strollin' Home". A unique thing about is that it mentions the line "Like A Rolling Stone" years before Bob Dylan wrote a song with that phrase in the title! A delightful listen, yet the sameness of some of the arrangements allows to give this collectable album ($100 in near mint condition!) three stars out of a possible five from me.
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