FROM THE VAULTS

Betty Blake (April 9, 1937 - September 19, 2001) American vocalist, made one fine recording for Bethlehem Records in 1960, Betty Blake Sings in a Tender Mood. On the strength of it, she deserved more opportunities and exposure.

Betty Ann Blake was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 9, 1937 née: Elizabeth Ann Baldrige (or Baldrich) Betty began her career at 16 with local bands and then was vocalist with the bands of Ernie Rudy (1954- 56) and Buddy Morrow (1956-58).

As Morrows featured vocalist she attracted the attention of Golden Crest Records. Offered work as guest singer on two songs on an album by trumpeter John Plonskys modern jazz quintet, this in turn led to the recording of a single accompanied by Jack Zimmermans orchestra.

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Her band experience took her to clubs around the country, and after four years she returned to Cincinnati to join a vocal group for a time. When in 1961 vibes player and producer Teddy Charles approached her to do an album for Bethlehem Records featuring five Alec Wilder ballads, she decided to drop the Ann from her name.

For this release, “Betty Blake Sings in a Tender Mood”, top flight jazzmen like Mal Waldron, Zoot Sims, Kenny Burrell, Roland Alexander and Charles furnished her with an ideal background. She had a touching ballad style, and swung well on medium and up-tempo tunes, always approaching her material in a direct, un-

gimmicky fashion and faithfully serving the sense of the lyric.

After her Bethlehem effort, nothing is known of any other professional activity until her death of cancer at age 63 on September 19, 2001. Something of a mystery, for the Blake’s lone album is a good one and received some nice reviews. Betty Blake is not alone in being a singer people hear for the first time and wonder why she wasn’t a major star, but in her case the question is doubly bedevilling because she so clearly had it all.

Her complete recordings from 1957 to 1961 have been released in 2014 on a Fresh Sounds CD which contains a large number of Alec Wilder songs and both sides of a 45 Blake made for the Golden Crest label:- “The Lady Sings the Blues and the pop tune “Jersey Boy” which simply jumps off the disc by dint of its adult yearnings couched in an arrangement suitable for early 60s female teen pop icons on the order of Lesley Gore or Joanie Sommers—clearly way ahead of its time.

Twelve pages into a Google search produces nothing save press release boilerplate about her album reissue.

(Info various mainly edited from Confetta & antirockblog)

Claude Bolling (born 10 April 1930), is a renowned French jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and occasional actor.

He was born in Cannes, studied at the Nice Conservatory, then in Paris. A child prodigy, by age 14 he was playing jazz piano professionally, with Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, and Kenny

Clarke.

His primary jazz influence was Duke Ellington. The small band he assembled in 1945 drew inspiration from old time New Orleans jazz legends like Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Sidney Bechet as well as the groups led by Ellington sidemen Johnny Hodges, Rex Stewart, Barney Bigard, and Cootie Williams. This blend of interests would soon place him on common ground with his almost exact contemporary, Britain's premier trad jazz bandleader, Chris Barber.

Claude with the Duke

In 1948 Bolling accompanied legendary blues vocalist Bertha Chippie Hill and subsequently gigged with trumpeters Roy Eldridge and Cat Anderson, cornetist Rex Stewart, saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. He formed and began leading his own orchestra in 1955, eventually naming it the Show Bizz Band.

During the 1960s Bolling demonstrated a keen business sense by supplementing his jazz oriented recording and band leading activities with hectic and, one hopes, lucrative service as creator, producer, and manager of Les Parisiennes, a female pop vocal quartet who specialized in rapid-fire novelty numbers, synchronized movement, and brightly patterned mod-a-go-go outfits.

He also composed many incidental and theme music for mainly French films and television (including "Borsalino,""Netchaiev Est de Retour," and "Les Brigandes du Tigre"), while expanding his knowledge and interpretive range to include early modern jazz pianists like Erroll Garner, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, and Horace Silver in addition to swing and stride favourites Fats Waller, Count Basie, and Willie "The Lion" Smith.

Influenced by the attempts to mix jazz and classical music by George Gershwin, Dave Brubeck, and the Jacques Loussier Trio, he composed his Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano in 1975 and

recorded it with Jean-Pierre Rampal. It was wildly successful, remaining on Billboard’s Classical Top 40 for over 10 years. Bolling followed this with a string of similar crossover albums featuring one or two solo instruments with his own jazz piano trio, including the Guitar Concerto, (with Alexandre Lagoya); a Violin Suite, (with Pinchas Zuckerman); the Picnic Suite for flute and guitar, (with Rampal and Lagoya); the Toot Suite for trumpet, (with Maurice André); a Cello Suite, (with Yo-Yo Ma); and a second Flute Suite, (again with Rampal), as well as a Suite for Chamber Orchestra and a Sonata for Two Pianos, (with Emanuel Ax).

Here's Rag Polka from above album

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Since then, he has written a series of chamber works that while drawing somewhat on his background in jazz, are composed more within the mainstream classical tradition. Many of these works

were recorded on the album Enchanting Versailles, including La Princesse, a trio for flute, cello, and harp; a Guitar Sonata, the Dans Le Bois woodwind trio; and Le Papillon for alto saxophone and piano. In addition, Bolling has written the scores for over 100 films, including Neil Simon’s comedy hit California Suite, which starred Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, and Bill Cosby.

Now in his eighties, Bolling continues to compose, record, and perform. He remains one of the most popular French musicians. (Info edited various mainly All Music)

William Henry (Debroy) Somers (1890-1952) was a British lyricist, composer, musical arranger and band leader.

Multi-instrumentalist and bandleader William Henry Somers was born in Dublin, Ireland, on April 11, 1890. The son of a band sergeant in the First Gloucestershire Regiment, he learned music at

the Chelsea Military Academy and studied piano with Michele Esposito at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 1904. Somers moved to London in 1910; the following year he enlisted in the Royal Irish Rifles, Second Battalion, and specialized on the oboe at the Royal Military School of Music.

After surviving the Great War, Somers withdrew from military service, returned to London, and became chief arranger and director of light music for the Aeolian/Vocalion company, participating in his first recording sessions as conductor of the Vocalion Dance Orchestra and the Venetian Dance Orchestra. In 1919 Somers decided to begin calling himself "Debroy." (The exact reason for this name change is

open to conjecture; some say he wanted to identify with a black jazz musician named "DeBroy." The name is not uncommon in India; it appears, like Somers, to have originated in Ireland.)

Somers next worked as arranger and musical advisor for the visiting Bert Ralton & His New York Havana Band at London's Savoy Hotel. When Ralton returned to New York, Somers assumed full leadership of this ensemble and then formed the considerably larger Savoy Hotel Orpheans in 1923. The Orpheans, featuring the Starita brothers, banjoist Pete Mandel, and violinist Jean Lensen, played the London Hippodrome, performed over the radio, and made phonograph recordings for the competing Columbia and HMV/Plum labels. Riding a crest of popularity, the band hit the road for a national tour (as Debroy Somers & His Orchestra) and settled into a pattern of regular appearances at the Alhambra and the London Coliseum.

In April 1926 Somers left the Orpheans to concentrate on writing arrangements. By the beginning of 1927 he was leading his own dance band under his own name, and had permanently crossed over to become a Columbia recording artist. Somers' biggest hits for that label during this period were a pastiche of themes from Sigmund Romberg's The Desert Song and an adaptation of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto as well as medleys of Christmas songs and popular American ditties. During the 1930s, Debroy Somers & His Orchestra broadcast on both Radio Luxembourg and its competitor Radio Normandy, where they were sponsored by the Horlicks malted milk mix company.

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Somers and band appeared in numerous motion pictures, including Picadilly (1929), Royal Cavalcade (1935), and Stars on Parade (1936). Somers also composed music used in the film Rose of Tralee (1936). Although the Debroy Somers recording band ceased to exist in 1941, the leader remained active throughout the 1940s conducting theatre and dance ensembles; he presided over The Lisbon Story at the Hippodrome in 1943 and Latin Quarter, a revue staged at the London Casino in 1949 involving a pit orchestra, 16 additional violinists, and three rumba bands, one of which was stationed in the lobby.

Somers worked as staff arranger and conductor for Columbia Records until his death at the age of 62 from a cerebral haemorrhage in St. George's Hospital in Knightsbridge, London, on May 16, 1952. (Info from AMG)

William Richard "Billy" Vaughn (April 12, 1919 – September 26, 1991) was an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, orchestra leader, and A&R man for Dot Records.

He was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, where his father was a barber who loved music and inspired Billy to teach himself to play the mandolin at the age of three, while suffering from measles. He went on to learn a number of other instruments.

In 1941 Vaughn joined the United States National Guard for what had been planned as a one-year assignment, but when World War II broke out, he was sent abroad till the war ended in 1945. He decided to make music a career when he was discharged from the army at the end of the war, and attended Western Kentucky State College, now known as Western Kentucky

University, majoring in music composition.

He had apparently learned barbering from his father, because he did some while studying at Western Kentucky to support himself financially, when he was not able to get jobs playing the piano at local night clubs and lounges. While he was a student there, three other students, Jimmy Sacca, Donald McGuire, and Seymour Spiegelman, who had formed a vocal trio, the Hilltoppers, recruited Vaughn to play the piano with them. He soon added his voice to theirs, converting the trio to a quartet. As a member of the group, he also wrote their first hit song, "Trying," which charted in 1952.

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In 1954 he left the group to join Dot Records in Gallatin, Tennessee, as music director. He subsequently formed his own orchestra, based on the sound of two alto saxophones, which had a hit single in that same year with "Melody of Love." It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. He went on to have

many more hits over the next decade and a half, and based purely on chart successes, was the most successful orchestra leader of the rock era.

Vaughn charted a total of 42 singles on the Billboard charts. He also charted thirty six albums on the Billboard 200, beginning with 1958's Sail Along Sil'vry Moon and ending with 1970's Winter World of Love. He also had nineteen Top 40 hits in Germany, beginning with the chart-topping "Sail Along Sil'vry Moon", also a Gold record, which was a cover of a 1937 Bing Crosby hit.. Vaughn also charted in Australia, Latin America and Japan. "Pearly Shells" was a major success in Japan. Vaughn's tours of that country began about the time "Pearly Shells" was a hit

in 1965.

Many songs which were not US hits or even singles releases there, were major hits in other countries. These included "Lili Marlene", "zwei Gitarren am Meer", "Blueberry Hill (Germany) and "Greenfields". "Song of Peace", "It's a Lonesome Old Town" (Japan), "Michelle" No 1 in Argentina and Malaysia, "Mexico" No. 1 in the Philippines and "Bonanza" a major success in Brazil and Italy (Billboard Hits of the World, 1960s) plus "Theme from the Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (various Latin American countries). The album La Paloma was a success throughout Latin America. He also had a number one album in Germany in the early 1980s with

Moonlight Melodies, which consisted of 20 of Billy's biggest hits (original Dot recordings, original LP notes and credits). The Billy Vaughn Orchestra began touring in 1965 with numerous sell-out tours throughout Japan, Brazil, and Korea.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Vaughn lived Palm Springs, California. Vaughn released several albums in the '70s before quietly retiring in the early '80s.

He died of peritoneal mesothelioma at Palomar Hospital in Escondido, California, on September 26, 1991, aged 72. He and his wife Marion are buried at the Oak Hill Memorial Park in Escondido. (Info edited from Wikipedia)

Jerry Mengo , born Joseph Gaëton Menegozzi (17 April 1911 - 23 April 1979 Paris) was a French jazz drummer, guitarist, bandleader, composer and arranger. Also known as Giuseppe Mengozzi.

Jerry Mengo was a prolific band leader and film composer who was active for several decades in France. He had massive popularity throughout France and Europe and was widely regarded by American musicians who visited and worked in Paris during the pre-war and post-war periods.

L-R Marcel Bianchi, Django, Stephane Grappelli, Jerry Mengo, Coleman Hawkins & Andre Dupont.

Jerry was of Italian origin. Born in Nice, France yet raised in England .While studying in Paris, he played drums in his spare time and performed as a singer and recoded with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli in 1935. (Lily Belle My June, Continental and Sweet Sue, Just You ) for the Ultra Phone label. In the 1930’s and

40’s he played as a drummer and guitarist in the bands of Alix Combelle , Bill Coleman (1937) , Danny Polo and Noël Chiboust before performing with his own bands. In 1943 he worked with the singer Martha Love. From the early 1940s he recorded under his own name on the Swing label. (Blues du matin) and the Telefunken label (Jerry's Boogie). In 1945 he was instrumental in the first recording session of the Blue Star label with Eddie Barclay.

In the 1960’s Mengo focused on Easy Listening dance music. With his orchestra he produced a series of LPs (Club De Danse), EPs

(as Samba Fantastico) and singles for labels like Columbia and Ducretet-Thomson einzuspielen. Jerry also recorded for Columbia

under the name of Teddy Martin. He also used the pseudonym of Jao Pandeiro for a couple of Bossa Nova EPs.

He also worked as a film composer and musician for movies like Hafengasse (1951) Night in Paris (1954) Also two Jean-Pierre Melville films - Two Men in Manhattan (1959) and L'aîné of Ferchaux (1963), he was also seen as a supporting actor.

With his orchestra or as an arranger and composer, he has worked with singers like Bourvil (Les Sourires De Paris 1961 Pathé ), Pierre Perrin , Giuseppe Torre Bruno, France Gall, Dalida and or Caterina Valente. Mengo wrote the original “Twistin´ the Twist” ( or “Lecon de Twist” in France) that was covered by many artist all around the world.

The latter part of his career was nearly entirely devoted to Library Music. He was a prominent figure in the French musical scene until his death in Paris 23 April 1979.

(Info scarce but mainly edited from Wikipedia translation)

The clip features four musicians who performed and recorded with Django Reinhardt - Loulou Gasté, Jerry Mengo, Louis Vola & Philippe Brun. Paul Misraki, the composer of "Insensiblement" appears at the beginning and the singer is André Dassary.

Ruby Johnson (19 April 1936 – 4 July 1999) was an American soul singer, best known for her recordings on the Volt label in the late 1960s.

She was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and was raised in the Jewish faith. She sang, with her eight brothers and sisters, in the Temple Beth-El choir. After completing high school, she moved to

Virginia Beach where she worked as a waitress and began singing rhythm and blues with local bands, before spending two years with Samuel Latham and the Rhythm Makers. She then moved to Washington DC in the late 1950s, and joined Ambrose and the Showstoppers, the house band at the Spa nightclub.

Amazed by her contralto vocal style, the local entrepreneur Never Duncan Jnr became Johnson's manager and hooked her up with Dicky Williams, a musician and producer she knew from her days at Virginia Beach. In 1960, Ruby Johnson cut her debut single, "Calling All Boys", for the Philadelphia-based V-Tone label. Subsequently, her manager launched NEBS Records and issued a succession of Johnson 45s ("Here I Go Again", "Worried Mind", "Nobody Cares") which the disc-jockey Al Bell turned into regional hits on

the Washington DC station WLOK.

When her local supporter, disc jockey Al Bell, began working for Stax Records in Memphis in 1965, he won her a contract with the label. There, she recorded a handful of classic soul records with the writing and production team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, and backing musicians including Steve Cropper, "Duck" Dunn and Al Jackson. These were issued on the Stax subsidiary label, Volt. They included "I’ll Run Your Hurt Away", which reached #31 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1966, and "If I Ever Needed Love", both tracks which became staples of subsequent soul compilations, such as those by Dave Godin.

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Porter said that Ruby had something very special, that all of the sadness and other emotions in her life came through in her voice and in her styling of a song. Hayes and Porter never quite wrote the hit song to match Johnson's supreme, tearful delivery and propel

her into the limelight. Indeed, a lot of Johnson's Stax sessions remained in the vaults until 1993. Never Duncan Jnr organised a few more recordings ("I Can't Do It" was issued by the Capacity label in 1968) but, after a few more years singing in nightclubs, Ruby Johnson quit the music business in 1974.

She worked in government posts, and eventually became the director of Foster Grandparents, a federal programme helping handicapped children relate to older generations. She also returned to worship and sing at the Temple Beth-El near her home in Lanham, Maryland.

Her new-found cult status in the Nineties puzzled her slightly but she did admit to missing the old days at Stax and on stage. "Every time I see some of those big shows, I long for it sometimes, I really do. I enjoyed what I was doing."

A compilation CD, including many previously unissued tracks, was issued on CD by Ace Records in 1993.

Ruby died in Lanham, Maryland 4 July 1999, aged 63. (Info various mainly Wikipedia)

Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor.

One of the all-time great jazz musicians, Lionel Hampton first achieved fame as a member of Benny Goodman's orchestra in the 1930s. Though he also played drums and piano, Hampton is most

celebrated for his innovative vibraphone work. Red Norvo introduced the instrument to jazz audiences in the 1920s, but it was Hampton who popularized the sound of what had once been considered only a novelty instrument and turned it into a jazz staple.

Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky. After losing his father in WWI, he and his mother settled in Chicago, where Hampton began his professional career as a drummer for local bands. During that time he became friends with saxophonist Les Hite. Hite eventually moved to Los Angeles to form his own orchestra and sent for Hampton in 1927. Hampton moved to the West Coast but Hite was slow to organize, so Hampton began to

work with local groups, including Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders, with whom he made his first recording in 1929.

In 1930 Hite finally got organized. Hite's orchestra often accompanied Louis Armstrong on recordings during the early 1930s, offering a great deal of exposure to the young Hampton. It was during this time that he switched to the vibraphone and began to make a name for himself.

(L to R) Barnett Tommy Dorsey, Goodman, Armstrong, Hampton

In 1936 Hampton formed his own group and began an engagement at the Paradise Cafe in Los Angeles. Benny Goodman heard him perform and signed him on as a member of his quartet, breaking what had then been a colour barrier in jazz music. Hampton later worked with Goodman's full orchestra. He became quite popular during his stay with Goodman, performing on many of Goodman's key recordings in the late 1930s.

Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lionel Hampton

In 1940 Hampton left Goodman to form his own successful orchestra. Band members at various times included Milt Buckner, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, and Earl Bostic. Joe Williams and Dinah Washington were vocalists. The group recorded for the Victor, Decca, and Verve labels before disbanding in 1946, falling victim, like so many other orchestras, to the country's changing tastes and the collapse of the big band industry.

Hampton continued leading groups of various sizes, including a new orchestra, up through the 1990s, often playing for presidents and acting as goodwill ambassador for the United States. In 1978 he formed his own record label, Who's Who in Jazz. During the

1980s Hampton worked with the University of Idaho's music program. The university named its jazz festival and music school after him. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1997 sadness struck when a fire destroyed his New York apartment and much of his music memorabilia.

Despite strokes and the ravages of age, Lionel Hampton remained a vital force into the 1990s. In January 2001, a vibraphone he had played for 15 years was put into the National Museum of American History. On August 31, 2002, at age 94, Lionel Hampton suffered major heart failure and passed away. (Info edited mainly from Parabrisas)

Edna Savage (21 April 1936 - 31 December 2000) was a traditional pop singer in the United Kingdom who achieved massive success in the 1950s. Soon after pop charts came into vogue the soft-voiced songbird was up there at the top and had the world at her feet.

She was born in Broadbent Avenue, Warrington, Cheshire, England. She had two sisters, both older. Her father was a

landscape gardener, her mother an amateur singer.

She left school at age 15 (common in the UK in those days). At first she trained as a telephone operator, but after a few bands had her sing for them locally, she quit the telephone job to sing professionally. She always told her friends at Richard Fairclough Secondary School she was going to be a star and after dates at the

Bell Hall, the Liberal Club, the Parr Hall, the Baths Hall and the Ritz Cinema she was catapulted to fame.

Her trademark was a choker - a piece of velvet ribbon around her neck with a brooch. Among her mentors was Eric Pepperall, the veteran Warrington bandleader, who set her on course for recording success.

She auditioned twice for the BBC before making her first radio broadcast, in 1954 with Alan Ainsworth and The BBC Northern Variety Orchestra. In one of her early television appearances she sang alongside Glen Mason, another rising talent.

She recorded a number of records, only one of which charted, "Arrivederci Darling" in 1956, which made it to #19 in the UK Singles Chart.

In the 1956 film 'It's Great to be Young' she dubbed the voiceover

for Dorothy Bromiley. Ruby Murray sang the number in the opening credits. In 1957 she participated in the UK qualifying heat for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Ever the optimist, Edna survived four marriages and divorces, Terry Dene the Rock and Roll singer, Reg Rose a garage proprietor, Douglas Wilkes guitarist with the 'Shondells'. They had twin daughters, Allison and Samantha and lastly Dennis Plowright her pianist.

Edna toured military bases with a CSE show but from the mid-60s onwards her career slipped away. She continued working until the birth of her twins in 1972. Over the years she never lost her sense of humour despite all her troubles, setbacks and illness.

Edna died in Ormskirk Hospital on 31st December 2000, back in her own home county, at the age of 64.

(Info edited mainly from Wikipedia & the Guardian Series & ednasavagememorial.webs.com)

Mel Carter (born April 22, 1943*, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American singer and actor. He is best known for his 1965 million selling recording, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me".

Mel Carter began his career in Cincinnati at the age of four when his grandmother held him up to the microphone in a penny arcade

recording booth. As it turned out, it was 25 cents well-spent; the unpolished performance had an unmistakable element of raw talent etched into those crude grooves. From that point on, music proved to be Mel's destiny, as his career produced one hit single after another.

The now legendary Quincy Jones first discovered Mel and signed him to record his debut pop session on Mercury Records, which expertly showcased Mel's passionate vocals and immediately began turning heads in the recording industry. But it was not until Sam Cooke signed Mel to Derby Records that he had his first hit single, "When A Boy Falls In Love," which climbed the charts in England as well as in the United States and reached the number one position on the West Coast.

By the time he reached his commercial peak with Imperial Records in the middle of the decade, he was specializing in pop ballads. His biggest success was the Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me," which reached Number 8, in 1965. It sold

over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. This led to an offer to tour with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars. Mel shared the bill with other up and coming performers of the day, including Sonny and Cher, Tom Jones and other popular English and American recording artists.

He had a couple of other Top 40 entries over the next year, "Band of Gold" and "All of a Sudden My Heart Sings", as well as a few other easy listening sellers.

As further proof of his immense versatility, Mel also enjoyed success as a stage performer. A highlight in his career was playing Sportin' Life in a concert of "Porgy and Bess" accompanied by the late perfectionist (and seven-time Academy Award winner) John Green, who conducted the San Diego Symphony Orchestra with an 80-voice choir. Mel received four standing ovations for his

performance.

Continually expanding his horizons, Mel co-produced his 1985 album, "Willing," which won him a Grammy nomination for "Best Male Gospel Performance. That same year brought him brilliant reviews and awards including "L.A. Weekly's" La Wee and an NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Performance in a Musical as a result of his starring role in "Glitter Palace."

Mel continued to nourish his love for appearing before a live audience, starting the 90's off with a series of successful tours. Standing room only engagements at Trump Castle, London's Royal A

lbert Hall, Taj Mahal and Merv Griffin's Resort Casino Hotel in Atlantic City as well as a tour-de-force performance in "Fly Blackbird Revisited" proved that Mel's appeal was both timeless and universal. In addition to his singing career, Mel Carter is also known and respected as an accomplished actor, with a long list of film and television credits.

He has established himself as a modern day renaissance man who has proven that real and genuine talent will always find an audience, regardless of the current trends, radio formats or fashions. Throughout the course of his career, Mel has re-defined the term "multi talented" and truly established himself as a legend in pop music.

Carter has recently released a new album called Mel Carter Continues where he takes you on a musical journey through Ballads, R&B and big band numbers.

(Info various mainly edited from mel-carter .com) (* other sources give Mel’s birth year as 1939)

Here’s a Hullabaloo performance. Feb 28, 1966

Janet Blair (April 23, 1921 – February 19, 2007) was a big band singer who went on to become a popular American film and television actress.

Born Martha Janet Lafferty in Altoona, Pennsylvania (she took her acting surname from Blair County, Pennsylvania), Blair was the daughter of musically oriented parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred B. Lafferty. Her father led the choir and sang solos in his church, and her mother played both piano and organ. She had a brother, Fred

Jr., and a sister, Louise. Raised in the public school system, she sang in the church choir during her youth and adolescence. The inspiration and talent were evident enough for her to pursue singing as a career by the time she graduated.

At age 18, she was a lead vocalist with Hal Kemp's band at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles. Whilst singing with Kemp's outfit, Janet met and, subsequently, married the band's pianist, Lou Busch, a respected musician, songwriter, and, later, ragtime recording artist.

A Columbia Pictures talent scout caught her behind the microphone and spotted fine potential in the pretty-as-a-picture songstress. The

death of Kemp in a car accident in December of 1940 and the band's eventual break-up signaled a life-changing course of events. She signed up with Columbia, for up to $100 a week, and moved to Los Angeles while her husband found work as a studio musician. Janet made an immediate impression in her debut film as the feisty kid sister of Joan Blondell and Binnie Barnes in Three Girls About Town (1941) and also dallied about in the movies, Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942) and The Boss Said 'No' (1942), until her big break in the movies arrived.

Usually appearing in a frothy musical or light comedy, she was seeded second, however, to another redhead, Rita Hayworth, when it came to Columbia's dispensing out musical leads. Janet,

nevertheless, continued promisingly paired up with George Raft in the mob-oriented tune-fest, Broadway (1942); alongside Don Ameche in the musical, Something to Shout About (1943); and opposite Cary Grant in the comedy-fantasy, Once Upon a Time (1944). She played second lead to Ms. Hayworth in Tonight and Every Night (1945) and was right in her element when asked to co-star with bandleaders Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey in their biopic, The Fabulous Dorseys (1947).

During World War II she appeared as the pin-up girl in the March 1944 issue of Yank Magazine. In the late 1940s, Blair had star billing in the crime drama I Love Trouble as well as in The Fuller Brush Man, a comedy with Red Skelton, but was dropped by Columbia and did not return to pictures for several years.

A new decade brought about a new career direction. Putting

together a successful nightclub act, she was spotted by composer Richard Rodgers and made a sparkling name for herself within a short time. Rodgers & Hammerstein's "South Pacific", starring Mary Martin, was the hit of the Broadway season and Janet dutifully took on the lead role of "Ensign Nellie Forbush" when the show went on tour in 1950. She gave a yeoman performance -- over 1,200 in all -- within a three-year period.

Following this success, she made her Broadway debut in the musical, "A Girl Can Tell," in 1953. She went on for decades, appearing in such tuneful vehicles as "Anything Goes,""Bells Are Ringing,""Annie Get Your Gun,""Mame," and "Follies." Her career, however, took second place after marrying second husband, producer/director Nick Mayo in 1953, and raising their two children, Amanda and Andrew.

During 1959 Blair recorded an album of standards entitled Flame Out! for the Dico label. Here's "They Can't Take That Away From Me."

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Janet met Nick Mayo when he stage-managed "South Pacific" and went on to co-own and operate Valley Music Theatre in Woodland Hills, California, during the mid-1960s. There, she played "Maria" in "The Sound of Music" and "Peter Pan" opposite Vincent Price's

"Dr. Hook," among others. Her second marriage lasted until the late '60s. TV's "Golden Age" proved to be a viable medium for her. She also returned to films on occasion.

After her second divorce, Janet laid off touring in musicals and settled in Hollywood to raise her two teenage children while looking for TV work. She found a steady paycheck paired up with Henry Fonda on the sitcom, The Smith Family (1971), playing another of her patented loyal wives. She also found scattered work on such TV shows as Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), Switch (1975), Fantasy Island (1977), and The Love Boat (1977). Her last guest showing was on the Murder, She Wrote (1984) episode, Murder, She Wrote: Who Killed J.B. Fletcher? (1991). Janet died at age 85 in Santa Monica, California, after developing pneumonia.

(Info edited from Wikipedia & IMDB bio)

Janet Blair sings "To Me" from the 1947 film "The Fabulous Dorseys". This video contains both scenes of her singing the song.

Robert Knight (born Robert Peebles April 24, 1945) is an American singer best known for the 1967 recording of the song "Everlasting Love" which endures among the finest soul records of its era.

Born in Franklin, Tennessee, Knight made his professional vocal debut with the Paramounts, a quintet consisting of school friends he formed with schoolmates in 1959. They signed to Dot Records in

1960, and recorded "Free Me" in 1961, a US R&B hit produced by Noel Ball.

It was Ball who had come up with the stage name Robert Knight, and released a couple of solo singles on him. When a series of follow-up efforts failed, the Paramounts dissolved, which prompted Dot to file a breach of contract lawsuit. The subsequent legal wranglings effectively shelved Knight's musical aspirations for close to five years, during which time he studied chemistry at Tennessee State University. There he also formed a new vocal trio, the Fairlanes -- while performing with the group, Knight was spotted by songwriters/producers Buzz Cason and Fred Foster, who signed him as a solo act to their fledgling record label Rising Sons.

Buzz was equally impressed, and began working with Gayden, writing material for Knight's upcoming sessions. Putting lyrics to a few riffs that Mac had been playing around with for years, they came up with Rising Sons' breakthrough song, Everlasting Love,

which spent 11 weeks on the charts, climbing to #13 Pop in the fall of 1967. No matter what you may think of the song, it has some kind of universal appeal, and has been a hit in four different decades.

In 1968, the British group Love Affair topped the U.K. charts with their cover of the song, keeping Knight's original stuck in the lower reaches of the Top 40 -- back home, he scored a pair of minor pop hits with "Blessed Are the Lonely" and "Isn't It Lonely Together," and in 1973 reached the British Top Ten with "Love on a Mountain Top" also written by Cason and Gayden, while the re-issued "Everlasting Love" went even higher in the UK the following year, reaching the Top 20. His final UK chart record

was "Better Get Ready For Love" which reached #53 in May 1974.

He toured the UK in 1974 to great acclaim, and re-pressings of Everlasting Love and My Rainbow Valley hit the charts over there as well. Upon returning to Nashville, however, he discovered that things hadn't changed here in the States, and the few singles he cut for Private Stock in the late seventies went nowhere.

Knight nevertheless shifted his focus away from music in the decades to follow, continuing his career in chemical researchfor Vanderbilt University as a chemical lab technician, a chemistry teacher, and a member of the grounds crew.

He continues to occasionally perform and record. "Everlasting Love" remains a perennial, with hit cover versions by Carl Carlton, Rex Smith/Rachel Sweet, and Gloria Estefan. (Info edited from Wikipedia & AMG)

This is a clip of Robert Knight performing Love on a mountain top on Top of the pops on January 3rd 1974. The edition does not exist in the BBC archives.

Raymond Ronald Jones (born 25 April 1939, Thornton Heath, Croydon, Surrey) better-known as Wizz Jones is an English acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been performing since the late 1950s and recording from 1965 to the present. He has worked with many of the notable guitarists of the English folk music revival, such as John Renbourn and Bert Jansch.

Jones became infatuated with the bohemian image of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac and grew his hair long. His mother had started calling him Wizzy after the Beano comic strip character "Wizzy the Wuz" because at the age of nine Raymond was a budding musician. The nickname stuck throughout his school years and when he formed his first band, "The Wranglers", in 1957 the name became permanent. Bert Jansch later said, "I think he's the most underrated guitarist ever." In the early 1960s he went busking in Paris, France, and there mixed in an artistic circle that included Rod Stewart, Alex Campbell, Clive Palmer (Incredible String Band) and Ralph McTell. After a couple of years travelling throughout Europe and North Africa he returned to England and married his longtime girlfriend Sandy to raise a family.

In 1965, his only single was released: Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown". By this time the skiffle boom was over but one of the stars of that movement, Chas McDevitt, used Jones' guitar-playing on five albums in 1965 and 1966. Another musician on those sessions was the bluegrass banjo-player, Pete Stanley. In 1966, Jones and Stanley released an album, Sixteen Tons of Bluegrass, but this partnership broke down in 1967, as Jones then turned solo.

Here's ""When I Leave Berlin" from above album .

Lazy Farmer is the 1975 album by British folk rock group Lazy Farmer. This short-lived group consisted of pioneer British Folk musician Wizz Jones, his wife Sandy Jones, John Bidwell and Jake Walton.

Jones started to become a singer-songwriter. His first solo album was Wizz Jones in 1969. Up to 1988, ten solo albums followed and

he played on Ralph McTell's single "Easy" in 1974. Steve Tilston was also guided by Jones, through the early stages of his career. Jones was once described as having 'a right hand worthy of Broonzy', referring to the Blues Guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. Most of his recordings from this period are long out of print.

A brief excursion as a member of the traditional folk band Lazy Farmer in 1975 produced an album that was reissued in 2006. Jones has always maintained a high level of popularity in Germany, since the mid–1970s, and he stills tours mainland Europe every year. The early 1990s were a quiet period. He almost disappeared from public view.

When in the mid-1990s he appeared on the Bert Jansch television documentary Acoustic Routes, there was renewed interest in his work. In 2001, he led John Renbourn and other members of Pentangle on the album Lucky The Man. In 2007, The Legendary Me and When I Leave Berlin were reissued on CD by the Sunbeam record label.

On 30 May 2012, Bruce Springsteen opened the sold-out Wrecking Ball concert at Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, with Jones's song, "When I Leave Berlin".

In 2015, Jones toured with John Renbourn, playing a mixture of solo and duo material, before Renbourn died in March that year. (Info Wikipedia)

Mabel Scott (30 April 1915, Richmond, Virginia – 19 July 2000, Los Angeles), was an American gospel music and R&B vocalist.

One of the least regarded, but arguably the most talented of the many female pianist/vocalists who inhabited the West Coast during the 1940s, Mabel Scott was beautiful, elegant and classically trained, with a strong voice suitable for torchy ballads as well as

up-tempo jump novelties. And she was married, albeit briefly, to one of the major stars of 1940s black music. Small wonder, then, that she was not more commercially successful during her recording career - or more well-known today than she is.

Born the youngest of three children in Richmond, Virginia, Mabel Bernice Scott's family moved to New York City when she was just six. She started piano lessons the following year and began singing at The Metropolitan Baptist Church, going on to form her own female gospel group, The Song Cycles. Turning to secular entertainment, Mabel Scott made her professional debut at the age of 17, working at the Cotton Club in Harlem with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the Nicholas Brothers.

She moved from New York City to Cleveland in 1936 and the following year toured Europe, making both her first film appearance and recording debut in England when she recorded two sessions for Parlophone in London in early 1938 with her regular piano accompanist, Bob Mosely. A huge success, the pair returned to Europe, reportedly from 1940 through to 1942, only returning to the US when the war situation escalated and upon their return moved their base of operations to the West Coast. Mosely went on to join Jack McVea's first band and Scott briefly joined the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra.

By 1943, Mabel was headlining at Central Avenue's famous Club

Alabam in a revue emceed by the young Wynonie Harris, and she spent some time in the mid 1940s as the female vocalist with Lorenzo Flennoy's band. By the early post war years, Mabel's star had risen again sufficiently to enable her to resume her recording career for a one-off session for Hub Records, and she joined Leon Rene's Exclusive label in 1947, hitting the Billboard R&B charts the following year with her recordings of Elevator Boogie (#6) and Boogie Woogie Santa Claus (#12). The former recording featured the piano of another Exclusive label artist, Charles Brown, who toured with Mabel in 1948, at the height of their success, and married her the following year, divorcing in 1951.

In 1950, Mabel, with a couple of all star backing bands, made two fine sessions for King Records in New York City, but sadly none of the recordings were lucrative hits and she left the Cincinnati-based

label to record in the early 1950s for Coral, Brunswick and Parrot, making her final recordings with Les Welch's Jazz Band during a tour of Australia for Festival Records in August 1955. An abusive relationship with her second husband persuaded Mabel to turn to the church for comfort, whereupon she retired from secular music in the late 1950s to sing once again for the Almighty. She was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1995. She passed away in relative obscurity in her adopted home of Los Angeles on 19th July 2000.

(Info mainly from Dave Penny @ Black Cat Rockabilly)

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr (May 2, 1929* – November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s.

Wray was noted for pioneering a new sound for electric guitars, as exemplified in his hit 1958 instrumental "Rumble", by Link Wray

and his Ray Men, which pioneered an overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound, and was the first guitarist to use power chords to play a song's melody.

Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina of part Shawnee Indian ancestry to Lillie M. Norris and Frederick ("Fred") Lincoln Wray. It was there that Link first heard slide guitar at age eight from a travelling carnival worker, named "Hambone". Link and his family later moved to Norfolk, Virginia as his father got work in the Navy shipyards. Link served a hitch in the US Army and was a Korean War Veteran. In 1956, his family later moved to Washington, D.C., and from there, they moved to a farm in Accokeek, Maryland. Link

relocated to Arizona with his brother Vernon in the very early 1970s, and later moved to San Francisco in the mid 1970s.

Wray was a veteran of the Korean war, where he contracted tuberculosis that ultimately cost him a lung. His doctors told him that he would never sing again. So Link concentrated on his heavy guitar work. Despite this, on his rare vocal numbers he displays a strong voice and a range equivalent to Clarence "Frogman" Henry.

After discharge from the Army, Wray and his brothers Doug and Vernon Wray, with friends Shorty Horton and Dixie Neale, formed Lucky Wray and the Lazy Pine Wranglers, later known as Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands. They had been playing

country music and Western swing for several years when they took a gig as the house band on the daily live TV show Milt Grant's House Party, a Washington D.C. version of American Bandstand. The band made their first recordings in 1956 as Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands for Starday Records.

For the TV show, they also backed many performers, from Fats Domino to Ricky Nelson. At a live gig in Fredericksburg, VA, attempting to work up a backing for The Diamonds'"The Stroll", they came up with the stately, powerful 12-bar blues instrumental "Rumble", which they originally called "Oddball". The song was an instant hit with the live audience, which demanded four repeats that night.

Eventually the song came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it, particularly after Wray poked holes in his amplifier's speakers to make the recording

sound more like the live version. However, Bleyer's stepdaughter loved it and it was released despite his protest. She was the one who suggested renaming the song "Rumble", because it reminded her of West Side Story. Rumble is slang for a "gang fight". The record was banned in New York and Boston for fear it would incite teenage gang violence. Before, during and after his stints with major labels Epic and Swan, Wray released 45's under many names.

The band had several more hard-rocking instrumental hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Rawhide", "Ace of Spades", and "Jack the Ripper", the latter named after a "dirty boogie" dance popular in Baltimore at the time. The dirty boogie dance was among the several dance crazes featured in the 1988 film Hairspray.

After his initial hits, Wray's career had periods of retirement followed by renewed popularity, particularly in Europe. He toured and recorded two albums with retro-rockabilly artist Robert Gordon in the late 1970s. The 1980s to the present day saw a large number of reissues as well as new material. Inspired by the use of his songs in various feature films, the 1997 "Shadowman" album is generally regarded as the Rumble Man's return to his raw rock'n'roll roots. Wray toured Europe and Australia as well, documented on a live album and DVD.

Link's last new recording was 2000s "Barbed Wire", again recorded with his Dutch rhythm section. He was generally accompanied on tour by his wife Olive Julie, and since the late nineties his "colourful" Irish born road manager John Tynan.

His regular backing band in the USA from 1998 until 2003 were bassist Atom Ellis and drummers Danny Heifetz and Dustin Donaldson. He continued to tour up until four months before he died of heart failure, aged 76, in 2005, at his home in Copenhagen.. (info edited from Wikipedia. * Some sources give birth year as 1935)

Jerry Samuels (born Jerrold Samuels on May 3, 1938), known by the stage name Napoleon XIV, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He achieved one-hit wonder status with the Top 5 hit novelty song "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" in 1966.

Jerry started writing songs when he was 16 years old. He was born on 3 May 1938 in Brooklyn, New York. The first song published with his name in the composer credits was called To Ev'ry Girl To Ev'ry Boy (The Meaning Of Love) by Johnnie Ray on Columbia 40252 in 1954. He actually wrote this song with Sol Parker, even though it's credited to B. Parker. The same thing happened on Jerry's second published song, The Only Girl I'll Ever Love by Johnnie Ray on Columbia 40324 in 1955. The first song written solely by Jerry Samuels was So Rich And Yet So Very Poor by Tommy Mara on RKO Unique 377 in 1956.

Also in 1956, Jerry started recording his own records. His first was Puppy Love by Jerry Samuels on Vik 0197. Jerry also recorded a Break-In novelty record called The Trial under the name Jerry Field And The Lawyers on Parkway 801 in 1958. In 1959, he recorded Dancing Partners using the name Jerry Simms on RCA 7483: He used that same name on Treasure Supreme on Dual 501 in 1961. Under the name Scott David (his son's name), he co-wrote "As If I Didn't Know" with Larry Kusik, a top 10 hit for Adam Wade in 1961.

The biggest hit he wrote, but did not sing, came in 1964 with The Shelter Of Your Arms by Sammy Davis Junior, which peaked at #17 on Billboard's Hot 100.

In 1966, Samuels concocted "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" while working at Associated Recording Studios in New York. The public found out his true identity when Cousin Brucie of WABC outed him. The record quickly climbed the charts, reaching

the Top Ten nationally in just its fourth week on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at #3 and sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

This also has the distinction of being the song to drop the furthest within the Top 40 in a single week. It charted for five weeks during 1966; in week 3 it peaked at #3, it scored #5 in week 4, and fell to #37 in week 5. This was because radio programmers removed the song from their playlists, fearing an adverse reaction from people who might consider the song to be ridiculing the mentally ill. This occurred most notably in the New York market,

where both the New York Top 40 music radio stations of the time, WABC and WMCA, banned broadcasting of the song. (WABC continued to include the song on its local Top 20 list despite no longer broadcasting it.)

Critic Dave Marsh calls the song “the most obnoxious song ever to appear in a jukebox” in his book The Book of Rock Lists. Marsh claims the song once “cleared a diner of 40 patrons in 3 minutes flat”.

The success of the single inspired a Warner Bros. album of the same name in 1966 (reissued by Rhino in 1985), most of which

continued with the mental illness theme (for example: "Bats In My Belfry" and "Split Level Head" which features different vocal parts in each stereo speaker). A second single of two recordings from that album was relatively unnoticed.

He made one more novelty record in 1973 as Jerry Samuels again with I Owe A Lot To Iowa Pot b/w Who Are You To Tell Me Not To Smoke Marijuana on J.E.P. 1175.

Currently, Samuels works as a singer and runs a talent agency which books various performers. He has been working the Delaware Valley area since 1984. (Info edited from the Music Master Oldies blog & Wikipedia)

Dick Dale (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a surf-rock guitarist, known as "The King of the Surf Guitar". He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.

Dick Dale was born Richard Monsour in Boston in 1937; his father was Lebanese, his mother Polish. As a child, he was exposed to folk music from both cultures, which had an impact on his sense of melody and the ways string instruments could be picked. He also heard lots of big band swing, and found his first musical hero in drummer Gene Krupa, who later wound up influencing a percussive approach to guitar so intense that Dale regularly broke the heaviest-gauge strings available and ground his picks down to nothing several times in the same song.

He taught himself to play country songs on the ukulele, and soon graduated to guitar, where he was also self-taught. His father encouraged him and offered career guidance, and in 1954, the family moved to Southern California.

At the suggestion of a country DJ, Monsour adopted the stage name Dick Dale, and began performing in local talent shows, where his budding interest in rockabilly made him a popular act. He recorded a demo song, "Ooh-Whee Marie," for the local Del-Fi label, which was later released as a single on his father's new Del-Tone imprint and distributed locally.

During the late '50s, Dale also became an avid surfer, and soon set about finding ways to mimic the surging sounds and feelings of the

sport and the ocean on his guitar. He quickly developed a highly distinctive instrumental sound, and found an enthusiastic, ready-made audience in his surfer friends.

Dale began playing regular gigs at the Rendezvous Ballroom, a once-defunct concert venue near Newport Beach, with his backing band the Del-Tones; as word spread and gigs at other local halls followed, Dale became a wildly popular attraction, drawing 1,000s of fans to every performance. In September 1961, Del-Tone released Dale's single "Let's Go Trippin'," which is generally acknowledged to be the very first recorded surf instrumental.

"Let's Go Trippin'" was a huge local hit, and even charted nationally. Dale released a few more local singles, including "Jungle Fever,""Miserlou," and "Surf Beat," and in 1962 issued his (and surf music's) first album, the groundbreaking Surfer's Choice, on Del-Tone. Surfer's Choice sold like hotcakes around Southern California, which earned Dale a contract with Capitol Records and

Dick Dale with Little Stevie Wonder

national distribution for Surfer's Choice. Dale was featured in Life magazine in 1963, which led to appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and the Frankie/Annette film Beach Party; he also released the follow-up LP King of the Surf Guitar, and went on to issue three more albums on Capitol through 1965. During that time, he developed a close working relationship with Leo Fender, who kept engineering bigger and better sound systems in response to Dale's appetite for louder, more maniacally energetic live performances.

Surf music became a national fad, with groups like the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean offering a vocal variant to complement the wave of instrumental groups, all of which were indebted in some way to Dale. But in 1964, the British Invasion stole much of surf's thunder, and Dale was dropped by Capitol in 1965.

He remained a wildly popular local act, but in 1966, he was diagnosed with rectal cancer, which forced him to temporarily retire from music. He beat the disease, however, and soon began pursuing other interests: owning and caring for a variety of

endangered animals, studying martial arts, designing his parents' dream house, and learning to pilot planes. In 1979, a puncture wound suffered while surfing off Newport Beach led to a pollution-related infection that nearly cost him his leg; Dale soon added environmental activist to his resumé. In addition to all of that, Dale performed occasionally around Southern California throughout the '70s and '80s.

During the 1980's, Dale set his sights on the comeback trail, performing numerous concerts and, most famously, recording "Pipeline" with guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan for the Back to the Beach film. The pair were subsequently nominated for a Grammy Award for their take on The Chantays' song.

Dick Dale's popularity soared during the 1990's thanks to the appearance of his song "Miserlou" in the opening scenes of Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction. Numerous licensing deals and TV commercials followed, as well as a string of well received albums including Tribal Thunder, Unknown Territory, and Spacial Disorientation. In 2008, Dick Dale experienced a recurrence of rectal cancer and underwent surgery.

Even at an age twice that of most other performing artists in rock and roll, Dale continues to record and perform at venues across the U.S. into 2016 in order to pay for medical bills. (Info edited from various sources mainly AMG)

Sonny Parker (May 5, 1925, Youngstown, Ohio – February 7, 1957, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was an American blues and jazz singer, dancer, and drummer.

Raised in Chicago by the vaudeville act Butterbeans And Susie, Parker developed into an all-round entertainer specializing in

singing and dancing, and his powerful voice lent itself well to blues shouting.

Recording with trumpeter King Kolax for Columbia Records in 1948, he came to the attention of band leader Lionel Hampton, and recorded as the latter’s blues vocalist for Decca Records and MGM Records over the next three years, covering many of the top US R&B hits of the day (‘Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee’, ‘For You My Love’, ‘Merry Christmas Baby’, and ‘I Almost Lost My Mind’).

During the Hampton years, Parker recorded sessions in his own name for Aladdin Records, Spire and Peacock, usually featuring a contingent from the then-current Hampton orchestra. Later sessions were recorded in the mid-50s for Brunswick Records, Ultima and Hitts, and Parker continued to tour sporadically with Hampton.

In 1955 Hampton brought Parker to Europe, and it was during a concert at Valenciennes, France, Parker had a brain haemorrhage, from which he did not recover. He died of a stroke in 1957.

(Info edited from All Music & Wikipedia)

Frederick James 'Freddy' Randall (6 May 1921 – 18 May 1999) was an English jazz trumpeter and bandleader born in Clapton, East London.

One of England's top mainstream trumpeters, Freddy Randall has through the years been a star on many Dixieland-oriented record dates. He became interested in music at school and took up the trumpet when he was 16 and joined Albert Bale's Darktown

Strutters. He formed his first band, the Saint Louis Four, in 1939 and freelanced with other up-and-coming players. He joined the Rifle Brigade at the beginning of the war but was invalided out in 1943. Randall surprised audiences with his outstanding ability when he joined Freddie Mirfield's Garbage Men in 1944. John Dankworth played clarinet in the band.

That year Randall won an Individual Award at the annual Melody Maker concert. He recorded with Mirfield and stayed with him until 1946 when he formed his own band. Over the next 10 years this was to include many of the most inspired jazz improvisers, including Bruce Turner, Brian Lemon, Lennie Felix, Roy Crimmins, Danny Moss and Archie Semple.

From the late Forties on, Randall and his band played every Sunday night at the Cooks' Ferry Inn in Edmonton, North London. Even though this was an obscure place to hide his light, Randall's fame spread throughout the country. The band's music was Dixieland. It was derived from the original Chicago-style jazz played by Muggsy

Spanier and by Eddie Condon and his gang, and took account of the music of the Bob Crosby Orchestra.

Ignoring the determination of most revivalist groups to let their music be dominated by the banjo, Randall used a rhythm guitar and often a tenor saxophone. As a result his music was generally more sophisticated than that played by the other bands. When producer Mark White started the BBC Jazz Club broadcasts in 1947 he often called on Randall and when, in 1949, White took a collection of stars into the Decca studios to make some records Randall was amongst them. His feature on "Black and Blue" gave an early example of his eloquence with the growl mute style of trumpet.

Randall had based his style first on the playing of Spanier, a limited but effective American trumpeter. But he soon surpassed Spanier,

and from then on Randall had no doubts about his talents (when Alun Morgan submitted a liner note for a Randall LP to the trumpeter for his approval, Randall made an alteration. Morgan had written that Randall had "one of the best jazz bands in the country". When Randall returned the script "one of" had been deleted and "bands" had become singular).

He was undoubtedly a great player and towered above his contemporaries. One can only speculate at the result had he been dropped into one of Eddie Condon's or Jack Teagarden's bands of that time.

Randall played with such great power that it was inevitable that he would damage himself. The many spectacular records he made for the Parlophone label between 1951 and 1957 testify to his energy. They included the classic "Dark Night Blues" (1952), an eloquent

display of plunger muting of the trumpet, and he was always supported by musicians of great taste, like Crimmins, Turner, Semple, Danny Moss, Lennie Felix and Lennie Hastings. In 1958 he retired from music because of lung strain.

He bought a hotel in Brighton, which he ran from 1958 until 1961 when he sold it and bought a nursing home in Berkshire. He reformed his band in May 1963, keeping it together until 1966 when he again left full time music. He was back again in 1972 when he co-led a band with a clarinettist from one of his earlier bands, Dave Shepherd. They played at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1973 and their performance there was issued on record.

In late 1973 he formed the Freddy Randall All Stars, backing various American musicians including Bud Freeman. This band stayed together until Randall gave up touring in the late Seventies. He continued to play jobs in the Essex area throughout the Eighties and recorded with the American saxophone player Benny Waters in 1982.

Randall finally gave up playing and retired to Teignmouth in 1993 and shortly afterwards began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. He died aged 78 on 18 May 1999 in Teignmouth, Devon. (Info edited from AMG and mainly obit by Steve Voce @ The Independent )

Jimmy Ruffin (born Jimmy Lee Ruffin, May 7, 1936 – November 17, 2014) was an American soul singer, and elder brother of David Ruffin of the Temptations.

He had several hit records between the 1960s and 1980s, the most successful being the Top 10 hits "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" and "Hold On (To My Love)".

Jimmy Ruffin was born in Collinsville, Mississippi, the son of a minister, and was approaching his fifth birthday when his brother David was born. As children, the brothers began singing with a gospel group, the Dixie Nightingales.

In 1961, Jimmy became a singer as part of the Motown stable, mostly on sessions but also recording singles for its subsidiary Miracle label, but was then drafted for national service. After leaving the Army in 1964, he returned to Motown, where he was offered the opportunity to join the Temptations to replace Elbridge Bryant. However, after hearing his brother David, they hired him for the job instead so Jimmy decided to resume his solo career. Jimmy Ruffin recorded for Motown's subsidiary Soul label, but with little success.

In 1966, he heard a song about unrequited love written for The Spinners, and persuaded the writers that he should record it himself. His recording of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" became a major success and he felt he was on his way to becoming

a star. The song reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the R&B Chart. It also initially reached #10 in the UK singles chart, rising to #4 when it was reissued in the UK in 1974. "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" remained Ruffin's best-known song. Follow-ups in the US were successful, with "I've Passed This Way Before" and "Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got" reaching the US charts in late 1966 and early 1967.

Jimmy Ruffin found success in the US hard to sustain, and began to
concentrate instead on the British market. In 1970, "Farewell Is a Lonely Sound,""I'll Say Forever My Love" and "It's Wonderful (To Be Loved By You)" each made the UK top ten, and he was

voted the world's top singer in one British poll. He also teamed up with his brother David to record the album I Am My Brother's Keeper, a modestly successful album for Motown. Following the success of his first two hits, he found it hard to maintain an identity, as most of his songs were later covered by other Motown artists, In addition, he had recorded the first version of The Temptations hit "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep."

He then left Motown, and recorded for the Polydor and Chess labels, where he recorded "Tell Me What You Want." In 1980, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees produced his album Sunrise and the hit

single "Hold On To My Love," which reached #10 in the US and #7 in the UK, on the RSO label.

In the 1980s, Ruffin moved to live in Great Britain, where he continued to perform successfully. In December 1984 he collaborated with Paul Weller of The Style Council for his benefit single "Soul Deep", produced to raise money for the families of striking miners affected by the UK miners' strike. This went under the name of The Council Collective and Jimmy appeared with Paul on Radio 1 to say he is involved because his father worked down

the mines and "he understands the suffering."

In 1986 he collaborated with the British pop group Heaven 17, singing "A Foolish Thing To Do" and "My Sensitivity" on a 12" EP record. He recorded duets with both Maxine Nightingale and Brenda Holloway. Later, Ruffin hosted a radio show in the UK for a time, and became an anti-drug advocate following the 1991 drug overdose death of his brother David.

Following the 2010 release - on CD for the first time - of his 1970 album I Am My Brother's Keeper, Ruffin had been writing and recording songs for a new album that he had planned to release during 2013. It was not finished at the time of his death.

Living in the Las Vegas, Nevada area, on October 17, 2014, it was reported that Jimmy was gravely ill with pneumonia.and had been taken into an intensive care unit at a Las Vegas hospital. Ruffin died on November 17, 2014, in Las Vegas, aged 78. (Info edited from Wikipedia)

John Fred (born as John Fred Gourrier; May 8, 1941 – April 14, 2005) was a blue-eyed soul, Cajun swamp pop and bubble-gum pop performer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, best known for the song, "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)".

John Fred Gourrier was born in 1941 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father, Fred Gourrier, had played professional baseball with the Detroit Tigers organization. In 1956 John formed a band that he called John Fred and the Playboys, a white group that played primarily rhythm and blues music. While still in high school, they cut their first record in late 1958 with Fats Domino's band. The song was titled Shirley and John Fred and the Playboys saw their song rise as high as number 82 on the national record charts.

The group also cut other singles that were not as successful, working at times with Mac Rebennack and with the Jordanaires. John Fred attended Southeastern Louisiana University from 1960 to 1963 and spent some time as a college basketball player. He appeared on Alan Freed's show, but when Dick Clark asked him to sing on American Bandstand, Fred had to turn him down because he had to play in a basketball game.

He formed a new band and began to cut singles on the Jewel and N-Joy labels. The band was very popular regionally. Eventually they became known as John Fred & His Playboy Band and signed with the Paula label. After six singles that met with little success nationally, they recorded a parody of the popular Beatles' song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds which they called Judy In Disguise [With Glasses].

A song with a snappy beat and well orchestrated, it entered the charts on December 16, 1967 and by January 20, 1968 it had supplanted another Beatles' song, Hello Goodbye, as the number one record on the U.S. charts. It remained there for two weeks. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

Although Fred actually had a well-rehearsed and talented group honed by years on the road, he was branded as a novelty act and never had another success. Only after years of struggles did Fred obtain full legal rights to "Judy in Disguise" and its royalties. They also covered "You're On My Mind" by The Animals.

John Fred & His Playboy Band continued doing pop songs and soul songs, recording material that had been done by Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Otis Redding and other well-known soul artists of the day. They toured through Europe, at one point playing with the supergroup Traffic in Hamburg. They recorded an album

Permanently Stated that was psychedelic in nature, in keeping with the times. Before breaking up the group had one more single that was a hit regionally, Hey, Hey Bunny in 1968.

Fred spent much of the decade touring small clubs before reinventing himself as a producer during the late '70s, most notably helming several sessions for New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas. In 1982, he was named vice president of Baton Rouge-based RCS Records. Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 1991 and given the Louisiana Music Living Legend Award in 1999, in later years Fred wrote jingles for brands including Greyhound Bus Lines, Ban Deodorant, and the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, and even wrote and recorded the single "Baseball at the Box" in honour of the Louisiana State University baseball squad.

With Joe Stampley and Gee Gee Shinn he founded the Louisiana Boys, releasing a self-titled 1997 LP on the Bayou Music label. In 2000 he issued his first proper solo LP, I Miss Y'All, followed two years later by Somebody's Knockin'. In addition to touring clubs, festivals, and casinos, Fred coached high-school baseball and for Baton Rouge station WBRH hosted a weekly radio broadcast The Roots of Rock & Roll until his death.

In 2004, Fred's health began to fail and after receiving a kidney transplant, complications ensued which culminated in a long hospital stay in Tulane Hospital in New Orleans until his death on April 14, 2005, age 63. In April 2007, John Fred (Gourrier) was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. (Info edited from Wikipedia, www.tsimon and All Music)

Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame 2007 Inductee John Fred (Gourrier)of John Fred & The Playboys, at his induction tribute performance in April of 2007 in Mandeville, LA. Performance clips are from his final major performance in December of 2003 in New Orleans. This edit includes his World Wide #1 hit "Judy In Disguise", "Agnes English" and his 50's hit, "Shirley".

Betty Blake born 9 April 1937

Claude Bolling born 10 April 1930

Debroy Somers born 11 April 1890

Billy Vaughn born 12 April 1919

Jerry Mengo born 17 April 1911

Ruby Johnson born 19 April 1936

Lionel Hampton born 20 April 1908

Edna Savage born 21 April 1936

Mel Carter born 22 April 1943

Janet Blair born 23 April 1921

Robert Knight born 24 April 1945

Wizz Jones born 25 April 1939

Mabel Scott born 30 April 1915

Link Wray born 2 April 1929

Jerry Samuels born 3 May 1938

Dick Dale born 4 May 1937

Sonny Parker born 5 May 1925

Freddy Randall born 6 May 1921

Jimmy Ruffin born 7 May 1936

John Fred born 8 May 1941