JOHNNIE RAY – CRY

n late 1951 an unknown talent from a small town in Oregon recorded the song “Cry” written by a night watchman named Churchill Kohlman. Cry took off like a rocket and changed pop music forever. Johnnie Ray became a household name with nicknames such as The Cry Guy and Mr. Emotion. Johnnie Ray’s recording of “Cry” has had tremendous staying power for decades being featured in several movies, one as late as 2010

BLUE NOTES My Hero JUL ’60

The Blue Notes-She Is Mine

RAY CHARLES : Black Coffee.

Four Aces – Stranger In Paradise.

This ballad from the musical ‘Kismet’ was covered by many top artistes of the 1950s, and in the UK no less than 6 versions were placed in the Top Twenty best sellers, including Bing Crosby, Eddie Calvert, Don Cornell, Tony Martin, Tony Bennett and the only vocal group to chart – The Four Aces. Tony Bennett’s version was the highest placed, but this group – led by Al Alberts – were also high in the UK’s Top Ten (1955), as they had already been in the USA (1953). This rare TV performance must at the time have greatly contributed to the success of their version.

Champion Jack Dupree – Junker’s Blues

Fats Domino – I Want To Walk You Home (live appearance)

Antoine “Fats” Domino was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, on the 26th of February 1928. When he was a 7 year old kid, he learned piano from his ,much older, brother-in-law Harrison Verrett. His piano playing was influenced by boogie woogie pianists like Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis and his triplet piano style came from Little Willie Littlefield, who,by the way,lives in the Netherlands.

His first record was “The Fat man”, recorded in 1949 and became a R & B hit in 1950 and a gold record in 1953. His cooperation with the bandleader Dave Bartholomew resulted in an almost endless chain of R & B and Top 100 hit records. He also played the piano on Lloyd Price’s millionseller “Lawdy miss clawdy.” Fats performed in 4 Rock & Roll movies, “The girl can’t help it, “Shake rattle and rock”, “Jamboree” and “The Big beat.” This ended in 1963 with “Red sails in the sunset,” by than Fats recorded for ABC-Paramount and the cooperation with Dave had ended. In the period 1949-1960 he had 23 million sellers, not less than 17 were co-written with Dave Bartholomew.

In 1955, with the arrival of Rock & Roll, Fats became also popular with the white audience starting with “Ain’t that a shame.” Lew Chudd, the owner of Imperial Records sold his record company to LIBERTY in 1963. At that time success faded a little and Fats signed a contract with ABC-Paramount, were he had a couple of hits. Later, in 1965, he had a very good live album on MERCURY and a couple of albums on REPRISE and SONET.

http://www.fatsonline.nl/fatsbio.html

FATS DOMINO Blue Monday

Johnny Tillotson – Poetry In Motion

The Everly Brothers – Crying In The Rain (The Definitive Everly Brothers)

Don (b. Isaac Donald Everly, 1 February 1937, Brownie, Kentucky, USA) and Phil (b. Phillip Everly, 19 January 1939, Chicago, Illinois, USA), the world’s most famous rock ‘n’ roll duo, had already experienced a full career before their first record, “Bye Bye Love’, was released. As sons of popular country artists Ike and Margaret, they were pushed into the limelight from an early age. They regularly appeared on their parents” radio shows throughout the 40s and accompanied them on many tours. In the mid-50s, as rockabilly was evolving into rock ‘n’ roll, the boys moved to Nashville, the mecca for such music. In 1957 they were given a Felice and Boudleaux Bryant song that was finding difficulty being placed. They took “Bye Bye Love’ and made it their own; it narrowly missed the US number 1 position and reached number 6 in the UK. The brothers then embarked on a career that made them second only to Elvis Presley in the rock ‘n’ roll popularity stakes.