Little Girl Blue

Who's celebrating its 77th birthday today? Why the song Little Girl Blue is. People may be most familiar with this song as recorded by Janis Joplin in 1969 and this post will take a look at the song up to that point. Her recording was inspired by Nina Simone's 1958 recording as she often introduced the song during performances as being a "Nina Simone song". Janis altered the lyrics a bit and did a very soulful rendering and since then singers either do a "Janis" version or the original. Nina Simone's (1958), Anita O'Day's (1960) and Janis's (1969) recordings are probably the most interesting as the others pretty much did it straight. The song became a jazz standard in the 1950's, but I'm not even going there. I've never heard any recordings that took the song to new places. It just has a nice melody that musicians enjoy playing.

On November 16, 1935 the musical Jumbo opened in New York City at the huge Hippodrome Theatre.

 With songs by the famous Broadway team of Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart, the musical was about a financially troubled circus and featured circus acts and animals during the performance - including elephants, but with the name Jumbo you probably figured that out. Starring Jimmy Durante, Donald Noviss and Gloria Grafton, who in the role of Mickey Considine sang the song Little Girl Blue at the end of Act 1. About the first half of the song is an instrumental run through of the melody and her vocal portion of the song lasts just over a minute.

 

I'm not sure if anything happened with the song over the next ten years. If it was recorded, I'm not aware of it. In 1945 or 1946, Lena Horne recorded it, slowing down the tempo and turning it into the torch song that became its standard form until Anita O'Day's recording in 1960.

 

In 1947, Margaret Whiting recorded it for Capitol. Margaret was one of the early singers signed by Capitol Records when songwriter/singer Johnny Mercer and his two partners started it in 1942. (I believe the first two were Martha Tilton and 17-year-old Ella Mae Morse and I can't believe I haven't managed to get any Ella Mae onto this blog yet.) Martha's father, Richard Whiting, was a composer that wrote songs such as Hooray For Hollywood, Ain't We Got Fun?, On The Good Ship Lollipop.

 

On November 6, 1953, the song was recorded by Frank Sinatra. During the 50's and 60's several singers recorded LP's of nothing but Rodgers & Hart songs, their overall success contributing to the continuing popularity of Little Girl Blue. Even in the 70's both Tony Bennett and Diana Ross did R&H LP's. Anyway, what makes Frank's recording interesting is for the first time we hear the opening verse (When I was very young.......) left off the earlier recordings. It was also used by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Judy Garland. Anita O'Day, Joni James and Yvonne De Carlo all included it on their recordings, but placed it near the end of the song.

 

In August 1956 Ella Fitzgerald did her version.

 

Sarah Vaughan recorded it 29 October 1956

 

Joni James also did it in 1956.

 

Recorded by Judy Garland 6 May 1957

 

Also recording it in 1957 was Yvonne De Carlo. Yvonne was a successful film star in the late 40's and 50's but most likely is best remembered for being Lily Munster in the 60's TV comedy The Munsters.

 

Nina Simone made her first recordings in 1958 and included in that first session was her interesting take on Little Girl Blue. Not only do her vocals offer something a little new and different, her dramatic piano playing starts off with a portmanteau of the Christmas carol Good King Wenceslas. It sounds like Lena Horne's 1945-ish recording was the main influence for Nina's recording.

 

Anita O'Day, with the Billy May Orchestra, gave the song an entirely new spin in 1960.

 

Sam Cooke did it in 1961.

 

 

In 1962, 27 years after the musical played in NYC, Jumbo was made into a film starring Doris Day, Martha Raye, Stephen Boyd and - just as in the 1935 musical - Jimmy Durante. It was the last film musical for Doris and the film reportedly lost $4,000,000.

 

 Keely Smith recorded it in 1963.

 

Janis recorded her Little Girl Blue on 25 June, 1969.

 

Since 1969 the song has remained popular being recorded by both singers and jazz musicians. Linda Ronstadt did it on a very successful CD in 1986 (or LP or cassette...1986 was the last year the industry did anything serious with vinyl.) It seems the song gets recorded about a half-dozen times a decade and one of the more recent popular versions was about 6 years ago done by Diana Krall. Happy 77th birthday Little Girl Blue. 

Hot Rod Race - Hot Rod Lincoln

Let's go back 41 years to 1971. FM radio was pushing AM to the back burner, but here in the USA the car manufacturers made a great effort to keep FM radios and cassette players out of cars and succeeded for most of the 70's at keeping them high end products. A pretty big Top 40 hit that year was Hot Rod Lincoln by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, a popular band on the college circuit. After hearing it for the hundredth time or so I actually took notice of the lyrics that start the song which is something like "well you heard the story of the hot rod race where the Fords and Lincolns were setting the pace? well that story's true, I'm here to say, I was the kid driving that Model A". I suddenly realized I had indeed heard that story many times. When I was a little kid I lived in a house that had a basement with 3 walls above ground and rather than being dark and dingy was actually bright and cheery and a good place for kids to hang out. There was record player attached to an amp with a big speaker cabinet and a pile of 78's and a stack of 45's which were still the new kid on the record block. There was also a player piano and a closet with a couple shelves of boxes containing old piano rolls. One of the records I enjoyed playing, and there was both a 78 and a 45 of it, was Hot Rod Race by Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan on Capitol Records and that was the "story" that Commander Cody was talking about.

In 1950, in Bremerton, Washington, a 17 year old kid named Ron Wilson wrote out the lyrics for a song about a hot rod race. Hot rod culture pretty much went out with the 60's, but was thriving in those post war years. Bremerton is across Puget Sound from Seattle on the Kitsap Peninsula in an area that is home to some big Navy Bases, or at least it used to be and was at that time. Ron showed his lyrics to his father, George Wilson, and he took them to a hillbilly singer named Arkie Shibley.
Arkie, real name Jesse Lee Shibley, was a 36 year old local performer at bars and honky tonks and also had his own radio program. He had recently relocated from Arkansas, thus the nickname Arkie.
Arkie liked the lyrics very much and immediately set them to music. Arkie and his band, The Mountain Dew Boys, began performing the song to enthusiastic audiences at the Peedlewheezer Tavern in Kitsap. The owner of the tavern thought it would make a great record and he financed a trip down to Los Angeles for himself, Arkie and guitarist Leon Kelly. They went to 4-Star Records, a big label at that time, but they turned them down. They recorded the song but 4-Star decided against issuing it but arranged for Arkie to get about 200 copies made on his own "custom" Mt Dew record label so he could sell them at his performances.

The record proved popular and 4-Star decided to issue it on their subsidiary Gilt-Edge label and it became a hit.

 

Ron Wilson, the 17 year who wrote the lyrics, never received a dime for his efforts. His father sold the rights for $500. Welcome to the music business, kid.
Capitol Records picked up on the song right away and on the evening of November 9 had their artist Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan record it with some of their top country studio musicians and with Capitol's slick production, advanced distribution network, strong promotion department and Jimmie's strong vocals, this record became the big hit for Hot Rod Race. Chuck Berry has stated that this record was a big influence on him in writing Maybelline, the 1955 recording that help launch his career and rock 'n' roll.

 

The scan above is the same record I found in the basement and used to play sometime back in the late 50's.
Very quickly the other major labels wanted to get one of their acts in on the deal. Decca Records issued it by Red Foley

 

and Mercury Records in Chicago released it by big band leader Tiny Hill

 

In Tennessee it hit the shelves by Bob Williams

 

and it was released by Arthur Smith & His Crackerjacks

 

a label in Meriden, Connecticut issued it by Rex Turner & The Westerners

 

and it also came out by Bob Sandy & The Rhythm Rangers but I'm going to skip over that as it really was a somewhat lackluster performance. There's a CD available called Hillbilly Sidesteps that lists Hot Rod Races 1, 2 and 3 as being done by Ramblin Lou. Ramblin Lou (Lou Schriver & His Twin Pine Mountaineers) was a guy out of the Buffalo, New York area, who like Arkie was both a performer and a radio guy, but the songs on that CD are not Ramblin Lou as they are the recordings done by Bob Williams and Arthur Smith.
So.....for the most part, Arkie's record ended up being a hit for other people. What would you do if that happened to you? I know what Arkie did. He continued the story and recorded Hot Rod Race No. 2!

 

Well, if it worked a second time for Arkie, maybe it will work again for others too. Bob Williams also did No. 2

 

and Tiny Hill also did No. 2. I've never come across the recording but I know it was done because pictures don't lie

Arkie knew he was on to something good so what did he do next? Hot Rod Race No. 3: Arkie Meets The Judge

 

so back east in Tennessee Bob Williams did No. 3 too.

 

Next up from Arkie came Hot Rod Race No. 4: The Guy In The Mercury

 

and finally the end of the race - Hot Rod Race No. 5: The Kid In The Model A

 

In 1955 a guy named Mick Woodward adapted the song to be about racing Navy ships and called it Hot Rod Race Navy Style.

 

In 1955 an answer song to Hot Rod Race, called Hot Rod Lincoln, was recorded by Charlie Ryan for a small label in Idaho and in 1959 he recorded it again for 4 Star.

 

A cover version of Hot Rod Lincoln was done by Johnny Bond and it became a decent hit in 1960.

 

and 11 years later was revived again by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen

 

and this story is true, I'm here to say, because I was the kid driving that 1963 Ford Fairlane listening to it over and over on WRKO.

Can't Get Enough Of You Baby

Was out somewhere the other day and heard this song playing, the recording done by the California band Smash Mouth in 1999. I was looking for a short subject quickie for this blog and that seemed like a good fit. 

Can't Get Enough Of You Baby was written in 1965 by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, two guys who mainly worked with musician/writer/producer Bob Gaudio and producer/writer Bob Crewe. Gaudio was a member of the Four Seasons and also wrote many of their big hits. Randell originally joined the production team as an arranger and eventually joined up with lyricist Linzer to write or co-write songs such as Working My Way Back To You, Let's Hang On, Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me). In 1965 they were assigned a new project of writing/producing for a new act, a trio of young ladies from Queens, New York City, called The Toys. Their first hit, A Lover's Concerto, came in Autumn 1965 and was followed up by the song Attack.

In January 1966, three different recordings of Can't Get Enough Of You Baby were released. The first by The Toys and it also found its way onto the Four Seasons LP Working My Way Back To You and also was released on a single by Sue Darby.  

 The Toys

 

The Four Seasons

 

 Sue Darby

I don't know much about this Sue Darby record (other than it's very good!) but I think she might be the same Sue Darby out of Dayton, Ohio that was in the Mark V in the mid-60's and also in the Green Lyte Sunday in the late 60's/early 70's. I seem to have read once that in between those two bands she went to Vegas to try to establish a solo career, so the timing would be right. It was her sole release on ABC. Green Lyte Sunday had a LP in 1970 that received airplay on many FM stations. It was never re-released in any form but if you search youtube for Green Lyte Sunday you can listen to about 5 or 6 of the 10 tracks on the LP. Sue has an excellent voice.

? & The Mysterians were out of Michigan and had a massive hit in the summer of 1966 with 96 Tears. That autumn they followed up 96 Tears with I Need Somebody and in early winter 1967 they issued their recording of Can't Get Enough Of You Baby. It was only a minor hit, but of the 4 releases between January 1966 and January 1967 it was the biggest hit. Rudy Martinez was the lead singer and his vocal performance was nothing special, but what made the "sound" of ? & The Mysterians was the Vox organ playing of 14 year old Frank Rodriguez and that set their recording apart from the others and inspired the hit cover versions by Britain's The Colour Field in 1985 and Smash Mouth in 1999.

 

? & The Mysterians

In 1967 legendary session drummer Sandy Nelson closed out his LP The Beat Goes On with Can't Get Enough Of You Baby, but I don't have it. It's never been re-issued but original pressings can be easily found on ebay.

About 18 years later UK band The Colour Field found inspiration in the ? & The Mysterians recording and had a hit with it themselves.

 

The Colour Field

...and in 1999 Smash Mouth did the same. Not sure if they took their inspiration from The Colour Field recording or ? & The Mysterians.