1) Let's Think About Living-Bob Luman (Warner Bros 5172) #7 1960
Luman was more of a rockabilly star but he became more known in country rather than the pop charts. In fact this song was his only chart showing on the top 100. He's backed by the Anita Kerr Singers among the Nashville Sessionmen of choice. Luman's song is a bit of side poking fun goof, lamenting about the loss of Marty Robbins down at El Paso and the Everly Brothers' Cathy's Clown, as at that time both were on the upstart Warner Brothers label, a label that was not exactly bringing ground breaking acts to that label. The Everly's at that time Warner paid big bucks to get on their label and while the early years gave the label some hits, but once Beatlemania came around The Everly's couldn't get arrested at number 1 anymore. B Side You've Got Everything, sounds more akin to Buddy Holly and more rocking than Think About Living. Luman would record for Warner Brothers will 1963, then moved over to Hickory for a few years and then on to Epic, which his last best known number would be 1973's Lonely Women Make Good Lovers.
2) Is A Blue Bird Blue-Conway Twitty (MGM K-12911) #35 1960
Conway was a rockabilly rocker in his years at MGM, with that aw shucks vocals and that lazy grown that recalled Elvis. Despite the number 35 chart showing, I never heard this song before. While the Elvis comparisons may have nice, the problem might have been that Conway was a bit too rockabilly for the rock crowd to get into. Flip side She's Mine (#98) is more rock and roll. The guess work is that the song writer for Is A Blue Bird Blue is Dan Penn, who would go on to be one of the best songwriters of the soul years.
3) Night Train To Memphis-Grandpa Jones (Monument 45-811) 1963
My Carolina Sunshine Girl might have been the A side but I loved this crazy bluegrass raveup Night Train To Memphis even more. He'll be forever known as the comedian on Hee Haw but he was a damn good bluegrass banjo player, going back to Old Rattler, on King Records in 1951, but Jones would stay at Monument for over a decade. Strangely, we have yet to see a decent Grandpa Jones best of on CD or record. The comedian thing may have tarnished his reputation but the old Grandpa can come up with some wild music when the time is right. Hallelujah anyway!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kbo7YW2KeY
4) Give Myself A Party-Don Gibson (RCA Victor 47-7330) #46 1958
One of my favorite artists of that time was Don Gibson, who could write some of the more darker songs this side of country but he did score some hits I'm more familiar with the version that appears on I Wrote A Song, but this 1958 version is a bit more rough around the edges. I don't think Don ever made a bad single during the RCA hey day of the late 50s and early 60s. B side Look Who's Blue made it to number 58, and is more rockabilly than country.
5) Blue Moon-Elvis Presley (RCA 47-6640) #55 1956
6) Love Me Tender-Elvis Presley (RCA 47-6643) #1 1956
The pick of the better condition of the Elvis 45s that I've seen at St Vincent De Paul. It used to be a big deal finding anything Elvis and in decent condition, nowadays not so much. He's been gone now for over 40 years but I still find his music to be as good as it ever was, although Love Me Tender is not one of my favorite songs, the B Side Anyway You Want Me (#20) was more my style then the sappy Love Me Tender. There were about 12 other Presley forty fives but most of them were in poor shape. Perhaps some of them could have played very well, Perhaps I should have picked up Wear My Ring Around Your Neck. Blue Moon, is from the Sun Sessions and one of more mysterious songs that Presley made. The scratchy sounds makes the record all that more worthwhile to listen to. However this song only stumbled to number 55 in 1956. B side Just Because is a return to the rockabilly rock that Elvis started out to do. Bill Black and Scotty Moore really did shape the sound a lot better than given credit for.
7) Blue Moon-The Marcels (Colpix CP-186) #1 1961
If Elvis Presley's version was a dark melancholy midnight stroll, The Marcels' version was more fun and uptempo doo wop. And probably was the inspiration for Sha Na Na. Like Warner Brothers, Col Pix was Columbia Pictures going into the music biz but with less results rather than the WB and eventually Columbia Pictures decided it wasn't cost effective and closed things up Blue Moon was doo wop fun, everybody got a kick out of the opening bass lines. B side Goodbye To Love is a doo wop ballad.
8) Ya Got Trouble-Stan Freberg (Capitol F-3892) 1958
Ah the Music Man, Meredith Wilson's story about trouble in River City. I remember my ex girlfriend wanting a copy of The Music Man and ended up getting the Warner Brothers album but Capitol had their very own. Stan Freberg was a parodist who like to make fun of the flavor of the day, he could be good pulling off a Jack Webb but when he tried to parody rock and roll he fell on his ass. It really wasn't very funny. I do remember hearing this song on a ole puppet show (it wasn't Dr. Max but a rival show on KCRG in the late 60s) to which I remember the pool cue sketch in this version. It was a long song, almost 4 minutes in length, not exactly Mac Arthur Park or Let It Be but back in the late 50s songs were 2 and half minutes average wise. B side Gary Indiana continues the Music Man nonsense.
9) Margo (The Month Of May) The Browns (RCA 47-7755) 1960
Jim Ed Brown and his sisters made some pleasant country rock for RCA in the late 50s and early 60s, and they got a hit with The Three Bells, hitting number 1 in 1959. The ensuring album Town And Country had that and Scarlet Ribbons for her hair but by the time this song came out, the rock and pop crowd moved on to other things and this song didn't chart. In fact it wasn't on the first Greatest Hits that Collector's Choice issued, nor the Real Gone version. However import albums from Jasmine and Acrobat does have this song with b side Lonely Little Robin. Not exactly a memorable song for either Margo or Lonely Little Robin but it does fit the smooth vocal style of The Browns
10) Linda Lu-Ray Sharpe (Jamie 1128) #46 1959
An early Lee Hazlewood production (along with Lester Sill), this turned out to be Ray's only chart appearance. It didn't get much airplay here, I heard it sometime in 1987 when KXIC was the oldies station and they played off the wall songs such as this. I think Dave at Mad City Music X needed to clear space up in his museum 45s and banished this to the quarter dumpster file. It's still in pretty good shape I think. Those quarter 45s do sound better the less you pay for them.
To Be Continued
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