VIVIAN CARTER AND VEE JAY RECORDS

and-blues charts. Opening with Gregory’s our money and all our rights. Our parents added: “The only thing I can remember we unforgettable five-note bass riff, “do do didn’t want to have anything to do with got was a brand new station wagon. And do do do,” followed by Hudson’s precise that. They were old-fashioned and figured then, you know, well, three or four brand phrasing and melodic style reminiscent of (perhaps rightly so) we’d be out smoking new cars. But as far as receiving royalties the Ink Spots’ Bill Kenny, the rendition dope and drinking. They’d always heard or anything like that, uh-uh. They always was not so much harmonizing as “answer­ the bad side of entertainers and they pre­ had some excuse.” ing,” with Jackson, Courtney, and Warren ferred we go out and get a job and work or Jimmy Reed recorded Vee Jay’s very responding to Hudson’s lead. The syrupy sing spirituals. And we wanted to pursue first single, featuring “High and Lone­ tune was not one of the group’s favorites this so Vivian got the right to sign for us some” and an instrumental “Roll and initially, but it assured their place in rock- and use the money as she saw fit.” Rhumba.” The future blues legend scored and-roll history. In the fall of 1954 the Spaniels signed his first rhythm-and-blues hit in 1956, Covered by the McGuire Sisters, with a booking agent and performed— “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby,” followed by “Goodnite Sweetheart, Goodnite” (Calvin usually clad in flashy green suits— at the the crossover hit “Honest I Do” in 1957. Carter being responsible for the slight title country’s top African American venues, Born in 1925, the native southerner briefly change) sold a million copies. Though he including the Regal Theater in Chicago; found work in a Gary steel mill but in wrote it after coming home from a date, the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C.; 1953 was a cutter in an Armour meat Hudson received no royalties. On the the Royal in Baltimore; and Harlem’s plant. As Calvin Carter related to Gold­ record Calvin Carter and Hudson were famed Apollo Theater, where they got mine magazine reporter Mike Callahan in listed as cowriters. The most the Spaniels headline billing over Big Joe Turner of 1981, “He was playing harmonica for a could count on were advances on future “Shake, Rattle, and Roll” fame. Warren guy called King David we were interested earnings. As Hudson recalled of Carter: recalled those performances fondly, but in.” Calvin asked him if he had written “She had the power of attorney over all any songs, and he replied, “No, but I’ve got some I’ve made up.” Perhaps out of nervousness, Reed showed up inebriated for several sessions, so Calvin claims he would have a police officer put him in jail the night before and then bring him directly to the studio. His wife, “Mama” Reed, would usually be at his side whispering the lyrics to songs they had composed together as Jimmy sat on a drum case with guitar and harmonica. Her voice can be heard in the background on many of his songs, most notably “Big Boss Man” (1960), one of several Reed songs Elvis Presley recorded. The Rolling Stones credited Reed with being a major influ­ ence and recorded three Reed composi­ tions, “Shame, Shame, Shame,” “The Sun Is Shining,” and “Bright Lights, Big City.” In 1955 another Vee Jay act, the El Dorados, had a huge hit titled “At My Front Door,” which reached number one on the rhythm-and-blues charts and num­ ber seventeen on Billboards Top 100 (Pat Boone’s syrupy cover version climbed to number seven). Even bigger crossover hits