Super Sunday Boppin' Till We Drop at the 2024 Birthday of Louis Jordan, Joe B. Mauldin, and Billy Eckstine

by Robert Wilkinson

For our second Sunday show we juke, jump, and jive to swing, jump blues, and the bridge from R&B to rock and roll! The first legend had major attitude, the second was Buddy's bass player, and the third was one of the biggest of the big! And for our opening act, a "novelty" record which was a huge hit in 1964!

I know I just gave this to you on Friday, but it’s so cool we’ll do it again! Our opening act was a one hit wonder who had a birthday not long ago. Jumpin' Gene Simmons (July 10, 1933 – August 29, 2006) went to #11 on the charts in 1964 with this novelty rockabilly flavored hit "Haunted House." (Yes, the KISS bass player took his name from this one hit rockabilly wonder.)

He was on Sun in the late 50s, and here's the only record I could find from that era. It's classic rockabilly obviously modeled on Jerry Lee Lewis' style in 1958 titled "Peroxide Blonde in a Hopped Up Model Ford"

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We now move into the first of our star acts in our dance! July 8 was the birthday of the legendary Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975), pioneering song writer and band leader. “King of the Jukebox” at the end of the Swing era, he gave us “jump blues,” one of the prototypes for rock and roll. His career bridged big band era jazz with R&B and rock and roll, and he influenced the best of the best. From wiki:

Louis Jordan is described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "the Father of Rhythm & Blues" and "the Grandfather of Rock 'n’ Roll." He is one of a number of seminal black performers who are often credited with inventing rock and roll, or at least providing many of the building blocks for the music. Jordan was the greatest post-war exponent of the jump blues style, one of the prototypes of rock and roll, and he paved the way for Roy Brown, Wynonie Harris, Tiny Bradshaw and others. Jordan also strongly influenced Bill Haley & His Comets, whose producer, Milt Gabler, had also worked with Jordan and attempted to incorporate Jordan's stylings into Haley's music. Haley also honored Jordan by recording several of his songs, including "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" (which Gabler co-wrote) and "Caldonia."

Among Jordan's biggest fans were Little Richard and Chuck Berry. Some have suggested that Berry modeled his musical approach on Jordan's, changing the lyric content from black life to teenage life, and substituting cars and girls for Jordan's primary motifs of food, drink, money and girls. Berry's iconic opening riff on “Johnny B. Goode” bears a striking similarity to the intro played by guitarist, Carl Hogan, on the 1946 hit "Ain't That Just Like A Woman".

Others have suggested Jordan's vocal style may have been an important precursor to rap. His 1947 sister tracks, "Beware (Brother Beware)" and "Look Out (Sister)", entirely delivered as spoken rhyming couplets, can arguably be classified as one of the first true "raps" in popular music. "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (1950) also features a rapid-fire, highly syncopated semi-spoken vocal delivery that bears some resemblance to the modern rap style.

We’ll begin with a tune that was our Saturday Night Attitude Tune a few years back! Going way back to 1946, here’s a live clip of Louis Jordan cranking out his version which went to #2 on the charts of the classic version of "Let the Good Times Roll"

From 1945, his iconic boogie that went to #1, “Caledonia”

From 1946, another one that went to #1, “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”

Also in 1946, another #1! "Ain't That Just Like A Woman"

We’ll go back a few to the WWII era. Some are studio versions, others are live performances.

“What’s the Use of Getting’ Sober” (1942 - #1)

“Ration Blues” (1943 - #1)

“G.I. Jive” (1944 - #1)

“Mop Mop” (1945 - #1)

More from post-WWII:

A rare video, probably from the early 50s! “Buzz Me” (1946 - #1)

A great live performance in 1974! “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” (1946 - #1)

“Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” (1946 - #3)

“Don’t Worry ‘Bout That Mule” (1946 - #1)

His first hit in 1947 went to #1! “Texas and Pacific” (1947 - #1)

“Jack You’re Dead” (1947 - #1)

“Boogie Woogie Blue Plate” (1947 - #1)

Classic Calypso!! “Run Joe” (1948 - #1)

A duet with Ella! “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (1949 - #6)

And now into proto-rap!

"Beware (Brother Beware)" (1946 - #2)

From the movie, the title track! "Look Out (Sister)" (1947 - #5) From the same movie, “Early In The Morning” (1947 - #3)

This great video looks like it’s from the early 70s. “Saturday Night Fish Fry” (1949 - #1)

Going way back, here’s his 1939 version of a tune Little Richard made a hit 20 years later! “Keep A-Knockin’” Here’s Little Richard’s version! The Architect of Rock and Roll at his screaming best! Woooo! “Keep A Knockin’”

We’ll finish with the tune that kicked off this celebration! "Let the Good Times Roll"

Thanks for jumpin’ and jivin’, since it set the foundation for Bill Haley, Elvis, Chuck, Little Richard, and Buddy to kick the doors down so rock and roll could spread across the US and the world!

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Our second main act also had a birthday on July 8. Joe B. Mauldin (July 8, 1940 – February 7, 2015) was the bass player in the original Crickets, Buddy Holly's original backing band. He was also a songwriter and recording engineer at Gold Star Studios in LA which was where Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, and others created the biggest hits of the 1960s. If you want to hear his bass playing with Buddy, please check out Saturday Night Attitude Dancing at the 2023 Birthday of the Immortal Buddy Holly in September’s archives

Here’s the first album he did after Buddy’s death with Sonny Curtis (May 9, 1937), Jerry Allison (Aug 31, 1939), and Glen Hardin (April 19, 1939). Last year I had the whole thing, while this year it’s a collection of stuff off In Style With the Crickets

A bonus track not on that album includes this version of Buddy’s classic sung by David Box, the iconic “Peggy Sue Got Married”

We’ll move into a few from 1962 when they were backing Bobby Vee, whose career began the night Buddy Holly died and he had to fill the slot in the Winter tour. Here’s Bobby Vee and the Crickets cranking up the Chuck Berry hit, “Little Queenie” which we’ll follow with his version of the Little Richard original “The Girl Can’t Help It.” We move into “I Gotta Know” and finish with “Bo Diddley”

Here's the original studio album! The link takes you to track 1, and then the rest load in sequence. Enjoy! Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets

We’ll close with this great 15 minute live clip from 1993 with Joe, Jerry, and Gordon Payne cranking out a few of Buddy’s best! The Crickets Do A Medley of Buddy Holly Tunes

For our encore, the best clip of the day! It’s a fantastic PBS special hosted by Kris Kristofferson with some of the best of the best performing, backed by the Crickets! For your enjoyment, here’s an utterly great 90 minutes of Buddy Holly & The Crickets: A Tribute – PBS 1988

Because this link from last year is still good, here’s 55 minutes of The Tribute to Buddy Holly – PBS 1988 (said to be part 2)

Here are a few of the individual performances!

By Marshall Crenshaw, “Blue Days, Black Nights”

Don Maclean with the Jordanaires gave us the beautiful “Maybe Baby”

Finally, Brian Setzer and the Stray Cats gave us this rousing version of “Oh Boy”

We'll close with a 5 minute promo video with the biggest music stars of many decades for the 2011 PBS show Buddy Holly: Listen to Me

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Our last set celebrates the July 8 birthday of the legendary Billy Eckstine, (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993), legendary jazz singer and bandleader who played with the best of the best. Check out this part of his bio on wiki:

Heading to Chicago, Eckstine joined Earl Hines' Grand Terrace Orchestra in 1939, staying with the band as vocalist and trumpeter, until 1943. By that time, Eckstine had begun to make a name for himself through the Hines band's juke-box hits as "Stormy Monday Blues" and his own "Jelly Jelly."

In 1944, Eckstine formed his own big band and it became the finishing school for adventurous young musicians who would shape the future of jazz. Included in this group were Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, and Fats Navarro, as well as vocalist Sarah Vaughan. Tadd Dameron, Gil Fuller and Jerry Valentine were among the band's arrangers. The Billy Eckstine Orchestra is considered to be the first bop big-band, and had Top Ten chart entries that included "A Cottage for Sale" and "Prisoner of Love". Both were awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

Dizzy Gillespie, in reflecting on the band in his 1979 autobiography To Be or Not to Bop, gives this perspective: "There was no band that sounded like Billy Eckstine's. Our attack was strong, and we were playing bebop, the modern style. No other band like this one existed in the world."

We have bop, blues, and American classics on the jukebox!

I found this outstanding film clip I believe is from 1946 of Billy and his orchestra live performing his hit “Prisoner of Love”

With Ann Baker fronting, from what looks to be the same film clip, “I Cried For You”

Also from Billy and his orchestra, a great film clip of the jazz bebop scat of “Rhythm in a Riff”

We’ll close these live videos with a clip said to be Lawrence Welk’s last New Year’s show on January 1, 1977. For your enjoyment, live from the Waldorf Astoria ballroom, Billy fronting the orchestra in a live television performance of “Caravan” and “What I Did for Love.”

And now, some studio classics!

From 1942, his first hit as the vocalist for Earl Hines! “Stormy Monday Blues”

Here’s another big one! In 1945, he had a million seller in “A Cottage For Sale”

Another hit when Miles was his trumpet! “Jelly Jelly”

He went big in 1947 with Everything I Have Is Yours," followed in 1948 by the Rogers and Hart classic "Blue Moon," and in 1949 had a hit with the Duke Ellington/Juan Tizol classic, "Caravan."

We have a few great studio versions of tunes from the great American songbook! First, his great studio version of “As Time Goes By”

This album cut is live! “Misty”

Giving us his rendition of the Cole Porter classic, “In The Still of the Night”

This one was #8 in 1951! “I Apologize”

For our closer, live at the Apollo Theater 50th Anniversary gig in 1985, the old Masters showing us how it’s done! Here’s Billy and Sarah Vaughan in two classic performances! The first one is all Sarah, the second is a duet of “Body and Soul” and “Dedicated to You”

© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson

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