FROM THE VAULTS

Rolan Webster Holden (August 7, 1939 – January 22, 1997) was an American pop and rhythm and blues singer from Seattle, Washington. Ron appeared on The Lloyd Thaxton Show, Mike Douglas Show, American Bandstand (with Connie Francis, The Crests, Bobby Freeman and Conway Twitty) and The Dick Clark

Show. He performed at the Apollo Theater with artists Jackie Wilson, the Crests and Redd Foxx. Most notable were USO tour-stops with Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and Connie Francis.

A self-described "dancehall singer," Ron was born Rolan Holden on August 7,1939 in Seattle, Washington, Ron came by his love of music honestly as his father, Oscar, widely known as the patriarch of Seattle jazz, once played clarinet in the great Jelly Roll Morton band. A Garfield High School (Class of ’58) football star, Ron also co-founded one of the town's very first teenage rockin''50s R&B groups, the Playboys, who helped establish the song "Louie Louie" as a regional standard.

Ron Holden was discovered by Larry Nelson, who had just left work as a police officer to start his own record label. Ron spread the rumour that he had been heard singing by Nelson while being held in the King County jail after being arrested for marijuana and alcohol possession, but the story has not been confirmed. Holden was then joined by The Thunderbirds and released the single "Love You So", which became a hit in the U.S., peaking at #11 on the R&B Singles chart and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960.Donna Records, owned by record company producer Bob Keane, bought the rights to Holden's recordings shortly after and issued a full LP entitled Love You So; this record was re-issued by Del-Fi Records in 1994.

After five Donna releases, the company dropped him. He made records over the next few years for the Eldo, Baronet, Rampart and Challenge labels, but the momentum was lost and it didn't appear there would be another hit record.

Between 1960 and 1965, Ron Holden toured with Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, James Brown, Brook Benton, Etta James, Cleve Duncan & the Penguins, Rosie and the Originals, the 5 Royales, the Coasters, Freddy Cannon, the Crests, Marvin & Johnny, Don and

Dewey, Big Joe Turner, Marv Johnson, Mickey & Silvia, Harvey Fuqua & the Moonglows, Jimmy Clanton, the Olympics, Donnie Brooks and Bill Haley.

In 1969, Ron, as singer/entertainer, formed a six piece rock and R&B band: Ron Holden & Good News. Good News performed at various clubs in the Seattle/Tacoma area for about eight months. The group members were Bob Cozzetti (trumpet), Tim Gemmill (tenor saxophone & flute), Steve Swartz (drums), Toby Cyer (electric guitar) and Gary Snyder[ (bass guitar). Influences included James Brown, Chicago and Blood Sweat & Tears.

In 1970 Holden entered LA City College to study theatre arts. Then, in 1972, he was hired to join the first Rock & Roll Revival show at the Hollywood Bowl (along with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and other stars), and in 1973 he cut the “pick hit” soul 45, “Can You Talk,” and began performing (and gigging as MC) at Art Laboe’s Oldies Club on Sunset. Exhausted by showbiz, he moved to Seattle in 1977 and later ran his own popular nightclub, Ron’s 5th Ave., while also participating in oldies concerts far and wide.

Ron Holden & Buddy Knox 1993

In 1983 Holden was included -- along with Richard Berry, the Wailers, the Kingsmen, and others -- at the huge Best of Louie Louie celebratory concert at the Tacoma Dome. Then in 1987, he joined all his old Northwest peers in an historic Northwest Rock reunion concert at the Seattle Centre Coliseum and in 1994 Donna Records finally reissued his Love You So album on Compact Disc for a whole new generation of music fans to discover and enjoy.

Along the way, Holden had begun accepting gigs at numerous far-flung venues -- and it was while booked at a club in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, that he died of a heart attack on January 22, 1997.

(Info edited from Wikipedia & Peter Blecha @ historylink.org)

It is with sad news that a that Forgotten Vinyl also fondly known as "Lord Of The Boot Sale" that has lasted six years and had over 5,000 posts has now been took down due to copyright infringements (unbeknown to the blogger).

Instead of asking to remove the infringing files the blogster was just cut off after years of sharing rare vinyl that he bought from boot sales.A very sad day for music lovers all over the world as this man has dedicated his time in sharing music that would not be available by commercial means.

I have followed Robins blog for many years and have sought out records and albums on the strength of his posts and paid for them!!

A great loss for the music lovers of the world, also to the record companies who deem advertising their wares illegal.

RIP Lord of the Bootsale.

Bennett Lester "Benny" Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other

jazz musicians who called him King. Carter performed with major artists from several generations of jazz, and at major festivals, such as his 1958 appearance with Billie Holiday at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

To say that Benny Carter had aremarkable and productive career would be an extreme understatement. As an altoist, arranger, composer, bandleader, and occasional trumpeter, Carter was at the top of his field since at least 1928, and in the late '90s, Carter was as strong an altoist at the age of 90 as he was in 1936 (when he was merely 28). His gradually evolving style did not change much through the decades, but neither did it become at all stale or predictable except in its excellence. Benny Carter was a major figure in every decade of the 20th century since the 1920s, and his consistency and longevity were unprecedented.

Essentially self-taught, Benny Carter started on the trumpet and,

after a period on C-melody sax, switched to alto. In 1927, he made his recording debut with Charlie Johnson's Paradise Ten. The following year, he had his first big band (working at New York's Arcadia Ballroom) and was contributing arrangements to Fletcher Henderson and even Duke Ellington. Carter was with Henderson during 1930-1931, briefly took over McKinney's Cotton Pickers, and then went back to leading his own big band (1932-1934). Already at this stage he was considered one of the two top altoists in jazz (along with Johnny Hodges), a skilled arranger and composer ("Blues in My Heart" was an early hit and would be followed by "When Lights Are Low"), and his trumpet playing was excellent; Carter would also record on tenor, clarinet

(an instrument he should have played more), and piano, although his rare vocals show that even he was human.

The few recordings his band made between 1933 and 1934 are considered by most jazz scholars to be milestones in early swing arranging. They were sophisticated and very complex arrangements and a number of them became swing standards which were performed by other bands ("Blue Lou" is a great example of this).

In 1935, Benny Carter moved to Europe, where in London he was a staff arranger for the BBC dance orchestra (1936-1938); he also recorded in several European countries. Carter's "Waltzing the Blues" was one of the very first jazz waltzes. He returned to the

U.S. in 1938, led a classy but commercially unsuccessful big band (1939-1941), and then headed a sextet.

In 1943, he relocated permanently to Los Angeles, appearing in the film Stormy Weather (as a trumpeter with Fats Waller) and getting lucrative work writing for the movie studios. He would lead a big band off and on during the next three years (among his sidemen were J.J. Johnson, Miles Davis, and Max Roach) before giving up on that effort. Carter wrote for the studios for over 50 years, but he continued recording as an altoist (and all-too-rare trumpeter) during the 1940s and '50s, making a few tours with Jazz at the Philharmonic and participating on some of Norman

Granz's jam-session albums.

By the mid-'60s, his writing chores led him to hardly playing alto at all, but he made a full "comeback" by the mid-'70s, and maintained a very busy playing and writing schedule even at his advanced age. Even after the rise of such stylists as Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, and David Sanborn (in addition to their many followers), Benny Carter still ranks near the top of alto players.

Carter was a member of the music advisory panel of the National

Endowment for the Arts. He was also a member of the Black Film Makers' Hall of Fame and in 1980 received the Golden Score award of the American Society of Music Arrangers. In 1987, Carter was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Carter was also a Kennedy Centre Honouree in 1996 and received honorary doctorates from Princeton, Harvard, Rutgers, and the New England Conservatory.

His concert and recording schedule remained active through the '90s, slowing only at the end of the millennium. After eight amazing decades of writing and playing, Benny Carter passed away quietly on July 13, 2003 at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 95. (Info mainly AMG With snippets from Wikipedia)

Wyatt Merle Kilgore (August 9, 1934 – February 6, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and manager.

Merle Kilgore had a multi-tiered career in country music as a singer, songwriter, deejay and as the manager of Hank Williams Jr.

Born in Chickasha, OK (full name Wyatt Merle Kilgore), and raised in Shreveport, LA, he learned to play guitar at a young age and was working as a disc jockey and musician in his mid-teens. As a boy of 14 he carried the guitar for Hank Williams at the Louisiana Hayride beginning a close relationship with the Williams family that would last three generations. He attended school at C. E. Byrd High School and then Louisiana Tech University.

His outgoing personality and musical ability served Kilgore well, and he worked at several stations around the state before joining the Louisiana Hayride as the principal accompanying guitarist.

He made the jump to television in 1952 on the Ouachita Valley Jamboree on KFAZ-TV in West Monroe, LA, then debuted on the Grand Ole Opry, and appeared on the Big D Jamboree in Dallas, all in a two-year span from 1952 to 1954, during which period he also completed college. Kilgore was signed to Imperial Records in 1953, and wrote the song "More and More," which was recorded by Web Pierce, Guy Lombardo, and Johnny Duncan, among others, with Pierce's making the number one country single for ten weeks.

His own recordings didn't do much, either on Imperial or D Records, but in 1959 Johnny Horton got a Top Ten hit with "Johnny Reb," another Kilgore song. It was only when he signed with Starday Records that Kilgore began generating hit recordings of his own, beginning with "Dear Mama" early in 1960. "Love Has

Made You Beautiful" and "Gettin' Old Before Your Time" was a double-sided hit, the A-side making the Top Ten. Kilgore joined the Grand Ole Opry in the early '60s, even as other artists -- including Frankie Miller -- continued to generate their own hits with his songs, such as "Baby Rocked Her Dolly." He also appeared regularly on the Big 10 Jamboree and the Riley Springs Jamboree, out of Arkansas and Texas, respectively.

"Wolverton Mountain," authored by Kilgore and his fellow Louisianan Claude King, became one of the biggest hits of Kilgore's song writing career in King's hands, holding the number one country spot for nine weeks in the early '60s, riding that chart for six months and becoming a Top Ten pop hit as well. In 1962, he

also co-wrote "Ring of Fire" with June Carter, which became a major country and pop hit for Johnny Cash. Kilgore even followed Cash's path into the august surroundings of Carnegie Hall in New York for a concert and became a major draw in Las Vegas, while his albums, including There's Gold in Them Thar Hills and Merle Kilgore, kept selling for Starday.

By the mid-'60s, he'd jumped to Mercury Records and also into motion pictures, as a singer, doing the title song for the Steve McQueen revenge Western Nevada Smith, and also as an actor in the same movie. He joined Columbia Records in 1967 and did some more onscreen acting in Hewnry Hathaway's Five Card Stud (1967), starring Dean Martin

and Robert Mitchum. He jumped labels again in 1969 and then in 1973, ending up back on Starday at that time. He continued to record into the 1980s and was assisted by Hank Williams, Jr. on the album Mr. Garfield. He subsequently began managing Williams.

Despite his activities in management, Kilgore continued to perform in his 60s and remained a familiar figure in country music thanks to his song writing, which kept his name before the listening public even as he moved into other capacities. In 1995, Bear Family released a CD called Teenager's Holiday, made up of Kilgore's classic recordings. And Kilgore's music continued to be covered anew -- in 1998, Van Morrison recorded a version of "More and More" as a duet with Bob Dylan. Also in 1998, Kilgore was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Jack Clement, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Jr. & Merle Kilgore in 1988

On February 6, 2005, Merle Kilgore died from heart failure while in a Mexican hospital undergoing experimental treatments for lung cancer, and was interred in Hendersonville Memory Gardens in Hendersonville, Tennessee. (Info mainly AMG)

Gerald Walcan Bright, better known as Geraldo (10 August 1904 – 4 May 1974) was an English bandleader. He adopted the name "Geraldo" in 1930, and became one of the most popular British dance band leaders of the 1930s with his "sweet music" and his "Gaucho Tango Orchestra". During the 1940s, he modernized his style and continued to enjoy great success.

Geraldo was born in London, England. A child prodigy, he received instruction at London's Royal Academy of Music and entered the work force playing piano and organ in movie theatres. At the age of 16 he ran away from home, boarded the HMS Cameronia and sailed to New York City and back as a member of the ship's dance orchestra.

During the early 1920s Bright led a series of little bands, establishing himself at the helm of the St. Anne's-on-the-Sea Hotel Majestic Orchestra for five years beginning in 1925. By August 1930 Bright, after touring Latin America where he absorbed the sounds of the orquesta tipica, opted for a new sound based in a popular dance that was rapidly spreading from Argentina

to Europe. He renamed himself and his ensemble the Geraldo Gaucho Tango Band and experienced great success with the public at the Savoy Hotel. Although within three years he had been crowned "Tango King of England", by the late ‘30s the tango motif had receded as Geraldo and his Sweet Music became established as one of England's most accessible dance orchestras.

By 1933, he led a more conventional dance orchestra under the tag line 'Geraldo & His Sweet Music'. In addition to his prolific broadcasts for BBC radio and numerous recordings for Decca and Parlophone, Geraldo also sidelined as musical director for Herbert Wilcox's British & Dominions film studio from 1935 to 1940.

During World War II, he took on another job as Supervisor of Bands for ENSA and conducted several tours of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. His sweet band serenaded British soldiery throughout Europe, North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. After the war, he became involved with band management, supplying ensembles (popularly known as 'Geraldo's Navy') to perform on Cunard ocean liners.

Over the course of several decades he employed trumpeters Ronnie Hughs, Leslie ‘Jiver' Hutchinson, Basil Jones, Alfie Noakes, Stan Reynolds, Flash Shields and Ron Simmonds. His trombonists included Tommy Cook, Jimmy ‘Topper' Coombes, Joe Cordell, Frank Dixon, Joe Ferrie, Ted Heath, Harry Roche and Eric Tann. Within Geraldo's reed section over the years were Bob Adams, Billy Amstel, Arthur Birkby, Geoff Cole, Bob Efford, George Evans, Jock Faulds, Phil Goody, Harry ‘Chipper' Hayes, Dougie Robinson, Wally Stott and Nat Temple.

Geraldo Orchestra 1945

At the piano sat either Gerald's twin brother Sydney ‘Sid' Bright or Ralph Dallimore, who wrote arrangements for the band as did Birkby, Evans and Stott (better known in the US as Angela Morley). Geraldo's guitarists were Ivor Mairants, Dave Goldberg and Ken Sykora; bassists were Jack Collier and Frank Donnison, and drummers were Maurice Berman and Dougie Cooper.

Geraldo's stable of crooners and canaries included Al Bowlly, Len Camber, Dorothy Carless, Carole Carr, Beryl Davies, Roy Edwards, Cyril Grantham, Johnny Green, Jackie Hunter, Dick James, Monte Rey (born Montgomery Fife), Denny Vaughan and Doreen Villiers.

Geraldo became a major figure on the British entertainment scene for four decades, having fronted just about every kind of ensemble and influenced the successful careers of numerous top singers. For his broadcasts he varied the style of his orchestra quite considerably, and a particular series Tip Top Tunes (employing a full string section alongside the usual dance band) enjoyed great popularity.

During the 1950s he served as musical director for Scottish TV, where for more than three decades his composition "Scotlandia" was used as theme music. A series of Festival Hall Concerts in 1969 led to a networked television series recalling the heyday of swing music.

Gerald Bright was felled by a heart attack during a vacation in Vevey, Switzerland on May 4 1974. In 1993 a new Geraldo Orchestra, directed by trombonist Chris Dean, toured the UK provinces.

(Info edited from AMG, IMDB & Wikipedia)

One of the great British dance bands, Geraldo, also in the orchestra is Harry Hayes Alto Sax and Ted Heath on trombone, from the movie We'll Meet Again made in 1942.

Harold David Box (August 11, 1943 – October 23, 1964) was an American rock musician in the early 1960s.

Question : which singer-songwriter-guitarist from Lubbock, Texas, was tragically killed in an airplane crash at the age of 21? The answer is not Buddy Holly (who was 22 at the time of his death), but David Box. If his name doesn't ring a bell, you are forgiven.

His vocal talents were only ever featured on five 45-rpm records during his lifetime. His music is best described as Buddy Holly meets Roy Orbison.

David Box was born into a musical family (his father, Harold Box, was a western swing fiddler) in the small town of Sulphur Springs in East Texas. In 1945, the Box family moved to Lubbock, where David would live for the next 17 years. On his ninth birthday, his parents bought him an acoustic guitar. He showed great determination in his efforts to master the art of guitar playing. Having growing up with country music, David's horizons were widened with the advent of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s.

He became a regular spectator at Radio KDAV's weekly Sunday Party, where he watched the development of Buddy Holly, who

became his role model. He was a founder-member of the Rhythm Teens, later the Ravens, a group styled on the Crickets. They cut several demos in February-April 1960. Two of these were sent to Jerry Allison (the drummer of the Crickets), which resulted in David and his band-mate Ernie Hall being invited to record with the Crickets, who were looking for a vocalist after Sonny Curtis had been drafted. On his 17th birthday, David recorded "Peggy Sue Got Married" and his own song "Don't Cha Know" (co-written with Ernie Hall) as lead vocalist with the Crickets. The two recordings (issued on Coral 62238 in November 1960) fulfilled the Crickets' contractual obligations with Coral, before they moved on to Liberty Records.

In 1961 David signed with Ted Groebl's Joed label in Big Spring, TX, first only as a songwriter. David's first solo professional recording session was on April 5, 1962, in Nashville. While there, David stayed at the home of Roy Orbison, in whom he found his next great influence. Box recorded two songs by the trio of Roy

Orbison, Joe Melson and Ray Rush : "I've Had My Moments" and "If You Can't Say Something Nice", with top session musicians (Bob Moore, Pig Robbins, Ray Edenton). David thought that his big break had come. Reality was something else. Joed eventually leased the recordings to a small California label, Candix. Apart from a positive review in Billboard on August 18, 1962, the recordings received no further promotion, excellent as they were. " Three releases on Joed, in 1962-64, also suffered from ineffective promotion.

David graduated from Lubbock High School on June 1, 1962. Sensibly seeking a possible alternative to music, he enrolled on a correspondence course with the School of American Art in Westport, Connecticut. This was completed in the summer of 1964, after which he had more time for touring. He had come to realize the limitations of being signed to a small independent label that had never had a hit record. On his 21st birthday, he was able to take control of his legal affairs, cancelling his contract with Joed. Thanks to Ray Rush, Box was signed to RCA Victor, a major label. David and Ray were invited to travel to Nashville on October 24 for their first RCA session.

Meanwhile, David worked with a local band named Buddy and the Kings : Buddy Groves (vocal/guitar), Carl Banks (bass) and Bill Daniels (drums). Daniels was a qualified pilot and the quartet hired a Cesna Skyhawk 172 to take them to a gig in Harris County on 23 October 1964. The plane crashed, probably due to a defective fuel gauge. There were no survivors. After the sad news broke in Lubbock the Box's first visitors were Buddy Holly's parents. Mr Holley hugged Harold Box and said simply "It's better you should know this now; people will tell you that time heals the pain but it doesn't".

David Box didn't live long enough to reach his full potential. He took his music very seriously and although he was heavily influenced by Buddy Holly, he was extremely talented in his own right. In 2006 David was inducted into Lubbock's "Walk of Fame".

(Info from article by Dik de Heer @ Blackcat Rockabilly)

Howard Tate (August 13, 1939 – December 2, 2011) was an American soul singer and songwriter.

The sublime tenor voice of the American soul singer Howard Tate, who has died aged 72, lit up a string of immaculate recordings in the late 1960s, including "Ain't Nobody Home" and "Get It While

You Can," the latter of which became a hit for singer Janis Joplin. After struggling with drug addiction and falling out of the music business, Tate mounted a warmly-received comeback in 2001.

Tate was born in Eberton, a small town near Macon, Georgia, and raised in Philadelphia. His father was a Baptist minister who encouraged his son to sing in church. At the age of 10 he formed a gospel trio with his cousins. A visiting gospel group, the Gainors, were so impressed by Tate's singing that they invited him to join. They performed at churches all over the Philadelphia area and, in 1955, a Mercury Records scout signed the

group, on the condition they recorded doo-wop. The resulting 45s did not enjoy any real success and, in 1960, Tate leapt at the offer to be a vocalist for the pianist and organist Bill Doggett, who had scored a huge US hit in 1956 with Honky Tonk.

Tate stayed with Doggett for three years before returning to Philadelphia. There, he found that the Gainors had changed their name to Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters and scored a huge hit with Cry Baby (1963), a stunning slice of emotionally laden, orchestrated soul music written and produced by the supremely gifted Jerry Ragovoy.

Ragovoy heard a recording of Tate, and encouraged him to move to New York. His first single, Half a Man, appeared on Ragovoy's Utopia label and failed to chart. Ragovoy dug deeper, signing Tate to Verve Records and providing him with strong songs at their next recording session in November 1964. "Ain't Nobody Home" hit No 12 on the R&B charts and Tate went from mixing mortar on a building site to joining Sam Cooke and Wilson Pickett, two of the hottest soul stars then working, on coast-to-coast tours.

Tate scored a moderate hit on the R&B charts with Look at Granny Run Run (1966), yet his third single, Get It While You Can (1967), was a flop. Many listeners, including Joplin, acknowledged the recording as a masterpiece. Tate would later blame Verve, a jazz label, for failing to understand how to market R&B.

Stop, another magnificent Ragovoy-Tate pairing, was a minor hit in

1968 and was later recorded by Jimi Hendrix but Tate, frustrated by his lack of success, split from Ragovoy. In 1970 he recorded an album, Howard Tate's Reaction, for Turntable, but found out that the label was a front for the mafia.

Reuniting with Ragovoy, he signed to Atlantic Records and cut the album Howard Tate (1972). Atlantic also failed to provide Tate with a breakthrough and he and Ragovoy left for Epic, where they recorded one single. After that failed to chart, Tate was consigned to working the chitlin' circuit – black nightclubs across the US south – where each night he would be one of several singers. By

1980 he had left the music business altogether and a few years later was a homeless drug addict.

In 1994 he experienced a religious conversion that helped him clean up. He became a preacher, working with homeless addicts, unaware that soul fans were searching for him and that his classic Verve recordings had been reissued on CD. The DJ Phil Casden had long been begging listeners for information on Tate and in 2000, the veteran R&B musician Ron Kennedy was able to put them in touch. Casden announced to the world that Tate was alive and helped him win the royalties from his Verve days.

Ragovoy then got in contact, suggesting that he and Tate should

work together again. The resulting album, Rediscovered (2003), won Tate critical garlands and plenty of work – a memorable concert at Madame JoJo's in London found him singing with remarkable range and power.

2010 saw a release of a limited vinyl only, direct-to-disc live recording from Blue Heaven Studios, with Tate and his touring quartet performing songs from his catalogue.

On December 2, 2011, Tate died from complications of multiple myeloma and leukaemia, aged 72.

Edwin James "Eddie" Costa (August 14, 1930 – July 28, 1962) was an American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer and arranger. In 1957 he was chosen as Down Beat jazz critics' new star on piano and vibes – the first time that one artist won two categories in the same year. He became known for his percussive, driving piano style that concentrated on the lower octaves of the keyboard.

Eddie & Bill

Eddie Costa was born in Atlas, Pennsylvania, near Mount Carmel, in Northumberland County. He was taught and influenced on piano by his older, musically trained brother, Bill, and a local piano teacher. Eddie took paid jobs as a pianist from the age of 15. In contrast to his piano training, he was self-taught on vibes. In 1949 Costa played and toured for a few months with violinist Joe Venuti. He then worked for his brother in New York until, in 1951, Eddie was drafted into the army. During his time in the armed forces, Costa performed in Japan and Korea. Upon release after two years, Costa again worked around the New York area, including for bands led by Kai Winding, Johnny Smith, and Don Elliott.

In 1954 Costa made his first recordings, with guitarist Sal Salvador, to whom he had been recommended by trombonist Winding. The following year, Costa recorded a series of piano duets with John Mehegan; differences in playing style meant that several rehearsals were required to organize which pianist would be responsible for what aspects of the performances.

Here's "Sweet and Lovely" from above 1956 album.

Costa's first recording as leader was in 1956, with his trio featuring bassist Vinnie Burke and drummer Nick Stabulas. Around this time, Costa was nicknamed "The Bear" by Burke for his powerful playing. Also in 1956, Costa and Burke joined guitarist Tal Farlow, forming a resident trio to play at the Composer, a club on West

Eddie with Tal Farlow

58th Street in New York. The trio stayed together, recording several albums under Farlow's name, until, in 1958, the Composer closed. Costa was often in recording studios as a sideman around this time: he appeared on approximately 20 albums in both 1956 and 1957. These included small group settings with Herbie Mann, Oscar Pettiford, and Phil Woods, and accompanying vocalists such as Tony Bennett and Chris Connor.

In 1957 Costa was again leader, recording Eddie Costa Quintet with Woods, Art Farmer, Teddy Kotick, and Paul Motian. A trio appearance at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival also brought Costa greater attention. Costa's next recording as leader, this time exclusively on vibes, was 1958's Guys and Dolls Like Vibes.

From 1958 to 1959 Costa was with Woody Herman's band on and off, including as part of a sextet. Over these two years, Costa continued recording prolifically, including in orchestras led by Herman, Manny Albam, Michel Legrand, and Ernie Wilkins. Costa's final recording as leader was The House of Blue Lights, a piano trio album with Marshall and Motian, in 1959. After this, although he continued to play in clubs such as the Half Note on Hudson Street, Costa concentrated mainly on studio work, on both piano and vibes, for other leaders. He was much in demand for recording sessions because of the excellence of his sight-reading and playing on both of his instruments.

Eddie on vibes

The quantity of studio work created a conflict between Costa's need and desire to support his family, sometimes achieved through working day and night in studios, and his belief in developing his jazz talents, which would have required playing more in clubs and dealing with the people – agents, club owners, artists and repertoire men, and so on – whose goals seldom matched those of creative musicians. There are many notable examples of Costa's studio work from this period. A long association with pianist and arranger Ralph Sharon meant that Costa was the vibraphonist in the Sharon orchestra on June 9, 1962, when it played with Bennett at Carnegie Hall. Costa's final

recording session was on July 12, 1962, as part of a group assembled by saxophonist Al Cohn mainly from the Benny Goodman band that had toured the Soviet Union earlier that year.

Late at night on July 28, 1962, Costa was killed in a car crash, involving no other vehicles, on New York's Westside Highway at 72nd Street. He was survived by his wife and four children.

This loss to music was summarized years later in the liner notes to one of his recordings: "No pianist with his combination of strength, humour, and drive has developed in the sixties or seventies, and as the years go by it becomes more apparent that we lost a unique creative musician". In his eight-year recording career, Costa appeared on more than 100 albums, five of these were under his own leadership He never recorded a solo album. (Info edited from Wikipedia)

Eddie Costa with Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Teddy Kotick, and Paul Motian: 1957.

Johnny Thunder is the professional stage name of Gil Hamilton (born August 15, 1932). He is an American R&B and pop singer, whose biggest hit was "Loop De Loop" in 1963.

Gil Hamilton was born in Leesburg, Florida, and started singing in church and on street corners when in his teens. Aiming to start a singing career in the late 1950s, he moved to New York City, where he joined a touring version of The Drifters for a few months, and also sang in an Apollo Theater production, A Blind Man Sings the Blues. He also recorded as a backing singer for Dionne Warwick and others, and, as Gil Hamilton, recorded several singles for various small labels.

One of his singles recorded in 1962, "Tell Her", written by Bert Berns under the pseudonym Bert Russell, and produced by Berns,

was the original version of "Tell Him" which later became an international hit for The Exciters (and in the UK for Billie Davis). Hamilton's 1962 Vee Jay single "Move & Groove" was the original version of Johnny O'Keefe's 1963 Australian hit "Move Baby Move.

In 1963, Thunder linked up with songwriter and record producer Teddy Vann, who persuaded him to record a novelty version of the traditional children's nursery song "Loop de Loop" (also known as "Looby Lou"), using the name "Johnny Thunder". Vann also advised him to appeal more to the teenage market by claiming he was born in 1941 rather than his actual birth year of 1932.

The record, released on the Diamond label, became a big hit, rising to no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1963; it was covered by Frankie Vaughan in the UK. Johnny Thunder released an album, Loop De Loop, and several follow-up singles, of which "Everybody Do The Sloopy" was the most successful, reaching no. 67 in late

1965. In 1967, he had another minor hit as part of a duo with Ruby Winters on "Make Love To Me".

In 1969, Thunder released his first single for Calla Records, the "raucous" rock song "I'm Alive", featuring "Verbal Expressions of T.V." as its B-side. Bob Dylan, who had heard "I'm Alive" on the radio, was asked by Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner that year if he was impressed by anything in the rock music scene and pointed to the song: "Never heard it either, huh? Well, I can't believe it. Everyone I've talked to, I've asked them if they've heard that record. It was one of the most powerful records I've ever heard. It's called 'I'm Alive.' By Johnny Thunder. Well, it was that sentiment, truly expressed. That's the most I can say ... if you heard the record, you'd know what I mean."

Since the 1960s, Thunder has continued to tour internationally, and has regularly appeared on luxury cruise ships in the Caribbean and elsewhere. (Info Wikipedia)

Ernest Aaron "Ernie" Freeman (August 16, 1922 – May 16, 1981) was an American pianist, organist, bandleader and arranger. He was responsible for arranging many successful rhythm and blues and pop records from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Freeman was born in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1935 he began playing in local Cleveland area nightclubs, and also formed a classical music

trio for local social functions with his father and his sister Evelyn. Around 1939, he and Evelyn formed a new band, The Evelyn Freeman Swing Band, with fellow teenagers from Cleveland Central High School. Evelyn played piano, while Ernie played saxophone and also began writing arrangements for the band. The band began a regular engagement at the Circle Ballroom in Cleveland, and broadcast shows for WHK radio station. In 1942, most of the band, apart from Evelyn, joined the US Navy together, and became the first all-black Navy Band, called "The Gobs Of Swing", with Ernie as its leader.

After leaving the Navy in 1945 Ernie entered the Cleveland Institute of Music, from which he graduated with a BA degree. In 1946 he moved with his family to Los Angeles, to attend the

University of Southern California where he received his master's degree in music composition. In Los Angeles, he played in clubs, accompanying Dinah Washington and Dorothy Dandridge among others, as well as recording under his own name for the Mambo label. After a spell as arranger for Woody Herman he joined the Ernie Fields Orchestra, playing the piano. Other members of the band included saxophonists Earl Bostic and Plas Johnson, guitarist René Hall, and drummer Earl Palmer. In 1951 Freeman also began playing with the Billy Hadnott Sextet, but left in 1954 to form his own combo with Johnson, Palmer and guitarist Irving Ashby. In 1955 they released their first record, "No No Baby" on the Middle-Tone label. They also recorded with a vocal group, the Voices, who included Bobby Byrd and Earl Nelson of the Hollywood Flames (later Bob

& Earl).

Freeman played on numerous early rock and R&B sessions in Los Angeles, California, in the 1950s, particularly on the Specialty, Modern, and Aladdin labels, as well as for white artists such as Duane Eddy and Bobby Vee. He played piano on the Platters'"The Great Pretender" in 1955, and began releasing a number of instrumental records of his own, at first on Cash Records.These included "Jivin' Around" (#5 on the R&B chart in 1956). In 1956 the Ernie Freeman Combo and the Platters appeared in Paramount Pictures' Rock Around The Clock introduced by Alan Freed. In the same year he was signed by Imperial Records, where he released 29 singles and seven LPs over the next seven years. His first single for the label was "Lost Dreams", which reached #7 on the R&B chart.

His cover version of Bill Justis'"Raunchy", his biggest solo success, reached #4 on the pop chart and #1 on the R&B chart in 1957. He returned to the charts in 1958, when his version of "Indian Love Call" reached #58 on the Billboard pop chart.

In 1958 the Ernie Fields Orchestra, including Freeman, became the

house band for the newly formed Rendezvous record label. In 1961, with Palmer, Johnson and René Hall, they began recording as B. Bumble and the Stingers, and Freeman played piano on their first hit, "Bumble Boogie" (but not their later hit, "Nut Rocker"). In the same year, Lew Bedell, the owner of Doré Records, suggested to him that he record a version of a Maxwell House advertising jingle. The record, "Percolator (Twist)", was credited to Billy Joe & the Checkmates and rose to no.10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1962.Freeman also performed with and arranged for the Routers and their parallel group the Marketts.

He continued a successful session career in the 1960s, arranging and appearing on material by Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Petula Clark, and becoming musical director with Reprise Records. From 1960 to 1964 he arranged virtually every session for Snuff Garrett at Liberty Records including artists Julie London, Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnette, Gene McDaniels, Timi Yuro and Walter Brennan. As a footnote, "National City" by the Joiner Arkansas Junior High School Band charted at 53 in May 1960 was made by a group of studio musicians led by Ernie Freeman. Freeman also composed music for several films, including The Cool Ones (1967), The Double Man (1967), The Pink Jungle

(1968), and Duffy (1968); and arranged Carol Burnett's 1972 Columbia Records album Carol Burnett Featuring If I Could Write a Song.

After contributing the string arrangements to the Grammy-winning LP "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel, Freeman's career went downhill. His alcoholism became worse and his driver's licence was revoked. He lived in Hawaii during part of the seventies and died from a heart attack in 1981, almost unnoticed by the media. A sad end for a man of amazing musical talents. (Info mainly Wikipedia)

Larry Clinton (August 17, 1909 – May 2, 1985) was a versatile composer, arranger, and bandleader whose swing band was one of the dominant forces in pop music in the late '30s, specifically in the period between Tommy Dorsey's initial success and the rise to fame of Glenn Miller.

Born in Brooklyn, Clinton broke into the business as an arranger on

the staff of Ferde Grofé & His Orchestra, which formed in 1932 in the wake of the rift between Grofé and Paul Whiteman; Clinton also held down a trumpet chair in the Grofé band for a time. Upon leaving Grofé, Clinton joined the arranging staff of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, but continued to write charts on a freelance basis for other leaders. When the Dorsey Brothers split in 1935, Clinton went with Jimmy Dorsey, but it was an arrangement placed with Tommy Dorsey's band, "The Dipsy Doodle," that established Clinton's name with the public.

On the strength of that hit, Clinton formed his own band in late 1937. He recorded a string of hits for Victor Records graced with

the extraordinary talents of girl singer Bea Wain and the rough but personable singing of "Boy" Ford Leary. The Clinton band's repertoire was split between pop tunes of the day ("I Double Dare You,""Summer Souvenirs," etc.), ambitious instrumentals penned by Clinton (the most popular, "A Study in Brown," begat four sequels in different "colours"). and swing adaptations of classical compositions. This last category swept the industry, and orchestras everywhere were "swinging the classics" by adding pop lyrics to melodies by Debussy and Tchaikovsky. His version of Debussy’s "Reverie", with vocalist Bea Wain, was particularly popular. Entitled "My Reverie", his version peaked at #1 on Billboard's Record Buying Guide in 1938.

Clinton also similarly transformed music by Tchaikovsky, Flotow, and the hoary anthem "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls" into solid sensations -- musicians' scuttlebutt of the era in reference to Clinton eulogized such efforts as "it goes into one ear and flows out of his pen." Purists cried "desecration," but Clinton defended his work by stating that he was bringing quality music to the dance floor.

Some of the hits Clinton enjoyed in the late '30s were with songs of such significance that his connection in introducing them has become forgotten; the ever-prevalent favourite of amateur pianists "Heart and Soul" and "Deep Purple" were among the tunes Larry Clinton made famous.

Clinton did have some hot players in his band, but seldom if ever used them to contribute solos to raise the heat; as one would expect from an arranger's band, the emphasis was on precise execution of his dance charts as written. Several of Clinton's other compositions

were more challenging, representing an interest in the "egghead jazz" of Raymond Scott and Ray Noble in pieces such as "Strictly for the Persians" and "The Campbells Are Swingin'." Many of Clinton's original pieces reflect an interest in the supernatural and Satanism, such as "Midnight in the Madhouse,""Shades of Hades,""The Devil with the Devil,""Satan in Satin,""Study in Surrealism," and one 1938 vintage number that perhaps was a premonition of things to come -- "I Want to Rock (Rock Solid Rock)."

In 1941 Clinton and his band appeared in six short musical films, designed for then-popular "movie jukeboxes." (The films were ultimately released as Soundies in 1943.) This was one of his last jobs as a bandleader; he quit the music business upon the outbreak of World War II, and joined the United States Army Air Force. A rated pilot, he rose to the rank of captain, was stationed with the Air Transport Command in Calcutta and China during Hump airlift, and was a flight instructor with the 1343rd Base Unit. He served with distinction, and was well decorated for his efforts.

He resumed his musical career and enjoyed further success as a bandleader from 1948 to 1950. He worked for the short-lived Cosmo label, worked at Kapp, and re-recorded his hits with a pickup band in hi-fi sound with singer Helen Ward for his old haunt, RCA Victor. Nevertheless, the big-

band business was dead, and Clinton retired from music in 1961 to pursue other interests, mainly writing fiction.

While Larry Clinton may not have led the jazziest swing band, it was nonetheless a fun and exciting dance orchestra, and his 214 78-rpm sides for Victor and Bluebird -- Clinton's core output -- are well worth remembering and appreciating on their own terms.

He died in 1985 in Tucson, Arizona, from cancer at the age of 75. (Info edited mainly from Uncle Dave Lewis @AMG & some Wikipedia)

Here's one of Larry's short musicals from 1941 - "Smiles." The vocalist is Butch Stone.

Molly Bee (August 18, 1939 – February 7, 2009), born Mollie Gene Beachboard, was an American country music singer famous for her 1952 recording of the early perennial, "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus", and as Pinky Lee's sidekick on The Pinky Lee Show. She had had several hits in the early '60s, crafting a

showy stage persona, ideal for clubs.

Raised in Beltbuckle, TN, Bee didn't begin singing until her family moved to Tucson, AZ. Even then, she started her singing career much earlier than most -- she was ten years old when she gained the attention of Rex Allen, the singing cowboy. Bee's mother took her to see the singer at a local concert, where she had her daughter sing for him. Impressed with her performance of "Lovesick Blues," Allen had the child sing on his radio show shortly afterward.

A year later, her family moved to Hollywood, where she became a regular on Hometown Jamboree, a Los Angeles-based television show run by Cliffie Stone. Bee sang on the Jamboree throughout her teens, gaining a large following of fans; she was so popular, the program was occasionally called the "Molly Bee Show." During this time, she was also a regular on The Pinky Lee Show, appearing on the television program for three years.

When she was 13, Bee signed with Capitol Records, releasing her first single, "Tennessee Tango." However, it was "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," released late in 1952, that was her first major success.

In 1953, she recorded "Don't Start Courtin' in a Hot Rod Ford," a duet with Tennessee Ernie Ford. The following year, she left Pinky Lee's show for Ford's daytime television show. Bee's career continued to grow, as she had more hit singles -- including "Young Romance,""Don't Look Back," and "5 Points of a Star" -- and

appeared on a variety of television shows. By the late '50s, her live shows were drawing large, record-breaking

crowds.

In the early '60s, Bee began to move her talents to other areas, acting in several musical plays (The Boy Friend, Finian's Rainbow, Paint Your Wagon) and movies (Chartreuse Caboose, The Young Swingers), as well as becoming a fixture in Las Vegas. However, her recording career began to decline after she signed to Liberty Records in 1962. After two unsuccessful years there, she moved to MGM in 1965, releasing the It's Great...It's Molly Bee album. Bee found her greatest success at MGM the following year with "Losing You"/"Miserable Me."

By the late '60s, Bee had fallen prey to drug addiction and had to take several years off the road as she rebuilt her life. She re-emerged in 1975 with Good Golly Ms. Molly, this time on Cliffie Stone's Granite record label. Her comeback was successful, producing two charting singles: "She Kept on Talking" and "Right or Left at Oak Street." In 1982, she released her final album, Sounds Fine to Me, which failed to match the performance of Good Golly, although she remained a popular concert draw.

Although she was no longer touring, in April 1998, she was part of the playbill putting on a benefit for the Ivey Ranch Park for the

physically and mentally handicapped in her city of residence, Oceanside, California.

By the 1990s she owned a restaurant and night club in Oceanside, known as The Molly Bee. She was quoted as having said, "I've done it all, and lived to tell about it." She remembered working with "incredible people and always into where the action was. I wouldn't trade it for the world.""Mine has been like six lifetimes rolled into one.

Bee, who in her later years went by Molly Muncy offstage, died on February 7, 2009, at Tri-City Medical Center, Oceanside, California, from complications following a stroke. She was 69 years old and lived in Carlsbad, California.

(Info edited mainly from Stephen Thomas Erlewine @ All Music & a tad of Wikipedia)

Lyle Stephanovic (August 19, 1908 – August 5, 2005), better known as Spud Murphy, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and arranger. An unsung musical hero who played a major supporting role in shaping the Big Band era, when he was arranging and writing music for top bands in the 1930s such as Casa Loma, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson and Bob Crosby.

Spud was born Miko Stephanovic, 19 August 1908, in Berlin. He

came to the United States at 4 with his mother and grew up in Provo, Utah becoming Lyle Murphy, nicknamed "Spud". His first instrument was the upright e-flat alto horn which he learned from the father of Red Nichols. Spud eventually mastered the trumpet, the saxophones, and other woodwinds.

He set out at age 14 for a music job on the West Coast -- prevented from joining the band on a cruise ship due to his tender age, he wandered the American Southwest for several years playing in obscure bands like the “Rainbow Seven” and “Jeff's Hot Rocks.” His first professional job was half of a two-piece band working for tips in a Mexican border town.

By the late 1920s Spud began achieving some small musical success in Texas, writing arrangements for Johnny Mcfall’s Honey Boys 10 piece group. The first band to record one of his arrangements -- the jaunty “I Got Worry” -- was the Jimmy Joy Orchestra in 1928.

By the 1930s Spud Murphy was a first rate big band swing arranger writing for Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson and other top bands. By his own count, during the 1930’s Murphy wrote nearly 600 arrangements and over 100 original compositions. While in

New York, Spud formed an orchestra that did radio broadcasts and recorded five albums for Decca and Bluebird.

In 1935-36 he scored over a hundred numbers for the Let's Dance radio broadcasts of the Benny Goodman band, including the hits, "Ballad in Blue", "Get Happy", "Jingle Bells", "Diga Diga Doo", "Restless" and "The Glory of Love". His most known assignment was to orchestrate the Jerome Kern/Johnny Mercer song "Shorty George" as a song-and-tap number for Astaire and Hayworth in the musical You Were Never Lovelier (1942).

By the late 1930s Spud was a well-known highly respected band arranger. He moved to the Los Angeles area, and in 1937 his Spud Murphy’s Swing Arranging Method was published. started writing charts for Columbia Pictures, but he left to serve in the merchant marine in World War II. After the war, he returned to film work that included his iconic arrangement of "Three Blind Mice" for the Three Stooges' movies.

In the '40s and the '50s he went on to compose for more than 50 motion pictures; jazz albums; and he occasionally continued to write for Goodman and other musicians; and he briefly led his own small “third stream” combo in the mid-1950s.

Into his ninth decade Spud continued to be honored as a composer and educator, publishing more than 26 books including his own system of composition and arranging known as the equal interval system, an extensive course on composing, arranging and orchestration. students of his “equal interval” method include Oscar Peterson, Bennie Green, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones and Curtis Counce (who later played bass on Murphy's space age pop LPs New Orbits in Sound and Gone with the Woodwinds

Spud Murphy died August 5th, 2005, in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital following complications from surgery. He was 96. (Info edited from articles @ maxwelldemille.com & dlwaldron.com)

Justin Wayne Tubb (August 20, 1935–January 24, 1998) was an American country music singer and songwriter. Born in San Antonio, Texas.

Justin Tubb was born into country music, being the eldest son of the legendary Texas Troubadour Ernest Tubb. The kid soaked up the aura that surrounded his father and naturally enough became infatuated by the sounds of country music. During his school holidays he toured with his father and regularly appeared on his WSM radio show. He even made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry at the age of nine.

By the time he graduated from Brackenridge High School in San Antonio he was an accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter.

Before you know it, it's 1952 and Justin is a bit bored with the business (veteran that he was!) and acutely aware that everyone was comparing him to his father (those were big boots to fill in 1952), he decided enter the University of Texas at Austin, studying journalism.

Perhaps the calling was just to strong though, and he ended up quitting university when he was offered a job as a disc jockey on WHIN Gallatin. He began singing his own songs on air and was soon picked up by Decca Records. He made his recording debut in 1953 with "Ooh-La-La."

By 1954 he made it on the country chart with two duets with Goldie Hill—("Looking Back to See" and "Sure Fire Kisses"). A year later, at age 20, he was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Tubb had a few recordings of his own that enjoyed success,

including "I Gotta Go Get My Baby" and "Take a Letter Miss Gray", but he was more successful as a songwriter. He penned many hit songs for other performers, including "Keeping Up with the Joneses", "Love Is No Excuse", and "Lonesome 7-7203", a hit for Hawkshaw Hawkins. Ultimately, six of his songs won awards. In the late 1950s he and roomed with a young, up-and-coming songwriter named Roger Miller.

The hits dried up for a few years during the rock 'n' roll era, although he had a few stabs at the genre himself, including Pepper Hot Baby in 1955. By the 60s, Ernest's health was on the decline and Justin began to take an interest in his father's many business ventures, eventually becoming manager of

the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree radio show and record shops.

Tubb signed to Starday in the early '60s, released a few albums, and toured so much that he was temporarily dropped from the Opry for not appearing often enough. During the 1960s, Tubb worked worked with his father on various business projects. After 1963, he signed with RCA and released two duets with Lorene Mann, including "We've Gone Too Far Again." He had one more minor hit with "But Wait There's More," his last chart appearance. He continued to record, tour and appear on the Opry through the '70s. He also continued to write songs, and his "Lonesome 7-7203" was a number one hit for Hawkshaw Hawkins while "Be Glad"

became a major hit for Del Reeves.

Over the years he toured all over the USA, Canada and Europe as well as appearing on most major US television shows. Worth mentioning is the story that he wrote about his disgust at the way country music was changing, "What's Wrong With The Way That We're Doing It Now", which won him five standing ovations for encores on the first occasion that he sang it on the Grand Ole Opry.

Toward the end of his own life, he completed an album of duets with his father, using recordings Ernest had made before his death. The album, Just You and Me Daddy (1999), was released after Justin Tubb died from a stomach aneurysm in Nashville on January 24, 1998. He was survived by his widow, Carolyn McPherson Tubb.

Both of his sons (two of Ernest's grandsons)—Cary Tubb (died November 27, 2008, survived by older son Bryce and younger son Codee) and his younger brother Zachary Tubb—became musicians. Cary performed around the U.S. and in England. Zachery has released one album.(Info edited from Black Cat Rockabilly, All Music& Wikipedia)

Jackie DeShannon, real name Sharon Lee Myers, (born August 21, 1944) is an American singer/songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer songwriters of the rock 'n' roll period.

Sharon Myers adopted the name Jackie DeShannon, believed to be an Irish ancestor. Record company executives at Liberty Records thought the name Sharon Myers wouldn't sell records. (She once

reported that record executives’ added "Shannon" to "Jackie Dee," one of the names under which she recorded, to create her name.)

DeShannon was born the daughter of musically inclined farming parents, Sandra Jean and James Erwin Myers, DeShannon was introduced to singing country tunes on a local radio show at the age of six. By the age of eleven, DeShannon was already hosting her own radio program. When life on the farm became too difficult, the family moved to Aurora, Illinois, her mother's home town. After a year, they moved up the Fox River to Batavia, Illinois, where

Sharon attended high school.

Recording under various names such as Sherry Lee, Jackie Dee, and Jackie Shannon, she had little success. However, her interpretations of country songs "Buddy" and "Trouble" gained the attention of Eddie Cochran who arranged for her to travel to California and meet singer-songwriter Sharon Sheeley, who formed a writing partnership with DeShannon in 1960. The partnership produced hits such as "Dum Dum" for Brenda Lee and "I Love Anastasia" for The Fleetwoods. The latter was named after one of her good friends in high school.

In 1960, DeShannon signed with Liberty Records. She made the WLS Chicago survey with "Lonely Girl" in late 1960. A string of mostly flop singles followed, although "The Prince" bubbled under at #108 in the United States in early 1962, and "Faded Love" (#97 in February 1963) became her first U.S. Hot 100 hit, albeit just barely .

She broke through a little more solidly singing "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room" later in 1963. Both reached the lower rungs of the U.S. pop charts, but were substantial top 40 hits in Canada, where "Needles and Pins" made it all the way to #1. "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room" later

became U.S. and UK hits for The Searchers.

DeShannon recorded many other singles that encompassed teen pop, country ballads, rockabilly, gospel, and Ray Charles-style soul that didn't fare as well on the charts. During these years it was her songwriting and public profile rather than her recording career that kept her contracted to Liberty Records. DeShannon dated Elvis Presley and formed friendships with The Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson. She also co-starred and sang with Bobby Vinton in the teen surf movie Surf Party.

Jackie with Jimmy Page

DeShannon's biggest break came in February 1964, when she supported The Beatles on their first U.S. tour, and formed a touring band with guitarist Ry Cooder. DeShannon also wrote "Don't Doubt Yourself Babe" for debut album by The Byrds. Her music at this stage was heavily influenced by the American West Coast sounds and folk music. Staying briefly in England in 1965, DeShannon formed a songwriting partnership with Jimmy Page, which resulted in the hit singles "Dream Boy" and "Don't Turn Your Back On Me". Page and DeShannon also wrote material for singer Marianne Faithfull, including her Top Ten UK and U.S. hit "Come and Stay With Me". DeShannon also appeared on the television show Ready Steady Go!

Jackie with Bobby Vee

Moving to New York, DeShannon co-wrote with Randy Newman, producing such songs as "She Don't Understand Him" and "Did He Call Today Mama?", as well as writing "You Have No Choice" for Delaney Bramlett. In March 1965, DeShannon recorded Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," which provided her first Number 1 hit and regular appearances on television shows and club tours. She appeared in the 1967 film C'mon Let's Live a Little, with Bobby Vee, as a folk singer.

DeShannon continued writing and recording but it was not until

1969 that she scored her next biggest smash single and album, both entitled "Put a Little Love in Your Heart". The single "Love Will Find A Way" from the same album was also a moderate hit. Switching to Atlantic Records in 1970 and moving to Los Angeles, DeShannon recorded the critically acclaimed albums Jackie and Your Baby Is A Lady, but they failed to produce the same commercial success as previous releases. DeShannon has been married to singer/songwriter and film composer Randy Edelman since 1977. They have one son, Noah (born 1978).

While DeShannon has not produced any further Top Ten singles of her own, her songs have been covered by other artists who have in turn converted them into hits. She is currently an entertainment broadcast correspondent reporting historical anecdotes and current Beatles band members' news for Breakfast with the Beatles on Sirius XM Satellite Radio on the weekends. (Info edited from Wikipedia)

Carl Mann (born August 22, 1942, Huntingdon, Tennessee) is an American rockabilly singer and pianist.

Carl Mann was born in Huntingdon, TN, on August 22, 1942. He grew up in a strongly rural area, where his family ran a lumber

business, and fell in love with country music as a child. He began singing in church at age nine and soon moved on to performing country songs at area talent contests. He learned guitar at age ten, and piano at 13, by which time he'd already become a regular on local radio. He also formed a band with several other young

musicians, and soon took an interest in the R&B and rockabilly records that some of his DJ friends played on the radio, especially those of Elvis Presley.

In 1957, Mann successfully auditioned for the Jaxon label and cut his debut single, "Gonna Rock and Roll Tonight" b/w "Rockin' Love"; those sides marked his first collaborations with guitarist Eddie Bush, who would become an important member of Mann's band, and assisted him on his rearrangement of "Mona Lisa." Mann cut several more unreleased sides for Jaxon over the next year, and

caught a break when Carl Perkins' drummer Bill "Fluke" Holland offered to become his manager. Holland brought Mann to Sun Records in 1959, and Sam Phillips signed him to a three-year deal.

Mann cut his take on "Mona Lisa" early that year, and while Phillips wasn't keen on releasing it as a single, Conway Twitty heard the demo tape and quickly cut his own version, which began climbing the charts. Phillips hurriedly issued Mann's, which battled Twitty's all the way up the pop charts. Both hit the Top 30, and while they tended to

cancel each other out in terms of placement, Mann's wound up selling over a million copies; and he wasn't even 17 years old.

Despite the newfound stardom and several TV appearances, "Mona Lisa" turned out to be the pinnacle of Mann's commercial success. At first, he tried to repeat the formula by rocking up other vintage pop standards, which failed to return him to the Top 40, and perhaps even obscured the virtues of original tunes like "I'm Coming Home." Mann also wasn't helped by the fact that he'd appeared at the tail end of rockabilly's prime, or that Charlie Rich had taken his place as Sun's rising new star.

Mann's first album, Like Mann, was released in 1960, but sold disappointingly, and he began to develop a drinking problem that necessitated some time away from music. In 1964, he was drafted into the Army; upon returning to the U.S., he signed with the

Monument label, but the single "Down to My Last 'I Forgive You'" failed to return him to prominence. Mann soon left music to return to his family's business, settling down with a wife and finally overcoming his problems with alcohol.

In 1974, Mann attempted a comeback singing straight country material; he issued several singles over the next few years on ABC and Dot, but they didn't fit in with the slick countrypolitan records then dominating the charts. In 1977, Mann got an offer from the Dutch label Rockhouse to record for European audiences; he issued a couple of albums on that label, 1978's half-live/half-studio Gonna

Rock'n'Roll Tonight and 1981's In Rockabilly Country. Mann toured periodically during the '80s, returning to Europe every so often, and finally retired to concentrate on the family logging business.

Mann came out of music retirement in 2005, performing on the local Huntingdon Hayride radio show in his hometown. Also 2005 was the year in which he finally received a Gold Disc for "Mona Lisa". He continues to perform overseas and in the states, and record. A CD

called Rockabilly Highway, featuring Mann, and Sun Records label mates W. S. Holland and Rayburn Anthony, was released in 2008. He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Jackson, TN, in 2006.

He had a two-bypass heart operation in January 2011, was hospitalised with breathing problems in April but slowly regained his strength.

In May 2011 a book on his life and music career called The Last Son of Sun was released. Mann continues to perform to date. Sun Record showcases in Las Vegas, "Viva Las Vegas" at Orleans Hotel in Vegas. Nashville's "Ink and Iron", and other venues. When dates allow his son Richard Mann joins him on stage to carry on the family tradition. Carl Mann's love for performing to his audiences keeps him coming back to do more shows. He still resides in Huntingdon, TN. (Info mainly All Music & Wikipedia)

Rudy Lewis (born Charles Rudolph Harrell; August 23, 1936 – May 20, 1964) was an American rhythm and blues singer known for his work with the Drifters. In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Lewis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began his singing career in gospel music. He was one of only two males to have sung with the Clara Ward Singers and sang with the gospel

group right up to the day before he auditioned for George Treadwell at Philadelphia's Uptown Theatre where he was hired on the spot. Lewis joined the Drifters in 1960 as lead vocalist and moved to New York City.

Rudy Lewis is probably the most underrated of all the Drifters' lead singers. He had the bad fortune to come in after Ben E. King redefined the group's sound, and never got the recognition that King did. By the time that "Save the Last Dance For Me" hit the charts (autumn 1960), King had already

recorded his first solo session and was about to emerge as a hit maker in his own right. His successor in the Drifters was Rudy Lewis, a man with a rich, soulful voice.

Lewis brought the newly emergent voice of "soul" to the Drifters at the very time the group was being directed out of their R&B roots into the pop mainstream. The stature of the Drifters was such that all NYC publishers scrambled to get their best numbers recorded by the group. Thus The Drifters came to record songs from the top pop composers of the day : Carole King and Gerry Goffin , Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Lewis was the lead vocalist for a string of hits: "Please Stay", "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Up On The Roof" and "On
Broadway". He also featured on other tracks such as: "Another Night With The Boys", "Beautiful Music", "Jackpot", "Let The Music Play", "Loneliness Or Happiness", "Mexican Divorce",

"Only In America", "Rat Race", "She Never Talked To Me That Way", "Somebody New Dancing With You", "Stranger On The Shore", "Vaya Con Dios" and "What To Do".

This was the golden era of Brill Building pop. "Up On The Roof" and "On Broadway" went Top 10 and "Please Stay" and "Sweets For My Sweet" made the Top 20.; After mid-1963 their sessions would be supervised by Bert Berns.

In April 1963, Lewis recorded his solo single ”Baby I Dig Love” along with the B-side ”I've Loved You So Long”. The record was released the following month, but never reached the charts.

On May 21, 1964, when the group was due to record ”Under The Boardwalk” which had been written for Lewis, he was found dead in his Harlem hotel room from the prior night. Former lead vocalist Johnny Moore was brought back to perform lead vocals for the recording. The next day, the Drifters recorded”I Don't Want To Go On Without You” which was led by Charlie Thomas in tribute to Lewis.

An autopsy was never performed and authorities ruled his death as a probable drug overdose. However, close friends and family believe he died from a mixture of a drug overdose, asphyxiation and a heart attack .Others who knew him say that Lewis, who was a binge eater, choked to death in his sleep. After Rudy died, the make-up of the Drifters stabilized for two years at: Johnny Moore, Charlie Thomas, Gene Pearson, and Johnny Terry. Dying at the age of 27 made Lewis an early member of the 27 Club.

(Info mainly edited from Wikipedia and Black Cat Rockabilly)

Claude Driskett Hopkins (August 24, 1903 – February 19, 1984) was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.

Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University. A highly talented stride piano player and arranger, he left home at the age of only 21 as a sideman with the Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra but stayed less than a year. In 1925, he left for Europe as the musical director of The Revue Negre which starred Josephine Baker with Sidney Bechet in the band.

He returned to the USA in 1927 where, based in Washington, he toured the TOBA circuit with The Ginger Snaps Revue before heading once again for NYC where he took over the band of Charlie Skeets. Between 1932-1935, he recorded steadily with his big band, which featured Jimmy Mundy arrangements and such fine soloists as trumpeter/vocalist Ovie Alston, trombonist

Fernando Arbello, a young Edmond Hall on clarinet, and baritone and tenorman Bobby Sands, along with the popular high-note vocals of Orlando Roberson.

The orchestra's recordings are a bit erratic, with more than their share of mistakes from the ensembles and a difficulty in integrating Hopkins' powerhouse piano with the full group, but they are generally quite enjoyable. Mundy's eccentric "Mush Mouth" is a classic, and Hopkins introduced his best-known original, "I Would Do Anything for You."

Although they played regularly at Roseland (1931-1935) and the Cotton Club (1935-1936), and there were further sessions in 1937 and 1940, the Claude Hopkins big band never really caught on and ended up breaking up at the height of the swing era. Hopkins did lead a later, unrecorded big band (1944-1947), but mostly worked

with small groups for the remainder of his career.

Next, he led a "novelty quintet" on tour in 1948-49 and a combo at Cafe Society in New York City in 1950-51, then, during the next three decades, worked with various musicians as a pianist at club, concert, and festival performances (such as trumpeter Roy Eldridge's group at Jimmy Ryan's in New York City for several years, or later when Hopkins toured Europe with trombonist Dicky Wells and saxophonist Earle Warren, who had been part of Count Basie's orchestra in the 1930s and '40s).

In 1970, Gene Fernett authored a book celebrating many prominent African-American orchestras, including Hopkins', and commented, "Hopefully, there may come a day when he will choose to once again front a big band." That didn't happen, but

Hopkins had continued to record, making some enjoyable LPs for the Swingville label in the 1960s ("Yes, Indeed!"; "Let's Jam"; and "Swing Time"), and, in 1973, a fine solo piano album on Chiaroscuro ("Crazy Fingers").

Often under-rated in later years, he was one of jazz's most important band leaders and has yet to be given full recognition for his achievements. He died on 19 February 1984, a disillusioned and dispirited man.

Looking back on Hopkins' career, critics Leonard Feather and Ira Gitler later wrote that he had remained a "master of stride with a lyrical bent and consistent sense of swing." It is surprising that his piano skills were not more extensively documented.

(Info edited from Wikipedia, Oldies.com, All Music & Big Band Library)

Claude Hopkins Orchestra featuring Orlando Roberson and The Four Step Brothers from a film short from 1933 "Babershop Blues".

Carrie Louise Smith (August 25, 1925 – May 20, 2012) was an American blues diva and distinctive jazz singer who straddled both worlds with commendable aplomb.

Although her early career was largely small-scale, her breakthrough came when she played the role of Bessie Smith in a well-received performance at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1974, kickstarting a lengthy association with the pianist Dick Hyman's projects and frequent visits to Europe,

including the UK. Even so, her greatest success came when she starred in the hit Broadway musical Black and Blue, a revue celebrating black jazz, blues and dance, from 1989 to 1991.

Once described by Scott Yanow as a "blues belter in the classic tradition", Smith was born in Fort Gaines, in rural Georgia, but raised in the bustling city of Newark, New Jersey, where her African-American family relocated when she was seven. Her father was a Baptist minister, her mother a keen choir singer, and Smith herself was steeped in gospel music from an early age. "From my childhood I was brought up in the church," she told the writer Chip Deffaa, also recalling a favourite aunt as "a barrelhouse mama who

used to have all Bessie Smith's records. I really got into Bessie because I loved her voice."

Having had to juggle factory work with her gospel engagements, Shelton's appreciative comments emboldened Smith to give up her sewing job and to make for Los Angeles. Appearing on the Art Linkletter House Party TV show, she attracted the attention of ragtime pianist Big Tiny Little and joined his popular combo, touring nationally and learning to sing blues. Arriving in New Orleans, she stayed on as featured singer with trumpeter Al Hirt's group, eventually heading to New York, where she performed with the jazz trombonist Tyree Glenn's sextet in the Americana hotel in 1970, later taking jazz jobs with the pianist Hank Jones and the saxophonist Buddy Tate.

When the promoter George Wein selected her to portray Bessie Smith in his 1974 Carnegie Hall presentation Satchmo Remembered, Smith felt well and truly ready. "That's when people really began to know who I was," she said. Thereafter she travelled regularly with Hyman's New York Jazz Repertory Company

orchestra, playing the Nice festival often and touring in the USSR, recording with jazz musicians of high calibre, her vocal richness and on-stage zest a welcome calling card. She appeared at Ronnie Scott's several times in the 1970s and was constantly busy in France, her "no-nonsense, swinging style", in the words of Max Jones, and cheery, stage presence pleasing audiences everywhere. She was a singer of considerable range and depth, as recordings like 1976's Do Your Duty and the following year's When You're Down and Out prove.

Here's "Nobody Love's You When You're Down And Out"

from above 1977 album.

Given her mastery of the classic blues idiom and delight in performing old vaudeville songs, she was a natural choice for the two-year run of Black and Blue, a valuable experience even if she did find the backstage bickering among her co-stars something of a

pain. After that, Smith toured with her own group, headed by the pianist Bross Townsend, making her final UK appearance in 1997 at the Brecon jazz festival and continuing to appear in US clubs and at festivals until illness forced her to retire in 2004.

Briefly married to a "small-time hustler" identified only as Swindler Joe, Smith was confined in recent years by a series of mini-strokes to the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey where she died from cancer on May 20, 2012, age 86. (Info mainly Peter Vacher obit @ the Guardian.com)

Nathaniel Lester Lanin (August 26, 1907 – October 27, 2004) was an American jazz and pop music bandleader. He was famous for long, smoothly arranged medleys, at a consistent rhythm and tempo, which were designed for continuous dancing. Lanin's career began in the late 1920s and his popularity increased through the advent of the LP era. Starting with Epic Records in the middle of

the 1950s, he recorded a string of albums for several labels, many of which hit the US Billboard 200.

Lanin's brothers, Sam and Howard, were also both bandleaders; they came from a family of ten (of which Lester was the youngest) born to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. He started playing the piano and drums at the age of 5.He originally attended South Philadelphia High School but quit at the age of 15 to play music with his brothers abandoning his plans to be an attorney. Beginning in 1927, he led ensembles that were paid to play at the houses of wealthy socialites in Philadelphia and New York, continuing after the 1929 stock market crash.

In 1930, Lanin was hired to play at a gala for Barbara Hutton, and the event garnered so much press in New York newspapers that it made Lanin a star as well as the young heiress. His fast, two-beat dance tempo - what is called the businessman's bounce - became a

standard by which society bands are measured.

Lanin became a major star of the dance music world, and was hired worldwide to play for dignitaries and monarchs. Lanin was managed for much of his career by New York socialite music promoter Al Madison.

He epitomized a fading species, the society bandleader. He played at the homes of the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, duPonts, Chryslers and Mellons. He played every presidential inauguration since Eisenhower's, except two, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. He played for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday party, as well as for the kings of Norway, Spain, Greece, Denmark and Sweden.

Here's "Hootenany Medley" from above 1964 album.

He was in such demand that people would often book him for their affairs, sometimes as much as, 18 years in advance. He claimed to invent the concept of playing continuous music at a party, and he is legendary for never leaving the bandstand during a dance. He was,

he said, in "the happiness business", and gave away cotton hats bearing his name at every dance - 50,000 of them every year.

According to Lanin, one of his most memorable performances was playing at a party for avant-garde rock musician Frank Zappa. This was reported by Billboard magazine in 1974. At the time Mr. Zappa was in New York City to play two Halloween concerts at the Felt Forum (now known as The Theatre at Madison Square Garden.)

Mr. Lanin once loved a very young dancer named Dottie Littlefield, who died tragically at 23, he said in an interview with the London Sunday Mail in 1985. Her favourite song was "Night

and Day." He started every evening with that song for 30 years.

He and his bands (he sometimes had more than a dozen on the road at once) by 1992 had played 20,000 wedding receptions, 7,500 parties, 4,500 proms, and recorded over 30 albums. By 1978 he employed some 1650 musicians in 45 bands as the Lester Lanin Music Corp.

Lanin also played for other celebrities, including a wedding for Billy Joel. Lanin continued performing well into the 1990s. In 1999 he played himself in the black-and-white film comedy Man of the Century, where he was the favourite musician of lead character

Johnny Twennies.

He was inducted into the Big Band Hall Of Fame in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1993 and retired from band leading in 2001. Lester Lanin died at his home in Manhattan on October 27, 2004, age 97.

He was married once, to an actress and former Miss Texas, but he told The Times that the marriage fell apart because she "spent more time on the road than I did."

(Info mainly edited from Wikipedia & bio by Randy Hise & nytimes obit)

Ron Holden born 7 August 1939

End of an era - The Lord of The Boot Sale is now gone.

Benny Carter born 8 August 1907

Merle Kilgore born 9 August 1934

Geraldo born 10 August 1904

David Box born 11 August 1943

Howard Tate born 13 August 1939

Eddie Costa born 14 August 1930

Johnny Thunder born 15 August 1932

Ernie Freeman born 16 August 1922

Larry Clinton born 17 August 1909

Molly Bee born 18 August 1939

Lyle Spud Murphy born 19 August 1908

Justin Tubb born 20 August 1935

Jackie DeShannon born 21 August 1944

Carl Mann born 22 August 1942

Rudy Lewis born 23 August 1935

Claude Hopkins born 24 August 1903

Carrie Smith born 25 August 1925

Lester Lanin born 26 August 1907