PREVIEW PREVIEW
[email protected] In its initial days of operation, Warner Bros. Records had no handle on rock and roll at all.
Founded in March of 1958, the major label, a division of the celebrated Warner Bros. film studio, had an inner circle of old- timers at the helm that were primarily interested in the film soundtrack end of the business and clearly unfamiliar with music for teenagers. Lounge acts, instrumentals, and TV and movie music comprised a good portion of Warner’s release slate, and what little tangible success they did achieve with the youth market during that era derived from spinoff singles by the photogenic stars of Warner Bros.-produced television programs.
Perky Connie Stevens from ‘Hawaiian Eye’ and Edd ‘Kookie’ Byrnes, the heartthrob of ’77 Sunset Strip,’ teamed for the novelty duet Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb), which cracked the pop Top Five in the spring of 1959. Connie did even better the next year with her sugary Sixteen Reasons, But those were rare PREVIEWoccurrences. Their handsome co-stars, Roger Smith, Robert Conrad, and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., had WB singles that went
3 nowhere. Ditto rugged Western star Clint Walker. Movie luminary Tab Hunter struck gold in ‘57 on Dot with his cover of Sonny James’ smash Young Love but only managed three minor chart entries for WB despite high hopes harbored by the label’s braintrust.
The label’s other intermittent attempts to court the teenage demographic usually slipped through the commercial cracks until The Everly Brothers came over from Cadence Records in late 1959 to provide salvation. This compilation is all about the largely overlooked rock and rollers that came and went during Warner Bros’ primordial years. A lot of their platters deserved a better fate.
PREVIEW
4 Billy Land
Since Warner had yet to build much of an in-house A&R department for rock and roll by 1959, the firm sometimes picked up outside masters to augment its release schedule. Billy Land’s lone single for WB was acquired from Joe South’s tiny Atlanta-based Esco Records, which also issued early efforts by Freddy Weller and future Nashville session guitarist Chip Young. Land’s coupling of Four Wheels and the tougher Shimmy Shake were written by Joe South, whose novelty The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor had made national inroads the year before on NRC Records, Atlanta magnate Bill Lowery’s logo.
Reportedly South’s bassist for a time, Land had a second Esco offering coupling I Go Walking and You’re Too Much, both sides again scribed by South. He also had a single in the summer of 1960 on NRC- distributed Scottie Records pairing Don’t Let These Words Be True (he co-penned it with South) and Love At First Sight. Scottie also PREVIEWpressed up 45s that year by two unknowns with big futures, Wayne Cochran and Ral Donner.
5 BILLY LAND
1 Shimmy Shake (Joe South) Esco 100 (master: K8OW-4711) WB 5083 (master: B50,410)
Recorded: c. January 1959; National Recording Corporation Studio, 1214 Fernwood Circle, Brookhaven, Atlanta, Georgia; Producer: Joe South; with: William ‘Billy’ Land: vocal, bass; poss. Chip Young: lead guitar; other details unknown
11 Four Wheels (Joe South) Esco 100 (master: K8OW-4710) WB 5083 (master: B50,409)
Recorded: c. January 1959; National Recording Corporation Studio, 1214 Fernwood Circle, Brookhaven, Atlanta, Georgia; Producer: Joe South; PREVIEWwith: William ‘Billy’ Land: vocal, bass; poss. Chip Young: lead guitar; other details unknown
6 Johnny Carroll
Rockabillies didn’t come any more frantic than Johnny Carroll, whose vocals pulsated with youthful energy. Born in Cleburne, Texas on October 23, 1937 and raised in nearby Godley on the outskirts of Dallas, Johnny was influenced not only by the usual country stars, but blues and doo-wop as well. He put together his first band, The Moonlighters, in 1952, its nucleus consisting of pianist Bill Hennen, bassist Billy Buntin, and lead guitarist Jay Salem. Things started to happen when charismatic manager J.G. Tiger came into Carroll’s life. His name was actually Jack Goldman, and he escorted Johnny and his crew into a Dallas studio to cut some demos that found their way to Decca A&R man Paul Cohen in Nashville.
In April of 1956, Carroll ventured up to Bradley Studios to wax six sides for Decca with its crack studio band (Grady Martin on lead guitar and Owen Bradley on piano) that became his chief claim to fame. His Decca debut twinned covers of The Eagles’Tryin’ To Get To You and Warren Smith’s Johnny Cash-penned Rock ‘N’ PREVIEWRoll Ruby, Carroll’s band billed as The Hot Rocks. Right behind it came Wild Wild Women (a gender-switched version of Ruth Brown’s Wild Wild Young Men) and a torrid reading of the pre-
7 war era Corrine, Corrina, which was hot all over again thanks to Big Joe Turner’s R&B update on Atlantic. Last out of the gate was another Carroll original, Crazy, Crazy Lovin’ (Tiger helped himself to the writer’s credit), and its flip Hot Rock, which J.G. apparently really did conceive. Johnny sounded on the verge of losing his mind on all of them.
Deciding he was a movie magnate, Tiger financed the filming of ‘Rock, Baby, Rock It!’ on a Dallas soundstage that October, installing Carroll as its star. Johnny performed four insane numbers with his own band, sharing screen time with Rosco Gordon and his dancing chicken, Preacher Smith and The Deacons, Don Coats and The Bon-Aires, and the doo-wopping Five Stars. A major falling- out with Tiger threatened to derail Johnny’s career, but he placed a Dallas-cut single, That’s The Way I Love b/w I’ll Wait (both Carroll originals), with Sam Phillips’ brand-new Phillips International logo. Unfortunately, Bill Justis’ smash instrumental Raunchy took precedence at the label as far as promotion.
Warner Bros. snapped up Johnny’s self-penned pairing of Bandstand Doll and The Swing, produced by Johnny Hicks in October of ’58 at Sellers Recording Studio in Dallas. Carroll had gotten tight with Gene Vincent and he sounded a lot like Gene on both sides, using Blue Caps electric bassist Grady Owen and lead guitarist HowardPREVIEW Reed in his studio band, billed as The Spinners, along with Hennen on piano and drummer Royce McAffe (two relative old-timers, upright bassist Artie
8 Glenn and mandolinist Marvin Montgomery, were also aboard). Johnny and The Spinners laid down Sugar, his gliding WB encore, in New York in February of ’59 while on tour (Carroll and Reed penned it). The Spinners crashed Bradley Studios in Nashville on May 14, 1959 to lay down a zany instrumental rendition of Johnnie Lee Wills’ chestnut Rag Mop as their final WB single.
Carroll waxed one-offs for WA in 1960 and Duchess in ’62 before diversifying into booking other artists and operating a Dallas nightclub. He revitalized his recording career on Ronny Weiser’s Rollin’ Rock label during the early ‘70s, then formed a duo with Judy Lindsey that proved popular on the Lone Star touring circuit. Johnny died PREVIEWFebruary 18, 1995 following a liver transplant.
9 PREVIEW
10 JOHNNY CARROLL
2 The Swing (Johnny Carroll) WB 5042 (master: B10,254)
Recorded: c. October 1958; Sellers Recording Studio, 2102 Jackson Street, Dallas, Texas; Producer: Johnny Hicks; with John Lewis ‘Johnny Carroll’ Carrell: vocal, guitar; Howard Reed: lead guitar; Marvin Montgomery: mandolin; Grady Owen: Fender bass guitar; Artie Glenn: bass; Royce McAffe: drums; Bill Hennen: piano
12 Bandstand Doll (Johnny Carroll) WB 5042 (master: B10,253)
Recorded: c. October 1958; Sellers Recording Studio, 2102 Jackson Street, Dallas, Texas; Producer: Johnny Hicks; PREVIEWwith John Lewis ‘Johnny Carroll’ Carrell: vocal, guitar; Howard Reed: lead guitar; Marvin Montgomery: mandolin; Grady Owen: Fender bass guitar; Artie Glenn: bass; Royce McAffe: drums; Bill Hennen: piano
11 25 Sugar (Johnny Carroll – Howard Reed) WB 5080 (master: B50,380)
Recorded: c. February 1959; unknown location, New York City, New York; Producer: No credit; with John Lewis ‘Johnny Carroll’ Carrell: vocal, guitar; Howard Reed: lead guitar; Marvin Montgomery: mandolin; Grady Owen: Fender bass guitar; Artie Glenn: upright bass; Royce McAffe: drums; Bill Hennen: piano
THE SPINNERS 28 Rag Mop (Deacon Anderson – Johnnie Lee Wills) WB 5084 (master: B50,379)
Recorded: May 14, 1959; Bradley Film & Recording Studio, 804 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee; Producer: Grady Martin; with John Lewis ‘Johnny Carroll’ Carrell: vocal, guitar; Howard Reed: lead guitar; Grady Owen: Fender bass guitar; PREVIEWRoyce McAffe: drums; Bill Hennen: piano
12