It's a fairly well known fact that "Hound Dog," Elvis Presley's major hit was written by Leiber & Stroller and initially recorded by Big Mama Thornton well before Elvis even thought about entering a recording studio.
But what other houndogs got their break after snoopin' round the R&B door?
It was the late 1950's when Richard Berry put out Louie Louie on Flip Records. It did ok on the "Black" radio stations such as WAMO in Pittsburgh and WDIA in Memphis, but wasn't a mainstream hit...
Then came the Kingsmen who took the tune, speeded it up and turned it into a smash hit...
For a lot of folks this is "old news"--With Louie Louie being just about the most covered, and most played tune by garage and bar bands in history, most people know, by now, that Richard Berry (Not The Kingsmen!) penned and recorded the tune in the first place..,But dig this:
In the mid-1960s The Gentrys had a major hit with "Keep On Dancing"--A darn good tune
BUT, was it really their tune? Not by a long shot! The Avantis should have had a hit when they released the tune well before the Gentrys cover:
Then along came The Young Rascals, a 'Blue-Eye Soul/Rock & Roll" outfit out of New Jersey who actually became the first white act to grace the Atlantic Label who did a cover of this Olympics' tune:
Remember the Aerosmith tune "Big Ten Inch"
A straight up cover of Bull Moose Jackson's monster from the late 1940s:
So there ya go, and these are just a few of the many--IT'S ONLY ROCK 'N ROLL, or is it actually R&B turned into ROCK 'N ROLL?
How about I close this out with Vanilla Fudge, a group who actually took a Soul jam and turned it into some Psychedelic Rock...
But what other houndogs got their break after snoopin' round the R&B door?
It was the late 1950's when Richard Berry put out Louie Louie on Flip Records. It did ok on the "Black" radio stations such as WAMO in Pittsburgh and WDIA in Memphis, but wasn't a mainstream hit...Then came the Kingsmen who took the tune, speeded it up and turned it into a smash hit...
For a lot of folks this is "old news"--With Louie Louie being just about the most covered, and most played tune by garage and bar bands in history, most people know, by now, that Richard Berry (Not The Kingsmen!) penned and recorded the tune in the first place..,But dig this:
In the mid-1960s The Gentrys had a major hit with "Keep On Dancing"--A darn good tune
BUT, was it really their tune? Not by a long shot! The Avantis should have had a hit when they released the tune well before the Gentrys cover:
Then along came The Young Rascals, a 'Blue-Eye Soul/Rock & Roll" outfit out of New Jersey who actually became the first white act to grace the Atlantic Label who did a cover of this Olympics' tune:
Remember the Aerosmith tune "Big Ten Inch"
A straight up cover of Bull Moose Jackson's monster from the late 1940s:
So there ya go, and these are just a few of the many--IT'S ONLY ROCK 'N ROLL, or is it actually R&B turned into ROCK 'N ROLL?
How about I close this out with Vanilla Fudge, a group who actually took a Soul jam and turned it into some Psychedelic Rock...
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