CONTAINS 1964 SESSIONS
Studio Session for Mack Self, Date 1964 / Demo
Studio Session for Narvel Felts,
January 1964 / Ara Records
Studio Session for The New Beale Street Sheiks, January 1965 / Southtown Records
Studio Session for Scotty Moore, Unknown Date February/March 1964 / Epic Records
Studio
Session for Narvel Felts, Spring 1964 / Ara Records
Studio Session for Bill Yates & Billy Adams, April 6, 1964 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Billy Adams, September 21, 1964 / Sun Records
Studio
Session for Vance Yates, September 23, 1964 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Randy & The Radiants, October 17, 1964 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Mack Allen Smith, 1964 / Statue Records
Biography of Artists (See: The Sun Biographies)
1964
As the war in Vietnam and US Congress Authorizes war against N Vietnam more American servicemen were dying, and after three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi the president signed
the Civil Rights act of 1964 but this did not stop the violence as it continued to increase in many American Cities. Lyndon Johnson was also returned to power after a landslide victory. This was also the year The Beatles took the world and America by storm
and Beatlemania went into overdrive as they released a series of number one hits including "I Want To Hold Your hand" , "All My Loving" . Other British groups also found success including The Rolling Stones and The Animals and together with the American Talent
of The Supremes and Bob Dylan many say this was one of the greatest years for music in the last century. Also one young loud talented boxer by the name of Cassius Clay won the Boxing World heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston.
1964
The Dixie Cups released ''Chapel Of Love'', arranged and produced
by the ''Creole Beethoven'', Wardell Quezergue. Al Hirt's ''Java'', adapted from an Allen Toussaint composition, goes to number 5 on the Billboard pop chart. Also, The Beatles play City Park Stadium in New Orleans. Clarence ''Frogman'' Henry opens.
Rock and roll has its first
major shakeup in nearly a decade when in late January "I Want To Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles tops the Billboard Pop charts.
In February The Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show receives record ratings as
Beatlemania explodes worldwide.
Four of the six number 1 records between February and June are by the Beatles, a feat surpassed only by Elvis
Presley in 1956.
Bands
from England flood American shores with the Merseybeat sound overtaking the airwaves through June, resulting in the term "The British Invasion". By summer however
American acts regain their footing with the two resident hit-makers The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons topping
the charts in July.
The
Beatles first film, "A Hard Day's Night" opens to rave reviews as the Beatles abandon their pop-band image for more complex songs on the soundtrack.
The next wave of the British Invasion featuring
groups based in blues and rhythm and blues such as the Rolling Stones, Kinks and Animals follows by mid-summer and their raunchier style quickly makes the more restrained pop-sounding Merseybeat bands obsolete.
The second musical explosion of the year happens when Motown strikes back with its biggest hits
to date by the Temptations, Four Tops and its newest group The Supremes who score three number 1's in the final five months of the year.
The Rhythm And Blues Charts are discontinued for 1964 as Billboard
magazine feels they've become indistinguishable from the Pop Charts. In just over a year they'll resume publication of The Rhythm And Blues Charts when the style of music becomes more popular than ever.
Feminist stances are taken in Dionne Warwick's "Don't Make Me Over" and Lesley Gore's "You Don't
Own Me", marking the first time in mainstream rock that hit records espouse those emerging viewpoints.
Whilst Sun remains quiet in the homeland, the big names - Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins,
and Roy Orbison - carry the touring torch across the UK.
1964
Carl Mann was drafted. He was transferred to Germany where he formed a band on base. They played at NCO and officers clubs, and after his return he tried to pick-up the pieces.
He went to Nashville and signed with Monument Records, then the hotest label in town, but Fred Foster's magic didn't rub off on him. According to Carl Mann, ''By the time I went to Monument, I was hitting the booze pretty bad''. He more-or-less quit the business
until 1974 when he signed with ABC.
JANUARY 1964
JANUARY 1964
Producer and engineer, Ray Butts resigns and Scotty Moore takes over at Phillips Nashville. Stan Kesler takes over as studio manager of Phillips
in Memphis. Kesler records all the Sam the Sham hits fir his XL Records and MGM at Phillips' studio.
JANUARY 1, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Tom T. Hall moves to Nashville, Tennessee.
Bill Anderson meets Connie Smith for the second time when he performs in Canton, Ohio, and encourages her to move to Nashville.
Eleven years after Hank Williams' death, Audrey Williams starts a
promotional concert tour for Hank Williams JR's first record, ''Long Gone Lonesome Blues'', in Canton, Ohio, the city in which Hank senior was scheduled to play the day he died.
Ole Miss quarterback Jim Weatherly, a future country songwriter, is intercepted on the final play of the
Sugar Bowl at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans as the Alabama Crimson Tide defeats the Rebels, 12-7.
JANUARY 2, 1964 THURSDAY
Jimmy Stoneman, of The Stoneman Family, marries Mary Ulrich at the county courthouse in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
JANUARY 3, 1964 FRIDAY
Kitty Wells recorded ''Password'' in Nashville, Tennessee.
Seventeen-year-old Naomi Judd marries Mike Ciminella in Pearsburg,
Virginia.
JANUARY 7,
1964 TUESDAY
Columbia
Records released Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs' ''You Are My Flower''.
Rose Maddox recorded ''Silver Threads And Golden Needles'' at the Capitol Recording Studios in Los Angeles with Glen Campbell on guitar. The song doesn't become a hit for her, but 10 years later it does become
a country hit for Linda Ronstadt.
JANUARY
9, 1964 THURSDAY
Chet
Atkins and Molly Bee guest on the ABC-TV series ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
JANUARY 10, 1964 FRIDAY
Roger Miller holds his first recording session for Smash Records at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, inaugurating the peak period of his career.
JANUARY 11, 1964 SATURDAY
Roger Miller recorded ''Dang Me'' and ''Chug-A-Lug'' in Nashville
at the Bradley Film and Recording Studio.
Johnny Cash sings ''Busted'' and ''Five Feet High And Rising'' on ABC's ''Hootenanny''. He also joins the rest of the cast, including Bob Gibson and The Coventry Singers in the finale, Bob Dylan's ''Blowin' In The Wind''.
JANUARY 12, 1964 SUNDAY
The Stoneman Family moves from Maryland to
Beaumont, Texas.
JANUARY
13, 1964 MONDAY
Columbia
Records released Johnny Cash's ''Understand Your Man''.
JANUARY 14, 1964 TUESDAY
Chuck Berry recorded the original version of ''You Never Can Tell''. Thirteen years later, Emmylou Harris remake the song as a country hit.
JANUARY 15, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Sonny James recorded ''Baltimore'' and Roy Orbison begins his first tour of Australia, playing Festival Hall in Brisbane
along with The Beach Boys, Paul and Paula and The Surfaris.
JANUARY 16, 1964 THURSDAY
Jimmy Tillotson makes a guest appearance on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
JANUARY 17, 1964 FRIDAY
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs recorded ''Petticoat Junction''.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
Session Published for Historical Reasons
STUDIO SESSION FOR MACK SELF
UNKNOWN STUDIO LOCATION
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – UNKNOWN
01 – ''4 UNKNOWN TITLES''
Name (Or. No.
Of Instruments)
Mack Self – Vocal & Guitar
More Details
Unknown
©
- 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
The third single that Roland Janes released by Narvel Felts saw the singer moved to yet another label, ARA, that Roland co-owned with Wayne Todd. Detail hounds may care to note that ARA
is an acronym for Amusement Retailers of America, a company that Todd worked for, and to whom he and Roland hoped to sell the label. ''Four Seasons Of Life''/''All That Heaven Sent'' was issued in 1964. Felts and Janes always had an inordinate
amount of faith in ''Four Seasons Of Life'', a faith that has never been repaid with a chart placing. Roland persuaded Hayden Thompson to cut the song, and Jim Ed Brown also
recorded a version. Narvel himself returned to it in 1968, 1970 and 1989.
Session Published for Historical Reasons
STUDIO SESSION FOR NARVEL FELTS
FOR ARA RECORDS 1964
SONIC RECORDING STUDIO
1692 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
PROBABLY 3 STUDIO
SESSIONS: UNKNOWN DATE JANUARY 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - ROLAND JANES
01 - ''FOUR SEASONS OF LIFE'' - B.M.I. - 2:57
Composer: - Narvel Felts
Publisher: - Hall-Clement Publishers
Matrix number: -
399
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released:
- 1964
First appearance: ARA Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 203-A mono
FOUR SEASONS OF LIFE / ALL THAT HEAVEN SENT
Reissued: - 1990 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm
BCD 15515-11 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
02 - ''ALL THAT HEAVEN SENT'' - B.M.I. - 2:08
Composer: - Narvel Felts
Publisher: - Rolando Music
Matrix number: - 400
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearance: ARA Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 203-B mono
ALL THAT HEAVEN SENT / FOUR SEASONS OF LIFE
Reissued:
- 1990 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-17 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
Sessions held in the early months (probably January) of 1964 featured the
ever-present J.W. Grubbs with new drummer Jimmy Anthony, replacing Matt Lucas who had struck out on his ill-starred solo career in the wake of his revival of ''I'm Moving On'' (a production that Roland Janes had leased to Smash Records). The songs
that Narvel Felts' new band recorded include ''Welcome Home, Mr Blues'' and the slow arrangement of ''You Were Mine'', a song that appeared at a brisker place on ARA.
03 - ''WELCOME HOME, MR BLUES'' - B.M.I. - 2:23
Composer: - Charles R. Phipps
Publisher: - Rolando Music - Jack Music
Matrix number:
- 001
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released:
- 1964
First appearance: ARA Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 213-A mono
WELCOME HOME, MR BLUES / YOUR TRUE LOVE
Reissued: - 1990 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD
15515-8 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
04 - ''YOU WERE MINE'' - B.M.I. - 2:28
Composer:
- Paul Giacalone
Publisher: - Dark and Good Songs
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued – Slow Version
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released: - 1990
First appearance: - Bear Family Records
(CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-21 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
05 - ''YOU WERE MINE'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Paul Giacalone
Publisher: - Dark and Good Songs
Matrix number: - 1463 - Fast Version
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released: - 1965
First appearance: - ARA Records (S)
45rpm standard single ARA 207-A mono
YOU WERE MINE / YOU DIDN'T TELL ME (I DIDN'T KNOW)
06 - ''ONE BOY AND ONE GIRL'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Walter Lloyd
Publisher: - Rolando Music
Matrix number: - 4610
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released: - 1965
First appearance: -
ARA Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 211-B mono
ONE BOY AND ONE GIRL / NIGHT CREATURE
07 - ''GYPSY'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Charles R. Phipps
Publisher: - Rolando Music
Matrix number: - None - Unissued/Lost
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
08 - ''YOU DIDN'T TELL ME (I
DIDN'T KNOW)'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - McPhail-Crabb
Publisher: - Rolando Music
Matrix number: - 1464
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1964
Released: - 1965
First appearance: - ARA Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 207-B mono
YOU DIDN'T TELL ME (I
DIDN'T KNOW) / YOU WERE MINE
Name
(Or. No. Of Instruments)
Narvel Felts - Vocal & Guitar
J.W. Grubbs - Bass
Preniss McPhail - Bass
Jimmy Anthony - Drums
Luther Crabb - Piano & Organ
Warren Baldwin - Guitar
Ken Williams - Maracas
Danny Taylor - Drums, Tom Tom Rolls, Cymbal Crashes
Sandy Posey - Vocal Chorus
©
- 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
The New Beale Street Sheiks, the jug band Jim Dickinson formed to play on his first record
for Bill Justis' label out of Nashville. From left to right, Sid Selvidge,
Jim Dickinson, Bill Newport, Jim Vinson (sitting), and Jimmy Crosthwait.
This picture was taken in front of the Campus Grill, the greasy spoon hangout across from then "Memphis State"University (now University of Memphis) where the left of the dial musicians
who were taking classes at the University hung out. >
JANUARY 1964
Not long after two years in the drama program at Baylor College in Texas,
Jim Dickinson returned in the summer of 1962 home to Memphis, opened his mail and found a contract. He thought it seemed a little after the facts, so he phoned Bill Justis in Nashville. He said, ''Don't you want to make a record''? and I said ''Didn't we just make a record''? And he
said, ''No. You. Don't you want to make a record''? I said, yeah, sure and he says sign the contract and sent it back''.
Bill Justis had Sun beams dancing in his head. The lack of
polish in Dickinson's voice fit perfectly his notion of rock and roll. Hitsville. Promptly, he sent Dickinson a tape of a Sel Silverstein song, ''The Unicorn'', and
booked time at the Sam Phillips Recording studio at Madison Avenue in Memphis. ''The Unicorn'' was a Nashville song, as opposed to a folk song by the folks. Dickinson
presumed that the folks might be ready for the folks and pretended he didn't receive Justis' tape. He reached back to his Whiskey Chute encounter, to the abandon of the players whose instruments were portable enough to run from the cobs. ''Come on down to my house, honey'', the singer had encouraged, ''there ain't nobody home but me''.
He formed a jug band, the New Beale Street Sheiks. Jimmy Crosthwait, a drummer, was dispatched to buy a washboard. They had a guitar-playing friend
smart enough to figure out the tub bass. Dickinson pulled the harmonica from his neck and replaced it with a kazoo. ''We got one gig the night before the recording session and people loved it'',
Dickinson recalls. ''So we went to Sam Phillips the next day. Crosthwait had real long hair, and it was pre- Beatles. He had a rag around his neck and
we all looked wretched and they didn't want to let us in. Bill Black and Scotty Moore were there. Scotty Moore never did trust me. But Bill Black thought it was funny. He said,
''No, that's Dickinson, that's his thing, let 'em in''.
''My whole deal was just not to cut ''The Unicorn''. Bill started calling people, telling them to come down. I would
see him at the window, talking on the phone and pointed at us. He really thought it was funny, Crosthwait was playing the washboard for the second day in his life. We may have
had two microphones on the session, but I think it was one. We cut four songs as a demo. When we were done, Scotty Moore wouldn't even let me have the tape. He said, ''I'm going to Nashville tomorrow and I'm going to take this to Justis''.
''I didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks so I finally called Justis and I said, ''What'd you think of the
tape'? and he says 'The tape! The tape is great! But what's making that noise on there'? I says, ''It's a zinc tub bass, it's just
a tub and a rope'. He shouts, 'It's a rope! A rope! I went all over Nashville trying to e.q. (sonically adjust) a rope''!
''Then he says, ''The record will be out Thursday''. I said, ''But that's the demo, Bill'',
and he says, ''No, no man, you could never do it that bad again''. We were talking on the same level and I paused I wanted him to hear me. ''Bill. I said, you have no concept of how bad I could do it''.
''You'll Do It All The Time'' backed with ''Down And Out'' by the New Beale Street Sheiks, was released on Thursday,
February 6, 1964. Billboard calling it ''a contagious, hard-driving, pulsating, folk-blueser..., appealing, nostalgic''. The powerful John R. on WLAC, whose rhythm and blues radio
show had influenced all these musicians when they were kids, played it. Chet Atkins called Justis, tried to buy the record. Then three days later, on Sunday February 9, 1964, the Beatles appeared for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show''. And the American record industry ground
to a halt.
JANUARY
23, 1964 THURSDAY
Johnny
Cash and Molly Bee are featured on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
JANUARY 24, 1964 FRIDAY
Rhonda Forlaw is born in Gainesville, Florida. An Arista publicity executive, she joins the backing chorus on Brooks and Dunn's ''Rock My World (Little Country Girl)''. She is married to Tracy Adkins from 1997-2015.
JANUARY 25, 1964 SATURDAY
Bill Monroe performs ''Uncle
Pen'' and ''Mule Skinner Blues'' on ABC's ''Hootenanny'', which also features Doc Watson, Homer and Jethro and The Geezinslaw Brothers.
JANUARY 26, 1964 SUNDAY
Eddy Arnold performs from New York on CBS-TV's ''The Ed Sullivan Show''.
JANUARY 27, 1964 MONDAY
Jean Shepard recorded ''Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar)'' in the afternoon hours at
Nashville's Columbia Recording Studios.
JANUARY 28, 1964 TUESDAY
Buck Owens recorded ''My Heart Skips A Beat'' and ''Together Again'' in Hollywood, California.
Columbia released Marty Robbins' ''Girl From Spanish Town''.
JANUARY 29, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Students for a Democratic Society organize the first teach-in on the Vietnam war attracting 2,500 at the University of Michigan.
JANUARY 30, 1964 WEDNESDAY
''The Jimmy Dean Show'' welcomes musical guests
Ferlin Husky and Patti Page, plus comedian Norm Crosby.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
STUDIO SESSION FOR THE NEW BEALE STREET SHEIKS &
CATMANDO QUINTET FOR SOUTHTOWN RECORDS 1964
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SOUTHTOWN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE JANUARY 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER – BILL JUSTIS
RECORDING ENGINEER – ROWSEY
AND/OR SCOTTY MOORE
According to Jim Dickerson, "I called Jimmy
Crosthwait and asked him if he had ever thought about playing the washboard. We went to a hardware store down by Memphis State and got a Zinc King washboard and half a dozen sewing thimbles to use as picks. We drafted our friend George Gillis who had played bass on my Home Of The Blues session to play wash tub and the New Beale Street
Sheiks were born. We rehearsed once, played a gig Friday night at The Pastimes Peanut Bar, and showed up at Sam Phillip’s Studio Saturday morning for the session. Nobody was there except Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and Rowsey, the repair man. Justis had failed to nail down the booking for the session, and Scotty wasn’t
buying it. We looked pretty bad. Crosthwait had hair trailing down his back and Gillis and I were hung over. I told Scotty to call Justis in Nashville,
which he did. After he got off the phone, Scotty okayed the session and it fell to Rowsey to engineer. I found out later it was his first and only session. We set up around a couple of RCA 77s and
laid down four songs as fast as we could. While we were cutting, Bill Black was calling people on the phone and having them come over
and laugh at us from the control room. When we finished Bill Black was shaking his head. ''Dickinson, this is the wildest thing you’ve ever done'', he chuckled.
01 - ''YOU'LL DO IT ALL THE TIME*'' – B.M.I. - 2:20
Composer: Jim Dickerson
Publisher: - Tuneville Music
Matrix number: - SO-900
Recorded: - January 1964
Released:
- February 6, 1964
First appearance: - Southtown Records (S) 45rpm Southtown 45-22000 mono
YOU'LL DO IT ALL THE TIME / NOBODY'S WANTS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT
Reissued: - 2013 Mississippi Records (Cassette) MRC-041-1 mono
JIM DICKERSON – THE EARLY YEARS 1963-1984
02 - ''NOBODY WANTS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT*'' – B.M.I. - 3:15
Composer: - Jimmy
Cox-Adapted and Arranged by Jim Dickinson
Publisher: - Tuneville Music
Matrix
number: - SO-901
Recorded: - January 1964
Released: - February 6,
1964
First appearance: - Southtown Records (S) 45rpm Southtown 45-22000 mono
NOBODY'S WANTS YOU WHEN YOU'RE DOWN AND OUT / YOU'LL DO IT ALL THE TIME
Reissued: - 2013 Mississippi Records (Cassette) MRC-041-2 mono
JIM DICKERSON – THE EARLY YEARS 1963-1984
Start off with "Monkey Man'', which starts off with a call-and-response of whoah-whoah-whoah-whoahwhoah's before we get down to business. No, wait,
I take that back. This song starts cookin' right as the stylus hits the groove, as we get a backing of ultra-out-of-control farfisa organ and super-speed drums. Not to
forget some mean guitar work, too. And Dickinson's shrieking, way-out-there vocalizing. There! The cake is iced and complete and ready to indulge in.
03 – ''MONKEY MAN''** – B.M.I. - 2:25
Composer: Jim Dickinson
Publisher: - Tuneville Music
Matrix number: 80-913
Recorded: - January 1964
Released:
- 1965
First appearance: - Southtown Records (S) 45rpm Southtown 22006 mono
MONKEY MAN / SHAKE ÉM ON DOWN
Reissued: - 2013 Mississippi Records (Cassette) MRC-041-3 mono
JIM DICKERSON – THE EARLY YEARS 1963-1984
While
"Monkey Man" has more of a garage feel, "Shake 'Em On Down" goes for the rockabilly side of town. On this one, Jimmy's got his straight razor and his .44 gun and he'll cut you if you stay and shoot
you if you run. "Gonna shake 'em on down, gonna shake 'em on down, gonna shake 'em on down." Another great guitar solo and lots of attitude
make up the recipe for this double-barrelled atomic cocktail.
04 – ''SHAKE 'EM
ON DOWN''** – B.M.I. - 2:58
Composer: Jim Dickinson
Publisher:
- Tuneville Music
Matrix number: 80-914
Recorded: - January 1964
Released: - 1965
First appearance: - Southtown Records (S) 45rpm Southtown
22006 mono
SHAKE ÉM ON DOWN / MONKEY MAN
Reissued: - 2013 Mississippi
Records (Cassette) MRC-041-4 mono
JIM DICKERSON – THE EARLY YEARS 1963-1984
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
* - James Luther
''Jim'' Dickerson – Vocal and Kazoo
Jimmy Crosthwait – Washboard
George Gillis – Tiny Tub Bass
Sid Selvidge - Guitar
Bill Newport - Bass
Jim Vinson - Tub Bass
** - James Luther "Jim" Dickinson
– Vocal & Guitar
& The Catmando Quartet
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
The New Beale Street Sheiks. From left to right: Bill Newport (banjo), Jim Dickinson (guitar), Jim Vinson (sitting with tub bass), Sid Selvidge (guitar),
Jimmy Crosthwait (front with washboard) >
EARLY 1964
The tension from the studio carried over into his marriage. Scotty and his wife, Bobbie did what couples often do in those circumstances; they bought a house, moving to Raleigh, a relatively new suburb in northeast Memphis, hoping a change in scenery would help. Scotty was miserable. He and
Bobbie were fighting. Sam hadn't shown any interest in Scotty recording sessions for his album and movie sound tracks, but that was
not very satisfying financially or creatively. By that point, Scotty's only direct income from Elvis was a yearly bonus of $500.
To escape the frustration he was experiencing with Bobbie and Sam, Scotty spent more time in the Nashville
studio, where he met Billy Sherrill. The Alabaman was already working at the studio when Sam bought it; when it changed ownership he stayed on, working for
Sam as an engineer.
As a result, he and Scotty became
close friends. They had a lot in common. Billy was six years younger, but they shared the same Southern heritage and they liked the same type of
music. Billy hadn't worked for Sam long when he attracted the attention of executive at Epic Records in Nashville, who hired his as a producer. One of his first artists was
newcomer Tammy Wynette. After leaving Memphis in 1956, she had moved to Birmingham, where she first got her foot in the door of the music industry
as a songwriter.
FEBRUARY
1964
FEBRUARY
1964
Sam Phillips sells his Nashville studio to Fred Foster,
president of Monument Records, who install Bill Porter to run it.
FEBRUARY 1, 1964 SATURDAY
ABC's ''Hootenanny''
welcomes Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs for a return engagement.
FEBRUARY
3, 1964 MONDAY
Singer and songwriter Matraca Berg is born
in Nashville, Tennessee. She writes Deana Carter's ''Strawberry Wine'', Reba McEntire's ''The Last One To Know'', Martina McBride's ''Wild Angels'' and Kenney Chesney's ''You And Tequila'', among others.
FEBRUARY 5, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Porter Wagoner recorded ''Sorrow On The Rocks''.
Burl Ives recorded ''A Holly Jolly Christmas'' at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. The song will be features in December on the NBC-TV special
''Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer''.
FEBRUARY 7, 1964 FRIDAY
Meet The Beatles! The Fab Four arrives in New York for the first
time. Johnny Rodrigues will score a country hit with their song ''Something'', Sweetheart of the Rodeo will cover ''I Feel Fine''.
Hank Snow recorded ''The Wishing Well (Down In The Well)''.
Liberty Records released Jan and Dean's pop hit ''Dead Man's Curve'', featuring guitar work by Glen Campbell.
FEBRUARY 8, 1963 SATURDAY
Jimmie F. Rogers performs ''Wayfaring Stranger'' on an episode of ABC's ''Hootenanny'' which also features Bob Gibson and Hoyt Axton.
FEBRUARY 9, 1964 SUNDAY
The Beatles appear on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' for the first time. The event inspires Clint Black guitarist Hayden Nicholas to become a musician.
FEBRUARY 10, 1964 MONDAY
Elvis Presley sends a congratulatory telegram to The Beatles in New York, one day after their American
TV debut on ''The Ed Sullivan Dhow''.
Marty Robbins recorded
''The Cowboy In The Continental Suit'' at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ray Pillow has his first recording session, for Capitol Records.
FEBRUARY 10, 1963 SUNDAY
In the meantime Sam Phillips sold the Nashville
studio to Fred Foster at Monument. The first, and by far the more significant, was that Billy Sherrill left the company. Billy's chance came at the the end of 1963, when Columbia's new Epic office had an opening for an all-around producer, a producer who,
in other words, would work with any artist not already by another, more established artist and repertoire man, at a salary of $8,000 a year. Finally Sam Phillips and Fred Foster made the deal, for $175,000 for the studio and all of its physical assets, which
were specified, and for its ''goodwill'', which was not. Sam agreed not to enter into the recording studio business in Nashville for at least five years, and it was clearly understood that the owner of the building, Cumberland Lodge, had the right to terminate
the rental agreement according to the terms pf its lease with Sam Phillips Recording Studio of Nashville. Which they did just two years later when they sold the building to National Life and Accident Insurance, the owner of WSM and the Grand Ole Opry, which
intended to expand its home offices to include both the Lodge and the Clarkson Hotel next door.
It was just after
selling the studio that Sam Phillips finally reached an agreement with Philips of Holland. He fought them to the very end but more for the sake of principle at this point than for any great practical purpose. Sam would not agree to drop the use of his name
on any competing products, he wrote to his lawyer on March 6, but as he pointed out, he had no intention of putting out any competing products other than phonograph records, and as things looked right now, he would be out of the recording business before long.
FEBRUARY 11, 1964 TUESDAY
The Beatles give their first U.S. performance at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C. Three of the four members will receive credits as songwriters
on future country hits.
Columbia Records released Lester
Flatt and Earl Scruggs' ''Petticoat Junction''.
Charlie
Louvin recorded his first solo hit, the Bill Anderson-written ''I Don't Love You Anymore''.
FEBRUARY 12, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The
Beatles perform at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall. Three of the English band's members, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, will appear in future decades as songwriters on many country hits.
FEBRUARY 13, 1964 THURSDAY
George Jones is a musical guest on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
FEBRUARY 15, 1964 SATURDAY
Michael Reynolds is born in Natural Bridge, Virginia. He becomes the lead singer of Pinmonkey, an alternative country band that earns a 2003 nomination from the Academy Country Music
for Top New Vocal Duo or Group.
FEBRUARY 17, 1964 MONDAY
Decca Records released the album ''Bill Anderson Sings''.
FEBRUARY 20, 1964 THURSDAY
Chuck Berry recorded ''Promised Land'', with Willie Dixon sitting in at the Chess Recording Studio in
Chicago. The song is destined to climb the country charts after a re-recording by Elvis Presley.
Singer and songwriter Don Gibson appears on the ABC variety series ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' with comedian George Kirby and Lassie.
FEBRUARY 21, 1964 FRIDAY
Carl Smith recorded ''Take My Ring Off Your Finger''.
FEBRUARY 24, 1964 MONDAY
Capitol Records released Buck Owens ''My Heart Skips A Beat'' and ''Together Again''.
Singer and songwriter Chris Austin is born in Boone, North Carolina. Ricky Skaggs earns a hit with Austin's ''Same Ol' Love'', though it comes after the songwriter's death in a plane crash involving the members
of Reba McEntire's band.
FEBRUARY 25, 1964 THUSDAY
Twenty-two-year-old boxer Cassius Clay (who would later change
his name to Muhammad Ali) upsets Sonny Liston to earn the world heavyweight championship.
Ray Price recorded ''Please Talk To My Heart'' at the Columbia Studios in Nashville and makes his first attempt at a future hit, ''Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go)''. ''Please Talk to My Heart" is original recorded by American country
music artist Johnny ''Country'' Mathis. It was released in 1963, and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. Ray Price's version peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It
also reached number 1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. Freddy Fender also released a cover of the song in 1980. Fender's version peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles
chart.
Lyricist Johnny Burke dies in New York. Known for
such standards as ''Pennies From Heaven'' and ''Swing On A Star'', he also co-wrote Erroll Garner's ''Misty'', which becomes a country hit for Ray Stevens in 1975.
FEBRUARY 26, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Loretta Lynn recorded ''Wine Women And Song'' at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studio.
FEBRUARY 27, 1964 THURSDAY
Dottie West recorded ''Here Come My Baby''. "Here Comes My Baby" was the first song to be written by Dottie West. In 1964, Dottie West was trying to make it big in Nashville. She
released a single the previous year called "Let Me Off At The Corner", which made the Top 40. She also recorded another with Jim Reeves called "Love Is No Excuse", which became a hit after his death in 1964. She had just received a recording contract
with RCA Records and decided that she would write her own song and see how it does as a single. The song was written in one day, according to West, who wrote along with her husband Bill West, and she then recorded it in Nashville.
Nobody expected the success the song would bring in 1964. The song made it to
number 10 on the Billboard country charts that year, making the song a national hit for West. That year, West won a BMI award for writing "Here Comes My Baby". The next year, West made history when the song won her a Grammy for Best Female Country
Vocal Performance. West not only became the first person to win this type of Grammy award, but also became the first female country music singer to ever win a Grammy award. (The National Academy of Recording
Arts and Sciences introduced the country categories to the Grammy Awards that year.) Because of the success of the song, West got a spot on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and the song became one of West's signature songs of her career. It has been made
a standard to record in country music.
Since its original release, "Here Comes My Baby" has been recorded by over 100 artists, including Lynn Anderson from the album "Songs That Made Country Girls Famous" (1970),Dean Martin and Faron Young.
Eddy Arnold and Molly Bee are featured guests during the ABC variety series
''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
FEBRUARY 29, 1964 SATURDAY
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans appear on the ABC variety show ''The
Hollywood Palace'' with Kate Smith and The Sons Of The Pioneers.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS
- ©
Session Published
for Historical Reasons
STUDIO
SESSION FOR SCOTTY MOORE
FOR EPIC RECORDS 1964
COLUMBIA RECORDING STUDIO
804
16TH AVENUE SOUTH, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
EPIC SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE(S) FEBRUARY/MARCH 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - BILLY SHERRILL
During one of Scotty's trips to Nashville, Billy asked him why he hadn't
done an album of instrumentals. Why indeed? When Billy Sherrill suggested they do an album together for Epic Records, Scotty jumped at the chance. ''I'd like to take the credit for having the idea'', says Billy. ''I think Scotty was too shy back then to want to be the star of his own
album. I had always admired Scotty's style. I think he had the most unique style of any guitar player in the world. He did it before anyone else did it, those rock and roll licks.
I wanted to capitalize on the fact that he was the man who played the guitar that changed the world''.
Billy Sherrill assembled an all-star cast for the session, which too place in late February or early March
1964. In addition to Scotty on lead guitar, he had D.J. Fontana and Buddy Harmon on drums; Boots Randolph on
saxophone; Bill Purcell on piano; Jerry Kennedy on second guitar; Bob Moore on bass; and of course, the Jordanaires.
''We gathered in a studio, and it was like, 'Well, what are we we going to do''?, says
Billy. ''Someone said ''Don't Be Cruel'', so we got Elvis' record out and listened to it and everyone did what they did on the record, except Scotty who would do what the voice did''.
01 - ''HOUND DOG'' - B.M.I. - 2:10
Composer: - Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller
Publisher: - Elvis Presley Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released:
- 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
The album starts off with DJ Fontana's trademark machine-gun drumming and the band join in for a great rockin' version of ''Hound Dog''. The song features all the trademarks of the King's 1956 version, guitar, drums and hand-clapping
and is a strong opener, leaving the listener in no doubt that they purchased wisely.
02 - ''LOVING YOU'' - B.M.I. - 2:31
Composer: - Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller
Publisher: - Elvis Presley Music Incorporated
Matrix
number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm
Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Loving You'' sounds like a Duane Eddy RCA record, it's a neat version helped in no small part by the Jordanaires who fill in the
gaps smoothly.
03 - ''MONEY HONEY''
- B.M.I. - 2:09
Composer: - Jesse Stone
Publisher:
- Walden B. Music Corporation
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Money Honey'' is a bouncy rendition which really works
well with Scotty duplicating his original breaks to perfection. The fun and spirit of 1956 is captured.
04 - ''MY BABY LEFT ME'' - B.M.I. - 2:18
Composer: -
Arthur Crudup
Publisher: - Unichappell Music - Crudup Music Corporation
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued:
- 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
There's great teamwork between Scotty and DJ on the early parts of ''My Baby Left Me'' and it really
is their song until The Jordanaires join in and spoil the whole feel. A nice Boots Randolph sax break redeems it somewhat.
05 - ''HEARTBREAK HOTEL'' - B.M.I. - 2:42
Composer: -
Mea Boren Axton-Tommy Durden-Elvis Presley
Publisher: - Hill and Range Songs Incorporated
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm
Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Heartbreak Hotel'' was never my favourite Elvis song but the
version here is nice and jazzy. All the instruments are given plenty of air to breathe and Bill Pursell is particularly effective on piano throughout. Boots is on fine form as is Scotty (nothing new there!).
06 - ''THAT'S ALL RIGHT'' - B.M.I. - 2:20
Composer: - Arthur Crudup
Publisher: - Arthur Crudup Music
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March
1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances:
- Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''That's All Right'' is a fine rock and
roll instrumental. It seems strange to hear it with a sax, but there's a great understanding between Scotty and the Jordanaires.
07 - ''MILK COW BLUES'' - A.S.C.A.P. - 2:25
Composer:
- James "Kokomo" Arnold
Publisher: - Leeds Music Incorporated Limited
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued:
- 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Side two starts with my favourite of the album, ''Milk Cow Blues''. It a real blast from start to
finish with DJ driving the thing along and some fine interplay between the guitars of Scotty and Jerry Kennedy. Instrumentals were big business in the early 1960s and with a bit of push from Epic this could easily have hit the Hot 100.
08 - ''DON'T'' – B.M.I. - 2:45
Composer: - Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller
Publisher: - Jerry
Leiber Music-Mike Stoller Music
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Don't'' again could be Duane. The guitar
is nice and twangy and Boots contributes a couple of beautiful short solos.
09 - ''MYSTERY TRAIN'' - B.M.I. - 2:00
Composer: - Herman "Little Junior" Parker Jr.-Sam Phillips
Publisher: - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated
Matrix
number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm
Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Mystery Train'', not surprisingly, is another rockin' tribute to the Sun years. The picking is unmistakably Scotty with some fabulous
solos which nearly burn the wax on the turntable.
10 - ''DON'T BE CRUEL'' - B.M.I. - 2:05
Composer: - Otis Blackwell-Elvis Presley
Publisher: - Travis Music Co.
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released:
- 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Don't
Be Cruel'' doesn't quite work as well as the others. It's nice and bouncy but the problem is probably that the original had such perfect vocals.
11 - ''LOVE ME TENDER'' - B.M.I. - 2:47
Composer: - Vera Matson-Elvis Presley
Publisher: - Hill and Range Songs Incorporated
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: -
Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Love Me Tender'' is obviously slow and a bit lifeless but it features more classy sax playing from Boots Randolph.
12 - ''MEAN WOMAN BLUES'' - A.S.C.A.P. - 2:15
Composer: - Claude DeMetruis
Publisher:
- Gladys Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - LN-24103
Recorded: - Unknown Date February/March 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearances: - Epic Records (LP) 33rpm Epic 33SX1680 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Reissued: - 1999 Epic Records (CD) 500/200rpm Epic 357145 mono
THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
''Mean Woman Blues'' is great. Jerry Kennedy
keeps the track driving along nicely and there's a good short piano break. Scotty takes an absolute crackerjack solo and it's a great way to round off the album and show us all why his was ''The Guitar That Changed The World!''.
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Scotty
Moore - Lead Guitar
Jerry Kennedy - Guitar
Bob
Moore - Bass
D.J. Fontana - Drums
Buddy
Harmon - Drums
Boots Randolph - Saxophone
Bill
Purchell - Piano
Vocal
Chorus The Jordanaires consisting of
Gordon Stoker, Neal Matthews,
Hoyt Hawkins and Raymond Walker
Billy Sherrill wanted to title the album ''The Guitar That Changed The World'' and Scotty reluctantly went along with that, althought privately he feared
people would think he was boasting. Billy wanted to pay tribute to the man who had started it all. ''I admire Scotty and I admire his contribution to music'', says Billy.
''He's in a class by himself. He is the rock and roll player of the century. All those guys that came along, Jimi Hendrix,
Eric Clapton, they can play faster, sharper, more compelling licks, but Scotty did it first. I'm sure there are better guitar players than Scotty that are around today. But they
fed on his creativity. I don't know where he got his from, God, I guess''.
''The Guitar That Changed The World'' was one of Billy Sherrill's first profects as a producer, but he went on
to become one of the most successful producers and songwriters in country music history. He had hits with Tammy Wynette,
George Jones, Charlie Rich, Johnny Paycheck, Patti Page, and dozens of others. Today, when he looks back at the album he did with Scotty, he wishes more had been done to promote
it. ''The record company at the time didn't see the potential of the album and didn't work on it all that much'', he says. '' I think Scotty Moore made history. I was glad to be a part of that history''.
Scotty Moore was ecstatic over the album. For the first time in his career, he had a project that was his very own.
For the first time, he had an album that would pay him royalties. When he got back to Memphis, he told Sam Phillips about the project. He thought Sam would be happy he had a deal
with a major record label. Sam didn't say much when he told him; he sort of nodded and mumbled.
A few days later, Scotty received a hand-delivered letter from Sam Phillips dated March 17, 1964.
''As you know I am real concerned about the events of the past week-end, and feel I must tell you that I feel a real trust has been handled with Impropriety'', Sam said in the letter. ''I think under the circumstance
(sic) all purposes, both for you and me, would be best served if you began to seek a new association''. Sam was firing him because he recorded an album! Scotty couldn't believe it. Sam letter continued: ''I
do not want you to feel that I do not appreciate your real and genuine dedication and concern for the companies you are associated with, but my faith has been severely taken to task, therefore, your continued
affiliation with us will not be what I feel is a comfortable relationship. I do not, however, hold any malice in the matter and shall, and do, hold you in high regard. Also, your presence is welcome at all
times and certainly until you make another connection that is satisfactory to you and your family. Further, please do not feel out of pride you have to leave immediately. This is not the case. As a matter of
fact, you will be needed to help us avoid another 'immediate' departure. I shall be happy to recommend you, both as a person and as an employee, to whomever you approach for employment''.
Robert Johnson, music journalist for the Memphis
Press-Scimitar was certainly in the right place at the right time. He was there when Elvis started breaking into the big-time, he reported the signing to RCA, he was at the Million Dollar Quartet session on 4 December 1956 and also reported the episode when
Scotty and Bill Black resigned. He also wrote the first official biography of Elvis in 1956. When the album was reissued in 1983 in England, the liner notes were by Johnson (Are these the original liner notes?). The notes are worth repeating here for anyone
who shamefully doesn't have the album.
"Scotty was part of the most amazing musical adventure of modern times, the rise from rags to riches, and international fame, of Elvis Presley. His was the other guitar - the lead guitar! This album grew out of the fantastic experience of being at the side of the man who has sold more millions of records than any other singer in history. Scotty Moore's guitar has been heard on more million-record sellers than any other guitar, and he has been on all but a few of Elvis' major hits.
Scotty has been wondering, for some time, what the response might be to an up-dated instrumental interpretation of the music associated with Elvis. He wanted the same basic arrangements, but he wanted a bigger instrumental sound. It is now ten years since That's All Right, for instance, and Scotty wanted to update the rhythm pattern to meet the changes involved in a decade.
Scotty was the lead guitar on the original versions of all but one of the twelve numbers on this album. The exception is Love Me Tender, and the movie people used studio men for this. All of the musicians in this album, with one exception, have worked with Elvis in his later recording sessions. Drummer D.J. Fontana was along with Scotty on most of the originals. Most are featured stars in their own right - Bob Moore on bass; Boots Randolph, sax; Jerry Kennedy, guitar; Buddy Harman for the second drums; Bill Pursell, piano. The Jordanaires have, of course, been closely associated with most of Elvis' records.
The same idea Scotty had been nursing had also been in the mind of Billy Sherrill, A and R man in Nashville, who produced the album. This is the way it began - in 1954. I wrote the story about Elvis, Scotty and Bill Black, ran the pictures of them, and wrote thousands of words about them in later years. It is generally known how Elvis walked in and made a little record as a birthday present for his mother at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis. Later, Phillips remembered Elvis and called him to sing everything he knew. Something was there, and Phillips sent Elvis to Scotty and said; "Work with this boy".
Then happened one of those strange coincidences which often make history. Scotty lived a few doors from Bill Black, bass player. They worked with Elvis, hour after hour, then Elvis started singing a song which popped into his mind, That's All Right, and all at once it was there - the drive, the excitement, the something. When they heard the playback, they couldn't believe it. All three had been exposed since childhood to a strange blend of music, from Negro field shouts to rhythmic church music, from blues to country and sophisticated jazz. Somehow they all seemed to run together.
They had a hit, but they were broke. They got together some money for petrol and hit the road in Scotty's old car, and when the car broke down, Elvis got a second-hand Lincoln, which Bill wrecked. They made a Grand Ole Opry appearance, then they went to the Louisiana Hayride, and suddenly it began to happen. DJ joined them. Once they drove home from Texas with 100 dollars each, and kept feeling it to make sure it was there. The fabulous Col. Tom Parker took them over. The crowds became bigger, the screams louder, and now you could feel the excitement. It broke wide open with Heartbreak Hotel, and Hound Dog set off a stampede. They were on TV with Milton Berle, and Ed Sullivan, for that fantastic 50,000 dollars an appearance, just a year after they had holes in their pockets.
Then came Las Vegas the first time - I was there, and saw that some of the older crowd were interested in spite of themselves. It was too big to be stopped. The rest is history.
Scotty was in four movies. Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole and G.I. Blues and worked on the soundtracks of all. When Elvis' movie work took him off the road, Scotty stayed close to records, and came up with his own million seller, ''Tragedy''. Bill Black's Combo also made it's name. Whenever Elvis goes to Nashville for recording sessions, or makes charity appearances, Scotty is right there at his side - the other guitar, the lead guitar - THE GUITAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD!"
Shaun Mather, February 1999.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
MARCH 1964
MARCH 1, 1964 SUNDAY
The Beatles recorded ''I'm Happy Just To Dance With You'' at London's Abbey Road Studios. Anne Murray later turns the song into a minor country hit.
Jennifer McCarter is born in Sevierville, Tennessee. As a member of the family trio The McCarters, she participates in three Top 10 hits during the late-1980s, ''Timeless And True Love'', ''The Gifts'' and ''Up And Gone''.
MARCH 2, 1964 MONDAY
During the first day of shooting for the movie ''A Hard Day's Night'' in London, England, The Beatles' George Harrison meets Patti Boyd, destined to become his wife. During their marriage he writes ''Something'' a country hit for Johnny Rodriguez.
MARCH 4, 1964 WEDNEDAY
Charley Pride signs his first management contract, with Jack D. Johnson.
MARCH 5, 1964 THURSDAY
Johnny Cash recorded ''The Ballad Of Ira Hayes'', based on the tragic life of a World War II hero, at the Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Warner Mack recorded the Jim Glaser-penned ''Sittin' In An All Nite Cafe''.
Hank Williams Jr. and saxophone player Boots Randolph appear on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
MARCH 6, 1964 FRIDAY
Skip Ewing is born in Redlands, California. After several hits as a recording artist in the late-1980s, he scores his biggest success as a songwriter. Among his titles, Collin Raye's ''Love Me'', Diamond Rio's ''I Believe'', Kenny Chesney's ''Me And You'' and Randy Travis' ''If I Didn't Have You''.
MGM released the Elvis Presley movie ''Kissin' Cousins'', with Elvis Presley playing two different characters.
Elvis Presley begins work on the movie ''Roustabout'' in Los Angeles, California.
MARCH 7, 1964 SATURDAY
Jim and Jesse and Ernie Ashworth join the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
ABC's ''Hootenanny'' takes on a country flavor with appearances by Eddy Arnold, The Carter Family, Hoyt Axton and Sheb Wooley, who perform ''That's My Pa''.
Lefty Frizzell begins a four-week stay atop the Billboard country chart ''Saginaw, Michigan'', written by Bill Anderson.
MARCH 8, 1964 SUNDAY
Wynn and Delores Stewart have a daughter, Wren Dee Stewart, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
MARCH 9, 1964 MONDAY
The Statler Brothers show up at a Johnny Cash show in Canton, Ohio, and open the concert when the Man in Black is late. Cash subsequently adds them to his touring cast for the next eight years.
Skeeter Davis recorded ''Gonna Get Along Without You Now''.
MARCH 10, 1964 TUESDAY
Ernest Tubb and Loretta Lynn recorded ''Mr. And Mrs. Used To Be'' at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
Carl Butler and Pearl recorded ''I'm Hanging Up The Phone''.
MARCH 11, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Elvis Presley is injured while filming a fight scene for ''Roustabout'' in Los Angeles. He requires stitches in his forehead.
Songwriter Jerry Abbott and his wife, Carolyn, have a son Vincent Abbott, in Dallas, Texas. Dad goes on to write the Buck Owens and Emmylou Harris hit ''Play Together Again Again''. As Vinnie Paul, son goes on to play in the metal band Pantera.
Capitol released Charlie Louvin's first solo hit, ''I Don't Love You Anymore''.
MARCH 12, 1964 THURSDAY
Roy Drusky recorded ''Pick Of The Week'' at Nashville's Columbia Studio.
MARCH 14, 1964 SATURDAY
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs are featured on ABC's ''Hootenanny''.
MARCH 15, 164 SUNDAY
''Lonely Teardrops'' songwriter Berry Gordy Jr. has a son, Kennedy William Gordy, in Detroit. The boy earns a pop hit in 1984 under the stage name Rockwell with ''Somebody's Watching Me''.
Having first met while filming the movie Cleopatra in 1961, actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor make their much publicized relationship official when they are married in Montreal. The two had both been married when they first started their relationship, a scandalizing event that garnered attention from the Vatican, which condemned them. The Burton-Taylor affair and marriage had the public fascinated and marked the beginning of the public’s enthrallment with celebrity relationships. The pair were married until their divorce in June of 1974. They remarried each other in 1975 but divorced for a second time in less than a year.
MARCH 16, 1964 MONDAY
Rock and roll disc jockey Alan Freed is charged in New York with evading more than $37,000 in income tax. He earned co-writing credit on the 1950s pop hit ''Sincerely'', eventually remade for the country charts by The Forester Sisters.
Sam Phillips' termination letter to Scotty Moore, March 17, 1964 >
SPRING 1964
When
Sam Phillips give him his walking papers, Scotty Moore started looking around for new opportunities. Stax Records was the hottest enterprise in Memphis, but it was pretty much
a closed shop. Same thing with Hi Records, where Willie Mitchell had been put in charge of production.
Scotty had worked on some minor projects with Willie, but Hi Records was Bill's gig and studio really didn't need a veteran guitarist/producer. Chips Moman was in the process of putting together
his American Recording Studio, but it would be another year before he has it in full operation.
Scotty looked toward Nashville. He was motivated to begin a new life in a new city for more reasons than
one. He and his wife, Bobbie, had not been getting along. Not many marriages could have survived what they had
experienced.
The long separations, the road trips,
all the glittery trappings of Scotty being ''the man behind'' America's reigning sex symbol dogged the relationship, but they probably weren't the most difficult
to overcome. More damaging were the constant stream of work-related betrayals Scotty had experienced during their marriage.
At age thirty-two, Scotty needed to try something different, and he needed to do it in new surroundings. He told Bobbie he was moving to Nashville.
Before leaving Memphis, Scotty Moore sent Colonel
Tom Parker an acetate of his LP ''The Guitar That Changed The World', along with a letter requesting an endorsement. ''Recently I contracted with Epic
Records, a division of Columbia to record instrumentally an album of Elvis' older hits;;, Scotty wrote. ''With the understanding
that if it met with any success the project would continue by volumes two, three, etc. I am enclosing herein, a copy of the first album and would deem it an honor if you would
write the liner notes for Volume One. Of course, my first thought was liner notes by ''Elvis and The Colonel'', but realized label policy knew this would probably be impossible. We have endeavored to present these selections with good taste and with a memorable flavor. Any thoughts
you might have would be greatly appreciated. Here's hoping they will be pleasing to your ear''.
Less than a week later, Scotty received a response from Tom Diskin, Parker's assistant. In a letter dated
April 8 on Paramount Pictures letterhead, Diskin wrote: ''Our hands are pretty well tied on what we can do on other labels, not only in the way of liner notes but there are restrictions that do not permit the use of Elvis' name in conjunction with another commercial record.
We receive a great number of requests from the boys in the business and have to go along with the restrictions placed on us because of our association with RCA Victor.
For that reason we have never done anything along the lines requested. We want to wish you good luck and hope
that this LP is a big success, but mostly big royalties for you. ''Kissin Cousins'' is doing extremely well. We are still on the ''Roustabout'' picture. We are returning this acetate
as we felt you may have use for it, and will be looking forward to the release of your album and I personally am going to buy one. You have to admit that is the best kind of endorsement''.
It was yet another slap in the face. Scotty wasn't surprised, of course. He wasn't even offended. Actually, he never
expected a response from Parker. Says Scotty: ''If I had offered him $5,000 to write the liner notes, he might have done it. He never did anyone a favor that I knew of where he
wasn't paid back tenfold somewhere down the line''. Buoyed by a contract for his first solo album, and dreams of royalties, Scotty struck out for Nashville.
When Scotty moved to Nashville in 1964, country music was in a state of flux, perpetuated to no small degree by the revolution in American music brought
about the music recorded a decade earlier by Elvis, Scotty, and Bill in Memphis. Country music didn't have a carved-in-stone direction in 1964. The biggest
selling singles on the country charts were Roger Miller's ''Dang Me'' and Dottie West's ''Here Comes My Baby''. The hottest
selling single on any chart was Roy Orbison's ''Oh, Pretty Woman''.
Former Memphis artist such as Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Charlie Rich were finding new success in Nashville,
even as Elvis continued to record his albums and some of his soundtracks in the city, but country music's new wave, as represented by Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings,
and other, was already in place, making Nashville both a pivotal and an exciting place to set up shop.
Before Scotty Moore left Memphis, Mort Thomasson, a recording engineer with Columbia Records, had
talked to him about working for the record label as an engineer. He probably would have taken that job if he had
not met studio owner Bill Conner. They discovered they shared a common goal. Conner wanted a bigger studio; Scotty wanted a studio, period. They found a studio that had gone on
the market after its owners had filed for bankrupty. It was in a good condition, on Nineteenth Avenue, just off Music Row, so they pooled their resources and bought it. It had done business under the name Roi Studios. They renamed it Music City Recorders.
As Scotty Moore's Spirits soared over the
purchase of the studio, they sank over the dismal showing his album, ''The Guitar That Changed The World'' made on the charts and in record stores. It became clear to
Scotty that the album was going to spawn in neither hits nor royalties. Epic never pushed the album, reflecting
a long-standing industry aversion to instrumentals. That was one way Memphis and Nashville were different. Memphis built an entire industry on instrumentals. Nashville avoided
instrumentals whenever possible. That was one area where Scotty thought Nashville could learn a thing or two from its neighbor to the west. ''The Guitar That Changed The World'' never charted, dashing Scotty's hopes of receiving royalties for the music he helped create. The album
didn't sell enough copies to pay production costs, and by 1996 $2,500 was still owed on the account.
Scotty brushed off that disappointment, as he had done so many others, and went about the business of
building a new life. He and Bobbie weren't talking about divorce. Beyond getting a little breathing room, neither
of them knew what they wanted from the other. All they knew for certain was that they didn't want to rush into anything. However, a little more than a year after Scotty began his
new life, tragedy struck his old friend Bill Black.
MARCH 17, 1964 TUESDAY
Sun Records owner Sam Phillips fires Nashville studio manager Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley's former guitarist, after Moore recorded his own instrumental
album, ''The Guitar That Changed The World'' with Billy Sherrill for Epic Records in Sam's Nashville studio.
MARCH 18, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Keyboard player Scott Saunders is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He joins the Waco band Sons Of The Desert, whose 1997 debut album earns with ''Whatever Comes First'' and
''Leaving October''.
Lester
Flatt and Earl Scruggs appear in an episode of ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' for the second time. The duo already sings the theme song to the weekly CBS-TV series.
MARCH 19, 1964 THURSDAY
Webb Pierce recorded ''Memory Number 1''.
The lineup for ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' includes Homer and Jethro, Johnny Tillotson, Molly Bee and Norm
Crosby.
MARCH 21, 1964
SATURDAY
Jan and Dean
recorded ''The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)'' in Los Angeles, with Glen Campbell playing guitar on the session.
Johnny Cash delivers ''Understand Your Man'' on an episode of ABC's ''Hootenanny'', which also features ''But You Know I Love You'' songwriter Mike Settle.
MARCH 26, 1964 THURSDAY
Hank Snow and pop singer Jack Jones appear
on ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on ABC.
MARCH
28, 1964 SATURDAY
Persuaded
by Bill Anderson, Connie Smith visits Nashville for the first time to appear on ''The Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree.
Lawrence Welk, a former musical collaborator of Red Foley, is featured on the cover of TV Guide.
Patti Page appears on ABC's ''The Hollywood Palace''. The installment is hosted by George Burns,
who joins The Lennon Sisters to perform ''Ain't Misbehavin'''.
MARCH 30, 1964 MONDAY
The Dillards, in their role as the fictitious band The Darlings, play ''Bile Them Cabbage Down'' during the CBS sitcom ''The Andy Griffith Show''.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
In 1964 and early 1965, still looking for a winning combination, Roland Janes paired Felts with his star picker, Travis Wammack, and the Sonic rhythm section comprising Danny Taylor on drums, and Prentiss McPhail on bass. ''Night Creature'',
reflecting Roland's love of novelty material, was released on ARA in early 1965, and was followed by another rockabilly revival, this time Carl Perkins' ''Your True Love''.
Session Published for Historical Reasons
STUDIO SESSION FOR NARVEL FELTS
FOR ARA RECORDS 1964
SONIC RECORDING STUDIO
1692 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
PROBABLY 3 STUDIO SESSIONS: UNKNOWN DATE SPRING 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - ROLAND JANES
01 - ''YOUR TRUE LOVE'' - B.M.I. - 2:04
Composer: - Carl Perkins
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix
number: - 002
Recorded: - Unknown Date Spring 1964
Released: - 1965
First appearance: Ara Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 213-B mono
YOUR
TRUE LOVE / WECOME HOME, MR BLUES
Reissued: - 1990 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-2 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
02 - ''FOGGY RIVER'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Fred Rose
Publisher: - Acuff
Rose Music
Matrix number: - None - Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date
Spring 1964
03 - ''MR. PAWNSHOP BROKER'' - B.M.I. - 2:20
Composer:
- Charles R. Phipps
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number:
- None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - Unknown Date Spring 1964
Released:
- 1990
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-15 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
04 - ''ONE MAN AT
A TABLE'' - B.M.I. - 2:30
Composer: - Narvel Felts
Publisher: - Copyright
Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: -
Unknown Date Spring 1964
Released: - 1990
First appearance: - Bear
Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-26 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
05 - ''SHE'S IN YOUR HEART TO STAY'' - B.M.I. - 1:59
Composer:
- Narvel Felts
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None
- Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - Unknown Date Spring 1964
Released:
- 1990
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-6 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
06 - ''TEAR DOWN THE
WALL'' - B.M.I. - 2:12
Composer: - Narvel Felts
Publisher: - Copyright
Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: -
Unknown Date Spring 1964
Released: - 1990
First appearance: - Bear
Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-10 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
07 – ''NIGHT CREATURE*'' - B.M.I. - 2:13
Composer:
- Charles R. Phipps-Alvis Browning
Publisher: - Rolando Music
Matrix
number: - 4609
Recorded: - Unknown Date Spring 1964
Released: - 1965
First appearance: - ARA Records (S) 45rpm standard single ARA 211-A mono
NIGHT
CREATURE / ONE BOY AND ONE GIRL
Reissued: - 1990 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15515-1 mono
NARVEL FELTS - MEMPHIS DAYS
Name
(Or. No. Of Instruments)
Narvel Felts - Vocal & Guitar
J.W. Grubbs
- Bass
Prentiss McPhail - Bass
Jimmy M. Van Eaton - Drums
Luther Crabb - Piano & Organ
*- Travis Wammack - Guitar
Danny Thomas - Drums
Tommy Bennett - Piano
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
APRIL 1964
APRIL 1, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Brenda Lee has her first baby, Julia Leana Shacklett, via Cesarean section, at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.
Hank Williams JR. performs during a Democratic fundraising dinner at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Nashville, Tennessee.
APRIL 2, 1964 THURSDAY
Jim Reeves joins pop singer Eydie Gorme and comedian Don Adams as guests on the ABC weekly variety program ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
APRIL 3, 1964 FRIDAY
The Statler Brothers hold their first recording session, cutting ''The Wreck Of The Old 97'' in Nashville, Tennessee.
APRIL 4, 1964 SATURDAY
Johnny Cash's ''Understand Your Man'' hits number 1 on the Billboard country single chart.
APRIL 5, 1964 SUNDAY
Duane Eddy and Jessi Colter have a daughter, Jennifer.
Columbia Records released Ray Price's ''The Other Woman''.
APRIL 6, 1964 MONDAY
Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''Wine Women And Song''.
Charlie Louvin donates a pint of blood to the American Red Cross, making him a member of the One Gallon Club.
The next Sun session for Bill Yates and Bill Adams took place on April 6, 1964 and this time Bill
Yates was booked as the leader with Adams being paid union scale as a musician, though in fact he sang as well. Gene Parker was paid
as the drummer. By this time, Scotty Moore had been put in charge of Sam Phillips Nashville studio as well as Madison Avenue. Stan Kesler was brought in to help with the Memphis
productions for two years until Knox Phillips took over. Kesler remembers engineering the Adams sessions but feels they were always directed by Sam Phillips.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
STUDIO SESSION FOR BILL YATES & BILLY ADAMS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1964
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: APRIL 6, 1964 THURSDAY
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – SAM PHILLIPS
This April session produced Adams second Sun single, issued in
May 1964, ''Trouble In Mind'' and ''Lockin' For Mary Ann'', Sun 391. Continuing the style set by his first Sun disc, ''Trouble In Mind'' again featured Jesse Carter who was this time credited on the label for the vocal duet. It also continued the blues revival theme, the song having been written by jazz pianist Richard Jones and becoming
a hit in the 1920s for Chippie Hill. It had become a true blues classic down the years and had been on the rhythm and blues charts with
Nina Simone a couple of years before Billy Adams recorded it. ''Lookin' For Mary Ann'', was the Adams and Carter song previously recorded for Home Of The Blues and now set to a strengthened rhythm
inspirit by the current Tommy Tucker hit, ''Hi-Heel Sneakers''. Adams made a number of other unissued, sides at this session including
the blues ''Reconsider Baby'' and six more versions of ''Love Me, Love Me, Cherry'' which may have been viewed as a potential single at one point. The session also produced Bill Yates' first release
on Sun, a nod to Rufus Thomas with ''Don't Step On My Dog'' and another Carter song, ''Stop Wait And Listen''.
01 - ''DON'T STEP ON MY DOG*'' - B.M.I. - 2:13
Composer:
- Bill Yates
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated – Hara Music
Matrix
number: - U 501 - Master
Recorded: - April 6, 1964
Released: - May 1, 1964
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 390-B mono
DON'T STEP ON MY DOG / STOP, WAIT AND LISTEN
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-1-19
mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
02 - ''STOP, WAIT AND LISTEN*''' - B.M.I. - 2:45
Composer: - Bill Yates-Jesse Carter
Publisher: - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 502
- Master
Recorded: - April 6, 1964
Released: - May 1, 1964
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 390-A mono
STOP, WAIT AND LISTEN / DON'T STEP ON MY DOG
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-1-20 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
No one would have raised an eyebrow if ''Stop, Wait And Listen'', a fine piece of swamp pop, had been recorded in Louisiana rather than Memphis.
But here it is on the Sun label, rather than Goldband or Excello. Yates does a commendable job here of singing in that southern style that defies racial identity. Phillips
himself enthused over Yates. ''Bill had an awful lot of soul in his voice'', he told Martin Hawkins. ''He was probably as versatile, without being a copyist,
as any artist I worked with. He had a lot of merit, and it's a real shame that we were not able to get a hit for him. He made you want to listen when he opened his mouth
to sing, and he played the piano like it should be played''.
03(1) - ''TROUBLE IN MIND**'' - 1 - B.M.I. - 2:30
Composer: - Richard M. Jones
Publisher: - Leeds Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 503 - Master
Duet Billy Adams & Jesse Carter
Recorded: - April 6, 1964
Released: - May 1, 1964
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 391-A
mono
TROUBLE IN MIND / LOOKIN' FOR MY MARY ANN
Reissued: - 1998 Bear
Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-1-22 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
If you liked the formula on Adams' previous record, you're gonna love this one too. ''Trouble In Mind'' is a
virtual clone of Miz Betty: a strong harmonica vocal with Jesse Carter on a piece of traditional black/folk material. The whole thing is packaged in a format that makes
you want to blow the cobwebs off your ''How To Do The Stroll'' handbook. And on top of that, we have Russ Carlton's wailing sax adding a tough of melodic soul and some stinging guitar work by Lee Adkins.
03(2) - ''TROUBLE IN MIND**'' - 2 - B.M.I. - 2:37
Composer: - Richard M. Jones
Publisher: - Leeds Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - April 6, 1964
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17116-26 mono
BILLY ADAMS – THE SUN YEARS PLUS
The flipside finds the boys in their ''Hi-Heel Sneakers'' groove with another fine sax solo courtesy of
Russ Carlton. If Tommy Tucker could have had just a penny for every bar band that took this riff to the bank six nights a week he might
have retired in prosperity instead of dying in obscurity. There's even a sly vocal reference to Tucker's opus during the fade.
04 - ''LOOKIN' FOR MY MARY ANN**'' - B.M.I. - 2:35
Composer: - Billy Adams-Jesse Carter
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 504 - Master
Recorded: - April 6, 1964
Released: - May 1, 1964
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 391-B mono
LOOKIN' FOR MY MARY ANN / TROUBLE IN MIND
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm
BCD 15805-1-21 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
05 - ''RECONSIDER BABY'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Lowell Fulson
Publisher: - Arc Music – Tristan Music
Matrix number: - None –
Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - April 6, 1964
Released: - April
1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sunbox 109-6-6 mono
SUN
RECORDS INTO THE 1960S - CADILLAC MAN
06(1) - ''BIG M'' -
1 - B.M.I.
Composer: - Billy Adams
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: April 6, 1964
06(2) - ''BIG M'' - 2 - B.M.I.
Composer: - Billy Adams
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: April 6, 1964
07 - ''SWEETIE PIE'' - 1 - B.M.I.
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: April 6, 1964
08 - ''LOVE ME, LOVE ME, CHERRY**'' - 1-6 - B.M.I.
Composer: - Chuck Willis-Gaines
Publisher: - Rush Music
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: April 6, 1964
Name
(Or. No. Of Instruments)
Bill Yates - Vocal* & Piano
Billy Adams
- Vocal** & Drums
Lee Adkins - Guitar
Jesse Carter - Bass &
Vocal on ''Trouble In Mind''
Gene Parker - Drums
Russ Carlton - Saxophone
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
APRIL 9, 1964 THURSDAY
The Los Angeles Angels, owned by cowboy star Gene Autry, file papers with the city of Anaheim indicating their intent to move the baseball team to Orange County.
ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' welcomes special guests Hank Thompson, Roy Clark and Molly Bee.
APRIL 10, 1964 FRIDAY
NBC present a special, ''The Tennessee Ernie Ford Hour'', with co-stars Jack Benny, Andy Williams and Annette Funicello.
APRIL 11, 1964 SATURDAY
Steve Azar is born in Greenville, Mississippi. He first gains attention with an independent album in 1996, although he waits another six years to score his first hit, ''I Don't Have To Be Me ('Til Monday)''.
APRIL 12, 1964 SUNDAY
Deryl Dodd is born in Comanche, Texas. Signed to Sony Nashville as an artist in the 1990s, he contributes backing vocals to a trio of Tracy Lawrence hits and ultimately becomes a force on the Texas red-dirt scene.
Amy Ray is born in Decatur, Georgia. She becomes one-half of the modern folk duo Indigo Girls, who provide background vocals on Mary Chapin Carpenter's 1993 country hit ''The Hard Way''.
APRIL 13, 1964 MONDAY
Actress Page Hannah is born in Chicago. In 1992, she marries pop producer and songwriter Lou Adler, whose ''Poor Side Of Town'' was a pop hit for Johnny Rivers when she was two, and again for Joe Stampley in 1983.
Capitol released Jean Shapard's ''Second Fiddle (To An Old Guitar)''.
APRIL 14, 1964 TUESDAY
Fiddler Stuart Duncan is born in Quantico, Virginia. He joins The Nashville Bluegrass Band, and plays on numerous country hits, including Faith Hill's ''Breathe'', The Band Perry's ''If I Die Young'' and ''Shania Twain's ''Man I Feel Like A Woman''.
Columbia Records released Carl Butler and Pearl's ''I'm Hanging Up The Phone'', and Carl Smith's ''Take My Ring Off Your Finger''.
APRIL 16, 1964 THURSDAY
Dean Martin recorded the pop single ''Everybody Loves Somebody'' in Los Angeles, with future country label executive Jimmy Bowen producing. Sitting in on acoustic guitar is Glen Campbell.
Carl Smith and pop singer Vikki Carr makes guest appearances on ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on ABC-TV.
APRIL 17, 1964 FRIDAY
25,000 protesters including Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Phil Ochs attend March Against the Vietnam War in Washington DC organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
APRIL 18, 1964 SATURDAY
Homer and Jethro perform ''(How Much) That Hound Dog In The Window'' and ''Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes'' during ABC's ''Hootenanny''.
APRIL 20, 1964 MONDAY
Shooting is completed on the Elvis Presley movie ''Roustabout''.
Decca Records released Webb Pierce's ''Memory Number 1''.
APRIL 23, 1964 THURSDAY
Buck Owens and Molly Bee on the ABC variety series ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
APRIL 26, 1964 SUNDAY
Roy Orbison's 28th birthday party draws The Beatles among its guests.
APRIL 27, 1964 MONDAY
''In His Own Write'', a book authored by The Beatles' John Lennon is published. Lennon receives songwriting credits on the future country hits ''I Feel Fine'' and ''I Don't Want To Spoil The Party''.
APRIL 30, 1964 THURSDAY
Elvis Presley gets a new hair stylist, Larry Geller, who becomes something of a spiritual adviser to The King.
Dottie West is the marshal of the firefighters' parade at the Apple Blossom Festival in Winchester, Virginia. Also appearing at the festival, Ray Price, The Carter Family, Mac Wiseman and president Lyndon B. Johnson.
Skeeter Davis and pop singer Julius LaRosa make guest appearances on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
MAY 1964
MAY 1, 1964 FRIDAY
The singles, Sun 389 ''Betty And Dupree''
b/w ''Got My Mojo Workin'' by Billy Adams; Sun 390 ''Don't Step On My Dog'' b/w ''Stop, Wait And Listen'' by Billy Yates and His T-Birds; Sun 391 ''Trouble In Mind'' b/w
''Lookin' For Mary Ann'' by Billy Adams and Jesse Carter; Sun 391 ''Wide Open Road'' b/w ''Belshazar'' by Johnny Cash all
issued.
In May 1964,
eight years since his last release, Smokey Joe Baugh must have been extremely surprise to witness Sun Records re-label and reissue his big 1955 hit, ''The Signifying Monkey''
b/w ''Listen To Me Baby'' (Sun 393). There have been various theories as to why this cute, but outdated obscurity from Sun's glorious past should make another appearance, but there are two likely factors. Ska music was big business in 1964, following the success
of Millie's ''My Boy Lollipop'' and ''Listen To Me baby'' had that groove but, perhaps more tellingly, a new version of ''Signifyin' Monkey'' had been released by local hero San The Sham and was selling well on Stan Kesler's XL Records, generously giving an
added writer credit to Smokey Joe.
Unluckily
for Joe, unlike its first go round, Sun 393 didn't sell at all and he left Memphis for Texas in the late 1960s leaving behinds debts with everyone whom he had ever come into contact with. He settled in Waco and formed a country band with his loyal friend,
Buddy Holobaugh, called the Midnite Cowboys, a name based on the best-selling novel by James Leo Herlihy and the resulting Hollywood movie.
Hair stylist Larry Geller appears on the Paramount lot in Hollywood with promised spiritual reading material for his new client, Elvis
Presley. Among the titles, ''The Impersonal Life'', ''Autobiography Of A Yogi'' and ''The Initiation Of The World''.
MAY 2, 1964 SATURDAY
First American student led the Anty War Vietnam protests held in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Madison.
MAY 3, 1964 SUNDAY
Patsy Soneman's husband, Don Dixon, is killed in an automobile accident.
MAY 5, 1964 TUESDAY
Stonewall Jackson recorded ''I Washed My Hands
In Muddy Water''.
May
anti-Vietnam War demonstration in London outside the U.S. embassy.
Several hundred UC Berkeley students march on the Berkeley Draft Board and present the staff with a black coffin. Forty students burn their draft cards.
MAY 7, 1964 THURSDAY
The Stoneman Family performs on ''The Steve Allen Show'' on NBC-TV.
MAY 9, 1964 SATURDAY
Chuck Berry kicks off his first tour of the
United Kingdom, with Carl Perkins, The Animals and The Nashville Teens in tow. In the audience, The Rolling Stones.
MAY 11, 1964 MONDAY
Hank Williams Jr. begins three days of recording with MGM labelmate Connie Francis at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studio. The first song they recorded is ''Wolverton
Mountain'', written by Bocephus' future manager, Merle Kilgore.
MAY 12, 1964 TUESDAY
Bobby Bare wins Best Country and Western Recording for ''Detroit City'' in the sixth annual Grammy Awards.
Twelve young men in New York publicly burn their draft cards to protest the Vietnam war.
MAY 13, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Songwriter Neal Coty is born in Maryland. He pens Mark Chesnutt's ''She Was''.
MAY 16, 1964 SATURDAY
Buck Owens, Ernest Tubb and Bill Monroe draws fans to all-country concerts at Madison Square Garden in New
York. Also featured, Webb Pierce, Bill Anderson, Stonewall Jackson, Skeeter Davis, Carl Smith, Hank Snow, Ray Price, Porter Wagoner and Leon McAuliffe.
Buck Owens earns a number 1 single with ''My Heart Skips A Beat''.
MAY 18, 1964 MONDAY
Jim Reeves recorded ''I Guess I'm Crazy'', ''Angels Don't Lie'', ''I Won't Come In While He's
There'' and ''This Is It'' during an evening session at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.
Easter
and Whitsun outbreak of Mods and Rockers and fights and disturbances on British Seaside Resorts.
MAY 19, 1964 TUESDAY
Billy Walker recorded ''Cross The Brazos At Waco'' in an afternoon at the Columbia Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Columbia released Marty Robbins' ''The Cowboy In The Continental Suit''.
Songwriter Horatio Nichols dies in London, England. The best known
of his 600 compositions is ''Among My Souvenirs;; remade a dozen years later as a country hit by Marty Robbins.
MAY 21-23, 1964
Vietnam Day Committee organizes the largest Vietnam teach-in to date at Universaty of California, Berkeley.
MAY 23, 1964 SATURDAY
Six months after releasing ''Saginaw, Michigan'', Lefty Frizzell plays Saginaw, where
the mayor surprises him on stage with a silver hammer. Fearful of a stranger with a potential weapon, Frizzell gets him in a headlock and wrestles him to the ground.
MAY 24, 1964 SUNDAY
Kenny Rogers' son, Kenneth Rogers II, is born.
MAY 25, 1964 MONDAY
Wanda Jackson recorded the Carl Belew-written ''Lonely Street''. The song is destined to become
a country hit for Rex Allen Jr. in 1977.
MAY 26, 1964 TUESDAY
Hank Williams JR. receives an expensive 15th birthday present from his mother, Audrey, a convertible with silver dollars embedded in the dashboard.
MAY 28, 1964 THURSDAY
Bobby Bare recorded ''Four Strong Winds'' in the evening at Nashville's RCA Studio B.
MAY 30, 1964 SATURDAY
Wynonna Judd is born at King's Daughters Hospital in Ashland, Kentucky,
the same day her mother, Naomi Judd, graduates from high school. After performing with Naomi in a record-setting duo, The Judds, Wynonna embarks on a soul-tinged solo career.
The western movie ''A Distant Trumpet'' debuts in theaters. The
film features an acting role for Bobby Bare, alongside Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette and Claude King.
JUNE 1964
JUNE 1, 1964 MONDAY
Carl Perkins is invited to Abbey Road in London to observe one of The Beatles' recording session. They recorded his song ''Matchbox''.
Dolly Parton moves to Nashville a day after her high school graduation and meets her future husband, Carl Dean, at a laundromat.
Songwriter Shelly Lee Alley dies in Houston, Texas. He wrote the Jimmie Rodgers singles ''Gambling Bar Room Blues''
and ''Travelin' Blues''.
The Rolling Stones arrive in America for the first time.
After an on-air interview, WINS disc jockey Murray The K encourages them to remake a song called ''It's All Over Now'', John Anderson remakes it, too, as a country hit.
Capitol Records released ''The Best Of Buck Owens''.
JUNE 2, 1964 TUESDAY
Columbia
released Johnny Cash's two-sided single ''The Ballad Of Ira Hayes'' backed with ''Bad News''.
Pop
label executive and songwriter Lou Adler marries actress Shelly Fabares. They remain married for nine years, though separated for much of it. During the early part of the relationship, he writes Joe Stampley's 1983 country hit ''Poor Side Of Town''.
JUNE 3, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Beatles drummer Ringo Star collapses, suffering from exhaustion and severe tonsillitis. Some 25 years later, he's destined to recorded with Buck
Owens and end up a country Grammy nominee.
JUNE 6, 1964 SATURDAY
The Rolling Stones perform in San Antonio, Texas, where they appear on a bill that also includes George
Jones. The Possum's guitarist gets into a fight with Mick Jagger, putting him in a headlock until Jones orders his bandmate to let go.
When president Lyndon B. Johnson addresses a garment workers union in Los Angeles, he's greeted with a female chorus performing the Ernest Tubb hit and LBJ signature song ''The Yellow Rose Of Texas''.
Buck Owens' ''Together Again'' takes him to number 1 again on the Billboard country
chart.
JUNE 8, 1964 MONDAY
Alton Delmore, of The Delmore Brothers, dies in Hunstville, Alabama. The Delmores' blues-tinged country netted such classics as ''Hillbilly
Boogie'' and ''Blues Stay Away From Me'' on their way to a 2001 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Liberty Records released Jan and Dean's pop hit ''The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)'', with Glen Campbell in the background on acoustic guitar.
Elvis Presley recorded ''Puppet On A String'' at the MGM Sound Studios in Culver City, California.
Decca Records released Bill
Anderson's ''Me'', the shortest title ever on a country hit.
JUNE 9, 1964 TUESDAY
Bob Dylan recorded ''It Ain't Me, Babe'' at the Columbia Studios in New York. Johnny Cash successfully turns it into a country hit within months.
Basketball player and jazz musician Wayman Tisdale is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He befriends
Toby Keith, who authors ''Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)'' after Tisdale's 2009 death.
JUNE 10, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The Rolling Stones recorded ''It's All Over Now'' at Chicago's Chess Recording Studio, after blues legend Muddy Waters helps them unload their equipment from the truck. The song eventually
becomes a country hit in a remake by John Anderson.
Buck Owens recorded ''Hello Trouble'' and Hank Cochran's ''A-11'' at the Capitol Studio in Los Angeles. The former song becomes a hit for The Desert Rose Band in 1989, the latter is referenced in Owens' Emmylou Harris duet ''Play
Together Again Again''.
JUNE
11, 1964 THURSDAY
Ringo
Starr is released from London's University College Hospital, where he's been treated for tonsillitis. Twenty-five years later, he joins Buck Owens to vocalize a new version of ''Act Naturally'', nominated for a country Gramme award.
JUNE
12, 1964 FRIDAY
Nelson
Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment by the South African government.
Broadway composer Cole Porter, a co-writer of the country hit, ''Don't Fence Me In'', checks into Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York with a fractured hip and a bladder infection. He remains for 10 days.
JUNE 14, 1964 SUNDAY
Decca records released Ernest
Tubb's album ''Thanks A Lot''.
JUNE
15, 1964 MONDAY
Pop
artists Peter and Gordon land in America as the British duo embarks on its first US tour. Member Peter Asher is destined to produce Linda Ronstadt's country hits the following decade.
JUNE 17, 1964 WEDNESDAY
MGM released Elvis Presley's ''Viva Las Vegas'', pairing Elvis with Ann-Margret.
Actor Clint Eastwood and dancer Roxanne Tunis
have a daughter, Kimber Tunis, in Los Angeles, California. Eastwood goes on to sing with Merle Haggard on the 1980 country hit ''Bar Room Buddies''.
George Hamilton IV recorded ''Truck Driving Man'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.
JUNE 18, 1964 THURSDAY
Claude King recorded the Tommy Collins-written ''Sam Hill'' in the
afternoon at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studios.
JUNE 21, 1964 SUNDAY
Guitarist Porter Howell is born in Longview, Texas. He helps found Little Texas, a thick-harmonied vocal group that becomes a major act during the mid-1990s behind the hits ''God Blessed Texas'', ''What Might Have Been'' and ''Kick
A Little''.
JUNE 22,
1964 MONDAY
Shooting
begins for Elvis Presley picture ''Girl Happy'' in Los Angeles, California.
''Don't Fence Me In'' songwriter Cole Porter leaves New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital following 10 days of treatment for a hip fracture and a bladder infection.
JUNE 24, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Connie Smith signs with RCA Records.
JUNE 30, 1964 TUESDAY
Johnny Cash recorded four songs written by Peter LaFarge and one by
Johnny Horton to complete his Native American-themed album ''Bitter Tears''. The project will receive a Grammy nomination.
Columbia Records released Stonewall Jackson's ''Don't Be Angry'' and Claude Kings' ''Sam Hill''.
JULY 1964
JULY 1964
Knox Phillips married his childhood girlfriend, Betty Mustin, who lived just down the street, at the end of his freshman year. There were more than seven hundreds guests, and while everyone
else was throwing rice, Dewey Phillips threw 45s. Knox had been designated as an official Sun Records artist and repertoire man earlier in the year, and with free run of the studio he had been fulfilling his artist and repertoire duties mostly working with
a bunch of bands made up of fellow southwestern students. He was also managing several local bands, including a group of six high school students, each from a different high school, called Randy Haspel and the Radiants.
JULY 1, 1964 WEDNESDAY
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the first major U.S.
civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
John Coltrane's masterpiece, ''A Love Supreme'', is released.
John Lennon buys a home in Surrey, England, for 20,000 pounds, just months before The Beatles recorded ''I Feel Fine''. Co-written by Lennon, the song becomes a country hit 25 years later for
Sweethearts Of The Rodeo.
JULY
2, 1964 THURSDAY
Hank
Cochran and his first wife, Shirler, are divorced.
Jim Reeves holds his final recording session, cutting the ironically titled ''Is It Really Over'' and ''Missing You'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.
''The Jimmy Dean Show'' welcomes Jerry Vale, Red Buttons and Molly Bee to its ABC prime-time
lineup.
President Lyndon
B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their race, religion, sex, national origin, or the colors of their skin. It also made segregation in public places
illegal, enforced the desegregation of schools and addressed unfair and unequal access to voting and voter registration.
The law was considered one of the crowning achievements during the civil rights movement and ended the Jim Crow laws that had legalized segregation in the United States since the end of slavery and the Civil War. While it did not solved the country's racial issues or end prejudice, it was the first step in creating a more fair and equal society.
The law was considered one of the crowning achievements during the civil rights movement and ended the Jim Crow laws that had legalized segregation in the United States since the end of slavery and the Civil War. While it did not solved the country's racial issues or end prejudice, it was the first step in creating a more fair and equal society.
JULY 3, 1964 FRIDAY
Glen Campbell and drummer Hal Blaine anchor the house band for a two-day
''Million Dollar Party'' at the Honolulu International Center Arena. On the bill, The Beach Boys, Jimmy Griffin, Jan and Dean, Jody Miller, The Kingsmen and Peter and Gordon.
JULY 5, 1964 SUNDAY
Roger Miller appears on the NBC series ''The Andy Williams Show'' with Tony Bennett and The Osmonds.
JULY 6, 1964 MONDAY
Steve Murray is born. In 1990,
he becomes the lead vocalist for the Texas band Perfect Stranger, providing the Clint Black-like voice on their 1995 hit ''You Have The Right To Remain Silent''.
Decca Records released the Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb duet ''Mr. And Mrs. Used To Be''.
JULY 8, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Buck Owens recorded ''I Don't Care (Just As Long
As You Love Me)'' at the Capitol Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.
The Hayley Mills movie ''The Moon Spinners'' opens in U.S. theaters. The picture includes a part for songwriter Terry Gilkyson, author of the Tennessee Ernie Ford hit ''The Call Of The Wild Goose''.
JULY 9, 1964 THURSDAY
Faron Young recorded ''My Friend On The Right''
at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studios. Among the supporting musicians is Ray Stevens.
JULY 16, 1964 THURSDAY
Connie Smith recorded ''Once A Day'' during an afternoon at Nashville's RCA Studio B.
JULY 17, 1964 FRIDAY
Frank Sinatra recorded a minor hit, ''Softly, As I Leave You'', in Los Angeles, California. The song is revived by Elvis Presley for the
country charts more than a decade later.
JULY 18, 1964 SATURDAY
Connie Smith makes her Grand Ole Opry debut at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Roger Miller makes his first appearance at number 1 on the Billboard country singles chart with ''Dang Me''.
JULY 20, 1964 MONDAY
Songwriter and producer Glenn Sutton moves from Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee.
He becomes the husband and producer for Lynn Anderson, and writes such hits as ''Almost Persuaded'', ''I Don't Wanna Play House'' and ''Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad''.
Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''Together Again''. The song, best known as the "B" side to Owens' number
1 hit, ''My Heart Skips A Beat'' interrupted that song's run at number one on the United States country charts. Steel guitarist Tom Brumley's performance on "Together Again" is considered "one of the finest steel guitar solos in the history of country
music" by the Country Music Television staff; it inspired Jerry Garcia to learn the instrument.
JULY 21, 1964 TUESDAY
Columbia Records released Ray Price's ''Please Talk To My Heart''. Price's version peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It also reached
number 1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. Freddy Fender also released a cover of the song in 1980. Fender's version peaked at number 82 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
JULY 23, 1964 THURSDAY
Ernest Tubb recorded ''Pass The Booze'' during a late-night session at the Columbia Recording
Studio in Nashville, Tennessee.
JULY
26, 1964 SUNDAY
Johnny
Cash meets Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, where the Man In Black performs Dylan's ''Don't Think Twice, It's Alright''. At a later hotel party Dylan introduces Cash's to ''It Ain't Me, Babe''.
JULY 30, 1964 THURSDAY
Banjo player Ron Block is born in California. He joins Alison Kraus
and Union Station in 1991, performing on ''When You Say Nothing At All'', plus The Soggy Bottom Boys' ''I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow'' and Vince Gill's ''High Lonesome Sound''.
JULY 31, 1964 FRIDAY
Jim Reeves and his business partner and manager Dean Manuel (also the pianist of Reeves' backing group, the Blue Boys) left Batersville, Arkansas, en route to Nashville in a single-engine Beechcraft
Debonair aircraft, with Reeves at the controls. The two had secured a deal on some real estate (Reeves had also unsuccessfully tried to buy property from the LaGrone family in Deadwood, Texas, north of his birthplace of Galloway).
While flying over Brentwood, Tennessee, they encountered a violent thunderstorm. A subsequent investigation showed that the small airplane had become caught in the storm and Reeves suffered spatial disorientation. The singer's widow, Mary Reeves (1929–1999), probably unwittingly started the rumor that he was flying the airplane upside down and assumed he was increasing altitude to clear the storm. However, according to Larry Jordan, author of the 2011 biography, ''Jim Reeves: His Untold Story'', this scenario is refuted by eyewitnesses known to crash investigators who saw the plane overhead immediately before the mishap, and confirmed that Reeves was not upside down. Jordan writes extensively about forensic evidence (including from the long-elusive tower tape and accident report), which suggests that instead of making a right turn to avoid the storm (as he had been advised by the Approach Controller to do), Reeves turned left in an attempt to follow Franklin Road to the airport. In so doing, he flew further into the rain. While preoccupied with trying to re-establish his ground references, Reeves let his airspeed get too low and stalled the aircraft. Relying on his instincts more than his training, evidence suggests he applied full power and pulled back on the yoke before leveling his wings—a fatal, but not uncommon, mistake that induced a stall/spin from which he was too low to recover. Jordan writes that according to the tower tape, Reeves ran into the heavy rain at 4:51 p.m. and crashed only a minute later, at 4:52 p.m.
When the wreckage was found some 42 hours later, it was discovered the airplane's engine and nose were buried in the ground due to the impact of the crash. The crash site was in a wooded area north-northeast of Brentwood approximately at the junction of Baxter Lane and Franklin Pike Circle, just east of Interstate 65, and southwest of Nashville International Airport where Reeves planned to land. Coincidentally, both Reeves and Randy Hughes, the pilot of Patsy Cline's ill-fated airplane, were trained by the same instructor.
On the morning of August 2, 1964, after an intense search by several parties (which included several personal friends of Reeves including Ernest Tubb and Marty Robbins) the bodies of the singer and Dean Manuel were found in the wreckage of the aircraft and, at 1:00 p.m. local time, radio stations across the United States began to announce Reeves' death formally. Thousands of people traveled to pay their last respects at his funeral two days later. The coffin, draped in flowers from fans, was driven through the streets of Nashville and then to Reeves' final resting place near Carthage, Texas.
JULY 31, 1964 FRIDAY
The Osmond Brothers are told during the ''Friday Night Frolics'' they will join the Grand Ole Opry the following weekend. The night is also the final time the ''Frolics'' a Friday night version of the Opry, are held at Nashville's National Life Building.
Jimmy C. Newman recorded the Tom T. Hall-penned ''Back In Circulation''.
AUGUST 1964
AUGUST 1, 1964 SATURDAY
Roy Orbison recorded ''Oh, Pretty Woman'' in Fred Foster's Nashville recording studio.
While searching for the wreckage of Jim Reeves\ plane crash in Brentwood, Tennessee, rescue worker Carol Crimmons suffers a heart attack.
Warner Bros. released ''The Very Best Of The Everly Brothers''.
AUGUST 2, 1964 SUNDAY
Two days after the plane crash that claimed their lives, the bodies of Jim Reeves and keyboard player Dean Manuel, plus the mangled plane they were flying in, are finally discovered beneath some trees in Brentwood, Tennessee.
AUGUST 3, 1964 MONDAY
The country Music Foundation registers its charter in the state of Tennessee, paving the way for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)''.
Filming concludes for the Elvis Presley movie ''Girl Happy'' in Los Angeles.
Danny Myrick is born in Mississippi. After a role as lead singer for the 1990s band Western Flyer, he earns hits as a co-writer of Craig Morgan's ''International Harvester'', Tim McGraw's ''Truck Yeah'' and Jason Aldean's ''She's Country''.
AUGUST 5, 1964 WEDNESDAY
CBS Evening News shows film of Marines lighting the thatched roofs of the village of Cam Ne, Vietnam with Zippo lighters including critical commentary on the treatment of the villagers.
AUGUST 6, 1964 THURSDAY
Twins Peggy and Patsy Lynn are born to Loretta Lynn. They become a duo, The Lynns, as adults, scoring several awards nominations.
AUGUST 8, 1964 SATURDAY
Dottie West and The Osborne Brothers join the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The Osbornes deliver ''Ruby (Are You Mad)''.
AUGUST 9, 1964 SUNDAY
Peter, Paul and Mary perform in New York at the funeral for Andrew Goodman, one of the three civil rights workers brutally murdered the previous month in Mississippi. Peter Yarrow will earn a country hit as the writer of ''Torn Between Two Lovers''.
AUGUST 10, 1964 MONDAY
Columbia Records released the album ''Another Side Of Bob Dylan''. Johnny Cash remakes one of the albums' songs ''It Ain't Me, babe'', later in the month, the first instance of a Dylan song becoming a country hit.
Mick Jagger is found guilty of speeding and driving without insurance in Liverpool, England. In 1969, he co-writes ''Honky Tonk Women'', ranked among country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) passed by United States Congress. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. By the following year over 200,000 US Troops are involved in the Vietnam war and sustained American bombing raids of North Vietnam, dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder, begin lasting for the next 3 years.
AUGUST 11, 1964 TUESDAY
The Music City News, established by Faron Young, celebrates its first anniversary with a pair of figure eight races at the Nashville Speedway. The winners, Willie Nelson and Roy Drusky.
AUGUST 14, 1964 FRIDAY
Singer and songwriter Johnny Burnette's unlit fishing boat was struck by an unaware cabin cruiser on Clear Lake, California. The impact threw him off the boat and he drowned. When he received the news, Dorsey Burnette called Paul Burlison, who flew out to comfort him and attend Johnny's funeral. The two men were to keep in touch until Dorsey's death of a heart attack in 1979. Johnny Burnette is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, near his brother, Dorsey and their parents in Ascension, Lot 8276, Space 4. Johnny Burnette with his Rock And Roll Trio in the mid-1950s, he helped define the rockabilly.
Roy Rogers has a nine-hour surgery to repair vertebrae in his back damaged by years of riding his horse, Trigger.
AUGUST 17, 1964 MONDAY
Debbie Lee Rogers, the adopted Korean daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, dies in a Sunday School bus accident in San Clemente, California.
Marty Robbins recorded ''One Of These Days''.
AUGUST 19, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Dean Martin's ''Everybody Loves Somebody'' goes gold. The single is produced by future country executive Jimmy Bowen and features Glen Campbell on guitar.
The Beatles kick off an American tour at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Opening is The Bill Black Combo, but Bill Black is no longer part of the group, but it does feature guitarist Reggie Young, destined to play on hits by Elvis Presley and George Strait.
Pop singer Bobby Vinton, co-writer of the Marty Robbins country hit ''Adios Amigo'' has a son, Robbie Vinton.
AUGUST 22, 1964
The debut single from the Shangri-Las, ''Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)'', enters the charts.
Johnny Cash takes radio programmers to task in an ad in Billboard magazine for not playing
''The Ballad Of Ira Hayes'' asking ''Where are you guts?''. It becomes a point of controversy, creating a movement to have him stripped of CMA membership.
AUGUST 24, 1964 MONDAY
Bobby Bare recorded ''Just To Satisfy You'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It takes another 18 years for the song to become
a hit, for Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
AUGUST 27, 1964 THURSDAY
Johnny Cash and June Carter recorded Bob Dylan's ''It Ain't Me, Babe'' at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Comedienne Gracie Allen dies of a heart attack at Cedars Of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her husband, George Burns, continues
working in multiple mediums, earning a minor country hit some 15 years later with ''I Wish I Was Eighteen Again''.
AUGUST 28, 1964 FRIDAY
One day after Johnny Cash recorded the song ''It Ain't Me, Babe'', Bob Dylan meets The Beatles for the first time in New York. He introduces them to marijuana.
AUGUST 29, 1964 SATURDAY
Ernie and Bettye Ashworth
have a son, Paul Ashworth.
AUGUST
31, 1964 MONDAY
Anaheim,
California, holds groundbreaking ceremonies for Anaheim Stadium, offering a place for cowboy singer Gene Autry's team, the Angels, to play baseball outside Los Angeles. Autry turns the first pile of dirt.
Billy Edd Wheeler recorded ''Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back'', a novelty that
pays homage to an outhouse.
Bass player Teddy Landau is born. He plays on The Wreckers' ''Leave The Pieces'' and marries one member of the duo, Michelle Branch.
SEPTEMBER 1964
SEPTEMBER 1964
Sun 394 ''Reconsider Baby'' b/w ''Ruby Janes'' by Billy Adams issued
SEPTEMBER 1, 1964 TUESDAY
Singer and songwriter Charlie Robison is born in Bandera, Texas. A noted alternative country act, he first finds an audience in the late
1990s. He will also marry and later divorce, Dixie Chick, Emily Erwin.
Kitty Wells recorded ''I'll Repossess My Heart''.
Columbia Records released Carl Smith's ''Lonely Girl''.
Sonny James recorded ''You're The Only World I Know''.
Mercury released the pop hit ''Little Honda'' by The Dondells, featuring guitarist Glen Campbell and drummer Hal Blaine.
SEPTEMBER 2, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Kitty Wells recorded ''You Don't Hear''.
Gene Autry's baseball team,
the Los Angeles Angels, announces it is being renamed the California Angels.
Charlie Louvin recorded the Ed Bruce=penned ''See The Big Man Cry''.
SEPTEMBER 3, 1964 THURSDAY
Bill Anderson recorded ''Three A.M.''.
SEPTEMBER 4, 1964 FRIDAY
''The Best Of The Kingston Trio'' earns a gold album. It include ''Tom Dooley'', the first single to win the Grammy for Best Country and Western Recording.
SEPTEMBER 8, 1964 TUESDAY
The Everly Brothers recorded
''Gone Gone Gone'' in Nashville. The song will be revived as a Grammy-winning single by Alison Kraus and Robert Plant in 2007.
SEPTEMBER 14, 1964 MONDAY
The ABC-YV sitcom ''No Time For Sergeants'' makes its prime-time debut, with a minor acting role for Bobby Bare.
SEPTEMBER 15, 1964 TUESDAY
Columbia Records released Marty Robbins' ''One Of These Days''.
ABC debuts the dark drama
''Peyton Place''. Tom T. Hall references the series when he writes Jeannie C. Riley's 1968 hit ''Harper Valley P.T.A''.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1964 WEDNESDAY
ABC-TV's ''Shindig!'' makes its prime-time debut. The weekly music show features guitarist James Burton, Glen Campbell and Leon Russell in the house band. First night
highlights include The Everly Brothers teaming with Sam Cooke on ''Lucille''.
Rick Nelson performs ''There's Nothing I Can Say'' on the ABC-TV series ''The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet''.
SEPTEMBER 17, 1964 THURSDAY
''The Jimmy Dean Shoe'' has its season premiere on ABC-TV, featuring Roger Miller, Johnny Tillotson and comedian Don
Adams.
SEPTEMBER 19,
1964 SATURDAY
Trisha
Yearwood is born in Monticello, Georgia. A powerful vocalist in the vein of her idol Linda Ronstadt, she wins a Grammy for her 1997 recording ''How Do I Live'' and becomes one of the most revered country acts of the 1990s.
SEPTEMBER 20, 1964 SUNDAY
Songwriter Bobby Braddock marries Sue Rhodes,
and Charlie and Hazel Daniels are married in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Weaned on country but fashioned by rock and roll, Billy Wayne Adams woodshedded around Memphis after moving there
as a sixteen year-old from his native Mississippi. In time he progressed to working with artists like Carl Perkins and the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, then onto recording under his own name
with singles for Home Of The Blues and Apt. His next stop was at Sun where he settled into a downhome groove and became hip
to adventurous material like the next rhythm and blues standard.
Bill Yates >
On September 21, 1964, Adams and Yates made their fourth Sun session and the AFM files show the role of drummer
went this time to Al Jackson Jr. Bill Yates's brother, Vance, came in on organ for this session and Vance and Bill made another session without Billy Adams two days later.
For his featured songs, Billy Adams drew again upon Lowell Fulson's mid-1950s rhythm and blues hit ''Reconsider
Baby'', coupling the song with another original but not very inspired Adams and Carter song, ''Ruby Jane''.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
STUDIO SESSION FOR BILL YATES & BILLY ADAMS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1964
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: MONDAY SEPTEMBER 21,
1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER –
SAM PHILLIPS
Both Yates and Adams made two sides that were issued but, strangely, Adams
disc, ''Reconsider Baby'', Sun 394, was issued straight away while Yates waited until mid-March the next year for his release. When it came out, Sun 397 coupled ''Carleen'' with ''Too late To Right My Wrong'', and was credited to ''Gorgeous Bill'' for reasons lost in the mists of time. Perhaps it was a pet name for
Yates used by Carleen herself, the niece of Hide-A-Away owner Charles Foren. Jesse Carter described how the song came about: ''Bill Yates was always keen on adapting songs to something else. He was always writing songs, of part of them anyway. ''Carleen'' was a girl who worked in a night club and when she would walk
in he would be singing ''Lucille'' or some such song and he would change it just for her and start hollering ''Carleen''. We turned that one into a record too. The recording starts with a walking intro taken from the current Roy Orbison hit, ''Oh, Pretty Woman'', and then diverts as Carter remembered into a Little Richard screamer.
The other side, ''Too Late To Right My Wrong'', has an appealing saxophone
sound and a very good vocal to which Jesse Carter adds passionate but slightly of harmonies. Unissued at the time from this session where five songs, now included here. ''Two Can Play The Game'' features a stomping rhythm and organ sound of the Sam The Sham type (Sam had played at the Hide-A-Way with the Adams band
the year before) while ''High On The Hill'' is an instrumental workout for the whole band not unrelated to ''Big M'' and ''Fee Bee'' that were recorded at an Adams session.
Billy Adams
>
In contrast, ''You Seem Like A Stranger To Me'' and
''Tiny Tears'' are ultra-reflective ballads, the first feeling very close to the gospel music the Yates family were brought up with, and the second haven a duet voice on the chorus. Finally, ''Recipe For Love'' has the Charlie Rich beat than would come to the fore in 1965 with Rich's hit, ''Mohair Sam''.
01(1) - ''RECONSIDER BABY**'' - 1 - B.M.I. - 2:50
Composer: - Lowell Folson
Publisher: - Arc Music - Tristan Music
Matrix number: - U 350 - Master
Recorded:
- September 21, 1964
Released: - September 1964
First appearance:
- Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 394-A mono
RECONSIDER BABY / RUBY JANES
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-1-27 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
Except for retreads from the Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis catalogues, material by Bill Adams and Bill
Yates were by this point in 1964 the mainstay of the Sun release schedule. Whether consciously or otherwise, on his third release, drummer Billy Adams
sounded quite a bit like Rosco Gordon. In fact, Adams' reading of ''Reconsider Baby'' didn't sound all that different from sides Rosco was cutting at the very same time for Vee
Jay. Once again, Adams has borrowed the ubiquitous Tommy Tucker riff for his arrangement of the Lowell Fulson classic blues tune. This was a long way from
Fulson's original version or, for that matter, from Elvis's well known cover on his 1960 ''Elvis Is Back'' LP.
01(2) - ''RECONSIDER BABY**'' - 2 - B.M.I. - 2:47
Composer: - Lowell Folson
Publisher: - Arc Music - Tristan Music
Matrix
number: - None - Nor Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released:
- June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17116-27 mono
BILLY ADAMS – THE SUN YEARS PLUS
Adams' arrangement includes a rather tuneless and stinging guitar solo instead of the usual melodic and bluesy sax break
by Russ Carlton. The flipside ''Ruby Jane'' offers very similar fare with a decidedly less distinguished lyric and vocal performance to grace it. Definitely a B-side.
02(1) - ''RUBY JANE**'' - 1 - B.M.I. - 2:15
Composer: - Billy Adams-Jesse Carter
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 351 - Master
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - September 1964
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 394-B
mono
RUBY JANES / RECONSIDER BABY
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records
(CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-1-28 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
02(2) - ''RUBY JANE**'' - 2 - B.M.I. - 2:24
Composer: - Billy
Adams-Jesse Carter
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number:
- None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released:
- June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17116-25 mono
BILLY ADAMS - THE SUN YEARS PLUS
Which is more than one can
say about the flipside. Derivative is too kind a word. The opening instrumental figure bears much more than a passing similarity to Orbison's ''Oh! Pretty Woman'' (which was still getting
big airplay when this was recorded). If this record had ever received significant airplay, it's also a cinch ''Lucille'' would have sued ''Carleen''.
03(1) - ''CARLEEN*'' - 1 - B.M.I. - 2:44
Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated - Hara Music
Matrix number: - U 357 X - Master
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - March 15, 1965
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard
single SUN 397-B mono
CARLEEN / TOO LATE TO RIGHT MY WRONG
Reissued:
- 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-6 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
03(2) - ''CARLEEN*'' - 2 - B.M.I. - 2:54
Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated - Hara Music
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-26 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS
There's no denying it.
Bill Yates' second release for Sun was a damn nice record. In fact, it's hard to imagine why ''Too Late To Right My Wrong'' didn't catch its of pop or rhythm and blues coin in March of 1965. It's
got that passionale, slightly off-meter harmony vocal that made Sam Cooke's ''Bring It On Home To Me'' a classic. It's also got some surprisingly
mellow sax work (Russ Carlton doing his magic yet again) in a vein not far removed from Billy Vaughn. All in all, this one had the legs to compete.
04 - ''TOO LATE TO RIGHT MY WRONG*''' - B.M.I. - 2:38
Composer:
- Bill Yates
Publisher: - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated - Mara Music
Matrix
number: - U 356 X - Master
Recorded: - Unknown Date Early 1965
Released: - March 15, 1965
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 397-A mono
TOO LATE TO RIGHT MY WRONG / CARLEEN
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm
BCD 15805-2-5 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
05 - ''YOU SEEM LIKE A STRANGER TO ME*'' - B.M.I. - 2:44
Composer: Bill Yates
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-27 mono
BILL YATES - THE
SUN YEARS PLUS
06 - ''RECIPE FOR LOVE*'' - B.M.I. - 2:20
Composer: - Charlie Rich
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-23
mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS
07 – ''TINY TEARS*'' - B.M.I. - 2:17
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-24 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS
08 - ''HIGH ON THE HILL*'' - B.M.I. - 1:39
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - September 21, 1964
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-22 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Bill Yates - Vocal* & Piano
Billy Adams - Vocal**
Vance Yates - Organ
Lee
Adkins - Guitar
Jesse Carter – Bass
Probably Jesse Carter or
Billy Adams - Vocal Harmony
on ''Too Late To Right My Wrongs''
Russ
Carlton - Saxophone
Al Jackson - Drums
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
SEPTEMBER 21, 1964 MONDAY
Elvis
Presley is made a special deputy sheriff of Shelby Country, Tennessee.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Jody Miller guests on ABC's ''Shindig!''. Also appearing Delaney Bramlett, The Righteous Brothers and Johnny Rivers, who sings ''Maybellene''
and ''Memphis''. Shindig! is an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in
Los Angeles at the time who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley and production executive Art Stolnitz. The original pilot was rejected by ABC and David Sontag, then Executive Producer of ABC, redeveloped and completely redesigned
the show. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starring Sam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premiere episode.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
STUDIO SESSION FOR VANCE YATES
FOR SUN RECORDS 1964
SAM PHILLIPS
RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION:
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING
ENGINEER - SAM PHILLIPS
On September 23, 1964, Bill Yates was back at Sun for a vocal
session led by his brother, Vance. Three songs were recorded but not issued. They underline what a good singer Vance really was but tunes like ''Lucky Old Sun'' were probably not what Sun wanted to sell at that time. Vance's nephew, Rusty Yates, remembered: ''My Uncle Vance played bass and he worked with Bill in Memphis. But when Bill hired
Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper then Vance switched to the B3 organ and he became one of the finest players around on that instrument. Vance
played with the Bill Black Combo and he was a great musician, plus he made some vocal recordings in his own right, but I guess they weren't issued because he was unmanageable. Sun saw that. He
had a mind of his own''.
01 - ''THAT LUCKY OLD SUN'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Harry Beasley Smith-Haven Gillespie
Publisher: - EMI Music Publishing
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - September 23, 1964
02
- ''MY MY MY!'' - B.M.I.
Composer: Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright
Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - September
23, 1964
03 - ''PUSH PUSH'' - B.M.I.
Composer: Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - September 23, 1964
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Vance Yates - Vocal
Bill Yates - Piano and Organ
Lee Adkins
- Guitar
Jesse Carter - Bass
Al Jackson - Drums
Russ Carlton - Saxophone
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
SEPTEMBER 24, 1964 THURSDAY
Buck
Owens, Molly Bee and comedian Charlie Callas have guests slots on the weekly ABC program ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
SEPTEMBER
28, 1964 MONDAY
Songwriter Nacio Herb Brown dies in San Francisco. A tailor for Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin,
he co-wrote ''Temptation'', a Bing Crosby success that was parodied successfully in country music by Red Ingle and The Natural Seven.
SEPTEMBER 29, 1964 TUESDAY
The Beatles recorded ''I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'', which Rosanne Cash
remakes as a 1989 country hit.
SEPTEMBER 30, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The pop group The Newbeats perform ''Bread And Butter'' on the ABC music series ''Shindig!''. Lead singer Larry Henley will become a major country songwriter, penning
''Lizzie And The Rainman'', '''Til I Get It Right'' and ''The Wind Beneath My Wings''.
OCTOBER 1964
OCTOBER 1, 1964 THURSDAY
London released The Rolling Stones' ''12 X 5'' album. It contains ''It's All Over Now'', destined to become a country hit for John Anderson.
Musical guests on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' include Roy Drusky and pop singer Vikki Carr.
OCTOBER 2, 1964 FRIDAY
Roger Miller recorded ''Do-Wacka-Do'' in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ed Bruce marries Patsy Ann Smithson in Memphis. The couple later writes ''Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys''.
OCTOBER 6, 1964 TUESDAY
Elvis Presley begins work on the movie ''Tickle Me''
Burl
Ives sings ''Funny Way Of Laughin''' during the season premiere of NBC's ''The Bell Telephone Hour''. Also appearing are Bing Crosby and The McGuire Sisters.
Columbia Records released Johnny Cash's ''It Ain't Me, Babe'' featuring vocal support from tour mate June Carter.
Tommy Collins recorded for Capitol Records for the last time, ending a relationship that lasted more than a decade.
OCTOBER 7, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Rick Nelson is singing once more on ABC-TV's ''The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet''. He delivers ''Mean Old World''.
OCTOBER 8, 1964 THURSDAY
Homer and Jethro, Molly Bee and pop star Bobby Vinton are featured on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
OCTOBER 9, 1965 FRIDAY
Guitarist Gary Bennett is born in Las Vegas, Nevada. He becomes one of two lead singers in BR549, a traditionally-grounded band that grows out of Nashville's lower Broadway in the mid-1990s to become critical favorites and Grammy
nominees.
The Beach Boys recorded the definitive version of ''Dance, Dance, Dance''
at the RCA Studio in Hollywood with a crew of musicians that includes guitarist Glen Campbell.
OCTOBER 11, 1964 SUNDAY
Roy Orbison performs ''Oh, Pretty Woman''
on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. The episode's entertainment also includes Connie Francis and the Harlem Globetrotters.
OCTOBER 12, 1964 MONDAY
Decca Records released Bill
Anderson's ''Three A.M.''.
OCTOBER 14, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Loretta Lynn recorded ''Blue Kentucky Girl'' and ''Happy Birthday'' at the Columbia Recording Studio
in Nashville, Tennessee, during an evening session.
Charlie Watts, the drummer
for The Rolling Stones, marries Shirley Ann Arnold. The band goes on to recorded ''Honky Tonk Women'', cited as one of country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation book ''Heartaches By The Number''.
The Everly Brothers sing ''Let It Be Me'' and Roy Orbison adds ''Oh, Pretty Woman'' on the ABC-TV show ''Shindig!''.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The prize was awarded
to him for his efforts in leading the non-violent resistance against racial prejudice and segregation in the United States. King was only 35 years old when he received the prestigious prize, making him the youngest recipient at the time. King was awarded $54,123
of prize money, of which he donated to his cause in furthering the Civil Rights Movement.
OCTOBER
15, 1964 THURSDAY
Pop songwriter Cole Porter dies in Santa Monica, California,
of kidney failure at the age of 73. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru, Indiana, between his wife and father. Noted for such classics as ''I Get A Kick Out Of You'', ''Begin The Beguine'' and ''I've Got You Under My Skin''. Porter
also wrote ''Don't Fence Me In'', a country hit for Gene Autry.
Ernest Tubb,
Roy Clark, Molly Bee and comedian Don Adams hit the small screen on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
Anti-Vietnam war rallies are held in four U.S. cities, police make the 1st arrest under a new Federal draft card-burning law.
OCTOBER 17, 1964 SATURDAY
Jerry
Lee Lewis and Bobby Vinton appear alongside Dick Clark on ABC-TV's ''American Bandstand''.
Studio session for Memphis' beatband, Randy and The Radiants at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. At Johnny's urging Knox Phillips went to see them at the Clearpool on Lamar Avenue and was so knocked out he invited them
to come into the studio right away. According to Knox, ''They were the first real-deal band that I worked with. I mean, Bob Simon wrote such great songs, and Randy had this unique voice, and their harmonies were terrific. I really thought they were pretty
spectacular for a really young band''.
Randy and The Radiants: Above: Randy Haspel (vocals and guitar); Ed Marshall (lead guitar); Mike Gardner (drums) >
Below: Bob Simon (songwriter and vocals); Howard
T. Calhoun, Jr. (bass and piano); Bill Slais, Jr. (sax and vocals) >
THE SUN DAYS WITH THE RADIANTS 1 964-1965
by Randy Haspel, 2007
The
door between the control room and the studio at Sam C. Phillips' Memphis Recording Service on Madison Avenue, home of Sun Records, sprang open and Sam Phillips came bounding through
asking enthusiastically, '' What's that you're playing''? ''It's just a tune from our song list, Mr. Phillips''. We were just warming up. Sam replied, ''Keep playing that song. I want to get it on tape''. I had heard this conversation somewhere before. I answered, ''Mr. Phillips, that song was a big hit just a little over a year ago''. ''I don't care what it was'', replied the
inventor of rock and roll. ''I think it's a hit record''. I cut my eyes quizzically at my bandmates.
Could Sam possibly believe that six teenagers who grew up in 1950s Memphis would not know the Elvis legend? We were the spawn of Elvis and knew every detail of his meteoric rise to glory, including the story of how ''That's Alright
Mama'' came to be. But that was 1954, and this was 1964. was Sam Phillips, a decade later, trying to pull an Elvis on us?
At age 15, and leader of Randy & The Radiants, I wasn't about to second-guess the
man who had discovered not merely Elvis, but Howlin' Wolf and Ike Turner as well. When Sam returned to the console and announced ''We;re rolling'', we played and sang with all the enthusiasm we could muster, and then prepared to do it again. But after hearing the playback,
Mr Phillips declared, ''It's a hit! I don't need a another take''. And so, ''The Mountain's High'', made famous by Dick & Dee Dee in 1961, became the first
single on Sun Records by Randy & The Radiants, released December 11, 1964. The flip side was an original called ''Peek
A Boo'', written by my partner and friend Bob Simon. Of course, ''Mountain's High'' was not a hit. When Bob and I first heard the song on the car radio, after I had slammed on
the brakes and our screaming had died down, I turnes to him and said, ''That wasn't very good, was it''? I thought the band had a crisper tigher sound when we played live, but Sam Phillips recorded us in a way that every instrument bled into the microphone of every other,
and it all sounded so raw. It took me years to understand that Sam's recording philosophy was to find talented amateurs and attempt to bring out abilities in them that
even they did not know they had.
If Phillips had issued ''Mountain's High'' to gauge the band's popularity, what happened next took him by surprise. A Bob Simon song called ''Walk Softly'', written at age 14, was heard by
former Sun artist and producer Bill Justis, whose instrumental ''Raunchy'' had earned Sam a gold record in 1957. Justis recorded Bob's song in Nashville with a singer named Joanne Tauchstone, and the release, on Monument Records' subsidiary Sound Stage Seven,
became an instant regional hit. Sam Phillips had to wonder how a song by an artist that he had just signed could have got away. After that, Bob's songs were given priority in our recording sessions.
The Radiants came to Sun Records through a circuitous route. For Bob and me, this was
already our third attempt at assembling a band. We began singing together in 1958 when I was 10 and Bob was nine, and as soon as our fingers were strong enough to hold a metal string against a fretboard, we started playing guitar. Bob grew up a block from
my family's house in East Memphis, and we had much in common. Other than attending the same school, we both had older sisters who loved to dance and used their little brothers to practice the latest steps. Rhythm and blues had taken over as teen music in segregated
Memphis, thanks to the legendary disc jockey Rufus Thomas and Dewey Phillips. radio station WDIA 1070 featured rhythm and blues late in the afternoon, after the gospel programs were over, with Rufus', ''The World's Oldest Teenager'', at the microphone. But
WDIA went off the air at sunset, so their entire listenership, black and white, tuned to pop station WHBQ to hear Dewey's manic program, Red, Hot & Blue, mixing gospel with doo wop, and rock and roll, all accompanied by his repid-fire, country boy drawl.
When Dewey introduced Elvis to the world, hundreds of young Memphis boys ran out to find guitars. At first, Bob and I played songs at each other, like a tennis match, until the day when, while we were singing the Skip & Flip versions of ''Cherry Pie'',
Bob broke into spontaneous high harmony and it stopped me cold. ''Where'd you learn to do that''? I asked. Bob replied, ''I didn't learn it. I just hear it''. Being older, I instructed, ''Keep Doing it''.
Entering Junior High, we formed a group called the Casuals, but became victims of our
own success. As our popularity grew, my school grades dropped, until my parents insisted I leave the band, as Bob had done several months earlier. Back-up singer David Fleischman moved up front and the group became Flash & The Memphis Casuals, whose 1966
single, ''Uptight Tonight'', is the title track of a recent Big Beat garage band anthology. I never considered the Radiants to be a garage band. We were a living room band that started in 1962 when Bob and i and Gregg Grinspan became a vocal trio in search
of a group. Gregg found Howard Calhoun in class, who had a band called the Embers, named after a popular local restaurant. As ''The Embers'', featuring the Radiants'', Bob, Gregg, and I came out in matching yellow shirts and did dance routines, before we gathered
around the microphone to sing. We settled on the radiants after the first few gigs, several years before the Chicago vocal group with the same name came to prominence. Our song list consisted many of rhythm and blues hits by Hank Ballard, James Brown and the
Drifters.
There were
only a handful of teen bands in Memphis, but the two best were Tommy Burk and the Counts, and the LeSabres. These two groups represented the division in loyalties within Memphis' teen culture. The Counts were a tightly rehearsed band, with two horn players
and harmony vocals. They wore matching blazers with their own specially designed crest on the pocket, to add an air of nobility. The LeSabres were wilder; they wore leather jackets and retained the oily Elvis hairstyle with the ducktail in the back, but were
equally as entertaining. The LeSabres' crowd were working class kids, greasers and hoods; the Counts' fans were generally Ivy kids (for Ivy League) with Money to spend on clothes. The Radiants didn't want to be like Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps; we wanted
to be like the Counts. We began to play school dances, churches, YMCA's and backyard parties. By 1963, after the usual personnel changes, our line-up was fixed. I sang lead and played rhythm guitar. Bob also sang lead, wrote songs, and arranged harmonies.
Howard Calhoun and Mike Gardner played bass and drums respectively. Bill Slais Jr played sax and sang back up, and Ed Marshall played lead guitar. We had other singers, including Tony Rossini, a Sun recording artist in hos own right who had left another outfit
just to come and sing with us.
The
Radiants were still considered up and comers, but we were perfectly placed for the events of early 1964. I had first seen a picture of the Beatles in Life magazine after their 1963 Royal Command Performance but didn't give it another thought until I heard
''I want To Hold Your Hand'' on the car radio. I drove directly to the record store, but they only had the single. When ''Meet The Beatles'' was released a week later, I got the early tip and listened to it over and over with fellow Radiants and other mesmerized
friends. Once we saw the lads on Ed Sullivan, it was all over. This was the realization of what we aspired to; a self-contained band who played their own instruments, sang all the vocals and recorded their own songs. No one had to tell us as musicians that
the Beatles were going to be the next big thing. At our next rehearsal, Mike loosened up his trap cymbal and played with the slashing motion used by Ringo, and Ed tightened his guitar strap and wore it higher like George. I sang the John songs and Bob sang
the Paul songs, while Howard deciphered their chord changes on piano.
Bob Simon had been a precocious songwriting talent since he was 12. His first attempts were folk songs, but he soon showed a gift for melody and structure. The first rock and roll song he played for me was too
good to be anyone's first song, and I actually accused him of plagiarism. The tune, ''True And Sweet'', had a chord structure similar to Major Lance's ''Monkey Time'', only Bob wrote his song a year earlier than Curtis Mayfield. I became his biggest songwriting
fan. Bob was so accomplished and dedicated that I never considered trying to write a song of my own until the ripe old age of 19. The Beatles gave Bob focus and direction and sent him into overdrive.
After the Fabs' breakthrough, and the accompanying British Invasion, the Memphis music
scene exploded with new venues for teen dances. Every skating rink and department store was looking for bands with youth appeal. The Radiants were already professionals, but when we added a half-dozen Beatle songs to our set lists, our bookings grew too numerous
for us to handle. We had begun to play a series of Saturday night dances in a hot gymnasium at a local YMCA, a popular gathering spot for kids from all over the city, sponsored by a small radio station in nearby Millington, Tennessee. The station's staff included
Dewey Phillips, in the decline of his career, as well as John Dougherty, an unassuming young man closer to our age, whose on air name was Johnny Dark. As the crowds continued to grow, we asked John if he would be interested in managing us. We had never had
a manager and he had never managed but, almost immediately, our bookings skyrocketed, as did our asking price.
John also booked us at college fraternities, who up until that time had lived on a steady diet of southern soul bands like Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. It was rarity
for sophisticated college men to hire high school students to play, but if they wanted the new music, we had it. We set up for Sigma Nu at Ivy-walled Southwestern College in Memphis, and after our first set, John approached with a blond-haired fraternity man
in a white -V-necked tennis sweater, looking like he had just stepped out of Gentleman's Quarterly. Introduced as Knox Phillips, he extended his hand warmly. ''You guys are great'', he opined. ''Johnny's been talking about you, and we wondered if you'd be
interested in coming down to the recording studio and playing for my father''? We had no idea that a portion of Johnny's high school years were spent living in the Phillips family home as a surrogate brother to Sam's two sons, Knox and Jerry.
The next Sunday afternoon found us at Phillips
Memphis Recording Service, and though this modern facility had been there since the late 1950s, it was still referred to as the ''new studio''. Sam greeted us in the lounge wearing a Ban-Lon shirt and a yachtsman's cap, and was gracious and charming. He told
us Knox had raved about us and that he was excited to hear us, making us feel at home while simultaneously applying a little pressure to live up to those reviews. We hauled in the equipment and, after a few songs, Mr Phillips offered a five-year contract with
Sun Records. Knox's enthusiasm had sealed the deal and he was going to participate, for the first time, in observing his father's production techniques, and to learn to work the console soundboard that looked like the cockpit of a giant airliner. The contract
required both our parents' permission and signatures, since we were underage. After we had all joined the local musicians union, the Radiants did the session that produced our first record.
For a while, the band's name alternated between the Radiants and Randy & The Radiants,
a moniker that was beginning to stick. Although I wasn't promoting a name change for the sake of my ego, I didn't object very much either. Sam made it official when he printed it on the label with the yellow rising sun. He felt it made us sound like the first
wave of British bands: Gerry and The Pacemakers, Freddie and The Dreamers. It also avoided confusion with the Chicago Radiants, but added more with Randy & The Rainbows. For years since, I have had to explain that I was not the guy that sang, ''Denise''.
Dewey Phillips himself first
played out record on the radio station in Millington, and tough it didn't sell many copies, it was a beginning. We lip-synched the record on disc jockey George Klein's Saturday afternoon television show, Talent Party, and when Bob's ''Walk Softly'' began climbing
the charts, a columnist named Robert Johnson took a special interest in us, and began writing a series of articles about out adventures. The crowd and the excitement grew, until one afternoon at rehearsal in the late autumn of 1964, John showed up with some
news. Memphis had a brand new Coliseum that had never hosted a rock concert, and almost a year after the Beatles had first appeared in the States, no British band had yet played in the city. ''You know the Dave Clark Five have booked at the Coliseum in December''?
said John, so calmly that I believed he was just informing us he had used his contacts to get us good seats. Instead, he paused dramatically, ''You guys are opening the show''. Our cheers could be heard down the block.
The concert's start had been changed from evening to afternoon to
accommodate all the young fans. It was the Mid-South Coliseum's first experience with the world's second most popular band, and the security was tighter than a presidential visit. The Radiants were locked in our dressing room by noon, four hours before showtime,
so we tuned and retuned our guitars and stewed over the fact that we had heard that opening acts in other cities along the Dave Clark Five's tour had been booed. When the announcer finally shouted ''Here's one of Memphis' favourite bands, Randy & The Radiants'',
we ascended the back stairs to the stage into a world of flashbulbs and the ''endless scream''. Our hometown was treating us like stars, but we were all back in class the next morning. In that one week in December 1964, our first single was released. Randy
& The Radiants became the first rock band to play the Coliseum before 12,500 screaming fans, and I turned 17 years old. Going into 1965, the Radiants were the hottest band in Memphis. We were on television, radio and in both local newspapers, and the Dave
Clark Five show put us on the road all over the South. Our jobs took us from West Tennessee into eastern Arkansas and deep into the Mississippi Delta. We were welcomed with equal enthusiasm at high school proms in Little Rock, Arkansas and graduation dances
in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Since we only played on weekends, our roadwork made our Memphis appearances into mini events. The band's big news was that Sam Phillips wanted us back in the studio.
Outside the control room, Sam Phillips was always friendly and welcoming, but once the
session started, he was all business. If a mistake was made, Phillips began clicking the playback button in the headphones; the signal to begin again. It wasn't uncommon for us to do a song 15 or 20 times, yet have Phillips decide he liked take 2. He pushed
me to give the vocals everything I had. Sam didn't pass out compliments idly. The most he would say was, ''That was pretty good. Let's try one more'', but it gave me pleasure to sing an old rhythm and blues phrase that I had worked up, just to see him smile.
Both Sam and Knox were now looking for the most commercial sounding tune for our new single. Along with Bob Simon's songs, Sam brought in songs by teenage writers Donna Weiss and Mary Unobsky, and John Monasco, piano player for our favourite local group, Jimmy
Day and The Knights. Bob had written another ''I don't trust my girlfriend'' song called ''Truth From My Eyes'', which I particularly liked and upon which I sang the lead. Bob found comfort in composing his most personal thoughts, then allowing me to voice
them. Sam Phillips' favoured a Donna Weiss song, ''My Way Of Thinking'', which opened with a variation of the distinctive guitar riff made famous by the Kinks in ''You Really Got Me'', it was the cleanest we had yet sounded, but the band felt uneasy about
releasing a song that was so derivative of another groups's style, something that Sam Phillips himself used to always decry as a ''followers mentality''. The band lobbied hard for Bob's song to be the A-side. We didn't believe that Sam had ever heard of the
Kinks.
If Sam Phillips
served as a father figure to Elvis, Carl, Jerry Lee, Johnny and the first generation of Memphis rock and rollers, our experience with him was more like working with your actual dad. Knox served as our liaison and a voice between the generations, and thus Sam
Agreed to ''Truth From My Eyes'' as our new Sun release, and in Memphis it took off in both popularity and sales, Johnny Dark accepted a disc jockey position in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. We carried on without him as best we could, but found ourselves unable
to sufficiently exploit our hit record, other than to play it live. As the radio world revolves, John got a job at Memphis' WMPS AM60, and though he was no longer out manager and it seemed the record had run its course, he gave it a second life. It became
the most requested song on WMPS to begin playing it again. Randy & The Radiants appeared to be on the brink of a breakthrough.
But despite the unflagging support of Knox Phillips, Sun still did their promotion the old fashioned way and seemed to be caught off guard by the single's
success. Our friends and rivals, the Gentrys, had made a record called ''Keep On Dancing'', the local popularity of which resulted in a major label release and a Top 5 national hit. But Sun was among the last of the old school independents, and Sam had stopped
leasing masters back in the 1950s. His brother, Judd Phillips, was as amiable with strangers as Sam was tacitum, and he was pressed back into action to travel to the major cities of the South, both to promote ''Truth From My Eyes'' and to arrange for the first
major Randy & The Radiants tour. In the midst of a generational shift, however, and showbiz being what it is, the tour never materialized. We all had more pressing problems.
Bob excluded, the radiants all graduated high school in 1965, the year Selective Service began drafting half
a million men to go to Vietnam. Enrolling in college offered a student deferment, and so all the band was going to attend Memphis State University. At 16 and still under the charge of my parents, I was being told that it was time to put away childhood things
and leave Memphis for college as had long been planned. When I expressed my desire to stay home and attend Memphis State, i was told, ''Not if you expect us to pay for it''. The Radiants were making good money, but not enough for college tuition, so it was
determined that I would leave the band in the fall of 1965 to attend the University in Knoxville, four hundred miles away. We continued to play and record as if nothing was goin' of to change, but come September, I entrusted my Fender Stratocaster to Bob and
bid the band farewell. When I left Memphis, we had a number one song, one of the hottest bands in town, and two years to go in a recording contract with Sun Records.
With Bob as lead singer, the Radiants added a second horn player and maintained status as one of the most sought-after bands
in the South. When I finally returned home for a Christmas break and went to hear the band, their experience and maturity had made them into an even tigher performing unit, which is a self-deprecating way for me to say they sounded better after I left. Knox
Phillips was now recording the band, including some of Bob's most promising commercial songs, and Sam had diverted his attention from the record business to the family-owned radio stations, but there were no further releases. Soon after, Sam Phillips sold
Sun Records. And following Bob Simon's high school graduation, he too was sent away to college. The band hung on for a while longer, but when Howard Calhoun, its best musician, quit, that effectively ended the joy-filled, five-year union of the Radiants -
at least the first incarnation. But that's another story.
OCTOBER 1964
If Sam Phillips felt threatened when the British Invasion reared its ugly - to the established American record biz - head in 1964, he didn't let on. It was business as usual, and rock and roll's original pathfinder continued apace
with the rather disparate release schedule that his legendary Sun Records sported in its twilight years. But even if he was blissfully unaware of the Brits' burgeoning omnipotence, Phillips was savy enough that, when it was presented to him by his son Knox
in the shape of the Radiants, Sam decided to sign them to Sun.
Memphis
has always had an Anglo fetish, exemplified most unambiguously by Alex Chilton's Big Star in the 1970s, but true to the nature of its mixed musical heritage, the city has an interesting and unpredictable take on what the Beatles and their ilk inspired. Randy
and The Radiants are an excellent example of this, and most likely the earliest: slightly derivative in form perhaps, but certainly inspired in content. Though the garage rock crowd knows their name for the crunchy chording of ''My Way Of Thinking'', the considerable
cache of sessions that Phillips (October 17, 1964), and later Knox (September 16, 1965), recorded reveals the Radiants as several fret-notches above the average teenage combo of the time.
While the expected quotient of frat-band raunch and Anglicised rockabilly are featured - and it is fascinating to hear the band
cover Phillips' older copyrights such as ''Boppin' The Blues'' in updated Brit-mode - the true gems in the Radiants' canon are Bob Simon's contemplative originals, with their own mature blend of harmony and soul, akin to that of the best British beat groups
such as the Searchers. The searing, inresistible ''Truth From My Eyes'' would have made a great mid-period Hollies single, and ''To Seek And Then Find'', ''Nobody Walks Out On Me'' or ''I Won't Ask Why'' (over two sessions in 1964-65) are so effortlessly Mersey
in execution, it's easy to forget the granddaddy of rockabilly is behind the mixing desk. Add the warm, authoritative rasp of Randy Haspel, Memphis' answer to Allan Clark, and one can understand Knox Phillips' excitement in having found o local and commercially-potent
interpretation of the Beatle beat.
As Randy relates in
his memoir above, the tremendous promise of the Radiants was cut short just as they were hitting their stride. But any group should be proud of what Randy and The Radiants accomplished in what was a relatively brief time together. That Sam Phillips, one of
the greats in rock and roll, was the catalyst for their moment in the sun (pun intended) is purely the icing on the cake.
Alec Palao, 2007
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
It was unheard of for Sun to tread on 'beat group' turf, that is until the
arrival of Randy & The Radiants, a sophomore quintet who pre-empted the blue-eyed Memphis soul of The Box Tops. Vocalist Randy Haspel was the most active member of the group, forming Rich Mountain Tower in 1970 (with a quadraphonic
album on Ovation) and in 1997 linking with drummer Mike Gardner for a Randy & The Radiants reunion. He currently hosts his own radio show on WEVL-FM in Memphis.
Randy Haspel shows off the first single for Sun Records >
STUDIO SESSION FOR RANDY & THE RADIANTS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1964
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: SATURDAY OCTOBER 17, 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING
ENGINEER – SAM PHILLIPS
AND/OR KNOX PHILLIPS
Randy and The Radiants >
Here was the first real reflection of changing times in Memphis. Robert Gordon, a chronicler of Memphis in the 1960s and beyond, talks in his book ''It Came From
Memphis'' about the cultural upheaval in Memphis that came in the wake of the Beatles. Department stores had promotions of Carnaby Street-styled clothes and hired local musicians to plat British Invasion-styled pop. There was a new crop of bands.
To that point, the Radiants had been a teenage rhythm and blues band but they took an entirely new direction after the British Invasion.
''I was sixteen'', Randy Haspel told Robert Gordon. ''My partner Bob Simon had been writing songs since we were kids. When the Beatles hit we already had a band that
was up and working.
The next time we had rehearsal,
people started to assume their roles. Mike Gardner loosened his trap cymbals and started to make those kinda slashing motions Ringo would make. I learned how to rock band and forth like John Lennon''.
The Radiants beat out the Devolles (later the Boxtops),
the Scepters and the Gentrys in a locale battle of the bands, and became a big noise in Memphis. Their manager, Johnny Dark, was a friend of Knox Phillips. They played Knox's frat parties, then found themselves at Sun where they were the first band
Knox produced.
''First time we met Sam Phillips'',
Haspel continued, ''he'd just come in off the lake, he had on a yachtsman's hat, and sat in there and was just as charming as could be. After that it was, 'We'll do anything for you, Mr. Phillips'. Our initial response was a lot more hesitant. We
had big plans''. They warmed up with their set list, which included Dick and Dee-Dee's ''Mountain's High''. Sam Phillips came out of the control room. ''What're you doing? He asked. ''Well, we're just warming up, Mister Phillips''. ''Keep playing
it'', Phillips told them. ''I like this''. The band looked at each other. ''Mister Phillips, this was a hit just a year or two ago''. Sam didn't care. ''I like it. I want you to do it''.
Bob Simon, co-founder of the Randy & The Radiants, Bob was the bands' original songwriter whose catchy
sixties songs can be heard on the new anthology, "Memphis Beat: The Sun Recordings 1964-1966''. Bob
was the only artist signed by Sun Records as a staff songwriter and he continues to work with Knox Phillips
in writing and publishing.
Bob wrote "What Am I Gonna Do About You'', a number 1 hit for Reba McIntire,
and his songs have been recorded by the Impressions, and the HooDoo Rhythm Devils. He was music
director for the Impressions from 1988-1990.
It's as close
as Sun Records ever came to garage music. There's a raw, amateurish edge, and, in its way, the music on both sides of this disc is as energetic and direct as most of the music Sun was recording on Union Avenue ten years earlier. It might not be Sonny
Burgess, but it shows that there was still primitive music to be found on Sun in very different musical times. As ''Peek-A-Boo'' makes quite clear, this kind of music – homegrown, raw and melodic – represented America's answer to the
British Invasion. Check out Rod Argent's ''She's Not There'' by the Zombies for a direct comparison. How ironic that this should come from the same label whose efforts ten years earlier had helped to shape the British music that now fuelled the likes
of the Radiants.
01 – ''MOUNTAIN'S HIGH'' - A.S.C.A.P. - 2:30
Composer: - Dick St. John
Publisher: - Odin Music
Matrix number: - U 353 - Master
Recorded: - October 17, 1964
Released: - December 11, 1964
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 395-A mono
MOUNTAIN'S HIGH / PEEK-A-BOO
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family
Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-1 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
02 - ''PEEK-A-BOO'' - B.M.I. - 2:02
Composer: - Bob Simon
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 352 - Master
Recorded: - October 17, 1964
Released: - December 11, 1954
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single SUN 395-B mono
PEEK-A-BOO / MOUNTAIN'S
HIGH
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-1 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
03 - ''KANSAS CITY'' - B.M.I. - 2:40
Composer: - Jerry Leiber-Mike Stoller
Publisher: - Jerry Leiber Music-Mike Stoller Music
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - October 17, 1964
Released: - April 30, 2013
First appearance: - X5 Music Group (MP3) Internet Sample-10 mono
VARIOUS ARTISTS - DISCOVER - KANSAS CITY BLUES
04 - ''SEA OF HEARTBREAK'' - B.M.I.
Composer: - Hal Davis-Paul Hampton
Publisher: - Shapiro Bernstein Music
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - October 17, 1964
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Randy Jay Haspel – Vocal & Guitar
Bob Simon - Singer/Songwriter
Ed Marshall – Lead
Guitar
Howard Calhoun – Bass & Keyboard
Mike Gardner – Drums
Bill Slais – Tenor Saxophone and Vocals
Gregg Grinspan, Tony Rossini,
Jimmy Beckemeyer, Otis Glasscock - Backing Vocals
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
RANDY HASPEL NEVER MET ELVIS, BUT WISHES HE HAD - I love Elvis. Sure, over the years I've made some sardonic remarks, often over a microphone from the bandstand. But that was in my capacity as an entertainer. Truth be told, if there were
no Elvis, there would be no me. I never would have picked up a guitar or formed a band or have been signed to Sun Records and produced
by Sam Phillips: one of my life's proudest accomplishments. Like a million other children of the fifties, I went Elvis crazy
as soon as I heard him on the radio. As soon as my fingers were strong enough to press the strings down on a guitar neck, I started playing. I didn't just want to be like Elvis, I wanted to
be Elvis.
Those who became Elvis fans after his death, or even after he returned from the army, will never know the joyous exuberance that accompanied the emergence of the "Hillbilly
Cat" or the line of demarcation Elvis created between the Mouseketeer generation and their parents, who loathed him. After Elvis, nothing was the same.
I
wish I were precocious enough to say I heard Elvis' Sun records on the radio, but I was only 7 at the time. I do, however, distinctly remember the night in 1956 that Dewey Phillips introduced "Heartbreak
Hotel" on his radio show. I listened to Red, Hot, and Blue every night, even if it meant putting the radio right next to my ear so my
parents couldn't hear. I loved the voice before I saw the singer. Elvis' photograph appeared in the morning paper with his shirt collar up and his hair formed into a shiny, immaculate pompadour.
I had to inform my big sister that Elvis was a greaser. One night, my sister came home from a teenage party at the Hotel Chisca in a
state of euphoric bliss. Elvis had been at the WHBQ radio studios visiting Dewey, and when asked by an enthusiastic chaperone, he strolled into the party of giggling girls just to say hello.
Where I differ with some devoted Elvis aficionados is that I think
his earliest recordings, like Sam Cooke's, were his greatest. I've made a personal "E" mix-disc that I listen to when I'm in need of cheering up, and the pure joy that exudes from Elvis in songs like "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine" works every time. All the songs in my mix are from 1955 to 1958. He recorded great songs after that,
but instead of working with genius songwriters like Otis Blackwell or Leiber and Stoller, who wrote his earliest hits, the weaselly Colonel
Parker hooked him into making that series of silly movies where studio hacks and friends of the Colonel got first crack at Elvis, with tunes like "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad'', "Do The Clam,"
and "No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car''.
When Elvis lost his edge, I lost interest in him as a musical influence. He never regained the infectious, gravel-throated vocal power that made
him the King of Rock And Roll. Elvis had the world's greatest set list, yet in concert he would breeze through his greatest hits in a medley, often mocking the early material as if it
were not consequential. The Colonel cheated us out of the best of Elvis. Rather than making musical progress with each album, like the Beatles, who
idolized him, Elvis regressed with each half-hearted effort to fulfill his contractual obligations to his record label. It was a sad descent and sadder still to imagine what
might have been.
My
great regret was never getting to meet Elvis. I suppose I could have imposed upon someone like George Klein for an introduction, but that would have been very un-Elvis-like of me. Sam Phillips might
have finagled something, but I came to Sun 10 years after Elvis and Sam didn't exactly pal around with him anymore. My dentist was Elvis'
dentist, but I had to be satisfied with the tales of Elvis' after-hours visits. The only time I received an offer to go to Graceland was from Dewey Phillips, but Dewey was no longer on good
terms with Elvis, and in an adventure that I recounted in an article for Memphis magazine, poor Dewey was turned away at the gate, and by proxy so
was I.
Even in later years, I might have crashed Elvis'
annual Christmas party by tagging along with a musical pal, but I didn't. There's one thing I always wondered, and it's total vanity on my part. When I was making
records for Sun and having them played on the radio and appearing on George Klein's Talent Party on Saturday afternoon TV, was Elvis ever aware of our little band?
Probably not, but there's no one left to tell me. As an adult, I tried to write songs for Elvis, but I had no hope of reaching him.
It was puzzling to me why Elvis felt it necessary to seclude himself inside Graceland. In the mid-Seventies,
you'd often see Jerry Lee Lewis out on the town, surrounded by his entourage. Jerry took a liking to a club in Overton Square called the Hot Air
Balloon, where he could be found jamming after hours, and no one ever bothered him. I thought if Elvis would just get out a little, people in his own hometown would give him a
similar break.
I
retained that opinion until one day when I went with my parents to the airport to greet a relative. I was struck by the appearance of a man walking toward me, and I was certain that he was an old
friend whose name I couldn't recall. He was with a group of happy people, and I was taken by his familiar look and unusually large facial
pores. When I caught up with my mother, she asked cheerfully, "Did you see Elvis?" I immediately wheeled and sprinted the length of the terminal and through the double doors. He had just
closed the passenger-side door of a white Cadillac when he looked up at me. "Hey, Elvis," I uttered lamely. He nodded and said, "How you doin' man?"
and he was gone. I realized that if even I chased after Elvis like a teenage girl, perhaps it was wise that he not go out in public after all. With due deference to Jerry Lee, the
thousands of pilgrims who come to Memphis in August, year after year, prove that Elvis was never meant to be just one of the guys.
Randy Haspel, Memphis Flyer, August 15, 2013
OCTOBER 18, 1964 SUNDAY
The Beatles recorded ''I Feel Fine'' at Abbey Road in London, England. In 1989, Sweethearts Of The Rodeo's version becomes a country hit.
British rock band The Animals appears on ''The
Ed Sullivan Show'', singing ''The House Of The Rising Sun''. In 1981, Dolly Parton revives the song as a country hit.
OCTOBER 19, 1964 MONDAY
Decca Records released Warner Mack's ''Sittin' In An All Nite Cafe''.
Tennessee Ernie Ford make a guest appearance on NBC-TV's weekly series ''The Andy Williams Show''.
OCTOBER 26, 1964 MONDAY
The Beatles remake Carl Perkins' ''Honey Don't''.
Capitol Records released The
Beach Boys' pop hit ''Dance, Dance, Dance'', with a guitar solo by future country star Glen Campbell.
Actress Belle Montrose dies of a heart attack in Hollywood, California. She is the mother of TV personality Steve Allen, who wrote the 1950 crossover hit ''Let's Go On To Church (Next Sunday
Morning)'', recorded by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely.
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans appear on the NBC series ''The Andy Williams Show''.
OCTOBER 27, 1964 TUESDAY
Bobby bare and Skeeter Davis begin two days of recording at RCA Studio B in Nashville for the duets album ''Tunes For Two''. The pair's efforts yield a hit single with
''A Dear John Letter''.
Keyboard player Jerry Dale McFadden is born. He
plays frequently with The Mavericks, joining them on a cover of ''Call Me The Breeze'' on the Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute album ''Skynyrd Frynds''.
OCTOBER 28-29, 1964 WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY
The concert film ''The TAMI Show'' is recorded in Santa Monica, California, featuring James Brown, the Beach Boys, Chuck
Berry, the Rolling Stones, and the Supremes.
OCTOBER 28, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Glen Campbell, Leon Russell and David Gates are in the house band for ''The T.A.M.I. Show'' at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Acts include The Supremes, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones and The Miracles.
OCTOBER 29, 1964 THURSDAY
Grandpa Jones joins Johnny
Tillotson and Molly Bee on the ABC-TV series ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
OCTOBER 30, 1964 FRIDAY
Roy Orbison's ''Oh, Pretty Woman'' is certified for gold.
Lee and Edna Greenwood have a daughter, Laura Rene Greenwood.
OCTOBER 31, 1964 SATURDAY
Ray Charles is arrested in Boston for possession of marijuana and heroin, leading him to secure professional help to beat his addiction.
Darryl Worley is born in Savannah, Tennessee. Noted for the strong traditional influence on his music, the lanky singer builds a solid career after his 2000 debut, striking a major chord for patriotism with his 2003 release ''Have You Forgotten''.
NOVEMBER 1964
NOVEMBER 1, 1964 SUNDAY
RCA Victor released the soundtrack to Elvis Presley's ''Roustabout''. ''Roustabout'' is the twenty-first album by Elvis Presley, released in mono and stereo, LPM/LSP
2999, in October 1964. It was a soundtrack to the film of the same name. Recording session took place at Radio Recorders, 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, on March 2 and 3, and April 29, 1964. It peaked at number one on the Billboard Top
LP's chart. It was certified Gold on May 20, 1988 by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album would be Presley's final soundtrack to reach number one and his last number one album until 1973's ''Aloha From Hawaii: Via Satellite''.
Payments to Presley for each film amounted to between $225,000 to $1,000,000 up front, often half the budget for production, with a 50% share of the profits. These movies were being shot in sometimes as little as three weeks, with the complete scoring and recording of the soundtrack albums taking no more than two weeks. It fell to Freddy Bienstock, the assistant of Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to ensure that the soundtrack songs fit into the profit equation with the publishing controlled by Elvis Presley Music or Gladys Music, the Hill and Range Publishing companies owned by Presley and Parker. As a result, successful writers such as Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman, Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott, and Don Robertson lost interest in adhering to the needs of the grind. It was interlocking self-promotion, causing one MGM employee to remark that the movies "didn't need titles. They could be numbered. They would still sell".
Blackwell and Scott in fact submitted a candidate for the title track, "I'm a Roustabout" recorded on March 3, only to find it substituted by a song from a different team of writers. This recording was eventually released by RCA on the 2003 compilation ''2nd To None''.
Presley and his coterie of top session musicians gamely plowed through all of this, and eleven songs were recorded for the twenty-minute soundtrack LP. Four songs from this album appeared on the 1995 soundtrack compilation, ''The Essential 60s Masters II'', "Roustabout", "Little Egypt'', "Poison Ivy League", and "There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon".
Rick Nelson is heard performing ''Mean Old World'' on ABC-TV's ''The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet''.
NOVEMBER 2, 1964 MONDAY
Brenda Lee earns a standing ovation from Queen Elizabeth II during a Command Performance at the
London Palladium.
''Johnny
Horton's Greatest Hits'' is certified gold, for years after his death.
Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''I Don't Care'' album''.
Tally Records released Merle Haggard's single ''(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers''.
NOVEMBER 3, 1964 TUESDAY
Roger Miller recorded ''King Of The Road'' in Nashville, Tennessee.
One year after John F. Kennedy's death vaulted him to the nation's
highest office, Lyndon B. Johnson is re-elected president. His years in the position are referred to two dozen years later in The Bellamy Brothers' country hit ''Rebels Without A Clue''.
Following the election, civil rights organizations banded together to push for the passage
of legislation that would ensure black voting rights once and for all.
NOVEMBER 4, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The MGM movie biography of Hank Williams, ''Your Cheatin' Heart'', opens in Montgomery, Alabama, with Hank Williams JR. appearing on the soundtrack. Governor George Wallace declares Hank Williams week.
Glen Campbell performs the
Elvis Presley hit ''Ain't That Loving You Baby'' on ABC's ''Shindig!''. Other guests include Gerry and The Pacemakers, Gene Pitney and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, who do ''You've Really Got A Hold On Me''.
NOVEMBER 5, 1964 THURSDAY
Two days after Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater in the president
election, the Country Music Association re-elects Tex Ritter as its president. ''I had another president in mind'', Ritter says, ''but I want you to know I'm mighty thankful''.
Jazz pianist Edwin ''Buddy'' Cole dies in Hollywood of a heart attack. Noted for his work with Nat King Cole,
Judy garland and Louis Armstrong, he also appeared on the Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely country hit ''Slipping Around.
''The Jimmy Dean Show'' airs live from Nashville with a salute to the Grand Ole Opry. Guests on the ABC broadcast include Eddy Arnold, Minnie Pearl, Chet Atkins and
Flatt and Scruggs.
Tom
T. Hall meets ''Truck Drivin' Son-Of-A-Gun'' songwriter Dixie Deen at the BMI Country Songwriter Awards in Nashville. The two will marry in 1968.
NOVEMBER 6, 1964 FRIDAY
Tex Ritter is added to the Country Music Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the Loew's Theater in Nashville, Tennessee.
''Your Cheatin' Heart'' makes its Nashville
premiere, with George Hamilton portraying the late Hank Williams. Hank Williams Jr. provides the voice of his father for the movie's soundtrack.
NOVEMBER 10, 1964 TUESDAY
The Byrds sign to Columbia Records, recommended by Miles Davis.
Roy Rogers signs a lease to take over the Apple Valley Inn in Victorville, California.
NOVEMBER 11, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Paramount released the Elvis
Presley movie ''Roustabout''. Co-starring Barbara Stanwyck, it features the brief on-screen debut of Raquel Welch.
Hank Williams Jr. and Jody Miller are musical guests on the ABC-TV series ''Shindig!''. The episode also features British pop group Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas covering
''Tennessee Waltz''.
NOVEMBER
12, 1964 THURSDAY
Neil
Young writes ''Sugar Mountain'' on his 19th birthday. The song is eventually tabbed in the Country Music Foundation's book ''Heartaches By The Number'' among the 500 greatest country singles of all-time.
Manager Albert Grossman marries Sally Buehler. In attendance is a Grossman client, future
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Bob Dylan.
Willie Nelson holds his inaugural recording session in a new deal with RCA, with Chet Atkins producing at RCA Studio B in Nashville. The first song on the session is Nelson's Christmas title, ''Pretty Paper''.
Songwriter Jerry Kilgore is born in Tillamook,
Oregon. He pens John Michael Montgomery's ''Cover You In Kisses'' and ''Tracy Byrd's ''Love Lessons''.
NOVEMBER 13, 1964 FRIDAY
Bass player Mike Bub is born in Los Angeles. He becomes a significant cog in The Del McCoury Band, which wins multiple awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association as Entertainer
of the Year.
NOVEMBER
15, 1964 SUNDAY
The
British pop duo Peter and Gordon makes its American TV debut on CBS's ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. Asher goes on to produce country hits such as ''Blue Bayou'' and ''Love Is A Rose'' for Linda Ronstadt.
NOVEMBER 16, 1964 MONDAY
Bobby Bare sees Waylon Jennings perform at J.D.s in Phoenix, Arizona, owned by J.D. Musil.
The next day, on his way to Las Vegas, Bare calls Chet Atkins and urges him to sign Jennings to RCA.
Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''Happy Birthday'', and Kitty Wells' ''I'll Repossess My Heart''.
NOVEMBER 17, 1964 TUESDAY
One day after he saw Waylon
Jennings perform at J.D.s in Phoenix, Arizona, Bobby bare calls Chet Atkins, while headed to Las Vegas, and urges him to sign Jennings to RCA. Atkins doesn't pursue it until Duane Eddy places a similar call a few weeks later.
NOVEMBER 18, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Connie Smith recorded ''Then And Only Then'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville,
Tennessee.
The Everly
Brothers perform ''Bye Bye Love'' and ''All I Have To Do Is Dream'' during ''Shindig!'' on ABC-TV.
NOVEMBER 19, 1964 THURSDAY
McGuin, Hillman and Crosby rename their band as The Byrds. The group becomes an important link in the growth of country-rock, particularly through the 1968 album ''Sweetheart Of The Rodeo''.
NOVEMBER 24, 1964 TUESDAY
Filming comes to a conclusion
for the Elvis Presley movie ''Tickle Me'' in Los Angeles, California.
NOVEMBER 25, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Rick Nelson performs ''Happy Guy'' on ABC-TV's ''The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet''.
The Harden Trio signs with Columbia Records.
NOVEMBER 26, 1964 THURSDAY
Mel Tillis and Red Foley find songwriter Marijohn Wilkin, co-writer of ''The Long Black Veil'', barely conscious at
her rural Tennessee home. Wilkin had attempted to commit suicide with sleeping pills and aspirin.
Johnny cash makes a guest appearance on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show'', alongside Floyd Cramer, Norm Crosby and Molly Bee.
NOVEMBER 27, 1964 FRIDAY
Capitol Records released The Beatles ''I Feel Fine''. The song is remade nearly 25 years later as a country hit by Sweethearts Of The Rodeo.
Between 15,000 and 25,000 anti-war demonstrators rally at the White House during an SDS-organized March on Washington for Peace
in Vietnam. Gallup Polls show the American Public Support Changes from over 52% support for war to 49%.
NOVEMBER 28, 1964 SATURDAY
Willie Nelson makes his Grand Ole Opry debut at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Connie Smith's debut single, ''Once A Day'' attains the number 1 position on the Billboard country singles chart.
The Boston Patriots claim Ole Miss quarterback Jim Weatherly in the 12th round of the American Football League draft. Weatherly will write the Glen Campbell country
hit ''A Lady Like You''.
The
Mariner 4 spacecraft is launched with the mission of photographing and studying the atmosphere of Mars. The Mariner 4 spacecraft reached Mars in July of 1965 and was the first successful mission to reach the red planet as well as the first to provide images
of another planet from deep space. There were a total of twenty-one black and white photos that Mariner 4 relayed back to Earth. The spacecraft stopped communicating with NASA in October of 1965 when its antenna was no longer pointing in the correct position.
The Mariner 4 space probe resumed communications in 1967 but was deactivated at the end of that year.
NOVEMBER 29, 1964 SUNDAY
Warner Mack is injured in a snow-related
car accident near Princeton, Indiana.
DECEMBER 1964
DECEMBER 1964
Sun SLP 1275 ''The Original Sun Sound'' by Johnny Cash issued.
Joan Baez acts as the spokesman for 600 people in an antiwar demonstration in San Francisco.
DECEMBER 1, 1964 TUESDAY
Buck Owens recorded ''I've Got A Tiger By The Tail'' and ''Cryin' Time'' in an afternoon session at the Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood,
California.
One month
after their anniversary, Merle and Betty Lou Travis are separated. Their divorce is finalized six months later.
Darryl Ellis Gatlin is born in Norfolk, Virginia. He's the older half of Darryl and Don Ellis, who score a recording contract with Epic Records in the 1990s, gaining
a nomination from the Country Music Association in 1993 for Vocal Duo of the Year.
DECEMBER 2, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr enters a London hospital to have his tonsils removed. More than 25 years later, he receives a Grammy nomination in the country field for a recording of ''Act Naturally'' with Buck
Owens.
DECEMBER 3,
1964 THURSDAY
Bobby
and Jeannie Bare are married. Songwriter Hank Cochran serves as best man.
''Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer'' makes its TV debut on NBC. The Christmas special features sometimes-country singer Burl Ives as narrator. In the role he sings ''A Holly Jolly Christmas''.
Faron Young and Charlie Rich are featured
performers for the week's installment of ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on ABC-TV.
DECEMBER 5, 1964 SATURDAY
The Grand Ole Opry dismisses 11 members for inadequate attendance, George Morgan, Billy Grammer, Johnny Wright, Ferlin Husky, Justin Tubb, Don Gibson, Faron Young, Stonewall Jackson, Kitty Wells, The Jordanaires
and Ray Price.
DECEMBER
7, 1964 MONDAY
Andy
Griffith and The Dillards perform ''Stay A Little Longer'' during an episode of the CBS sitcom ''The Andy Griffith Show''.
DECEMBER 9, 1964 WEDNESDAY
Webb Pierce recorded ''Here I An Drunk Again''. The song waits a dozen years to become a hit when it's is recorded by Moe Bandy.
Rick Nelson perform ''Yesterday's Love'' on ABC-TV series ''The Adventures
Of Ozzie and Harriet''.
DECEMBER 10, 1964 THURSDAY
Sam Cooke died at the age of 33 at the Hacienda Motel, at 9137 South Figueroa Street, in Los Angeles, California. Answering separate reports of a shooting and of a kidnapping at the motel, police found Cooke's body, clad only in a sports jacket and shoes but no shirt, pants or underwear. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, which was later determined to have pierced his heart. The motel's manager, Bertha Franklin, said she had shot Cooke in self-defense after he broke into her office residence and attacked her. Her account was immediately questioned and disputed by acquaintances.
The official police record states that Franklin fatally shot Cooke, who had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office-apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and a sports coat, demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the hotel. Franklin said the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her, demanding again to know the woman's whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said she then fired at Cooke in self-defense because she feared for her life. Cooke was struck once in the torso. According to Franklin, he exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me", before mounting a last charge at her. She said she beat him over his head with a broomstick before he finally fell, mortally wounded by the gunshot.
The motel's owner, Evelyn Carr, claimed that she had been on the telephone with Franklin at the time of the incident. Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshot. She called the police to request that officers go to the motel, telling them she believed a shooting had occurred. A coroner's inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr had. Boyer had called from a telephone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped being kidnapped.
Boyer told the police that she had first met Cooke earlier that night and had spent the evening in his company. She claimed that after they left a local nightclub together, she had repeatedly requested that he take her home, but he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motel's rooms, Cooke physically forced her onto the bed, and that she was certain he was going to rape her. According to Boyer, when Cooke stepped into the bathroom for a moment, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. She claimed that in her haste, she had also scooped up most of Cooke's clothing by mistake. She said she ran first to the manager's office and knocked on the door seeking help. However, she said that the manager took too long in responding, so, fearing Cooke would soon be coming after her, she fled from the motel before the manager ever opened the door. She said she then put her clothing back on, hid Cooke's clothing, went to a telephone booth, and called police.
Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between her and Cooke that night; however, her story has long been called into question. Inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses, as well as circumstantial evidence, suggest that Boyer may have gone willingly to the motel with Cooke, then slipped out of the room with his clothing in order to rob him, rather than to escape an attempted rape.
However, questions about Boyer's role were beyond the scope of the inquest, the purpose of which was only to establish the circumstances of Franklin's role in the shooting. Boyer's leaving the motel room with almost all of Cooke's clothing, and the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, provided a plausible explanation to the inquest jurors for Cooke's bizarre behavior and state of dress. In addition, because Carr's testimony corroborated Franklin's version of events, and because both Boyer and Franklin later passed lie detector tests, the coroner's jury ultimately accepted Franklin's explanation and returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. With that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cooke's death.
Some of Cooke's family and supporters, however, have rejected Boyer's version of events, as well as those given by Franklin and Carr. They believe that there was a conspiracy to murder Cooke and that the murder took place in some manner entirely different from the three official accounts.
Singer Etta James viewed Cooke's body before his funeral and questioned the accuracy of the official version of events. She wrote that the injuries she observed were well beyond the official account of Cooke having fought Franklin alone. James wrote that Cooke was so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled.[56] Some people speculated that Cooke's manager, Allen Klein, might have had a role in his death. Klein owned Tracey Limited, which ultimately owned all rights to Cooke's recordings. Two of his songs are later remade as country hits, ''Bring It On Home To Me'' by Mickey Gilley, and ''Good Times'' by Dan Seals.
Ferlin Husky and Teresa Brewer are featured in ''The Jimmy Dean Show'' on ABC-TV.
© - 706
UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
1965. At the Moose Lodge in Greenwood, Mississippi. From left to right: Terry Jenkins (trumpet); Hardin Browning (piano); Bill Bole (trumpet); Buddy Millett (drums); Mack Allen Smith; Barry Smith (bass); and Murray Moorman (lead
guitar).
Through the 1960's former Sun artist Mack Allen Smith continued to make his own style of rocking delta
sounds. Between 1963 and 1965 he was on Statue records covering popular favourites like ''Such A Night''
and ''Only Make Believe'' and engaging hybrid material like ''Rag Mama''.
These recordings were made at the emerging
Fame Studio of Rick Hall in Muscle Shoals, Alabama were recordings for Mariteen and Cynthia Records. Then came several years of recordings at Lyn-Lou studios in Memphis in partnership with producer Larry
Rogers, for Delta Sound and other labels owned by Mack himself. The Lyn-Lou sessions continued with the rocking blues theme but also made an increasing number of country records.
Stand-out recordings from that period include ''Mean Old Frisco'', ''Dog Tired Of Cattin' Around'', ''Tulsa Time'' and ''I'm Not Drunking''.
And talking of drinking Mack Allen and the Flames maintained a heavy schedule playing night clubs.
He
developed a lifestyle he later fictionalized in a book, ''Honky Tonk Addict''. Through most of the 1970's he
owned his own Town and Country Nightclub in Greenwood, Mississippi.
In 1977 Mack Allen wrote and recorded a country song called ''If I Could Only Get One Hit''. It
was covered
on Plantation Records by James O Gwynn, a man who'd had his hits twenty years earlier.
Unfortunately
Mack's own hits never came.
By the mid-1970's Mack Allen was on Ace records in Jackson and he ended his recording career with
Memphis sessions for Grape and QMC Records, the latter produced by Quinton Claunch. Mack made a
number of unreleased recordings in the 1980s and 1990s including songs, he wrote himself. As a writer Mack
has also penned a novel, some children's stories and an autobiography, ''Looking Back One Last Time''. The
autobiography coves not only Mack s music, but his day jobs as an accountant, video store owner,
government auditor and insurance agent, his marriage to Lois in 1960 and the fact that he's now a great
grandparent. It tells bow he hung up his rock and roll shoes and quit performing in 1984 so he could be
around to see his son's football games, and how he fought cancer for much of the last ten years.
Session Published for Historical Reasons
STUDIO SESSION FOR MACK ALLEN SMITH
FOR STATUE RECORDS 1964
HI STUDIO, OLD ROYAL MOVIE THEATRE
1320 SOUTH LAUDERDALE AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
HI SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE 1964
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER – HERSHEL WINGGINGTON
RECORDING
ENGINEER – RAY HARRIS & RICK HALL
01 – ''SKELETON FIGHT'' – B.M.I. - 2:32
Composer: - Jimmy Gilreath
Publisher: Copyright Control
Matrix number: None
Recorded: Unknown Date 1964
Released: 1964
First appearance: Statue Records (S) 45rpm standard single Statue 606-A mono
SKELETON FIGHT / DON'T LET ME TREAT YOU THAT WAY
Reissued: - 2010 Redita Records (CD) 500/200rpm Redita RDTCD-150-6 mono
MACK ALLEN SMITH - GOTTA ROCK TONIGHT
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Mack
Allen Smith – Vocal
Murry Moorman – Lead Guitar
Barry Smith – Bass
Hardin Browning – Piano
Bill Bole – Trumpet
Terry Jenkins – Trumpet
Buddy Millett - Drums
Hershel Wiggington Singers – Vocal Chorus
Jimmy Gilreath – Harmony Vocals
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
Rufus and Carla Thomas >
DECEMBER 1964
In December
1964 Rufus Thomas was playing the Flamingo Club in London and the Kilburn State Ballroom, safe in the knowledge that he had a radio job to go back to. He credits WDIAs
program director, David James Mattis, for this: ''He let me go out on Saturdays and Friday nights and make air told me to go, and when I came back I would always have
my job there waiting for me''.
''I could go on tour, and when I came back I knew everything was all right. Without David James just probably I would never have gotten where I got''.
Rufus played increasingly to white and mixed audiences and, despite his deep roots in Beale Street and his sceticism about the way black artists were disadvantaged. he genuinely was happy to tell Peter Guralnick: ''College audiences are the greatest audiences in the world.
I must have played every fraternity
house there was in the South. When we played Ole Miss they'd send the girls home at midnight, and then we'd tell nasty jokes and all that stuff. Oh man, we used to have some good times down there in Oxford''. He told Neil Slaven in 1996, ''When I'm onstage and I look out there at that audience, I don't see colour. I see people
packet in a place, there to see me. There is not a greater satisfaction in the world''. However, he added, ''There is no telling how far I could
have gone, had I been a white boy. I've always said that. I'm not bitter, I want you to know, but it does bother you''.
Rufus continued on Memphis radio with WDIA, then WLOK, and then WDIA again into the 1990s.
He became the keeper of the blues flame, but he was open to other music. "I played it all on my show. My family and I were raised on the Grand Ole Opry. Every Saturday night
we'd run home to catch the Opry on the radio. So you can understand why I played Elvis Presley and I was the only black jock in the city that was playing the
Beatles and Rolling Stones when they came out''. Rufus appeared in various movies, from ''Wattstax'' in 1973 to ''Great Balls Of Fire''
in 1989 and ''Only The Strong Survive'', a D. A. Pennebaker film about rhythm and blues musicians. Pennebaker said: ''You knew he was an old person, but he acted
like a 16 year old. He was always full of funny takes on things and he always gave the impression he was a goofball. But when he talked about the music, you realized
he knew a lot''.
''His pipes remain as convincing as the rusty hinges on an old barn door, said a reviewer when Rufus appeared in London in 1986, and those pipes continued to make make records.
After Stax, Rufus was with u number of labels including Alligator in the 1980s and High Stacks in the 1990s.
At age 81, in 1998, Rufus had triple bypass heart surgery and was fitted with a pacemaker.
His publicist at High Stacks Records said: ''When he went back in for tests before Christmas, he was so full of energy that hospitalizing him was
like putting a rabbit in a box. The other patients have the benefit of his great smile and his constant jokes."
Rufus continued to contribute to life and music in Memphis for another three years, enjoying his loves of baseball, ice cream, and black music, and embodying the philosophies he had dispensed to interviewers over the years. He had told Neil Slaven, "You stop when you get
old - and who's old? I've been to the school of hard knocks for all these years and that's where it comes from - Sidewalk University''. He told Louis
Cantor, ''I've always worked several jobs to try to make ends meet. And every time I think I've got my ends to meet, somebody comes
up and moves the ends''. Talking of his music, he told Roger St. Pierr: "My stuff has got to be simple, direct. I figure that if you can whistle, dance, sing, , hum, pop
your fingers, it's just got to be a bigger hit.'
Thinking about his life as a black entertainer whose career developed beyond what he might have imagined , but at the same time feeling constricted by his colour, Rufus conceded.
"I've gained quite a bit of popularity, and when I die people are going to know about me. This is fine. But they could know about me
a little better. I know I make good music. Good music that everybody likes."
Around Thanksgiving time in 2001, Rufus Thomas was hospitalized again and he died on 15 December in St Francis Hospital in
Memphis, aged 84. National newspapers marked the passing of the self-dubbed "World's Oldest Teenager," and the 'New York Times' called Rufus ''the
jovial patriarch of Memphis soul", Towards the end of his life, Rufus had become the official ''Ambassador To Beale Street''. Stax biographies talked about his flawless timing and
innate skill in connecting to all people, his dedication to the craft of entertaining, his ability to put people at ease, and how he helped others. Tennessee
Governor Don Sundquist spoke about Rufus as an ambassador of unity: "He taught us not to see the world in black or white but in shades
of blues''. Memphis renamed Hernando Street as Rufus Thomas Boulevard, and he had his own car parking space near the site of the old Palace Theater. City mayor Willie
Herenton described how he got the space: ''I had lunch with Rufus at a local cafe. And you know he had an ego, and he came to me and said, you the mayor; well I need
a parking space'. So we got him his space''.
Rufus no doubt enjoyed the mischief of making the mayor jump through hoops. ''You gotta have fun in life'', he once said. "Music to me is fun. You
see me and you'll see how much fun I have with it. More, I'll bet, than anybody else''.
DECEMBER 12, 1964 SATURDAY
Burl Ives host an episode of ''The Hollywood Palace'', lacing the ABC show with performances of ''Blue Tail Fly'', ''Wayfaring Stranger'', ''The Big
Rock Candy Mountain'', ''Funny Way Of Laughin''' and ''A Little Bitty Tear''.
DECEMBER 14, 1964 MONDAY
Pianist Matt Rollings is born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He wins the Academy of Country Music's award for Top Keyboard player six straight years in the 1990s, while supporting George Strait, Shania Twain and
Trisha Yearwood, among others.
Glenn
Yarbrough recorded the pop hit ''baby The Rain Must Fall'', the title track to a Steve McQueen movie, in Hollywood. The session features David Gates as the orchestra conductor and Glen Campbell on guitar.
The United States Supreme Court made its decision
on the Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States court case. The motel had been refusing to allow African-American patrons to stay there and was subsequently charged with violating Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title II of the Civil Rights Act made
racial discrimination illegal in places that offered public accommodation if it affected commerce. The court upheld the Title II Commerce Clause as constitutional and declared that places of public accommodation did not have a right to pick and choose guests
as they pleased without regulation because of the involvement in commerce.
DECEMBER 16, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The Harden Trio holds its first recording session for Columbia Records.
Les Paul and Mary Ford are granted a divorce in Hackensack, New Jersey.
DECEMBER 17, 1964 THURSDAY
''The Jimmy Dean Show'' takes an unusual turn, airing with no country guests, The ABC program features Count Basie,
Sammy Davis Jr. and Charles Boyet.
DECEMBER
18, 1964 FRIDAY
Comedian
Cledus T. Judd is born in Crowe Springs, Georgia. He begins his recording career in the 1990s with musical satires, turning David Ball's ''Thinkin' Problem'' into ''Stinkin' Problem'' and remaking Tim McGrawá ''Indian Outlaw'' as ''Indian In-Laws''.
''Bring It On Home To Me'' songwriter Sam Cooke is buried. The first funeral
service for Cooke was held at A. R. Leak Funeral Home in Chicago; 200,000 fans lined up for more than four city blocks to view his body. Afterward, his body was flown back to Los Angeles for a second service, at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church on December 19,
which included a much-heralded performance of "The Angels Keep Watching Over Me" by Ray Charles, who stood in for grief-stricken Bessie Griffin. Cooke was interred in the Garden of Honor, Lot 5728, Space 1, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale,
California.
Two singles and an album were released in the month after his death. One of the singles, "Shake", reached the top ten of both the pop and rhythm and blues charts. "A Change Is Gonna Come", considered a classic of civil rights–era protest music. It was a top 40 pop hit and a top ten rhythm and blues hit. The album, also titled ''Shake'', reached the number one spot for rhythm and blues albums. After Cooke's death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cooke's daughter, Linda, later married Womack's brother, Cecil. Bertha Franklin said she received numerous death threats after shooting Cooke. She left her position at the Hacienda Motel and did not publicly disclose where she had moved. After being cleared by the coroner's jury, she sued Cooke's estate, citing physical injuries and mental anguish suffered as a result of Cooke's attack. Her lawsuit sought US $200,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. Barbara Womack countersued Franklin on behalf of the estate, seeking $7,000 in damages to cover Cooke's funeral expenses. Elisa Boyer provided testimony in support of Franklin in the case. In 1967, a jury ruled in favor of Franklin on both counts, awarding her $30,000 in damages.
DECEMBER 19, 1964 SATURDAY
Tulsa defeats Mississippi, 14-7, at the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, Texas. Ole Miss quarterback Jim Weatherly completes 16 0f 24 passes in a losing effort. Weatherly goes on to write ''Neither One Of Us'', ''Someone Else's Star'' and ''A Lady Like You''.
DECEMBER 20, 1964 SUNDAY
Johnny Cash recorded ''Orange Blossom Special'' in Nashville at the Columbia Recording Studio.
The Derry Down opens in Winter Haven, Florida, with a concert by Gram Parsons and his band, The Shilos. The club was established by Parsons' stepfather specifically to showcase his talents.
DECEMBER 22, 1964 THUESDAY
Roy Acuff begins a 10-day USO (United Service Organization) tour of West Germany to perform for American troops.
The James Bond movie ''Goldfinger'' opens in New York City. The film leaves an imprint on the lyrics of Sammy Kershaw's 1991 country hit, ''Cadillac Style''.
DECEMBER 23, 1964 WEDNESDAY
The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson has a nervous breakdown during a plane trip to Houston. As a result, Glen Campbell is asked to play bass with the band on the road, a role he handless for the next four months.
Vocalist Eddie Vedder is born in Evanston, Illinois. He comes to national prominence as the frontman for Seattle alternative-rock
band Pearl Jam, namechecked in Lonestar's 1996 country hit, ''No News''.
END 1964/EARLY 1965
Former Sun alumnus Edwin Bruce recorded for Sonic and API Records in 1964 and 1965, it was clear that his career in pop music was over before it got off the ground.
The Beatles had changed everything, and Ed was thinking of getting out of the business altogether when Charlie Louvin scored a top five country hit with Edwin's ''See The Big Man Cry''. Its success earned him another shot on RCA.
Ed married for the first time in Memphis. His son by that marriage, Trey Bruce, became a successful country songwriter and producer. Ed met his second wife, Patsy,
during his first year in Nashville when they both lived in the apartment building. They married in October 1964, and by the time they returned to Nashville they had a one year-old daughter, Ginny. Later, Patsy took over Ed's management. Back on RCA, Ed cut the Southern gothic ''Walker's Woods'' and finally had a hit under his
own name. He paid the bills working with the Marijohn Wilkin Singers on WSM-TV and the ''Bobby Lord Show''. He did background vocals on commercials,
and, as of July 1969, he joined Pete Sayers on WSM-TV's ''Morning Show''. A year or two later, Ed and Patsy bought a restaurant in the Biltmore Hotel on Nashville's Eight Avenue. Commercials were
Ed's mainstay for years, though. He sang and narrated spots for over one hundred sponsors. ''People in Nashville
used to laugh at us'', he said, ''but they quit laughing when they found out how much money was in it''.
The RCA deal was followed by a stint with Monument and then a four-year lay-off from recording. When Ed came back it was with United Artists, Epic, and then MCA. Waylon 'n' Willie hit number 1 with his Urban Cowboys anthem ''Mamas, Don't Let Your babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys'', and in 1981
he finally had his own first number 1 hit as a singer with ''You're The Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had. In 1984, Ed quit MCA and
went back to RCA for the second time, or third if you count the one-off single in 1961.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©