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Volume 26 Issue 1 February, 2020 In association with Thursday, March 5 Ducks Beach Club Ducks Café Fat Harolds - Front Fat Harolds - Back 6-9 Catalinas Band/ Eddie Anderson 6-8 Ricky Price / John Williford 6-8 LJ McDade / Steve Lusk 6-8 Robert Carter / Billy Layton 9-11 Tony Gonzalez / Jimmy Lucree 8-10 Richard Connor / Joe Tutt 8-10 Michael Roberts / Larry Simmons 8-10 Al Trice / David Burleson 11-C Eddie Smith / Jeff Walston 10-C Norman Mills / Rommie Tyndall 10-C Bill Anderson / Dave Hadden 10-C David Pendegraft / Roger Daley Friday, March 6 Ducks Beach Club Ducks Café Fat Harolds - Front Fat Harolds - Back 1-3 Claude Banks / Kenny Loftis 1-3 Larry Simmons / Al Trice 6-8 Butch Connor / Jeff Walston 1-3 Randal Hight / Jerry Hill 3-5 Raymond Rigsbee/Doug Woodson 3-5 Bill Anderson / Davide Pendergraft 8-10 Dana Grubb / Phil Long 3-5 Pope Armstrong/Smokey Craven 5-7 Jimmy Pierce/Tony Young 5-7 Jeff Harris / Terry Hopper 10-C Cindy Black / Tootie Brown 5-7 John Fletcher / Ricky Price 7-9 Jim Bruno / Robert Carter 7-9 Pat Harris / Walter Upchurch 7-9 Claude Collins / Darrell Gaither 9-11 Craig Jennings / Jim Rose 9-11 Tiz Laney / Chad Farlow 9-C Dan Spivey / Keith Williamson 11-C John Campbell / Kitty Earles 11-C Dennis Brumble/Roy Childress Saturday, March 7 Ducks Beach Club Ducks Café Fat Harolds - Front Fat Harolds - Back 10-12 DJ Partners BRUNCH Noon-6 ABSCDJ Vinyl Party 6-8 Claude Banks / Raymond Rigsbee 1-3 Richard Connor / Joe Tutt 1-3 Billy Layton / David Burleson 6-7:30 Michael Roberts/John Fletcher 8-10 Kenny Loftis / Randy Sherrill 3-5 Tony Gonzalez / Jimmy Lucree 3-5 Poper Armstrong / Smokey Craven 7:30-9 Roger Daley / Darrell Gaither 10-Close Billy Fanning / Bill Farmer 5-7 Jeff Harris / Pat Harris 5-7:30 Harvey Taylor / Jerry Hardy 9-10:30 Randal Hight / Jerry Hill 7-9 Dave Hadden / Doug Woodson 7:30-10 Chigger Woods / Claude Collins 10:30-C Fred Tetterton / Wayne Bennett 9-C Steve Lusk—John Williford 10-C Kevin Twhohig / Dee Twohig *Sunday Gospel Hour & Breakfast has yet to be scheduled—details to come **DJ schedule is subject to change - current as of 2/21/2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE The Presidential Corner 3 DJTD Events 7 Top 50 of 2020 11-12 DJ Throwdown Flyer 4 Hall of Fame / Richard Nixon 7 Yearly Meeting Schedule 13 Old School Shag—Dillard 5 Dance Traxx 8 Member Playlist 15 Celebration of Life 6 Beach Music 45 10 Applicants to be voted on 19 Page 2 ABSCDJ Update Visit www.coastalengraversinc.com General Membership Meeting 9:30AM Saturday 3/7 Ryans—NMB The ABSCDJ Newsletter is the official publication of The Association of Beach & Shag Club D.J.’s. It is normally published five times a year in ac- cordance with the following schedule: Late-February, prior to the DJ Throwdown Early April, Prior to Spring SOS Mid-July Early September, prior to Fall SOS Late-November, Early December ABSCDJ Update Page 3 Hey Gang! Well we are in the home stretch for DJ Throwdown! I hope by now most of have sold your raffle tickets! I have managed to move over 100 or so. 1000 is a lot of tickets so put on your final push! Thanks to Eddie Anderson for handling the task of scheduling everyone. A thankless job. It’s especially tough this year with the inclusion of Fat Harolds. The vendor display will be Saturday from 1-4pm in the Spanish Galleon right after Craig and a Tiz finish their class! The Guitar center will be there thanks to Jim Rose and I have asked Randal to coordinate with his computer person, Hal. Hopefully he will have some of the latest and greatest gadgets for you to play with. On a serious note, it seems we are experiencing a lot of sadness with the passing of so many people. Please keep their families in your prayers. Remember Hall of Fame inductions are Friday night at Harolds. I hope everyone can make it. This year, the legendary Steve Hardy will be inducted as a regular member. The Circle Fountain in Florence, SC, Memo- ries Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, NC and Jukin’ Oldies Internet Radio will be inducted as Honorary mem- bers. Congrats to all and well deserved! Ok enough jabbering! See you at the Beach! Steve Page 4 ABSCDJ Update ABSCDJ Update Page 5 Old School Shag History Submitted by Dennis Brumble Varetta Dillard—Mr. Percy have mercy on my. started, those stuck outside in the near-freezing weather began aretta Dillard was one of the great female R&B vocal- pushing open the doors and causing a near-riot. Fights broke out, ists, right up there with Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker, and glass from the shattered doors flew in all directions. City V officials closed down the event, and Freed apologized on the air although she never achieved their fame. Born with a rare bone disease of the legs that required numerous the next evening. Varetta never got to take the stage. operations, Dillard spent much of her childhood in Varetta continued to record and perform throughout hospital. There she developed her singing talents by 1952 with steady, but not spectacular, success. In performing for the hospital staff and other patients. January of ’53 she had another stint at the Flame Show Bar in Detroit and was also booked on a tour through the South and Midwest with Wynonie Har- By the late 1940s when she was in her teens, Varet- ris and Larry Darnell. ta’s health had stabilized and the long hospital stays In May she was back in the Savoy studios, and this were behind her, although she would be unable to walk without crutches or assistance for the rest of time she captured that big hit she had been looking life. She met Carl Feaster, the lead singer for the doo for. “Mercy, Mr. Percy” was released in early sum- mer, and by mid-July it was perched at #6 on the -wop group the Chords. (The Chords would score a national R&B hit parade, remaining on the chart for smash a few years later with “Sh-Boom”). Feaster nearly three months. Varetta’s past records had encouraged Varetta to begin entering talent contests. shown strength in one region of the country or an- She took his advice and in 1951 notched two con- secutive wins at the high profile amateur show at the other, but “Mercy, Mr. Percy” (definitely not fated Apollo. The Apollo wins led to Varetta being signed to Savoy to be a theme song for women's lib with lines like “I don’t care if you hit me, just don’t quit me) broke out nationwide and was still Records, the home of Johnny Otis, Dizzy Gillespie, Lavern logging sales well into the autumn. She was able to buy a house Baker, the Ravens, and many other R&B and jazz greats. in New Jersey for herself and her husband Ronald Mack with the Varetta’s first Savoy recording session was on September 18, 1951, and two singles were produced: “Love and Wine” and royalties, and she suddenly became the subject of celebrity gossip “You Are Gone”. Neither generated much interest, and in Janu- columns. (Jet magazine hyped a supposed feud between “pint- sized” Varetta and fellow singer Joan Shaw and breathlessly ary of ’52 Savoy paired her with the over-the-top H-Bomb Fergu- son (who wore fright wigs on stage) for a few duets. Those rec- filed a “stork report” when Varetta became pregnant.) ords didn’t do much business either, but later that year, Varetta would have her first big hit, getting into the R&B Top Ten with Other than when taking a break to have her baby, Varetta record- “Easy, Easy Baby”, a song that was especially popular in the ed and performed fairly steadily through the remainder of 1953 South. Also recorded in 1952 were the Old School Classics and into ’54 with Old School Shag Classics "(That's The Way) "Them There Eyes" and an unreleased "Love That Man". My Mind Is Working" (1953), "Getting Ready For My Dad- dy" (1953). "I Ain't Gonna Tell"(1953), however, Savoy was unable to find a song that was a worthy follow-up to With the success of “Easy, Easy Baby”, doors of op- portunity began to swing open for Varetta. She had a “Mr. Percy”, and Varetta Dillard seemed to be sliding two-week run at New York’s Club Baby Grand, a back into the periphery of the R&B music world. But a week at Washington D.C.’s Howard Theater, and she tragedy in that world would give her one last big hit. was invited to be on the bill for what is now recog- nized to have been the first-ever major rock ‘ roll On Christmas Day, 1954, wildly popular R&B singer concert: the Moondog Coronation Ball. Johnny Ace was backstage between sets at a show at “Moondog” was the on-air name for DJ Alan Freed, the City Auditorium in Houston playing around with a who had taken over as host of a rhythm and blues pistol. Someone told him to be careful, and he said, show on WJW in Cleveland. Six months after his “Gun’s not loaded, see?” He pointed it at his head and debut, Freed and the owner of the area’s largest rec- fired.