Billboard review, October 2, 1954
"Jam Up": A spanking beat sparks the band in a toe-tapping instrumental. Could serve as good juke filler material.
"Wish I Had Never": Chanter mourns an ill-fated romance in this routine blues.
Interesting ... two reviews of the same record, published the same day, with opposite sides listed first. If nothing else, this shows that reliance on the first listed side to identify the A side can be dicey. Thanks, all.
"Jam Up" is Ridgley's most compiled track, remarkably because it's his only record where he doesn't sing. He never had any big national hits but made some fine records for Herald and Ric and remained a popular entertainer in New Orleans throughout his professional life.
Another strong sign that "Jam Up" was actually the A-side is that it was recorded just a few weeks before the release whereas "Wish I Had Never" was already nine months old, a remarkably long span for a potential hit side. "Jam Up", although not containing a vocal by Tommy Ridgley, was written by him anyway.
I had switched the sides because of the Cash Box review and because I found someone else refer to "Jam Up" as the B side. In addition, the Vocal side is often the featured one and the Instrumental the B side. Just as often, of course, it then turns out that the instrumental is the more popular song, and so it's no surprise that Atlantic in January 1955, 4 months after the record's release, had realized this and boasted about releasing "Jam Up".
I posted this with "Jam Up" as the A side and someone flipped the sides. The Cash Box issue of October 2, 1954 reviews the record with "Wish I Had Never" listed first, which doesn't necessarily mean it was the side Atlantic was promoting. An Atlantic ad in Billboard (January 29, 1955) mentions "Jam Up," although this was about three months after release. Does anyone have any evidence of which side was being pushed? By the way, the 45cat entry still shows "Jam Up" as the A side.