Village of Love, Nathaniel Mayer & The Fabulous Twilights (1962)
Village of Love was Nathaniel “Nate Dog” Mayer‘s first hit, recorded when he was 18. After his six year stint with Fortune Records, his whereabouts were often unknown as he would disappear into the East Detroit ghettos, sometimes for years. Apparently he’d had a rough time, too – in 2009 he recorded The Puddle.
The Woo Woo Train, The Valentines (1956) Rama RecordsFirst calling themselves The Mistletoes, then The Dreamers, they settled on The Valentines.The Jimmy Wright Orchestra played on the Rama sessions.
Miss Tess & The Bon Ton Parade perform “That Oo Oo Oo” in October 2009. According to the Utoobage comments, she’s playing an electrified 1920 Weymann archtop. This is early morning roadtrip music for me. I love it.
J.D. McPherson at Sun Studios 2014. Jump to 02:30 for kickass rockabilly.
Doowop wasn’t called “Doowop” until the 60s or so, so here’s a Rhythm & Blues Documentary instead. Yeah it’s kinda sucky, so try this:
Have a great weekend folks, and remember that this three-day weekend is not a holiday honoring BBQs and bloviating politicians.
Memorial Day honors those who gave their lives in the name of Freedom.
Couldn’t make it through the original version. Then we thought we’d look for some recent retro bands and found this.
Japanese girl group Oh!Sharels cover the Chords’ 1954 classic Sh-Boom.
Contrary to popular belief, doowop (aka R&B aka Rhythm & Blues) was not the only form of early rock and roll, so let’s kick it up with some Retrobilly.
Molly Sue Gonzalez (And The Mean Mean Men) “Bad Example” is just the thing to wrap up this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks, be back here tomorrow.
Where do we go from here? I’m not gonna post Boy George, and the Utoobage offering of a band called “The Chameleons” held little interest for me. Oh wait. I got it.
The Lounge Lizards, 1988, “The Voice of Chunk.” This experimental group never quite hit, but they had a point. Some might axe me, “Bunk, do you really like this crap?” and my emphatic response is, “No, but at least they tried.”
Little Isadore & The Inquistors’ early R&B style is spot on. Can’t find much about LI, and maybe that’s a good thing. A googoyle search provides little, except that it lead me to Rob Hyman and a band I’d forgotten about.
Hyman was a founding member of The Hooters. I have one of their CDs, but I don’t remember what caught my ear aside from the eclectic sound. “Karla With a K” would have fit my playlist in the late 80’s.
Lessee, what else was I listening to back then? A wide variety, including these guys:
Aswad live at Sunsplash 1984. No, I was never a stoner, but I liked de riddims.
Before anyone thinks I was some kind of pre-hipster indie weenoid back then, this was what I cranked after the sun went down.
Have a great weekend folks (and remember that real dads hate Fathers Day).
To all readers of Tacky Raccoons who have Utoobage accounts:
Please capture and repost these. They’ve been blocked and vaporized before, but they should be available to everyone, if only because they’re so entirely awesome.
“Dance Girl” by The Charts, who earn the award for Best Non-Rock-Band-Name in the business. (Not to be confused with “Dance Girl,” a song recorded by Norman Fox & The Rob Roys, which is an entirely different awesome song.)
The Pyramids’ 1958 hit “Hot Dog Dooly Wah” is a favorite around here.
The Dell-Vikings’ “Jitterbug Mary” is an unrecobanized classic. They were my favorite doowop group. I hear this kinda stuff and it makes everything better.
My favorite doowop group was The Five Satins. Here they lipsynch for a bunch of white people.
Gene Chandler was better known for “Duke of Earl.” Here’s the Duke singing “Good Times.” Although this song is R&B, he’s my favorite doowop singer.
“Love of My Life” is one of the greatest songs ever, and Frank Zappa’s bands are my favorite doowop group. (This song is still my favorite — too bad The Ramones aren’t still around to do a Zappa tribute album.)
