Charlie Rich – Charlie Rocks

Charlie Rich – Charlie Rocks
Bear Family BCD 16513 AR

Track listing: Whirlwind (undubbed version), Everything I Do Is Wrong, Philadelphia Baby, Big Man, Rebound, That's Rich, Lonely Weekends (master), Break Up, Midnite Blues, Little Woman Friend Of Mine, Goodbye Mary Ann (alt 3), You Made A Hit, Red Man, Donna Lee, Popcorn Polly, Gentle As A Lamb, Charlie's Boogie, Stop Thief, Right Behind You Baby, Lonely Weekends (undubbed alt), Yes Ma'am, Big Man (undubbed alt), Big Boss Man, The Ways Of A Woman In Love, Mohair Sam, I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water, Just A Little Bit Of Time, It Ain't Gonna Be That Way, That's My Way, Just A Little Bit Of You, So Long)

The latest edition to bear Family’s excellent Rocks series pays tribute to the astonishingly gifted Charlie Rich. I love the Silver Fox catalogue from the Sun rock ‘n’ roll to the string laden country on Epic. This release looks at the up-tempo numbers from the early to mid period on Sun, Smash & RCA.

Charlie Rich could never be classified as a rockabilly in the Billy Lee Riley sense, he there was always a jazzy, late-night feel to his sound. That’s not to say he couldn’t rock out, it’s just he always seemed more comfortable with something funkier. Sam Phillips had him cutting a rug early on with some great rockers in the form of Lonely Weekends, Philadelphia Baby, Rebound and the undubbed version of Whirlwind. From this period, the bluesy, Everything I Do Is Wrong probably tells us more about the Silver Fox than any of the rockers. Of the lessor known items, Gentle As A Lamb is a long way from Sonny Burgess but as an insight into the hip side of Memphis’ early 60’s soul, it’s more than fine with me. Donna Lee is pretty average but for some reason I quite like the oddball rocker Popcorn Polly.

From the post Sun era there’s a handful of crackers, of which the exquisite Mohair Sam and the funky I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water need no introduction. I’ve always loved his reading of Johnny Cash’s The Ways Of A Woman In Love and Just A Little Bit Of Time gives a glimpse into another side of Memphis. I'm a bit surprised that She's A Yum-Yum and You Can Have Her have been omitted, but it's hard to be picky with such a great compliation.

My top three picks for constant plays are Mohair Sam, Big Man and best of all, the brilliant, atmospheric soul of Midnite Blues. To me this song is Charlie Rich in a nutshell. A classy CD that sits nicely on the shelf alongside the box set, the best of compilations of Groove and Smash, the Epic releases and the Feel Like Goin’ Home: Essential CR double on Columbia/Legacy.

Billy Lee Riley - Times Obituary

Billy Lee Riley was a rock’n’roll pioneer and a member of the famous Sun Records stable, where his label mates included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. His biggest hit came with Flying Saucers Rock and Roll (1957). Although he struggled to repeat that record’s chart success, he returned to popularity during the rockabilly revival of the 1980s and he toured Britain and Europe regularly.

Born into a poor, sharecropping family in Pocahontas, Arkansas, in 1933, he was taught to play guitar and harmonica by the blues musicians with whom he worked in the fields — to supplement the family income he had been picking cotton since he was only 6.

At 15 he lied about his age and joined the US Army, serving for four years from 1948 to 1952. On his discharge he returned to Arkansas and joined the Ranch Boys, performing hillbilly songs on a local radio station before he moved to Memphis to work in his brother-in-law’s restaurant.

He arrived at a propitious moment, just as black rhythm ‘n’ blues and white country music were coming together in the city to create rock’n’roll, and he made his first recordings in 1955 for the tiny Fernwood label, owned by “Cowboy” Jack Clement and Slim Wallace. The label recorded in a garage with only limited technical facilities and so to master what was intended to be Riley’s debut single, Trouble Bound backed with Think before Your Go, Clement took the tapes to Sam Phillips at Sun Records.

Phillips was so taken with Trouble Bound that he hired Clement to work for him and signed Riley to a recording contract, also employing him and the drummer J. M. Van Eaton and the guitarist Roland Janes from his backing group as members of the Sun house band.

Trouble Bound eventually appeared on Sun as a single in 1956, backed with a new cut Rock with Me Baby, after Phillips had rejected Think before You Go as too country. But it was Riley’s next release, Flying Saucers Rock and Roll, that took him into the American charts. Its timing was perfect, riding the crest of the rock’n’roll explosion and the growing fascination with UFOs and on the crest of the Soviet launch of the first Sputnik.

The record’s spectacular success led Riley to rename his band the Little Green Men and to dress them in green baize suits. With his film-star good looks and Presley-like stage moves, stardom seemed guaranteed. Yet the follow-up single, Red Hot, featuring Jerry Lee Lewis accompanying Riley on pounding piano, fared less well. In later years Riley claimed the reason was that Phillips and Sun failed to promote it properly because they were too busy pushing Lewis’s own Great Balls of Fire.

He continued to record for Sun until 1959 without further significant commercial success, although his 1950s Memphis recordings today are considered rockabilly classics and Bob Dylan has cited Riley as an early influence. After leaving Sun he started his own label before moving in 1962 to Los Angeles, where he became a studio session musician, playing on records by the Beach Boys, Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin, among others.

He returned to Arkansas in the early 1970s and abandoned music to start a construction business. By 1978, however, Flying Saucers Rock and Roll and Red Hot had been rediscovered by a new generation of music fans.

After his early Sun recordings were reissued on the Charly label and hailed as lost rockabilly classics, Riley returned to performing and became particularly popular in Britain where the likes of Shakin’ Stevens helped to restore his brand of music to commercial favour.

He continued to perform and record regularly for the next 30 years. His 1997 album Hot Damn! was nominated for a Grammy award and his final release, Hillbilly Rockin’ Man (2003), on which he returned to his country roots, was critically well received.

He played his final show in June 2009 at the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis, by which time he had an advanced cancer.

Billy Lee Riley, singer, was born on October 5, 1933. He died of cancer on August 2, 2009, aged 75.

Billy Lee Riley - RIP

I've just heard that the great Sun rockabilly artist Billy Lee Riley has died. I know he's been suffering really badly and it's probably a blessing for him and his family, but it still doesn't make it any less sad. I'm gutted, he was a great figure within the world of rockabilly.

Billy Lee passed away yesterday (August 2nd, 2009) with his family at his bedside.

I had the great fortune to meet Billy Lee and also exchanged many emails with him. I saw him live and was knocked out by his version of Pearly Lee. All we've got left now is the music, but what a fabulous consolation that is.

Rest in peace Billy Lee - you were up there with the greatest.

Bill Lee Riley Benefit Gig

Sun Records legend, Bill Lee Riley, is in desperate need of help these days, with growing health bills following a couple of years of unbelievable back luck. He's currently being treated for cancer and in an effort to help him out, Sonny Burgess and the Pacers are holding a benefit show for Billy Lee on August 30 at 1 pm at the Silver Moon in Newport, Arkansas.

Original Pacer, Bobby Crafford is trying to line up a number of artists to play with all the proceeds going to Billy Lee. Anyone interested in attending or playing should contact Bobby Crafford at Rapidbc1@aol.com or on 501-803-4834.

Also, our best friend Bob Timmers is helping raise money for Billy Lee, visit http://www.rockabillyhall.com for more details.

Various: Good Rockin' Tonight - Red Hot Rockabilly
Fantastic Voyage - B002BANBV2

I’ve just been sent a review copy of the latest in a long line of rockabilly box sets and have to say it one of the finest compilations you could dream up. Compiled by renowned rockabilly Lucky Parker, 'Good Rockin Tonight-Red Hot Rockabilly' is a 3CD 75 track set including much sought after tracks from the likes of Sun, Decca, Capitol, Columbia, Mercury, RCA and Brunswick labels.

Fantastic Voyage was launched this February, a subsidiary of Future Noise Music which itself only came into being in January. The labels will feature releases of r&b, soul, blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll to punk, electronica and rock. A new imprint, Year Zero will be launched in September, dealing with the punk era onwards.
As I said, there’s been no end of rockabilly compilations taking advantage of the 50 year copyright ruling, but Good Rockin' Tonight - Red Hot Rockabilly, is one of the best. We get the full variety of the genre from the uptempo hillbilly side to the flat-out high-octane rockabilly blasters. They all come from the prime-time period of rockabilly, 1954 to 1958.

From the country side of things we get such classics as Ferlin Huskey’s Slow Down Brother, Webb Pierce’s Teenage Boogie, the Farmers Boys’ Cool Down Mame and Brenda Lee’s Little Jonah. From the dance-floor stomping market we get such shot-in-the-arm rockers as Ray Harris’ Come On Little Mama and Jack Earls’ Slow Down. There’s a whole slew of tracks that have gone on to become classics in the last few decades – Cast Iron Arm, Sixteen Chicks, Bop-A-Lena, and one of my all-time favourites, Love Bug Crawl b Jimmy Edwards (uuumm, what a thrill).

Sun records always looms large on compilations like this and here we get to bop to Warren Smith’s Miss Froggie, Sonny Burgess’ We Wanna Boogie and Hayden Thompson’s Love My Baby and a dozen or so other essentials.


Towards the end of the second CD you get two examples of backing vocals – they’re fine on the late-great Janis Martin’s Alright Baby but spoil Bob Luman’s Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache (the undubbed version would have fit the bill much better).

My two heroes, Jerry Lee and Elvis are well represented with not a dud between them. In actual fact there’s only one dud here, Billy Lee Riley’s over-rated Baby Please Don’t Go. I adore Billy and am saddened to here of his continued illness, but this song isn’t in the same league as the likes of Trouble Bound, Pearly Lee and countless others.

This is a must have item for new fans and for established rockers it’s a great collection to leave in the car to brighten up any journey. 74 classics out of 75 is a five star release in anyone’s book. Released this week, file under Essential.

Jerry Lee Lewis - The Road Begins

Jerry Lee Lewis - The Road Begins
El Toro Records- ETCD1022

1 End of the Road
2 Crazy Arms
3 Born To Lose
4 Turn Around
5 Matchbox (Carl Perkins)
6 Your True Love (Carl Perkins)
7 Silver Threads Among The Gold
8 Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
9 Roll Over Beethoven (Carl Perkins)
10 Straight A's In Love (Johnny Cash)
11 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
12 It'll be Me
13 I Love You Because (Johnny Cash)
14 Great Balls Of Fire
15 You Win Again
16 I Want You Baby (Billy Riley & his Little Green Men)
17 Flyin' Saucers Rock & Roll (Billy Riley & his Little Green Men)
18 The Crawdad Song
19 Deep Elem Blues
20 I'm Feelin' Sorry
21 Put Your Cat Clothes on (Carl Perkins)
22 Love My Baby (Hayden Thompson)
23 Mean Woman Blues
24 Dixie
25 Crazy Arms (Million Dollar Quartet session)
26 End Of The Road (Million Dollar Quartet session)
27 Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Steve Allen TV Show)
28 Don't Stay Away ('Til Love Grows Cold) (demo 1952)
29 Jerry Lee's Boogie (demo 1952)
30 I Don't Hurt Anymore (demo 1954)
31 I Need You Now (demo 1954)

El Toro Records continue to go from strength to strength with their releases of both old catalogues and some of the best current bands. Obviously this little peach sits fair and square in the first category. Most fans will have everything here many times over but who can be arsed to create a playlist that captures the early years of the Ferriday Fireball like this.

Jerry Lee blew into Memphis with a single minded, confident vision of fortune and fame that he just knew he was going to attain. The compilation features the earliest classics from his time at Sun like Crazy Arms and It'll Be Me, together with some that weren't destined to classics for a few more decades, like Deep Elem Blues and The Crawdad Song. When the Killer wasn't criss-crossing the country on Sun package shows he was used by Sam Phillips as a session man. We get some perfect examples of it here, backing the masters Johnny Cash (JLL's participation is dubious however) and Carl Perkins as well as being a key component in the sides of Billy Lee Riley and Hayden Thompson. The Thompson and Riley tracks stand-up against the others and prove that they could just as eaasily made the big time, if fate (and Sam) had played a different hand.

Elsewhere there's a few from the legendary Million Dollar Quartet session and Shakin' from his tv debut on the Steve Allen Show (see below). The two private accetates from the teenage tearaway from New Orleans in '52 and Shreveport in '54 show that Jerry Lee was already an accomplish pianist in need of a sympathetic ear and a decent studio. Enter, Sam Phillips and his Memphis Recrording studio, where the road really did begin. A brilliant release.

Rockin' Song of the Week - Number 44

Edwin Bruce - Sweet Woman (Sun 292)

Eighteen year old local memphis boy Edwin Bruce walked into the Sun Studio on 26th January 1958 and gave a commanding performance that belied his tender age. Sounding like a veteran of the rockabilly circuit he impressed Sam Phillips enough to get a release, no mean feat in 1958 when most sessions led to can-fillers. It was a typical Sun rocker with Billy Lee Riley on guitar, Stan Kesler on bass, Jimmy Wilson on piano and Jimmy Van Eaton doing overtime on the cymbol. Unlike some Sun rockers the vocals were rasping and manic, but a calm and laid back - more Carl Mann than Ray Harris. The interplay between the guitars of Bruce and Billy Lee is the songs driving force. He never made it to rock 'n' roll stardom but the ensuing decades were more rewarding once he swapped the pompadour for a cowboy hat. It's hard to believe that the vocalist on his country classics like Diane was the same guy who turned up his collar for Sweet Woman and Rock Boppin' Baby. Then again, the photo of him with his quiff and rock 'n' roll pose is a long way from the weathered cowboy photos with his moustache and stetson. Whatever, his voice is great in either vein and I love his country stuff as well as is all too few rockers.

Recommended listening: Rock Boppin' Baby, Diane, The Last Cowby Song, Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grown Up To Be Cowboys and the great Waylonesque Girls, Women and Ladies.

Rockin' Song of the Week - Number 42

Johnny Cash - The Ways Of A Woman In Love (Sun 302)
It's fifty years since the parting of the ways between the once wonderful marriage of Johnny Cash and Sun Records. With his association with the label going south quicker than the big river than runs under the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge, Sam Phillips tried to milk the cow a couple more times. Getting all he could in the can for the dry spells ahead, Sam held two July sessions with Johnny, Luther and Marshall and 706 regulars Billy Lee Riley, Jimmy Van Eaton and Jimmy Wilson (replaced by Charlie Rich for the second session). These songs had a lot more meat on the bone than the Cry Cry Cry days of three short years earlier. The Gene Lowery Singers were also used to give a commercial edge that was never on the original agenda. A lot of the elements that made their name are still there, from Luther's simple guitar intro to JC's wonderful way with words, it's just you now have hoo's and ah's and a piano solo. A great going-away present to Sam, that being the generous man he was, he shared with us all.
Recommended listening: Yeah, like need telling!

Memphis Cats on youTube

Charlie Feathers - That Certain Female Some crazy guy called Mike miming in the car to this Charlie Feathers anthem. Manic. Sonny Burgess - We Wanna Boogie Sonny Burgess & fellow pianist Kern Kennedy playin at High Rockabilly 2005 (Spain). Billy Lee Riley - Pearly Lee - 20.10.07 Roermond NL BILLY LEE RILEY with THE BELLHOPS (NL)!! front row footage Carl Perkins- Blue Suede Shoes 1956 Prime time CP. hot version from the quartet that was faster thant eh single. Eddie Bond - Slippin´In in Green Bay 2007. Sadly too short a clip but the bright suit was enough to get me going. Junior Thompson - Raw Deal on 78RPM A milestone in rock history! 78rpm Memphis Rockabilly 1956! A very scarce record that definiates the rockabilly sound that came out from the small labels in the southern US in mid 50'swhat a great site to see this 78 spinning round as the legendary song balsts out of the speakers. Just wish it was my 78! Hayden Thompson - Love My Baby Original Sun Rockabilly Star at The Rhythm Riot 2006 Jack Earls & the Ragtime Wranglers - Take me to That Place Live at the Rockabilly Rave Camber UK, October 2004. Barbra Pittman - I'm getting better all the time Ms Pittman at the Rave. This was the first time I saw this lady and unfortunately the last. At times she's excellent. That voice is still there wanting to rock! You also see a tiredness (is that the right word) in her voice. I'm glad I filmed this. Miss Mary Ann and Lynette Morgan look more than happy to supply backing vocals... great rocking version, and probably the first handclapping solo I've ever enjoyed. Carl Mann - Mona Lisa/I´m Comin´ Home Carl Mann rocking it up at Screaming Fest Saturday the 9th of June 2007. Narvel Felts - My Babe - Green Bay 2005 That's Ashley Kingman from the Fly-Rite Boys on lead guitar. Johnny Burnette - Hound Dog From 1956 this is prime time Memphis rockabilly. no wonder the flying saucers were scared to land.