Sunday, May 27, 2012

MAY 27, 1932; JUNIOR PARKER HITS THE PLANET!

Junior Parker
(May 27, 1932 – November 18, 1971)
Junior Parker stuffed a lot of life into his thirty nine years! Born in Arkansas, he was on the scene in Memphis, playing with B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland’s Beale Streeters by the time he was eighteen...
—That’s where her got “discovered” by Ike Turner…

Young Ike Turner

With the help of Turner, Junior was signed to Modern Records, putting out one single (“You’re My Angel”)...
This brought him to the attention of Sun Records’ Sam Phillips and he (along with his band) scored a Sun contract...

At Sun, Scotty Moore promptly
 “borrowed” the guitar riff to Parker’s “Love My Baby” and turned Elvis Presley’s version of “Mystery Train” into a smash hit…


Later that year (1953) Junior started touring with Bobby Bland and Johnny Ace as members of the highly successful Blues Consolidated Revue (a staple on the “Chitlin’ Circuit”) and became associated with the Duke Record label…


Here’s Junior with Little Milton:


1970:


Junior Parker died on November 18, 1971 during brain surgery...
Junior Parker
 inducted posthumously in 2002


R.I.P. JUNIOR PARKER...

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