June 23, 1967:
Aretha Franklin records "Chain Of Fools", which will reach #2 in the US the following January…
Arthur Conley receives a Gold record for "Sweet Soul Music", a song that reached number two in the US on both the Pop and R&B charts. It was one of nine records that Conley put on the Billboard charts between 1967 and 1970…
R.I.P. Bobby “Blue” Bland
Robert Calvin "Bobby" Bland (January 27, 1930 – June 23, 2013), né Brooks, also known professionally as Bobby "Blue" Bland…
Bobby "Blue" Bland, who placed three songs on the Billboard Top 40, including 1962's "Turn On Your Love Light", passed away at the age of 83…
THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED…
Robert Calvin "Bobby" Bland (January 27, 1930 - June 23, 2013), also known as Bobby "Blue" Bland, was an American singer of blues and soul. He was an original member of the Beale Streeters, and was sometimes referred to as the "Lion of the Blues"...
Along with such artists as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and Junior Parker, Bland developed a sound that mixed gospel with the blues and R&B…
Check out some Bobby "Blue" Bland MAGIC here... Bobby Bland was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1981, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997…
Brother Bobby “Blue” Bland left this plane on Sunday June 23, 2013...
THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED…
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!?!?
THE USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS USED UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF "FAIR USE" IN TITLE 17 & 107 OF THE UNITED STATES CODE. SUCH MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY. NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED
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….
