I don't have much quarrel with the ratings already on this disc. "Stop Teasin' Me" isn't much of a song and the production values are minimal. If Andy Williams had accessed his inner Elvis a little more, he might have made more of it, but it probably still would've been mostly fluff. "I Like Your Kind Of Love", on the other hand, was an excellent piece of Andy Williams artistry. I doubt that anybody who heard it back then even paid attention to the mediocre flip side. I know I would have worn out the A side before I ever played the B side again. There's no other way to put it, the A side had "bedroom appeal" - Andy's voice, a viscerally romantic song, and Peggy Powers' unabashedly sensual vocal contribution add up to a hot side. I'm surprised it didn't cause a serious stir back in 1957 among guardians of the purity of the air waves. (Maybe it did. I was only 4 then. Who would have been aware?) I first heard the track on an oldies station here in Indianapolis decades later, and it was an unusually erotic piece of music even then.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

If you're looking for a good Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith record to introduce him to somebody, you could do a lot worse than this one.

Who Shot Willie is a boogie tune with lyrics, sung nicely by Smith. I won't spoil the ending, but you'll see it coming if you listen carefully. As a song, it isn't high art, but it's cute and better than a lot of commercially more successful sides. As music, it's pretty good. Most of the action is carried by a solid fiddler.

Express Train Boogie is a great example of a "train song". It's solid boogie and it's almost all done on the guitars. No lyrics, doesn't need any. The rhythm is dead on and the melody is carried surprisingly well by intermittent "train whistle" effects on the guitar strings. This is what earned Smith his nickname.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Harry (The Hipster) Gibson was a colorful character on the New York scene. H fit in well with the exaggerated hipsterism of Cab Calloway, Slim Gaillard and the like. He was a competent jazz pianist as is well demonstrated on "Stop That Dancin' Up There" where he delivers a lightly swinging and very melodic solo between signature comedic vocal choruses. If you're not familiar with him, this is an excellent introductory piece. "Riot In Boogie", on the other hand, is probably not. Although boogie-woogie featured prominently in his act, it wasn't really Gibson's forte. If you're looking for high art in the genre, you'll need to look elsewhere. For sheer poetry in boogie, check out Jimmy Yancey. For house-rockin' excitement check out any of the so-called Boogie Woogie boys (Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis). Then come back to this and you'll see what I mean.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I own this record and it's good

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

In essence, the 'Wind And Hurricane' 'A' side sounds like some kind of hand cranked machine which needed the strength of at least three people to get it going (when sadly only one person was actually available) and the 'Thunder Storm' 'B' side sounds like someone rummaging around in a skip.

How-ever, that is the absolute charm of this record.

It reminds me of an old village hall, with a Union Flag on the wall on amateur dramatics night. Probably sometime in November. 1929.

Oh the nostalgia of it all. More tea and biscuits ?

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This was absolutely my favorite song and 78 record when I was a child. So sad that there is nowhere it can be found for purchase.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Both Tracks are splendid film music. Film can be seen online.
I placed this record in Singapore because the artists involved are on Parlophone Singapore when making 45 rpm records. I haven't been able to find any info on Malay Records. I have another 78 rpm by same group of artists on same record label, so any mistakes in placing record can be put right then. Any info on Malay Records would be appreciated. Any help in placing in correct country likewise.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Runnin' Wild: I recall my brother Barry McCanna saying that this is one of the hottest tracks he has heard (and he had an extensive collection).

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Obviously an all-time classic and very influential. It's his first out and out Rocker and the interesting thing is that it's 'live'. For "Johnny B. Goode" and most that followed he played the intro and then stayed on the bass strings. After that he overdubbed the top strings. The only other way he could have approached this performance would to have a second guitarist and it would never have sounded as good. So this is not a criticism and the record is a priceless gem.

But for "Beethoven" he really has to 'hang on' and there's an abrupt ending to he inst break as he reverts to the bass strings. So more recent CD reissues seem to bring up the piano for two notes to fill the void. "Drifting Heart" is a better composition than "Together [We'll Always Be]" so it's more listenable but it's still dead flat (and also very square!).

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Both sides are good, but I love Tweedle Dee. It's a great R & B tune. I'm so glad to own a decent 78 copy.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

In 1951, the mambo was the hot thing in the music world. People went out of their way to record mambo versions of almost everything. (A similar thing would occur in the early 1960s when the Twist hit.) This is a product of that wave.

Chris Powell and the Blue Flames sound like a tenor sax and piano quartet with an augmented rhythm section. Most of the melody is carried by the piano with occasional brief interjections by the sax. The obligatory Latin drums are always present and rarely make much room for the piano or tenor to do anything remarkable. This is especially so on "Mambo Gunch", which is an original. The piano is little more than an additional rhythm instrument in that one, the tenor not even that.

If you want to sample this, I'd suggest you start with "Mr. Sandman". It's easily the more melodically interesting of the two sides, and it wasn't especially incompatible with the mambo beat. The piano work on it is the highlight of the entire disc. If you're still curious after that, move on to "Mambo Gunch".

Remember that the essence of the mambo was aggressive butt wiggling. This recording assumes you want something to do that to. If you're looking to enjoy a mambo from something more at arm's length, get a copy of the "West Side Story" movie and watch the dance fight between the Sharks and the Jets at the neutral gym. That's mambo pop at its peak.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Milky White Way is an extremely effective example of Little Richard doing a spiritual. His voice is well-suited to it, he sounds sincere. His approach is dialed back somewhat from the kind of frenetic delivery we are used to from romps like "Tooti Fruiti", but he uses his sense for that kind of thing to ring up a moving performance without going to excess.

By comparison, "I've Just Come From The Fountain" is more or less a travesty. It is at least 90% showbiz, and I'm not sure you can give the remaining 10% to spirituality. Little Richard's contributions are nominal, mostly interjected Hallelujah's and an occasional whoop or "oooo". The bulk of the side consists of sections of a choir singing the catch phrase "I've Just Come From The Fountain" back and forth at each other like a riff. It would fit on a Broadway stage with dancers all over the place. "Hello, Jesus...Well, Hello, Jesus, it's so nice to see you back where you belong..." You probably get the picture.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Eddy Howard did not have a remarkable voice, unlike most male singers of the big band era, but he made a good career with what he had. Part of that was due to his skillful use of the vocal trio, which is not in evidence on this disc. Part was due to the a canny choice of songs he sang and making the most of what voice he had. He didn't show off, it wouldn't have worked. He just sang the songs with a modicum of originality and a maximum of necessary correctness. And of course, he had the band, which was a good one and which would contribute occasional brilliant interludes. "She's Funny That Way' is a slightly quirky song that fits Howard's understated but personal style very well. The emotional content, a man musing about why he's lucky enough to have a woman in love with him, comes across in his hands. "The Rickety Rickshaw Man" is a simple story set to music, a description of a romantic character who would probably end up badly in real life, but does all right in the fantasy world of 1940s pop music. I don't think either of these were big hits for Howard but they are solid examples of his work and were certainly not failures.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is a beautifully produced record on both sides. Whether it deserves the high rating it currently has probably depends on your personal taste in music. The A side reminds me of the better examples of Sing Along With Mitch Miller. You may remember his spectacular (if brief) success on records and TV leading a large group of singers in choral renditions of popular songs. (Yellow Rose Of Texas, Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, etc.) If you liked those, you will agree that Shenandoah Rose is an 8.0 or possibly even better. If you didn't, you probably won't agree. "Rockabilly Party" is entertaining, as long as you don't take it too seriously. You can have fun identifying the artists referenced in the badinage between the singers. Here's a tip, though - these supposed hipsters aren't (should say weren't) as hip as all that. It's a well-done (probably unintentionally parodic) snapshot of the time when white cover artists were moving the rock'n'roll sound inexorably into the mainstream. I like it better than the A side, so maybe it is a 9.0 on some scale. I wouldn't class it as any kind of permanent high art, though. It's just good fun.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The Trumbauer sides, of which these two are some of the best, were possibly the high point of Bix Beiderbecke's career. He was surrounded by musicians who were sympathetic (i.e. hot oriented) and highly competent in equal measure and he had not yet completely descended into the debilitating lifestyle that would bring on his young death. Some people prefer the free-wheeling atmosphere of the Wolverines, but there is little doubt that except for Bix, most of them were essentially semi-pros, and that the recording quality at Gennett was sub-par. The company with Trumbauer was uniformly faster, the arrangements imaginative, the recording quality better. Bix got the space he deserved. When he took the bait and joined the prestigious Paul Whiteman orchestra, he would find much changed for the worse. His band mates were still top talent, and many of them among the best hot musicians, but the arrangements were not what you would expect from a man who billed himself "The King of Jazz", and space for Bix was extremely limited. The recording quality remained high, but it only served to highlight how little of the real Bix his fans were hearing. If you like hot, you should make it a point to find the entire Trumbauer set.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

In my opinion Side A is the much better track. In spite of the group name, this was FAR from "bluegrass".
It is much more "Jazz" for which she was most famous, while side B is a bit too "Bluesy" for my personal tastes.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is a really nice novelty record by Arthur (Guitar Boogie) Smith. The Cracker-Jacks are only listed on one side, but I think they're present on both.

Conversation With A Mule is probably badly dated now, but when this was made it I think it still reflected the harsh realities of share cropping in the South. Smith doesn't so much sing it as recite it, rather in the manner of Tex Ritter, and he does it with supreme irony. I like his delivery. It's a considerably better than average country record.

Mandolin Boogie is a rare romp on the mandolin. As a boogie piece it is only so-so, but that can probably be said of more than half of the country tunes that were labelled this or that Boogie over the years. It's better on that score than many I've heard. As a mandolin solo it's adventurous and masterfully played. On that basis the record as a whole is well above average.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

A fabulous piece of country boogie, very much a forerunner of the boogie rockabilly style. Superb Capitol production, this should be more widely known. B side is slower tempo and of a different style.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I am always amazed at how many really great female vocalists there were in the 1940's. I had never heard Joan Brooks before until I clicked on BigBadBluesMan's YouTube post of "What A Difference A Day Makes". Wow! A beautiful voice singing a beautiful song in a sensitive, beautiful way. I'll be watching for more of her work, for sure.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

It's almost a sin that the backup musicians are not identified on this disc. We would not be wrong to say they rock on "Baby, What's Wrong" but those of us with longer memories would also rightly say they swing, and swing hard. This must have been a juke box hit. It's eminently danceable. Elmore James proves he has chops on the guitar by staying with this bunch, particularly the bad ass sax man. You'll be surprised how much space they give that sax, but you won't begrudge a second of it. He's hot and soulful.

It sounds like the same bunch of guys on "Sinful Women", but they relax back into a more usual blues groove for that track. It shouldn't be a letdown, but some how it is. If you're going to listen to both sides, do yourself a favor and listen to "Sinful Women" first. It's a better than average blues track by a better than average blues band and it deserves to be appreciated for that.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Cootie Williams and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson may have been riding the historic coat tails of other giants here, but they had the chops to do it and the result was an excellent double-sided swing disc. Vinson does a spot-on imitation of Joe Turner's blues shouting on Turner's own "Cherry Red" and then carries the same approach over to Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used To Be". Williams provides solid horn solos over an Ellington-flavored orchestra. It's really a shame that Vinson never made it into the Ellington stable. They could have done a lot of great records together.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The Boswelll Sisters remain unequaled in pop music. This is one of the great two sided hits of all time. What'd Ja Do to Me displays all of the Boswell virtues and there were many - change of tempo, scat singing, rearrangement of song to suit varied rhythms and improvised melodic lines but most of all Vet, Martha and Connie's close harmonies. It's unique in that it starts fast and then gets slower and slower without picking up again at the end, which they tended to do. The flip, however, When I Take My Sugar to Tea, is the song that caused the Dorsey Brothers orchestra to stand and give them an enthusiastic ovation in the Brunswick recording studio at the end of the master take because it was the first time they'd ever heard anything like it - the Boswell harmony and arrangement, which was soon in great demand. This is ground zero for American pop music. The Bozzies took jazz and made it into ear candy without losing any of the elements of jazz. Don't miss it.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Fantastic musicianship - esp Gay Gordons.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

I have had this since I was a kid it is good

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Dick Weems (fiddle); Frank Weems (fiddle); Alvin Conder (banjo/violin); Jesse Weems (violin). Recorded Memphis, TN, Friday, December 9, 1927.

One of the most loved by collectors of String Band 78rpm of the 1920's

"Davy " is one of only two songs -- two sides of a single record -- ever documented from this Tennessee family string band. That seems unfathomable considering how good it is, and how unique. The band played rural music unlike any other captured on record. Brothers Dick and Frank Weems played their fiddles with advanced fingering positions usually employed only by classically trained musicians. Another brother, Jesse, played cello, an instrument also typically reserved for classical music. While all of this created a sophisticated sound, the band was still using these instruments to play "hillbilly" music, and the unexpected juxtaposition was exhilarating. The cello, for example, shifted between a thumping, staccato beat and a low, brooding drone. And brother-in-law Alvin Condor added banjo and down-home vocals for a clear mountain music touch.

The lyrics are simple and spare, but classic. Condor delivers them in a voice that starts as a yell and ends as a statement.....................

Adding to the excitement was the way the band members improvised variations and created a tapestry of interlocking melodies, all while keeping a steady rhythm. While everyone appears at first to be playing regular, repeating themes, as the song progresses, one notices frequent, subtle variations. At times, they add a few unexpected notes, and at other times an instrument will drop away completely, its presence still somehow felt as the rest of the band fills the gap seamlessly. Sometimes an instrument will even play out of key for a few notes, heightening the tension of the moment and then snapping back into the familiar pattern. Altogether, the band exhibits a tremendous sense of awareness; if they were playing jazz, you would call it "swing."

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Side A is also an amazing Hillbilly-Impersonation. Dave Landers can make his voice sound
exactly like the original artists like Gene Autry, Tex Ritter, Bob Nolan, Ernest Tubb.
Side B is a slowie, no weeper, with superb slow steel. Excellent band!

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Side A is the best Hillbilly-Impersonation I've ever heard!
Side B is an uptempo song with excellent steel, fiddle and electric guitar work

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Same session as last disc and I just noticed that "Drifting Heart" was the first of the session - so Chuck must have had hopes at the time. The two here are famous songs that are interesting in that the tenor sax plays a real part here, playing along with Chuck in one of the solos. Two very clever skillfully written songs recorded live with a pretty unique sound in his repertoire. Tempting not to vote a '10' for all of his classics.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Chuck carries "Down Bound Train" very well with lots of effective drama both lyrically and instrumentally. It's a very old folk song which had many verses. Really quite a masterpiece but maybe a rather adult theme for the kids. Top side is a great amusing song but I've seen the comment somewhere that its moderate success may have been because it was more bluesy

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is a solid guitar record. It's probably not very common, so if you're into good guitar work you should pick it up when you see it. I don't know who the Super-Sonics were. I'm guessing they were a studio group, guitars and rhythm. There are clearly some very good guitarists in the lot, and they've had the benefit of a good arranger. The solos do not have the feel of improvised music about them, so the arranger is probably central to the success of this disc. It would be nice to know who he was. Because it's Rainbow, it could be Enoch Light, but I'm sure there must be other candidates. Using Arthur Smith's Guitar Boogie as a starting point was a good plan. The Sheik Of Araby is almost as good material-wise, but the arranger didn't get quite as much out of it. The boogie side is the more fully-realized of the two, which is why I gave it a slightly higher rating. Good songs, good overall sound, nice interplay between the different players.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?