Mary Wells hits #6 on the R&B chart and #15 (3/30) on the pop chart with "Laughing Boy",
#8 on the R&B chart and #29 (2/29/64) on the pop chart with "What's Easy For Two Is So Hard For One"
and #8 on the R&B chart and #40 (7/06) on the pop chart with "Your Old Stand By"
MOTORCITY MAGIC!!!
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Little Esther Phillips (She was most likely touring in support of her 1964 hit Mojo Hannah, but hopefully was still doing the classicHollerin' and Screaming which she recorded with Johnny Otis in 1953)
and Jimmy Ricks (The Grandfather of Doo-Wop)play the first of two nights at The Hines Farm Blues Club, Swanton, Ohio…
The Hines Farm story has attained national and international acclaim via myriad blues magazine and journal articles…
During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Hines Farm was the location of one of the premier blues clubs in the United States. Located in Swanton, Ohio, a rural community just outside Toledo, Hines Farm featured a who’s who of blues and jazz entertainers, and served as a cultural center for African-Americans.
The festive environment attracted large crowds --they had everything from baseball to motorcycle racing, and of course some of the best musicians in the world performed there--
musicians such as John Lee Hooker
Freddie King
Bobby "Blue" Bland
and B.B. King...
"We used to play out there quite often, sometimes seemed to me about two or three times a year," says the legendary B.B. King about the old times spent at Hines Farm. "They had good food, good music and pretty girls." ~~ B.B. King
Little Esther Phillips
was born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, Texas. When she was an adolescent, her parents divorced, and she was forced to divide her time between her father in Houston and her mother in the Watts area of Los Angeles. Because she was brought up singing in church, she was hesitant to enter a talent contest at a local blues club, but her sister insisted and she complied. A mature singer at age fourteen,
she won the amateur talent contest in 1949 at the Barrelhouse Club owned by Johnny Otis. Otis was so impressed that he recorded her for Modern Records and added her to his traveling revue, the California Rhythm and Blues Caravan, billed as 'Little Esther Phillips' (she reportedly took the surname from a gas station sign…(Wikipedia)
This was her hit at the time of the show, but the following was one of the Johnny Otis cuts that made her famous!!!
The Ravens began their musical career in the summer of 1946 when they recorded six songs for Hub Records. Their first gig was at the Baby Grand in Harlem. The audiences loved the new sound of the Ravens, with Ricks on the bass lead. While record sales were slow at first, the Ravens's tunes were popular with the juke box crowd.
In1949, The Ravens made their national television debut on Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town." Sullivan presented the group with the "Top Vocal Group of 1948," given by the readers of "Cashbox" magazine.
The Ravens had enjoyed their most successful year in 1948, breaking records at the Apollo Theater in New York and DETROIT'S ParadiseTheater
(later restored as the Orchestra Hall) ...
1951 was another successful year for the Ravens as they continued to churn out one song after another for Columbia.
They received thousands of dollars a night to perform...
By late 1952, after some personnel changes, the Ravens were as popular as ever, garnering the 1953 poll as the best vocal quartet...
Once again the Ravens were one of the most popular recording acts in the country. The last Ravens original record with Mercury was fittingly a 1954 cover version of Cole Porter's classic, "I've Got You Under My Skin."
1955 was Jimmy Ricks' last year with the Ravens. On his final record with the Ravens, Ricks sang the lead on "Boots and Saddles/I'll Always Be In Love With You"
which was released in February of 1956. While the Ravens continued to perform for more than a decade, Ricks embarked on a less successful solo career releasing two dozen solo 45s…
WHAT!?!Ya thought WE started this stuff!?!?
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In the fall of 1962, writer/manager/entrepreneur Ronnie Mack took some his songs to a new production team in New York City.
The company Bright Tunes and the producers were Phil and Mitch Margo, Jay Siegel, and Hank Medress a.k.a. The Tokens of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” fame.
"He's So Fine" was one of those songs.
Mack brought The Chiffons in to record the tune and The Tokens not only produced it, but played all the instruments too.
By March 20th "He's So Fine" was the #1 record on both the Pop and R&B charts.
“He’s So Fine”
1968: Otis Redding - Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay
"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper…
It was first recorded by Otis Redding in 1967, just days before his death. It was released posthumously on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968, becoming the first posthumous number-one single in US and UK chart history. (From Wikipedia)
1971: Temptations - Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
Released on the Gordy (Motown) label,
and produced by Norman Whitfield, it features on the group's 1971 album, Sky's the Limit. When released as a single, "Just My Imagination" became the third Temptations song to reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100…
The Temptations, OF COURSE!!!
Some Cool Number One Records
on March 28th Through the Years
in
THE EVOLUTION OF ROCK 'n ROLL...
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March 27-28, 1971: Humble Pie opens for Johnny Winter at The Eastown
DETROIT'S EASTOWN IN THE REALLY OLD DAYS...
No Humble Pie at The Eastown clips to be had, but I KNOW they did this one…
No Johnny Winter at the Eastown clips that I can find either, but I was there and KNOW Johnny had Rick Derringer with him and they did this one…
And this one…
MAN, THOSE WERE THE DAYS!!!
================================ NOTE:
Johnny also did this clip for Tube Works Detroit while in the city, check it out...
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Clips from The Jackson 5, including their audition at Motown, open Part 4
The original Jackson 5 group was reunited for this performance…
They perform a medley of their hits "I Want You Back," The Love You Save," "Never Can Say Goodbye," and "I'll Be There."
Check out that audition and the live medley and remember why Michael became a megastar from these beginnings…
Brother Randy
who was not a part of the original Jackson 5
but replaced Jermaine as he went on his solo career, was a part of the later group The Jacksonsalso joined the group for the medley.
It was also a reunion for Jermaine
who performed with his brothers for the first time since leaving the group…
When the rest of The Jacksons left the stage Michael transitioned dramatically into his own solo spot. He performed "Billie Jean"
-- which at the time was in the middle of a seven-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100 music charts. This was also the first time he performed what would become his most famous signature move, the moonwalk
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (part 4)
—Check it out!
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Part 3 opens with a clip of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”
and Live performances by:
WKRP’s“Dr. Johnny Fever”
“Venus Flytrap”
introducing 30 second appearances by Martha Reeves, Mary Wells, Jr. Walker and The Commodores…
Jose Feliciano does an “interesting cover of the Jackie Wilson hit “Lonely Teardrops”—Which, by the way, is one of the first tunes ever written by Motown Founder Berry Gordy, Jr. and Adam Ant does a rather strange version of The Supremes’ hit “Where Did Our Love Go”
Lionel Richie does his signature tune
AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!!!
Motown 25:
Yesterday, Today, Forever (part 3)
—Check it out!
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Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 26, 1917 – December 15, 2001)
Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s and on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s…
Rufus got his start at WDIA in 1950 or 1951—
Depending on which biography one believes!
His celebrity was such that in 1953 he recorded an "answer record" to Big Mama Thornton's hit, "Hound Dog" called "Bear Cat" released on Sun Records…
Rufus doin' The Funky Chicken
His afternoon show at WDIA was called Hoot and Holler where Rufus Thomas helped to break the careers of such musicians as
Bobby "Blue"Bland,
As well as; B.B. King, Ike Turner, Roscoe Gordon and Junior Parker. All while still performing himself...
He also took onthe hosting duties for the WDIA amateur shows, enabling him to claim the discovery of various local (Memphis) artists, including the aforementioned discovery of B.B. King…
But the prime of Rufus' recording career came in the 1960s and early 1970s, when he was on the roster of Memphis label, Stax, having one of the first hit sides at the historic soul and blues label, "Walking the Dog", (#5 R&B, #10 Pop) in 1963.…
Rufus Thomas was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001…
He died of heart failure in 2001, at the age of 84, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis. A street is named in his honor, just off Beale Street in Memphis….
