Happy New year music lovers and welcome to the first instalment of our regular newsletter. Here’s a little hand-picked selection of six essential singles to hopefully blow away those January lockdown blues.
Ken Cook – Crazy Baby
Fantastic smoldering Rockabilly grind from Roy Orbison’s buddy, the mysterious Texan, Ken Cook. It was actually the Big O who got Ken a release on Sam Phillips fledgling Sun records subsidiary label, Phillips International after introducing him to Sam sometime in early 1958. For some strange reason, this was Cook’s solitary release and he disappeared, never to record again. In later life, Orbison always refused to talk about his former bestie Ken, fueling rumors that naughty Ken might have been ‘diddling’ Roy’s first wife, Claudette.
Tony Casanova – Yea! Yea! Come Another Day
Storming 1958 So-Cal Chicano Rocker, flipped with a haunting rock-a-ballad death song. 16-year-old Tony was first cousin of Richie Valens and had a bunch of releases during the late 50s including the wilder than wild ‘Boogie Woogie Feeling’ and even got to appear in the 1959 B-Movie ‘Diary Of A High School Bride’
Chris Cerf – Fallout Filly
Nutso double-decker Rocker on the Harvard (National) Lampoon magazine spin-off record label. ‘Filly’ tells the tale of life with a radioactive girlfriend, while ‘The Penguin’ flip is a brand new dance craze. Unsurprisingly, Cerf went on to produce and write songs for Sesame Street.
The Tempests – Rockin’ Rochester USA
East Coast raucous racket from this New York combo. ‘Rockin’ Rochester’ is a peddle to the metal blastin’ vocal rocker, pushed well ‘into the red’. The wild instro flip would give Link a run for his money.
Tommy Martin & the XL’s – Hoochie Coochie
A true Desperate Rock’N’Roll classic out of the bayou state of Louisiana. Wailin’ Wildness abounds with wild pounding drums, crazy husky vocals and indecipherable lyrics, mentioning something about ‘red underwear’ and a ‘washing machine’! An original copy of this is just about impossible to find so hopefully this repro will keep you going.
Maynie & Howie – Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Bop
More mid-west madness from Maynard Horlick and his buddy Howie Sandler. This previously unissued 45 comes from a one of a kind acetate and is another demented version of Maynie’s dance-floor monster ‘Do The Bop, Bop, Bop, Bop’.
I’m with the band…
If your name’s not down, you’re not getting in!