CONTAINS
For audio recordings click on the available > buttons <
> Back 1960-1969 Sun Schedule <
 
1966 SESSIONS (1-12)
January 1, 1966 to December 31, 1966
 
Studio Session for Mack Self, 1966 / Blake Records
Studio Session for Ed Hubbard, January 5, 1966
Studio Session for Charlie Owens, January 5, 1966 / Birchfield Records
Studio Session for Jerry Lee Lewis, January 5, 1966 / Smash Records
Studio Session for Jerry Lee Lewis, January 6, 1966 / Smash Records
Studio Session for Li'l Smokey Miller, January 9, 1966 / Black Gold Records
Studio Session for Bill Yates & Billy Adams, January 11, 1966 / Sun Records
Studio Session for The Jesters, January 22, 1966 / Sun Records
Studio Session for The Jesters, Unknown Date(s) 1966 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Jimmy Day & The Knights, Probably 1966 / Sun Records
Studio Session for The Escapades, Unknown Date January 1966 / Arbet Records
Studio Session for The Escapades, Unknown Date January 1966 / Verve Records
Studio Session for Dane Stinit, January 29, 1966 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Jerry Lee Lewis, July 2, 1966 / Smash Records
Studio Session for Barbara Brown, August 31 & September 5, 1966 / Atco/Cadet/XL Records
Studio Session for Dane Stinit, November 26, 1966 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Barbara Perry, December 4, 1966 / Goldwax Records
Studio Session for The Climates, Late 1966/Early 1967 / Sun Records
Studio Session for Jamie And The Blackhawks, Unknown Date 1966 / MGM Records
Studio Session for The One Way Streets, Unknown Date(s) 1966/1967 / Select-O-Hits
 

For Biographies of Artists see: > The Sun Biographies <
Playlists of the Artists can be found on 706 Union Avenue Sessions of > YouTube <  

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

1966
Inflation grew as part of the effect to fund the war in Vietnam continued. Both the US and USSR continued in their space race to see who would be the first to land a man on the moon. Race riots continued to increase across cities in America and National Guards were needed to bring back law and order. The fashions in both America and UK came from a small well known street in London ( Carnaby Street ) part of the swinging London scene , both women and men wore patterned pants and flowered shirts and boots, shoes and even caps utilized the plastic and vinyl History of Hifi, Music Players and Media for a wet shiny look. The most popular groups included The "Beach Boys" with Pet Sounds, The "Rolling Stones" with Under my Thumb and The "Beatles" with Revolver, and Yesterday and Today.

1966

Robert Parker's ''Barefootin''' makes it to number 7 on Billboard's pop chart on the strength of another Wardell Quezergue arrangement.

Complexity in rock reaches new heights with the Beatles "Rubber Soul" album and is quickly   responded to by the Beach Boys "Pet Sounds" which ignites the studio-era of rock 'n' roll as   records become artistic statements.

Southern soul music gets its first Pop #1 with Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman".

After releasing his classic "Blonde On Blonde" album, Bob Dylan goes into seclusion in upstate   New York for over a year following a motorcycle accident.

Riots break out on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles where rock and roll club patrons and   authorities clash.

Psychedelic rock music begins its meteoric climb as the Byrds "Eight Miles High", The Beach   Boys "Good Vibrations" and The Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" bring the avant garde   sound to the world.

Rock and roll proves too popular for mainstream television not to take advantage of and so a   show based on a rock band called "The Monkees" debuts in the fall to high ratings. Debate   rages over their qualifications as a real group despite the fact their first record hit number 1   before the show was even on the air.
1966

In 1966, former Sun artist Billy Emerson was leading a similar revue at Millatello's in Chicago  with also former Sun artist, Bonnie Turner, one-time wife of Ike Turner. It was she whom  Emerson had replaced in Turner's band in 1953. By the mid-1960s Billy Emerson had enough  of working for other record labels and started issuing discs on his own Tarpon label. He rerecorded  all the vocals from the MAD session tape and he made new recordings of ''Every  Woman I Know (Crazy About Automobile)'' among other titles.

He said: ''When Sam the Sham  and them did ''Red Hot'' and ''Every Woman I Know'', I'd gotten hold of a little money and I  got Tarpon together. I had a national distributor but I was playing in clubs and they sold  there too. I always played blues, and always my kind of blues, irrespective of what else I got  into, rock, jazz or whatever''.

Picking up on dance crazy music, Emerson recorded ''Dancing Whippersnapper'' and a new  version of ''The Wip'' for release...
 
 
...on Tarpon. He recorded other singers on the label including  Lonnie Brooks, Nolan Struck and Carole Vega, but the biggest seller for Emerson's Tarpon  Records was recorded by Denise LaSalle on the tune ''A Love Reputation'', a big seller in the  Midwest.
Sometime in the late 1960s, Billy Emerson tired of the record business and went to work on  stock control at Summit Distributors, and by 1972 he was working in a hospital in Indiana  and playing the Canterbury Lounge in Michigan City. ''I was playing some of the old standards  and jazz tunes'', he remembers. Back in Chicago from 1975 he continued to play jazz venues  but was increasingly veering toward gospel music as he became choir director and organist  at Mt Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago south side.

He told proudly in 1979 that: ''I just took a year off and I got myself together and decided to  put God first. I work for the church now as much as for myself''. Thirty years on and Billy
Emerson has retired to Florida and deals almost exclusively in religious music.

But his retirement was put off a little by his being invited, in a period of renewed interest in  songs like ''Red Hot'', to appear on the American Blues legends tour of Europe in 1979. He  recorded for Big Bear Promotions, including the amazing ''Buzzard Luck'' and the unusual  uptempo blues ''Conjured'', a featured song in his stage act that he originally wrote for  Wynomie Harris. He toured in Europe again the following year, when Sun historian Martin  Hawkins compiled the first LP record of his old Sun recordings. He collaborated with Rooster  Records to revamp some of his Tarpon masters, but eventually his retirement and his  religious work took precedence.

He told Jim O'Neal: ''I've always been a Christian, you know. But I was something of a  backslider''. He does think it is a sin not to serve God. ''It's just that I don't drink and I don't  smoke, or participate, I'll put it that way''. He always says that he likes to listen to good  blues and doesn't see it as a sin to sing the blues. And anyway, ''I always thought of jazz or  blues or whatever form of endeavor as being a form of religion, because people worship  those fields''.

1966

The final country sessions for Sun are made in January and November by Dane Stinit. His ''Country Girl''/''Muddy Ole River'' are issued as Sun 405 in February 1967, the last country music to appear on the label.

The LP, Neshoba Records NESHOBA N-11 ''Let's Go Down South'' issued. Post War blues as sung from Memphis down to Dallas. The sad factor is that for most of the artistes here, the  few sides on this LP represent their total recorded output. A short session in a makeshift studio, ending in 3  or 4 sides, a few dollars paid, this was the beginning and end of their recording careers. Like their old some Sun's 78's  details and information about these artistes is extremely hard to come by: no one wants to remember the  singer who 'never made it. What information there is available has been acquired by an extremely small  number of blues researchers, one of whom writes notes by John G. Allinson and Mike Leadbitter. A Limited  edition of 99 copies.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Session Published in Historical Reasons

STUDIO SESSION FOR MACK SELF
FOR BLAKE RECORDS 1966

SONIC SOUND STUDIO
1692 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
BLAKE SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – M. BLAKE

IT'S TOO LATE NOW
Composer: - Mack Self
Publisher: - B.M.I. - John Cook Music
Matrix number: - None
Recorded: - Unknown Date 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Blake Records (S) 45rpm standard single Blake 209-A mono
IT'S TOO LATE NOW / IT'S TIME TO CRY

IT'S TIME TO CRY
Composer: - Mack Self
Publisher: - B.M.I. - John Cook Music
Matrix number: - None
Recorded: - Unknown Date 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Blake Records (S) 45rpm standard single Blake 209-B mono
IT'S TIME TO CRY / IT'S TOO LATE NOW

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Wilma New - Vocal
Mack Self – Vocal Harmony & Guitar
Unidentified – Lead Guitar
Earl Logan – Steel Guitar
Jimmy Evans – Bass
Billy Mack - Fiddle
Unknown - Drums
 
For Biographies of Wilma New and Mack Self see: > The Sun Biographies <
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

JANUARY 1966 

The campy and outlandish television show “Batman” airs for the first time on ABC during January of 1966. The show featured Adam West as the super-hero “Batman”and Burt Ward as his young sidekick “Robin.” The show was tremendously popular after its debut but only lasted for three seasons as interest in the series declined and it was canceled in 1968. The show was known for its simple moral lessons and for airing two episodes per week with the first episode ending in a cliffhanger to be resolved during the second episode when it aired the following day. Considered to be a cultural phenomenon during the decade, many high profile stars made guest appearances on the show, sometimes being featured as villains. Some of the notable names to appear in either recurring roles or small guest roles included Vincent Price, Julie Newmar, Cesar Romero, Eartha Kitt, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, Rudy Vallee, Joan Collins, Lesley Gore, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Milton Berle, and Sammy Davis Jr. 

JANUARY 1, 1966 SATURDAY 

Decca Records becomes a division pf MCA. The label's roster includes Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Ernest Tubb and Jack Greene.

 JANUARY 2, 1966 SUNDAY 

Eddy Arnold appears on an episode of NBC's ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' honoring ''The Music Of The West''. 

JANUARY 3, 1966 MONDAY 

Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''Waitin' In Your Welfare Line''. 

Tennessee Ernie Ford and Connie Francis guest on NBC's ''The Andy Williams Show''. 

Columbia Records released Tommy Collins' ''If You Can't Bite, Don't Growl''. 

JANUARY 4, 1966 TUESDAY 

Deana Carter is born in Nashville, Tennessee. The daughter of guitarist Fred Carter, her 1996 hit ''Strawberry Wine'' nets the Country Music Association's Song and Single of the Year. She also co-writes the Kenny Chesney/Grace Potter duet ''You And Tequila''. 

''Rawhide'' makes its final prime-time appearance with Sheb Wooley portraying cowboy Nolan alongside the series star, Clint Eastwood. 

Porter Wagoner enters Nashville's Parkview Hospital, recovering from exhaustion. 

Del Reeves begins a one-week tour of military bases in Europe.

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR ED HUBBARD 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SESSION: SUNDAY JANUARY 5, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER: UNKNOWN

Session Published for Historical Reasons

Demo Session (2 Hours) More Details Unknown

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Session Published for Historical Reasons

STUDIO SESSION FOR CHARLIE OWENS
FOR BIRCHFIELD RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
BIRCHFIELD SESSION: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 5, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - LES BIRCHFIELD & ED HUBBARD

Note: Demo two hours and soundtrack session

THAT DEVIL FORREST
Composer: - Les Birchfield
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Birchfield Music
Matrix number: - BR-10474-A - Master
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Birchfield Records (S) 45rpm NR 5152-1 mono
THAT DEVIL FORREST / BALLAD OF SAM DAVIS

BALLAD OF SAM DAVIS
Composer: - Les Birchfield
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Birchfield Music
Matrix number: - BR-10474-B - Master
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Birchfield Records (S) 45rpm NR 5152-2 mono
BALLAD OF SAM DAVIS / THAT DEVIL FORREST

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Charlie Owens - Vocals
Reggie Young - Guitar
More Details Unknown

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Session Published for Historical Reasons 

STUDIO SESSION FOR JERRY LEE LEWIS
FOR SMASH RECORDS 1966 

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SMASH SESSION: WEDNESDAY JANUARY 5, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - JACK CLEMENT 

> STICKS AND STONES <
Composer: - Henry Glover-Titus Turner
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Tangerine Music
Matrix number: - YW1-37789 - Single Master (2:04)
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (S) 45rpm Smash S 2027 mono
STICKS AND STONES / WHAT A HECK OF A MESS
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-A9 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

"Sticks And Stones" is an rhythm and blues song, written by Titus Turner and Henry Glover. The song is best known in a 1960 version by Ray Charles, who added the Latin drum part. It was his first rhythm and blues hit with ABC-Paramount, followed in 1961 with "Hit The Road Jack". 

The song was also covered by Jerry Lee Lewis (Smash 2027), The Zombies, Wanda Jackson and The Kingsmen, as well as Joe Cocker on Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and Elvis Costello in 1994 on the extended play version of Kojak Variety. In 1997, jazz singer Roseanna Vitro included the tune in her tribute to Charles, Catchin’ Some Rays: The Music of Ray Charles.

> WHAT A HECK OF A MESS <
Composer: - Jerry Lee Lewis
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Angus Music
Matrix number: - YW1-37790 - Single Master (2:28)
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (S) 45rpm Smash S 2027 mono
WHAT A HECK OF A MESS / STICKS AND STONES
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-A/10 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

> LINCOLN LIMOUSINE <
Composer: - Jerry Lee Lewis
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-37791 - Master (2:37)
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (LP) 33rpm SRS 67079-B3 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - MEMPHIS BEAT
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B1 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

> ROCKIN' JERRY LEE <
Composer: - Jerry Lee Lewis
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-37792 - Master (2:37)
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1986
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B2 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

> ROCKIN' JERRY LEE <
Composer: - Jerry Lee Lewis
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-37792 - Alternate Take 2 (2:48)
Recorded: - January 5, 1986 - Smash Unissued

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Vocals & Piano
More Details Unknown 

For Biography of Jerry Lee Lewis see: > The Sun Biographies <
Jerry Lee Lewis's Smash recordings can be heard on his playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Session Published for Historical Reasons 

STUDIO SESSION FOR JERRY LEE LEWIS
FOR SMASH RECORDS 1966 

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SMASH SESSION: THURSDAY JANUARY 6, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - JACK CLEMENT 

Note: One source lists January 5, 1966 as the recording date. 

> MEMPHIS BEAT (1) <
Composer: - Dickey Lee Lipscomb-Allen Reynolds-Milton Addington
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Screen Gems Music-Columbia
Matrix number: - YW1-37793 - Master (2:49)
Recorded: - January 6, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (LP) 33rpm SRS 67079-A1 mono
MEMPHIS BEAT
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B3 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

Title song from ''Memphis Beat'' an album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on the Smash label in 1966. More than half the songs on Memphis Beat were recorded on January 5 and 6, 1966 at Phillips Studio in Memphis. The remaining selections were taken from a rare New York City session eight months earlier and Lewis's earliest sessions at Smash in 1963. The album includes a rare Lewis original called "Lincoln Limousine, a garbled tribute to John F. Kennedy. In his book Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found, Joe Bonomo calls the track "simply weird, so ambiguous and amateurishly written that it's impossible to determine exactly what motivated him to write it''. The album also includes "Too Young'', a piano lounge number that Bonomo deems "a real laugher" and "hysterically uncomfortable''. Lewis fares better on "Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" and the George Jones classic "She Thinks I Still Care'', but the collection contained no new hits.

After ''Memphis Beat'' was released in May 1966, it stalled at 145 on the Billboard albums chart despite solid promotion from Smash and decent reviews. Lewis's commercial slump would continue until 1968, when he finally broke on the country charts with "Another Place, Another Time''. In 2014 Lewis biographer Rick Bragg wrote, "Throughout the mid-1960s he cut one album after another of other people's music... But none of it was new, not really''. Bruce Eder of AllMusic praises the album: "After veering hard into country (and country-pop) territory with Country Songs for City Folks, Jerry Lee Lewis came roaring back with Memphis Beat in 1966, featuring his hardest rocking sounds in years, and a band who were as good as any with whom he'd ever recorded''.

> THE URGE <
Composer: - Donnie Fritts
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-37794 - Master (2:40)
Recorded: - January 6, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (LP) 33rpm SRS 67079-B6 mono
MEMPHIS BEAT
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B4 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

> WHENEVER YOU'RE READY <
Composer: - Cecil Harrelson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-37795 - Master (1:46)
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (LP) 33rpm SRS 67079-B2 mono
MEMPHIS BEAT
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B5 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968 

> SHE THINKS I STILL CARE <
Composer: - Dickey Lee Lipscomb
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Jack Music
Matrix number: - YW1-37796 - Master (2:47)
Recorded: - January 5, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (LP) 33rpm SRS 67079-A5 mono
MEMPHIS BEAT
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B6 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968

"She Thinks I Still Care" is a country song written by Dickey Lee and Steve Duffy. The song was recorded by multiple artists, including George Jones, Connie Francis, Anne Murray, Elvis Presley and Patty Loveless. 

According to Bob Allen's book ''George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend'', Jones first heard the song when Jack Clement played it for him at Gulf Coast Studio in Beaumont, which Clement owned with Bill Hall. The song had been written by Dickey Lee Lipscomb and Steve Duffy, two professional songwriters under contract to Clement's publishing company, so Clement was eager for Jones to record it. According to Allen, Jones had little interest, responding, "I don't like it too much. It's got too many damn 'just becauses' in it. I don't think nobody really wants to hear that shit, do you?" Undeterred, both Clement and Hall continued to pitch the song to Jones. Raymond Nalley, brother of Gulf Coast session musician Luther Nalley, later recalled:

"They had this ole, wornout, rinky-dink tape recorder layin' around the studio... Everytime they'd try to lay that song on George, he'd just look at that damn tape recorder and ask 'em, 'How much you sell me that thing for?' One day, Bill Hall finally told him, 'Hell, George, if you'll record the song, I'll give ya the damn tape recorder!'". 

In his essay for 1994 Sony retrospective ''The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country'', Rich Kienzle also states that Jones was underwhelmed by the song after Clement had "decided not to play George the tape but to sing him the song, altering the melody as he sang it to give it a stronger country feel''. Jones himself always insisted he had no doubts about the song. Recalling his first impression of the tune, he insisted in the 1989 documentary Same Ole Me, "Boy, I just flipped! I said, 'Golly, lemme have this thing''. In the 1994 video retrospective Golden Hits, he added, "It knocked me out. I couldn't wait to get into the studio''. The song was released in April 1962, his first single release on United Artists after leaving Mercury, and it remained on the Billboard survey for twenty-three weeks, six of them at number 1. In his autobiography ''I Lived To Tell It All'', the singer wrote, "For years after I recorded it, the song was my most requested, and it became what people in my business call a 'career record,' the song that firmly establishes your identity with the public''. The B-side, "Sometimes You Just Can't Win", reached number 17 on the Country & Western chart. "She Thinks I Still Care" was one of seven records George would chart in 1962, and in the fall of 1963 he would travel to New York City and perform the song on Jimmy Dean's ABC network show.

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Vocals & Piano
More Details Unknown 

For Biography of Jerry Lee Lewis see: > The Sun Biographies <
Jerry Lee Lewis's Smash recordings can be heard on his playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

JANUARY 6, 1966 THURSDAY 

Ernest Tubb quits a two-pack-a-day smoking habit. He gains 49 pounds in the ensuing three months. 

Bob Dylan and Sara Dylan have their first child, Jesse Byron Dylan, in New York. That same year, Dylan writes a future country hit for Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, ''You Ain't Going Nowhere''. 

After less than four months on the air, the ABC sitcom ''O.K. Crackerby'' makes its final prime-time appearance. The show features country Grammy-winner Burl Ives in the lead role. 

JANUARY 8, 1966 SATURDAY 

''Shindig!'' ends its 16-month run on ABC-TV. The weekly music showcase featured guitarist James Burton, Glen Campbell and Leon Russell as members of the house band, the Shin-Diggers. 

Red Sovine's recitation ''Giddyup Go'' kicks off a six-week ride at number 1 on the Billboard country singles chart. 

JANUARY 9, 1966 SUNDAY 

Roger Miller recorded ''Husbands And Wives'' and ''I've Been A Long Time Leavin' (But I'll Be A Long Time Gone)'' in Nashville, Tennessee. 

JANUARY 10, 1966 MONDAY 

Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''Dear Uncle Sam'', Kitty Well's ''A Woman Half My Age'', and The Wilburn Brothers' ''Someone Before Me''. 

Leslie Uggams and Barry McGuire do a Roger Miller medley on NBC's ''Hullabaloo''. They string together ''England Swings'', ''You Don't Want My Love'', ''Do-Wacka-Do'', ''You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd'', ''Chug-A-Lug'', ''Engine Engine Number 9'' and ''King On The Road''.

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Session Published for Historical Reasons

STUDIO SESSION FOR LI'L SMOKEY MILLER
FOR BLACK GOLD RECORDS 1966
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
BLACK GOLD SESSION: SUNDAY JANUARY 9, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - REGGIE YOUNG

More Details Unknown

> COTTON PATCH <
Composer: - James V. Vancey
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Black Gold-Yanden Publisher
Matrix number: - T5KM-2358 - Master (2:20)
Recorded: - January 9, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Black Gold Records (S) 45rpm 500-A mono
COTTON PATCH / YOUNG YEARS

> YOUNG YEARS <
Composer: - Chuck Comer-James V. Vancey
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Black Gold-Yanden Publisher
Matrix number: - T5KM-2359 - Master (2:01)
Recorded: - January 9, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Black Gold Records (S) 45rpm 500-B mono
YOUNG YEARS / COTTON PATCH

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Li'l Smokey Miller - Vocals
Reggie Young - Guitar
More Details Unknown

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

 
 © - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
 
Vance Yates was not in evidence at the time Bill Yates and Billy Adams' final Sun session on January 11,  1966. At this time, Bill Yates was living at 1721 South Orleans Street in south Memphis, and Adams' living  at 4562 Hodge Road in Whitehaven, south Memphis. By now, the man in the producer's role at Sun was  Knox Phillips, as Sam Phillips explained: ''Charlie Underwood and Scotty Moore and Stan Kesler worked at  Madison Avenue studio until my son Knox started looking after the studio.

He really recorded most of the  things that came out on Sun at the last. He is an excellent producer and many of the things he did were  good''.
 
STUDIO SESSION FOR BILL YATES & BILLY ADAMS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: TUESDAY JANUARY 11, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - KNOX PHILLIPS

Knox bought into Billy Adams' rhythm and blues revivals and issued his versions of ''Rock Me Baby'' and  ''Open The Door Richard'' on Sun in February 1966. He also enjoyed Bill Yates' voice, though at this session  he tried to take Yates closer to the pop market, coupling two very different songs, a classy bi-voiced ballad  and a teeny lyric. On Sun 399, ''Big Big World'' opened with a churchy organ and built into a full-sounding,  soulful song about a search for his departed girl. The passionately-sung lyric was by Red West, one of Elvis  Presley's main buddies, amended by the top Memphis-based songwriting team of Fred Burch and Gerald  Nelson. It may well have been intended for Presley originally. It was recorded also by Johnny Burnette in  1961. In contrast, ''I Dropped My M&Ms'' was literally pop candy, about the effect of a new girl in school.  Here are included a number of unissued Yates tracks derived from this session.''Share Your Love With Me'' is  another atmospheric ballad, while ''Two Can Play This Game'' again revisits the Pharoahs beat. ''She's Still  Got A Hold On Me'' is a very memorable, soulful ballad with a gently commanding performance from Bill.  Finally from this session here included alternative takes of ''Carleen'', ''Big Big World'', and ''I Dropped My  M&Ms'', each stripped down a little and with surprises here and there.

Composer: - Red West
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Studio Music
Matrix number: - U 362 - Master (3:08)
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - February 1, 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 399-A mono
BIG BIG WORLD / I DROPPED MY M & M'S
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/9 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

Bill Yates' final Sun release stems from a January 11, 1966 session that yielded four titles, two of which  remained unissued. ''Big, Big World'' is plainly the side to be reckoned with. This slice of organ-based  impassioned Memphis soul would have been at home on a William Bell collection. Yates is a credible  vocalist and he knows the genre back and forth – his skill honed by years of nightly club gigs. This release  closed Sun's 300 series at a time when Memphis was again prominently displayed on the musical map. This  time, however, it was those upstart competitors, Stax and Hi, who were leading the with Stan Kesler's X-L  productions in the running and Quinton Claunch's Goldwax Records coming on strong.

Composer: - Red West
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Studio Music
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (3:10)
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-30 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS
Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated - Hara Music
Matrix number: - U 363 - Master (2:09)
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - February 1, 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 399-B mono
I DROPPED MY M & M'S / BIG BIG WORLD
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/10 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated - Hara Music
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:19)
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-29 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS

Knox obviously bought in to Adams' rhythm and blues revivals and this time the disc coupled two more  blues classics, ''Open The Door Richard'' and ''Rock Me Baby'', released as Sun 401 in February 1966. The  saga of ''Open The Door Richard'' and his door was a much-loved early rhythm and blues song dating back to  a vaudeville routine popularized by Dusty Fletcher and others and recorded by Fletcher and by Jack McVea  in 1946. The song was covered by 14 artists in 1947 including Count Basie, Louis Jordan, some jazz bands,  some vocal groups and a western swing band. It became a mayor catchphrase, and even when ''Open The  Door Richard'' imitations and gags had died down the song remained well-known. Both Billy Riley and  Ernie Barton had tried it in the Sun studio before Billy Adams got there.

Composer: - Dan Howell-Jack McYea-John Mason-Dusty Fletcher
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Duchess Music
Matrix number: - U 364 - Master (2:30)
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - February 1, 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 401-A mono
OPEN THE DOOR RICHARD / ROCK ME BABY
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-13 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

These sides (Sun 401-A-B) stem from this session that produced Bill Yates final Sun record. This was Adams  last, as well. Adams' music, at least that which saw release on Son, tended to be covers of rhythm and blues  standards. At least one side of each of this four Sun releases contained a tune of relative blues antiquity.

OPEN THE DOOR RICHARD** (2)
Composer: - Dan Howell-Jack McYea-John Mason-Dusty Fletcher
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Duchess Music
Matrix number: None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - January 11, 1966

On this final release, Adams dug into the shopworn bag of traditional material for both sides. ''Open The  Door Richard'' first saw daylight as a novelty/jazz tune that finally crossed over into the pop charts in the late  1940s. It's anybody;s guess which version first got the attention of Billy Adams and his rhythm and blues  smart buddies. Was it Hot Lips Page? Jack McVea? or Dusty Fletcher's original? In recording this tune,  Adams was followed the lead of fellow Sun alumni Billy Riley and Ernie Barton, who also cut it.
Composer: - Riley B. King- Joe Josea
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Duchess Music
Matrix number: - U 365 - Master (2:42)
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - February 1, 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 401-B mono
ROCK ME BABY / OPEN THE DOOR RICHARD
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/14 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
 
''Rock Me Baby'' has been recorded by everyone from B.B. King to Pat Boone. The tune has been reworked   and covered by so many artists that it has truly become part of the collective unconscious of bluesmen and   fans alike. The song, which is explicitly sexual, reminds us that the phrase ''rock and roll'' used to refer to   nothing except the reproductive acte.

Adams' version places a heavy emphasis on a female chorus (the   Raelettes were big business in 1966), and the resulting sound is quite churchy, which is somewhat ironic   considering that the lyric is an unmistakable invitation to a night of carnal pleasure. Unfortunately the names   of the singers were not logged. The Adams disc was accompanied to the marketplace once again by a Yates   disc from the same session, ''Big Big World'' and ''I Dropped My M&Ms''. Sun 401 was to prove Billy  Adams last disc on the label, though it was not his last involvement there.
 
'ROCK ME BABY** (2)
Composer: - Riley B. King- Joe Josea
Publisher: - B.M.i. - Duchess Music
Matrix number: None - Sun Unissued (2:42)
Recorded: January 11, 1966

SHE'S STILL GOT A HOLD ON ME* (1)
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: January 11, 1966

Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued
Recorded: - January 11, 1966
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-32 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS

Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:49)
Recorded: January 11, 1966
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-25 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS

TO REFUSE LOVE
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - B.M.i. - Copyright Control - Instrumental
Matrix number: - None – Sun Unissued
Recorded: - January 11, 1966

Composer: - Bill Yates
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:32)
Recorded: January 11, 1966
Released: - June 14, 2013
First appearance: Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 17277-28 mono
BILL YATES - THE SUN YEARS PLUS

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Bill Yates - Vocal* & Piano
Billy Adams - Vocal** & Drums
Lee Adkins - Guitar
Donald Duck Dunn - Bass
Russ Carlton - Saxophone
Unknown - Female Second Vocal
Unknown - Vocal Chorus

The M&M's session was Bill Yates' last for Sun, though it was not his last involvement at the studio.
 
For Biographies of Bill Yates and Billy Adams see: > The Sun Biographies <
Bill Yates and Billy Adams' Sun recordings can be heard on the playlists from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

JANUARY 11, 1966 TUESDAY

RCA released Sergeant Barry Sadler's ''The Ballad Of The Green Berets''. 

JANUARY 12, 1966 WENESDAY

Carl Perkins retires from the music business to take up farming. But not for long. Johnny Cash soon invites him to go on a tour, and Perkins plays as a member of Cash's band for the next decade.

 Del Reeves concludes a series of concerts for U.S. soldiers at bases in Europe.

JANUARY 13, 1966 THURSDAY

Bass player Shayne Morrison is born. He joins Carthage, Texas-based Perfect Stranger, which earns a hit in 1995 with ''You Have The Right To Remain Silent''.

JANUARY 14, 1966 FRIDAY

Warner Mack recorded ''Talkin' To The Wall''.

Sonny James and Roy Acuff are featured in ABC-TV's prime-time lineup on ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.

JANUARY 15, 1966 SATURDAY

ABC present a half-hour special ''An Evening With... Eddy Arnold''.

Bobby Goldsboro makes a guest appearance on ABC's Dick Clark=hosted music series ''American Bandstand''.

JANUARY 17, 1966 MONDAY

The Everly Brothers make an appearance on the NBC music show ''Hullabaloo''. Hosted by Trini Lopez, it also features The Vogues performing the future Hal Ketchum hit ''Five O'Clock World''.

Columbia Records released Johnny Cash's ''The One On The Right Is On The Left'', Marty Robbins' ''Count Me Out''.

JANUARY 19, 1966 WEDNESDAY

King of the tube, Roger Miller hosts an NBC-TV special, the first color 30-minute in the network's history.

JANUARY 20, 1966 THURSDAY

Don Gibson recorded ''(Yes) I'm Hurting'' at Nashville's RCA Studio B.

JANUARY 21, 1966 FRIDAY

The Beatles' George Harrison marries Patti Boyd at the Registry Office in Epsom, England. During their years together, he writes ''Something'', which becomes a country hit when Johnny Rodriguez remakes it.

Buck Owens performs ''Waitin' In Your Welfare Line'' during prime-time on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
JANUARY 1966

Sun Records' true last gasp was provided by a bizarre aggregation called The Jesters. The  leader of the group was guitarist Teddy Paige (real name Edward LaPaglia). Paige, a credible  blues guitarist, was joined by Sam Phillips' younger son, Jerry, on rhythm guitar. Jerry  Phillips had been making one hundred dollars a night when he was eleven or twelve working  in midget wrestling tournaments in Arkansas.

Billing himself as ''DeLane Phillips – The World's  Most Perfectly Formed Midget'', he retired prematurely after a member of the audience tried  to stab him. Retreating to safer ground, he took up the guitar.

The lead vocalist, Tommy Minga, had written a Chuck Berry sound-alike tune called ''Cadillac  Man'', and The Jesters auditioned it for Knox Phillips.
 
''I just wanted something really strange  because I had been raised on Jerry Lee Lewis and drunken Charlie Rich sessions'', says Knox.  The Jesters recorded ''Cadillac Man'' with Minga, but Paige considered the results to be  unsatisfactory. He called in Jim Dickinson, who was under contract to Bill Justis, to play  piano and try the vocal part. Dickinson handled the role to perfection. Knox experimented  with feed-in from one microphone to another so that when he increased the level on the  piano mike during the solo, the drum level also increased with an eerie echo that Dickinson  characterized as ''pure Africa''.

The Jesters soon broke up. Paige helped Shelby Singleton catalog the Sun blues tapes and  played session guitar for Knox Phillips and Singleton, before moving to Ireland. Jerry Phillips  joined the family business. Minga, in common with the other members of the band, dropped  out of the music scene.

Dickinson felt that ''Cadillac Man'', which owed more to 1961 than 1966, was doomed from  the outset. With good national promotion, it might have stood a chance. In any event, with  justice it should have been the last Sun records. Its rowdy, anarchic energy would have  made an appropriate closing gesture.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Like his brother Knox, Jerry Phillips perpetuates the family bloodline with a combination of pride and dignity. His indoctrination couldn't have been more appropriate, because at aged six he was allowed to sit in the Sun studio control room, where he watched his father record The Prisonaires singing ''Just Walkin' In The Rain''. Some twelve years later he found himself on the other side of the glass with The Jesters, a local fraternity combo who delivered the last of the killer Sun singles.

STUDIO SESSION FOR THE JESTERS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: SATURDAY JANUARY 22, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER –  KNOX PHILLIPS

As in the instance of Randy & The Radiants, Sun tended to steer clear of set-piece groups (solo acts were a good deal less expensive to record). The Jesters were skittish both in name and musical direction, to the point that they owned more to Britsh art school than to Southern cool school. The driving force behind the restless five some was Teddy Paige, a gifted if somewhat unconventional guitarist who could summon up inspired themes like ''Night Train From Chicago'' with ease.

Composer: - Teddy Paige
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:12)
Recorded: - January 22, 1966
Released: - April 1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sun Box 109-12/3 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - CADILLAC MAN
Reissued: - 2002 Sanctuary Records (CD) 500/200rpm FBUBX002-7/24 mono
50 GOLDEN YEARS 1952 - 2002

Composer: - Willie Dixon
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Jewell Music Publishers-Bug Music Limited
Matrix number: - U 366 - Master (2:28)
Recorded: - January 22, 1966
Released: - February 1, 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 400-B mono
MY BABE / CADILLAC MAN
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/11 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
 
The only label not doing so well in Memphis music's second (or third) coming was Sun. By 1966, it was operating more like a small, family-owned local label than one at the hub of an internationally known recording center, never mind one that had delivered icons to the world's door. Sam owned it, his older son Knox, Artist & Repertoire man, it and – with this release by The Jesters – his younger brother Jerry recorded for it.

The Jesters were led by guitarist Teddy Paige (Edward LaPaglio), and a rather lackluster vocalist, Tommy Minga. Paige had something of a proto-punk attitude (his song introductions included the winning ''Here's another one you're not gonna like'').
He had written a few songs, ''Cadillac Man'' among them. Sam Phillips sat in on the early sessions and hated Minga's singing, so Page called in Jim Dickinson, ostensibly to play piano. Minga wasn't told about the session.
 
''I read the lyrics off notebook paper while we cut it'', Dickinson remembered. ''Sam had a suit and tie on, and he was walking around with a clipboard in his hand, writing down microphones and stuff. I got real excited. I'd never really met him. That session was the first time. I felt the hand of a master. I looked into black pools of madness in Sam's eyes and I saw the same thing Elvis and Howlin' Wolf saw''.

Knox worked the board and had the drums feeding into the same channel as the piano. When he increased the input level on the piano during the break the drums bled into the piano microphone with an eerie echo that Dickinson called ''pure Africa''. The record didn't do well, and Dickinson, who was under contract to Bill Justis's New Beale Street Sheiks, never joined the group.
Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - U 367 - Master (2:12)
Recorded: - January 22, 1966
Released: - February 1, 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 400-A mono
CADILLAC MAN / MY BABE
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/12 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
 
With both masters completed, the last true rocker to sport the yellow Sun label was in the can (ironically, a copyright filing error by the Sun staff gave Tommy Minga writer credit on the A-side). The single was released that spring and must have sounded positively antediluvian on contemporary playlists. According to Jim Dickinson, ''Cadillac Man'' did temporarily ignite San's near-dormant interest in the label.
 
''After the session'', said Jim, ''Sam was trying to get me to join the band. I was at Ardent the day that he called. His brother Jud, who handled promotion, told me, 'We're gonna rev it back up, and this is the real thing! Then Sam got on the phone and said, 'Boy, you gotta cast your lot! And I told him, 'I'm afraid my lot's already cast, I'm under contract to Bill Justis''! He said, 'Oh hell, Bill wouldn't care'. And sure enough, Bill didn't care. But they put the record out with no contract''.
 
''Sam may have called Bill Justis, I don't know about that'', said Knox. ''After he heard ''Cadillac Man'', he did want to sign Jim as part of the band, and I remember Judd being involved, but Jim wouldn't do it. Sam loved it all; he loved Teddy, he loved anybody that was trying to express something in an extraordinary way. The last thing that Sam was, was a follower. Growing up with him, you took that for granted''.
 
Teddy Paige said, ''I remember Jerry and I packing up the white label promo copies. We had the bull by the horns but we couldn't raise enough enthusiasm. Jerry's uncle, Jud, was hopeful, but he didn't know what to do with us either. No promotion is what I remember, but maybe they couldn't promote it, because it was kinda odd for the time''. Either was, the record was not successful.
 
BLACK CAT BOONE
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Sun Entertainment
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - January 22, 1966
 
''The second night was the ''smoke'' session, used to clear an earlier undocumented date with the union'', said Jim Dickinson. ''I literally thought we were just going to sit around and smoke! Sam was there this time, wearing a suit and tie, writing stuff on a clipboard. I had just cut this song ''Black Cat Bone'' as a demo for Sam The Sham, so we tried that, and ''My Babe''. The only time I ever spent with the band was those two sessions''.
 
''My Babe'', an upbeat arrangement of the old warhorse with another strong Paige solo, was the obvious choice for a flipside. Extensive searches in both the Sun and Phillips Recording vaults have failed to turn up a copy of ''Black Cat Bone''.
 
''Black Cat Bone'' was great'', said Knox Phillips, ''The band was a two-headed monster and both the monsters are pretty good, but they're different, with Jim, there 
Composer: - Teddy Paige
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originallyn Issued (2:33)
Recorded: - January 22, 1966
Released: - April 1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sun Box 109-12/4 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - CADILLAC MAN
Reissued: - November 24, 2008  Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-7 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS
 
Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Jim Dickinson – Vocal & Piano
Teddy Paige (Edward LaPaglio) – Guitar
Jerry Phillips – Guitar & Maracas
Billy Wulfers – Bass
Eddie Robertson - Drums
 
For Biographies of The Jesters see: > The Sun Biographies <
The Jesters's Sun recordings can be heard on their playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <
 
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
 
STUDIO SESSION FOR THE JESTERS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE(S) JANUARY 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER –  KNOX PHILLIPS

Composer: - Carl Perkins-Howard Griffin
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Hi-Lo Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (1:55)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - April 1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sun Box 109-12/6 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - CADILLAC MAN
Reissued: -  November 24, 2008  Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-11 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

'CAN'T YOU SEE
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Sun Entertainment
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: -  B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:03)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - November 24, 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-3 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Alternate Take 1 - Not Originally Issued (2:19)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - 1974
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm 6641 180 mono
THE SUN STORY
Reissued: - 1977 Charly Records (LP) 33rpm CR 30124 mono
THE BEST OF SUN ROCKABILLY - VOLUME 2
 
CADILLAC MAN*** (3)
Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Alternate Take 2 - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

Composer: - Mea Boren Axton-Tommy Durden
Publisher: - B.M.I. - EMI Harmonies Limited
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (1:46)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - April 1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sun Box 109-12/5 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - CADILLAC MAN
Reissued: - November 24, 2008  Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-8 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS
 
LONELY HAPPINESS
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

SHOTGUN**
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: -  B.M.I. - Copiright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:35)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - November 24, 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-2 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

STORMY MONDAY BLUES**
Composer: - Aaron Walker
Publisher: - Cherry River Music
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: -  B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:22)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - November 24, 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-6 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:21)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - November 24, 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-13 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Contrl
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:06)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - November 24, 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-1 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS
 
THESE WINDOWS CAN'T HIDE**
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

THESE WINDOWS CAN'T HIDE (INSTRUMENTAL)
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

Composer: - William Robertson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Jobete Music
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (2:32)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - April 1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sun Box 109-12/7 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - CADILLAC MAN
Reissued: - November 24, 2008 Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-14 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

The core Jesters continued to work at Phillips Recording studio backing Jimmy Day on standard fare such as the Miracles' cover ''What's So Good About Goodbye'', included here. No less an authority than Jim Dickinson reckons that Day ''had one of the best pure voices I ever heard in the studio''. But, to all intents and purposes, with no committed singer or front man available The Jesters themselves fizzled out.
Composer: - Tommy Minga
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Not Originally Issued (1:58)
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
Released: - November 24, 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-5 mono
THE JESTERS - CADILLAC MEN - THE SUN MASTERS

WHOA JOE
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966

SUMMER'S HERE
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: -  Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date January 1966
 
 Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Tommy Minga - Vocal*
Jimmy Day - Vocal**
Teddy Paige (Edward LaPaglio) – Guitar
Jerry Phillips – Vocal***, Guitar & Maracas
Billy Wulfers – Bass
Eddie Robertson - Drums
Wayne Jackson - Trumpet
 
Jerry became increasingly involved with the family's radio station business. Both he and Knox eventually formed their own production companies, and Knox became a celebrated engineer and producer in his own right. However mixed their father's signals might have seemed, his tacit example and encouragement stood both in good stead for a lifetime in the music business. AS to the other protagonists, Eddie Robertson continued as a musician; Billy Wulfers sidestepped his impoverished background to become a millionaire. Jim Dickinson's exploits as a Memphis maverick are common knowledge Tommy Minga had already moved on to his next set of Escapades.
 
The strangest post-Jesters journey is Teddy's. For a couple of years the guitarist moved around the South, working construction but playing music wherever possible. Sessions brought Paige back to Memphis, where he contributed to records by Arbee Stidham, Cliff Jackson and David Allen Coe. Departing the United States for good in 1972, a burgeoning fixation with medieval music saw him wander Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s, sporting the leather tabard and lute of a genuine troubadour. Supported by odd jobs and various girlfriends, his eye-catching minstrel garb and offbeat personality fetching a small notoriety. He was even corralled back into the recording studio, the fruit of which was a lone single, ''London Cherry'', credited to Teddy Paige and The New Jesters. By that time, the genial eccentric had been institutionalized, thanks to a mishap involving an obnoxious neighbour and the sabre that Teddy kept at his side. Before this unfortunate turn of events, Paige had managed to reconnect briefly with the Phillips family, when Sam, Knox and Jerry were in London for a Memphis celebration in the 1990s.
 
According to Know Phillips, ''He showed up with this medieval street urchin, outfit on. The people at the theatre didn't like him being there, and their security were ready to throw him out, but we said, 'Oh no, he's with us'. Teddy got to see the thing and it was real nice. Still all that weird, crazy stuff around us''.
 
The crazed patina that hangs heavy around the best Sun material is palpable on these incredible Jesters recordings. The greatest rock and roll is necessarily a producer of its environment, and when that environment is Memphis, you just know it's going to be something special. Finally, we get to hear how special it is.
 
''The Jesters'' said Knox, ''are a combination of things that I don;t think anybody else that came out of Memphis was. We all wanted to go back to the raw feel, subliminally, I mean, it wasn't anything that we discussed. Unplanned raw energy captured on tape is what it is, and that was what the manifesto of Sun Records was. Tommy Minga singing crazy with Teddy playing blues licks worked, and it would work today''.
 
For Biographies of The Jesters see: > The Sun Biographies <
The Jesters's Sun recordings can be heard on their playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube < 
 
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
THE JESTERS - were formed in 1964, led by guitarist Edaward LaPaiglia aka Teddy Paige, who  had previously led a teenage aggression called the Church Keys, and was heavily into the '5'  Royales, (then living in Memphis and recording for the Home Of The Blues label), Carl  Perkins, Bo Diddley and Freddie King.
Paige hooked up with singer Tommy Minga, previously  of the Escapades, and added rhythm guitarist Jerry Phillips, son of Sun Records Sam Phillips  (and fresh from a stint as a fake midget wrestler), bassist Bill Wulfers and drummer Eddie  Robertson in short order.
Their set list was heavy on old blues, rhythm and blues and  rockabilly tunes as well as originals, some re-writes of classic rhythm and blues tunes, some  quite unique, and short of British Invasion hits that were the staple on most local white  groups at the time.
 
At this time Jerry's older brother Knox Phillips was pretty much running the show at the  much diminished Sun Records, Sam was disillusioned and bored with the record biz and  preferred to concentrate on his radio stations, and Knox began recording The Jesters. Tapes  from two sessions with eleven tracks from the original band have survived, as well as the  two sides issue on 45, although these would not see release until the late 1980's when they  were first issued on Charley's Sun: Into The 1960's box-set and later in 2009 on the Ace/Big  Beat CD Cadillac Men: The Sun Masters, which added four Escapades tracks to fill out the CD.

The sides with Tommy Minga singing are all first class, snot nosed, garage howlers, ''What's  The Matter Baby'', ''Get Gone Baby'', ''Strange As It Seems'', the original, Minga fronted  version of ''Cadillac Man'', a version of Bill Doggett's ''Hold'' with added lyrics and retitled  ''The Big Hurt'', the '5' Royales ''Slummer The Slum'' barely re-written as ''Stompity Stomp'',  as well as versions of ''Boppin' The Blues'', ''Night Train From Chicago'', ''Heartbreak Hotel''  and the Bo Diddley cop, ''Jim Dandy'' and ''Sweet Sixteen'' would all fit perfectly on any  volume of Back From The Grave (Crypt). Certainly had it been released at the time What's  The Matter Baby could have given the Standells, Shadows Of Night, Knickerbokers and other  crude hitmakers of that year a run for their Beatle boots.

How and why Tommy Minga's voice was deemed unsuitable for issued wax is unclear, but  once it was decided to bring Jim Dickinson in on piano and lead vocals, ''Cadillac Man'' was  transformed into another creature all together. Rather than a snarling, Them/Rolling Stones  styled garage rocker, it became a throw back to an earlier era at Sun, that of full throated  screamers like Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley. Sam Phillips was said to be highly excited  by the possibilities, and secured Jim Dickinson (who had previously cut two singles under  the tutelage of Sun alumni Bill Justis) contract release and put the band back in the studio to  cut a/b-side, a version of Little Walter's ''My Babe'' (itself a version of Sister Rosette Tharpe's  version of the old gospel standard ''This Train''). ''Cadillac Man'' b/w ''My Babe'' was issued by  Sun in 1966 and died a quick death. In a year (1966) that saw the ''Shadows Of Night'', ''13th  Floor Elevators'' and ''Standells'' hit the charts, the Dickinson led version of ''Cadillac Man''  had probably less commercial appeal than the material cut with Tommy Minga singing. It was  also the beginning of the end for The Jesters. There would be no follow up. At some point  they recorded a version of Smokey Robinson's ''What So Good About Goodbye'' with Jimmy  Day singing, but it too sat on the shelf for decades.

The band, with Minga back in front, briefly resumed gigging, but soon fell apart. Lack of  success had halted their forward motion, and when a rock and roll group is not moving  forward, it is dying.

By late 1966 it was over for The Jesters, Tommy Minga put together a new version of the  Escapades. They released two singles ''I Tell No Lies'' (issued on both Arbert and XL) and  ''Mad Mad Mad'' (Verve) both in late 1966. Teddy Paige played some sessions, ending up on  discs by David Allen Coe and Cliff Jackson, left music to work construction and eventually  relocated to the U.K where he was said to have taken to wandering around in medieval  minstrel garb, complete with saber. He was briefly institutionalized in the nineties after a  run in between said sword and a neighbor. Jerry Phillips would find work at the family radio  stations, the other two got real jobs.

The Jesters were among the best and most unique garage bands in that peak year for garage  band rock and roll. Paige's guitar playing is especially noteworthy, he works in quotes from  Lowman Pauling, Freddie King, and Bo Diddley, yet still retained a unique and biting sound.  Tommy Minga too had his own style, having perfected the requisite 'teenager with hard on  who hates his parents' delivery. Jim Dickinson would of course go on to long and colorful  career, recapped after his 2009 death here. Had ''What's The Matter Baby'' been issued on  45, it may have been a hit, or sold so few copies that it would got for $500 on Ebay today,  either way, the best sounds The Jesters left behind are among the best garage punk I've ever  heard.

YET ANOTHER VIEW OF THE JESTERS - Bizarre. That's the epithet Knox Phillips returns to again and again when attempting to categorize the head-scratching contents of this collection by his bother Jerry's short-lived mid-1960 combo, the almighty Jesters.  It is ironic that the legend of The Jesters is based upon their lone single ''Cadillac Man'', which, fantastic as it is, was neither performed by the working version of the group, nor was a hundred per cent representative of them. The truth is that The Jesters were even more edgy and uncontained and, in the loco-motion of Teddy Paige's crazed guitar runs and Tommy Minga's rebel yell, were the true analogue to the great Memphis wildmen of the 1950s, be they blues belter or hillbilly cat. The material constitutes some of the most vital and cathartic rock recorded for the Sun label.

Bizarre is also perhaps the most useful description of the tale about to unfold of how this music came to be, and the paths of at least some of those involved. Prepare to have your mind boggled, but remember that in Memphis, that most quixotic of rock and roll locales, bizarre is just par for the course.

The Phillips brothers spent their youth fully exposed, on a musical and social level, to the artists their father Sam had discovered, from Elvis Presley to Roy Orbison to Howlin' Wolf and Charlie Rich. A fierce champion of the independent spirit, Sam's growing disillusion with the record industry meant he neither expected nor directly encouraged his sons to follow in his footsteps, but their interest and desire to work in music was as heartfelt as his had been. Fitting then, that the fruit of their labours, The Jesters, would approximate the musical excitement that Sam had unleashed a decade before.

However, an aggregation called The Jesters had existed for some time prior to the involvement of the Phillips, centred around one of the most colourful characters in Memphis music: Edward LaPaglia, aka Teddy Paige. A cherished devotee of the blues, Teddy formed his first band, the Church Keys, at Christian Brothers High in 1963, with a line-up that would evolve into The Jesters by the following year. From the outset, Teddy marched to a different tune, but his ability on the fretboard commanded respect from all.

According to Teddy Paige, ''We did a lot of rhythm and blues stuff, like the 5 Royales. You were more or less expected to plat what was on the radio. Most of the time I went along with the singers, as they were never into my Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry format''!

Even as a pre-teen, Jerry Phillips himself had undergone of the more notable initiations into the entertainment business available. A Phillips family friend was legendary wrestler Sputnik Monroe, whose showboating antics had made him massively popular in the late 1950s, and whom had taken an avuncular interest in the tough, if diminutive, Jerry. Another family friend, disc jockey Johnny Dark, had a wrestler associate, Tex Morgan, who hit upon a novel, if voyeuristic, twist on the sport.

According to Jerry Phillips, ''Rex knew this midget, Fabulous Frankie Thumb, that wanted to get into the wrestling business, and asked if I'd be interested in teaching him some wrestling moves, and then fighting, with him in public. So I became ''Delayne Phillips, The World's Most Perfectly Formed Midget Wrestler''! We wrestled around the south, southeast for about a year and made some good money. Of course, they were telling everybody I was a grown man''!

Such was the nature of entertainment in the mid-south in the early 1960s. And Jerry's parents were supportive of the venture, to a point.

Jerry said, ''One night in Marked Tree, Arkansas, me and this midget dude were fighting outside the ring, and a guy came out from the audience and tried to stab me. So that made my parents think, 'Maybe we oughta bring an end to this, That was one of the most fun times in my life but it didn't last very long''.

After giving up this promising career, Jerry, a somewhat rebellious kid, took up guitar and within a couple of years was playing professionally behind vocal trio Jimmy Day and The Knights. A major mentor was Teddy Paige, whom he got to know after Paige transferred to his school, White Station High.

Jerry says further, ''I was about 11 or 12 when my brother gave me my first guitar. I took lessons and picked stuff up from Teddy or whomever else. Jimmy Day and The Knights was probably the first legitimate band I was in. They, Jimmy, John Robinette and Willie Cason, were basically singers and they were good. That was when white kids were getting turned onto rhythm and blues, so we stayed booked all the time. Pretty much  University Of Tennessee fraternities, though we did Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas State, as well as church and high school dances''.

Phillips' friendship with Teddy led to the formation of a new band in the summer of 1965, with a self-assured front man by the name of Tommy Minga. Recently graduated from White Station High, Minga was an East Memphian who had previously lad a band named the Escapades in 1964, comprising Jim Tarbutton (lead), Joe Tilman (rhythm), Richard Brown (bass) and Eddie Robertson (drums). It was the same kind of format as the Knights or Jesters, with backing vocalists and an rhythm and blues favoured set. Robertson came along, bass player Billy Wulfers was hired, and the combo inherited the name of Tommy's last outfit, the Escapades: pictorial evidence confirms this, and it is quite likely that the recordings made with Minga logged as being by The Jesters were in fact taped when they were performing live as the Escapades. In the interests of clarity, we shall however refer to the band as The Jesters from this point.

''Teddy was the leather for sure, and the driving force because he was the best player'', recalled Jerry. ''Teddy wasn't acting for anybody. To show you the kind of guy he was, he borrowed my amp to play a gig, and about two weeks later called up to tell me, ''Boy , you gonna have the red ass at me. I sold your amp''! Teddy was semi-anti-social. He would aggravate the crowd at the fraternity gigs, telling them, 'Here's another song you probably don't know'! There were some instances where we'd have to defend ourselves. But people respected Teddy's playing, and our ability to play with him''.

It's likely this had much to do with The Jesters' repertoire which was distinctly at odds with the soul or British-flavoured content of bands sets in that period. The Jesters' take on rhythm and blues was amped-up and righteously ragged, more juke joint than teen club. That made concessions to accessibility by including some Stones or Kinks material, but largely the band's sound was that heard on this disc, although there is no doubt that their insouciant attitude was 100 percent 1965.

''I was a big blues fan like Teddy, but I liked the Beatles and the Stones'', said Jerry. ''I can't imagine Teddy not being aware of some of those British bands that had not players, like the Yardbirds. Our repertoire was the stuff that Minga was written, and the blues that Teddy threw at us. If we ever did a British song, it would have been something like ''You Really Got Me'', but I'd say we were in a minority in what we played''.

According to Teddy, ''Some of the British groups were good. I was onto it, because I was collecting the same records at the same time. I knew where they got their ideas from. I was into Chicago blues, and some of the Memphis style. I loved Freddie King and tried to get that sort of a sound. We used to plat ''San-Ho-Zay'' and others on gigs, and I knew about ten of those tunes note for note''.

The Jesters did everything expected of an up-and-coming outfit in the Memphis of the mid-1960s, including the rigeur appearance on George Klein's ''Talent Party TV Show''. Jerry had access to his fathers' studio, but it was his older brother Knox that would be the enabling factor in harnessing the raw energy of Teddy, Tommy and company to tape.

''I went to White Station High, graduated in 1963, and attended Southwestern from 1964 to 1967'', recalled Knox. ''During the time I was in college, I was social commissioner, so I booked all the bands. I'd been working at the studio since I'd been in high school, and recording a lot of acts from later 1964 on. However, Sam was trying to discourage Jerry and I, from going seriously into music. He felt the possibility of prevailing in the independent record business would be a shallow and disappointing experience for us. So in the mid-1960s, we were kinda on our own''.

''Our dad would encourage us in everything we'd do, but he never wanted us to be like him. He was really supportive, but he wanted us to work for it. He never said, 'I'm gonna show you how to do this''', said Jerry. ''Sam would always let us go in the studio and do whatever, and of course when he listened, he'd give an opinion. He could have shut us down but he wasn't that kind of guy. If he didn't hear something in who Knox was working with, the Radiants or whomever, then he would have made that clear'  Knox Phillips spent many hours producing Randy and The Radiants, the best of which can be heard on their Sun anthology ''Memphis Beat'' (Big Beat CDWIKD 267). Understandably, Knox also booked his younger brother's bands at Southwestern, and took a keen interest in The Jesters.

''I'd always try to use them because they were Jerry's band'', said Knox. ''Fraternities do stupid stuff, but by the end of the gig, they probably hated them. At times I had to change the name of the band to book them again! They were the Escapades, and different configurations, but they always sounded good, and for me, Jerry was always the star. He was a fabulous rhythm guitar player. And Teddy was one of the weirdest people I'd ever met''!

Not long after The Jesters' formation, Knox began to record them at the Phillips' Madison Avenue studio. They turned ''Heartbreak Hotel'' into a Jimmy Reed-like blues, and spiced the Carl Perkins; classic ''Boppin' The Blues'' with a sinuous lead from Paige. But such cover material was blown away by the sheer punk-blues ferocity of Tommy Minga's tremendous originals. Some of these have obvious Memphis antecedents, ''Get Gone Baby'' recycles the classic riff of Willie Cobb's ''You Don't Love Me'', the pounding ''Stompity Stomp'' is a sideways cop of ''The Slummer The Slum'' by the 5 Royales. But the energy is fully The Jesters' own. The rhythm section pumps madly, Minga alternates between hushed admonition and outraged bawling, and Teddy's guitar throughout is the proverbial headless chicken of rockabilly yore, hot-rodded with a corrosive blues edge. Unwittingly or not, the band had zeroed in on the primal Sun sound.

''The Minga stuff sounds more like true Sun rockabilly than anything else does in the 1960s, and it's a testament to our influences from Sun'' Jerry Phillips continued. ''That was ingrained in my system, and it certainly influenced all of us in that band. Tommy didn't have wacko DNA like Teddy, he just liked to have fun. He was also a good songwriter, and did write most of the originals. He'd jump, dance around, he was a showman''.

Teddy said, ''It really was like that, us going crazy in the studio. We were really enthused on those first sessions. I'm playing a Les Paul custom, and we used a blown Fender Bassman amp, with three speakers and a tube pulled halfway out, to get a distorted sound''.

According to Knox Phillips, ''I'd never cut anything with this kind of energy ever, and I never cut anybody who consistently played such cool guitar. Minga was fabulous on some songs, ''no mo, no mo'', I loved that! Minga's voice and Teddy's guitar blend pretty well. It was over the top. There was nothing else like that in Memphis being recorded by white people''.

One of the last items Tommy taped with the band was a tune of Teddy's entitled ''Cadillac Man'', which wed classic Chuck Berry car-chase lyrics to a raucous blues-on-speed rhythm. Minga delivers the tune in a cool, understated fashion, but Paige didn't agree with the way his song had turned out, and this apparently exacerbated tensions between him and the singer. Whether Teddy engineered it or not, Tommy's sudden departure from the band would seem to have occurred right at that moment.

Jerry said, ''I think, the early ''Cadillac Man'' is a good version, but Teddy just wasn't happy with it. And I don't think he would have that much influence over that song unless he wrote it, to be able to kick Minga off the session and have Jim Dickinson come in. Minga was pretty bitter about that''.

''Now that I hear him, Tommy was a cool singer, and he really could have been produced into something. How we replaced him, in those days there was no mercy, just the act and that was it'', says Teddy.

If the band, by now definitely operating as The Jesters, were to re-cut the tune, they would need a singer. As veteran of the local music scene for years, and at once both traditionalist and non-conformist, Jim Dickinson embodied the vibe Paige was no doubt looking for. He showed up at Phillips Recording in November or December 1965, not knowing what to expects, but Jim's piano-pumping contribution to the re-tooled ''Cadillac Man'' was perfectly in sync with the tenor of the track.

According to Jim Dickinson, ''Teddy called me. I thought it was to play piano on a demo. I probably wouldn't have gone if I knew I was gonna sing, because I was under contract to Bill Justis at the time. It was Teddy's plot! As well as ''Cadillac Man'', we did ''Jim Dandy And Sweet Sixteen'' and ''Night Train From Chicago'', which were both in Teddy's notebook of songs. ''Night Train'' kinda jumps around, but that solo, damn, it doesn't sound like any white man I ever heard''.

''Jim seemed to have professional experience'', said Teddy. ''He sang straight old blues things well, but he was always trying to do something unnatural and kooky. We started ''Cadillac Man'' with the arrangement that Minga had sung, but Jim couldn't play the left hand on the piano, so we literally had to adapt to him. There's a guitar break at the end, otherwise it's pretty much a piano record, but we were enthusiastic about piano. In fact, we had often tried to find a piano player, and nothing but wimp would show up''.

According Knox, ''Jim was just an experiment. Minga was the voice of the band, but I don't think he got ''Cadillac Man'', so it was right to have Dickinson. The one thing that I never liked at the time was, when I brought up the piano solo, the drums came up too. Now it sounds really good, it kinda swells into something special. Sam wasn't anywhere around ''Cadillac Man'', but we played it for him and he loved it''.  anachronistic as it might have seemed to any other label, this new ''Cadillac Man'' fit the Sun template exactly. Thus a release was authorized, necessitating a second date with Dickinson for a B-side, which was cut several weeks later, the session is logged with the Musicians Union as January 22, 1966.

Alec Palao, El Cerrito, California, 2008

JAMES LUTHER ''JIM'' DICKINSON - born in Little Rock, Arkansas on November 15, 1941, was  an American record producer, pianist, and singer who fronted, among others, the Memphis  based band, Mudboy & The Neutrons.  Jim Dickinson moved to Memphis, Tennessee at an early age. After attending school at Baylor  University, he returned to Memphis and played on recording sessions for Bill Justis, and at  Chips Moman's American Studios.

Dickinson recorded what has been called the last great  record on the Sun label, "Cadillac Man" b/w "My Babe" by The Jesters, playing piano and  singing lead on both sides, even though he was not an actual member of the group. In the  late 1960s, Dickinson joined with fellow Memphis musicians Charlie Freeman, Michael Utley,  Tommy McClure and Sammy Creason; this group became known as the "Dixie Flyers" and  provided backup for musicians recording for Atlantic Records. Perhaps their best-known  work was for Aretha Franklin's 1970 ''Spirit In The Dark''.

In December 1969, Dickinson played piano on The Rolling Stones' track "Wild Horses" at  Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, although it wasn't released until 1971, and in that  year on Flamin' Groovies' album Teenage Head. In 1972 Dickinson released his first solo  album, "Dixie Fried", which featured songs by Bob Dylan, Furry Lewis, and the title song by  Carl Perkins.

In the 1970s he became known as a producer, recording Big Star's Third in 1974, as well as  serving as co-producer with Alex Chilton on the 1979 Chilton album Like Flies on Sherbert.  He has produced Willy DeVille, Green on Red, Mojo Nixon, Neon Wheels, Jason & The  Nashville Scorchers, The Replacements, Tav Falco's Panther Burns, and Screamin' Jay  Hawkins, among many others, and in 1977 an aural documentary of Memphis' Beale Street,  Beale Street Saturday Night, which featured performances by Sid Selvidge, Furry Lewis and  Dickinson's band Mud Boy and the Neutrons. He has also worked with Ry Cooder, and played  on Dylan's album Time Out of Mind. In 1998, he produced Mudhoney's, Tomorrow Hit Today.

His sons Luther and Cody, who played on his 2002 solo effort ''Free Beer Tomorrow'', and the  2006 Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger, have achieved success on their own as the North  Mississippi Allstars.

Dickinson also made a recording with Pete (Sonic Boom) Kember of Spacemen 3 fame.  "Indian Giver" was released in 2008 by Birdman Records under the name of Spectrum Meets  Captain Memphis, with Captain Memphis, obviously, referring to Dickinson.
In 2007 Dickinson played with the Memphis-based rock band, Snake Eyes. The band, formed  by Memphis musician Greg Roberson (former Reigning Sound drummer), featured Jeremy  Scott (also from the Reigning Sound), Adam Woodard, and John Paul Keith. While the band  disbanded in October 2008, Dickinson and Roberson went on to form another Memphis  group, Ten High & the Trashed Romeos. This band included Jake and Toby Vest (of Memphis  band The Bulletproof Vests) and Adam Hill. Ten High & the trashed Romeos recorded two  albums, the first including all original compositions written by Dickinson and the band. The  second album consists entirely of covers of 1960's Memphis Garage Rock songs.

Jim Dickinson died on August 15, 2009 at Methodist Extended Care Hospital in Memphis  following triple bypass heart surgery.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR JIMMY DAY & THE KNIGHTS
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE(S) PROBABLY 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - UNKNOWN

No Details

STUBBORN KIND OF FELLOW
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) Probably 1966

THESE WINDOWS CAN'T HIDE
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) Probably 1966
 
STORMY MONDAY
Composer: - Unknown
Publisher: - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Sun Unissued
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) Probably 1966

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Jimmy Day - Vocal
Possibly - The Jesters
Teddy Paige (Edward LaPaglio) - Guitar
Jerry Phillips - Guitar & Maracas
Billy Wulfers - Bass
Eddie Robertson - Drums

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

THE ESCAPADES - were an American garage rock band from Memphis, Tennessee, who were active in the 1960s. They became one of the most popular groups in the Memphis area during the mid-1960s and recorded two singles. "I Tell No Lies", the A-side of their debut single, became a big hit in Memphis and around the South. They were signed to Verve Records, who released their follow up, "Mad, Mad, Mad", which featured a fuzz-toned guitar line. Their work is highly regarded by garage rock enthusiasts and collectors and has appeared on various compilations.

The Escapades were originally founded by Tommy Minga in early 1963 in East Memphis, Tennessee. Their original lineup included Minga on vocals and Jerry Phillips on guitar, son of record producer and owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, as well as Billy Wulfers on bass, and Eddie Robinson on drums. Another member of the early version of the group was Jimmy Tartbutton. One of their chief competitors in the east Memphis scene was The Jesters, led by Teddy Paige, a student at Christian Brothers High. In 1964, when some of the members of his band went to college, The Jesters broke up. The Escapades also broke up at this time, but both groups would re-surface later with different lineups.

In 1965 Paige re-formed The Jesters, and brought in some of the former members of the Escapades: Minga and Phillips, as well as Billy Wulfers on bass and Eddie Robinson on drums. They went to Sun Studios to record a version of song written by Minga, "Cadillac Man", accompanied on piano by famed Memphis session man Jim Dickinson. However, Paige and producer Sam Phillips felt that the both "Cadillac Man" and its flipside needed a different kind of vocal and had Dickinson sing on both tracks, much to the chagrin of Minga.

Minga soon left The Jesters to re-form a new version of the Escapades. He joined fellow students at Oakhaven High School, guitarist Benny Kisner, keyboardist Ron Gordon, and drummer Ronnie Williamson, along with bassist Dale Roark, who was attending Memphis State University. Sometimes the group would play at the Skateland Frayser roller skating rink. The Escapades were known for an exciting live show which included Ron Gordon's stage antics.

According to Gordon, ''We always got the crowd going... We loved to play the Roaring 1960s, and I would be up on that high stage they had and dance while I played this Farfisa organ I had. As I danced, I would rock the organ like I was going to turn it over into the crowd. They would scream with each rock, but I never dropped it''.

The group quickly became one of the most popular bands in the Memphis area. They recorded their fist single "I Tell No Lies" backed with "She's The Kind" at John Fry's Ardent home garage studio, which was released on Stan Kessler's Arbet label. The record became a local hit and received airplay all over the south. MGM/Verve Records became interested in the group and picked up the record, re-releasing it on their XL label later that year.  

The group recorded their follow up "Mad Mad Mad" b/w "Try So Hard" at sam Phillips Recording Studio at 639 Madison Avenue in Memphis, which was issued on Verve in late 1966 and produced by Stan Kesler. The distinctive fuzz-toned guitar part in "Mad Mad Mad" was played by Memphis session man Tommy Cogbill.

The band's manger, Johnny Dark, set up a tour of the Southeast accompanying Sam the Sham & the Pharos, the Swinging Medallions, Tommy Roe, and Napoleon the 14th. The second single failed to achieve the success of the first. Following the tour, the group returned to Memphis to play local gigs, but several of the band's members were drafted into the military to fight in Vietnam. Eventually, all of the band's members ended up in the service, except for Ron Gordon. In late 1967 the group broke up. Gordon went on to play with a reconstituted version of the group the late Otis Redding's previous backup group, the Bar-Kays. Later Gordon was hired by Stax Records, working on several projects before eventually becoming their art director. He would go on to design album covers for over a hundred LPs on there and would win a Grammy for his art work on Issac Hayes' ''Black Moses''.

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

This is the first Ardent studio in the garage of John Fry's parents with his partner Fred Smith, who decided to drop out of the recording business and start a small, overnight package delivery company called Federal Express. When this garage operation got out of hand, Bill Fry and Jim Dickinson found a new studio at 1457 National. This studio is now a print shop and was previously a Christian book publisher. Today you can see the room where the studio was and the ''sound proofed'' doors. In 1972 Ardent moved to its present location at 2000 Madison Avenue, where it since has become a nationally known, state of the art studio (ZZ Top, etc.) and corporate video commercial center. Ardent occasionally records good records like The Replacements ''Please To Meet Me'', ''Big Star 3rd'' and Alex Chilton's ''Like Flies On Sherbert'' to name a few. The Big Star grocery store where Big Star took their name once stood across the street from the National Ardent location.

STUDIO SESSION FOR THE ESCAPADES FOR ARBET RECORDS 1966
 
Session Published for Historical Reasons

OLD ARDENT RECORDING STUDIO
4035 GRANDVIEW , MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
AND/OR
SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
ARBET SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE JANUARY 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – UNKNOWN

Tommy Minga's next band would be together barely a year itself. But the escapades are no mere afterthought. The two singles this outstanding combo released in 1966 stand alongside ''Cadillac Man'' as some of the finest rock and roll to come out to Memphis in the mid-1960s. Minga's persona on these records is unrecognizable compared to The Jesters' sides of a few months prior. His singing is clear and confident, and the Escapades' accompaniment has the emboldened skill of one of the best bands in town.

Tommy walked out of The Jesters around October or November 1965, within weeks, he was back in action. High schoolers Ron Gordon (organ) and Benny Kisner 9guitar) had previously worked together in the Sound, during the earlier part of 1965, and they joined forces with another musical associate of Gordon's, drummer Ron Williamson, hiring Memphis State student Dale Roark, veteran of several combos in his native Oklahoma, along the way. Minga apparently was acquainted with Williamson and became vocalist, once again lending a new outfit the title of his previous team.

I TELL NO LIES
Composer: -  Ron Gordon-Ronny Williamson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Arkross Publisher
Matrix number: - None - Master (1:59)
Recorded: - Early 1966
Released: - January 1966
First appearance: - Arbet Records (S) 45rpm Arbet A-1010 / XL Records 356 mono
I TELL NO LIES / SHE'S THE KIND
Reissued: - 2008 Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-15 mono
THE JESTERS – CADILLAC MEN – THE SUN MASTERS

The band moves seamlessly from verse to chorus on ''I Tell No Lies'', with swirling organ playing from Ron Gorden and solid bass playing from dale Roark propelling the rhythm for Tom Minga’s strong vocal. Bennie Kisner provides a neat sitar-like solo on his Rickenbacker. According to Dale Roark, ''Tommy had some contacts a couple of hours away in Paduka, Kentucky, and we started renting a half and promoting our own dances. We made pretty good money from that. Johnny Dark took an interest in us and became our manager. The others guys had already written, ''I Tell No Lies''.

Recorded in the old Ardent studio on Grandview, ''I Tell No Lies'' is acknowledged as one of great Memphis garage band records, allying o powerful performance to an exceptionally strong tune. The flip-side ''She's The Kind'', was cut from a similar cloth. Released initially on the tiny Arbet imprint, the record got strong  airplay and Dark engineered its transfer to the regionally prominent XL label, owned by Gene Lucchesi.

SHE'S THE KIND
Composer: - Tom Minga-Ron Gordon-Dale Roark
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Arkross Publisher
Matrix number: - None - Master (2:06)
Recorded: - Early 1966
Released: - January 1966
First appearance: - Arbet Records (S) 45rpm Arbet B-1011 / XL Records 356 mono
SHE'S THE KIND / I TELL NO LIES
Reissued: - 2008 Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-16 mono
THE JESTERS – CADILLAC MEN – THE SUN MASTERS

''She’s the Kind'' is a little slower in tempo, and reminds me of the Zombies, Minga at times sounding very much like Colin Blunstone. Ronnie Gorden and Ron Williamson wrote “I Tell No Lies”, while Minga, Gorden and Roark wrote ''She’s The Kind''.

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Tommy Minga - Vocal
Bennie Kisner - Guitar
Ron Gordon - Organ
Dale Roark - Bass
Ronny Williamson - Drums

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR THE ESCAPADES FOR VERVE RECORDS 1966

Session Published for Historical Reasons

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE JANUARY 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – STAN KESLER AND/OR TOMMY COGBILL

According of Ron Gordon, ''The regional chart activity created interest. We were very popular in the MidSouth, and much sought after for fraternity parties, teen clubs and dances. The band purchased a 1958 Pontiac hearse for carrying us and our equipment to gigs, and it gave us a distinctive identity''.

XL's pull with MGM, thanks to the success of Sam The Sham, meant that the next single ''Mad Mad Mad'', was released nationally on Verve Records. It was another gem that had an undeniably commercial, if frantic, sound. The record was taped at 639 Madison with the help of noted session man Tommy Cogbill, and amongst other items recorded during this period was the infectious outtake, ''What You Know About Love''.

Dale Roark said, ''Tommy Cogbill not only played the fuzz guitar break, he and Stan Kesler suggested the chromatic bass break on ''Mad Mad Mad''. Tommy was an incredible performer and a genuinely nice person. His and Ron Gordon's fathers were the parents that were most supportive of the band''.

MAD MAD MAD
Composer: - Ron Gordon-Benny Kisner-Tommy Minga-Dale Roark-Ronny Williamson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Publisher
Matrix number: - 100 399 - Master (2:10)
Recorded: - Early 1966
Released: - May 17, 1966
First appearance: - Verve Records (S) 45rpm VK-10415-A mono
MAD MAD MAD / I TRY SO HARD
Reissued: - 2008 Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-17 mono
THE JESTERS – CADILLAC MEN – THE SUN MASTERS

Thanks to the single deal, manager Johnny Dark hitched the Escapades to a multi-state touring package that featured Sam The Sham in the summer of 1966, where they frequently blew the headliners off the stage. Though the second single did not repeat the success of their debut the hirsute musicians, Kisner sported incredibly lengthy locks for Memphis in 1966 and Gordon got special dispensation from his high school principal to keep a full head of hair, remained a solid draw at teen niteries such as Skateland and the roaring 1960s.

I TRY SO HARD
Composer: - Ron Gordon-Benny Kisner-Tommy Minga-Dale Roark-Ronny Williamson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Publisher
Matrix number: - 100 400 - Master (2:15)
Recorded: - Early 1966
Released: - May 17, 1966
First appearance: - Verve Records (S) 45rpm VK-10415-B mono
I TRY SO HARD / MAD MAD MAD
Reissued: - 2011 Simple Grand Music (EP) Internet iTunes-5 mono
SIMPLY GRAND MUSIC PRESENTS – THE ESCAPADES

According to Dale Roark, ''We played the local clubs, but made most of our money in Paduka, Kentucky. Once we signed with Lucchesi, we were starting to get over our heads. We had several people with a potential of getting a cut of the pie, Johnny, MGM and another manager out of New York City that managed several national acts including Mitch Ryder. We all had stars in our eyes. Tommy, Ron Williamson and I then all received draft notices, so we disbanded before the first of the year. I entered boot camp on New Years Eve 1966''.

Ron Gordon said, ''They all went in at almost exactly the same time. It was rather abrupt when it happened, and it was a crushing blow to me. We were at our peak''.

WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT LOVE
Composer: - Ron Gordon-Benny Kisner-Tommy Minga-Dale Roark-Ronny Williamson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (1:52)
Recorded: - Early 1966 Released: - 2008
First appearance: - Big Beat Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDWIKD 282-18 mono
THE JESTERS – CADILLAC MEN – THE SUN MASTERS
Reissued: - 2011 Simple Grand Music (EP) Internet iTunes-4 mono
SIMPLY GRAND MUSIC PRESENTS – THE ESCAPADES

Of the former Escapades, only Ron Gordon remained in music, becoming the sole white member of the reconstituted Bar-Keys in 1968-1970, before going to work for Stax Records where he eventually became Advertising Manager. During his tenure there, he was directly responsible for coordinating the development of more than 130 album covers and the trade and consumer advertising that accompanied those products. Gordon did great work and won numerous awards including a ''Grammy Award'' nomination for package design ''Isaac Hayes Live at Sahara Tahoe''. Benny Kisner died sometime in the late seventies. After returning from the service in 1969, the enigmatic Tommy Minga no longer sang and instead moved into computers. He passed away in 2000, another great Memphis voice silenced. Ronnie Williamson now lives in North Mississippi and does not play drums anymore. Gordon lives in Northwest Arkansas, where he own an insurance agency. Ron Gordon do not play professionally any more, but sometimes he play in church.

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments) 
Tommy Minga - Vocal
Bennie Kisner - Guitar
Ron Gordon - Organ
Dale Roark - Bass
Ronny Williamson - Drums

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
JANUARY 1966
Instead, Dane Stinit got a job with LTC Steel where he stayed for 31 years. Like most  transplanted southerners he headed home during his vacation. Over Christmas 1965 he went  to see one of his pals from Kentucky, Donny Dortch, who was living in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Dortch knew Bettye Berger who was wheeling and dealing in the then thriving Memphis  music business. ''We went up to Memphis for a party'', recalled Stinit, ''and Bettye heard me  sing and decided to take me to the Phillips studio to cut an album of Johnny Cash tunes. Sam  happened to walk in while we were cutting. He took over the controls from Stan Kesler and  later signed me to a contract right there on the spot. It surprised me because we were just a  little raggedy group. I was singing and played lead. Donny was playing rhythm guitar, Billy  Wood was playing bass and Billy Adams was playing drums''.

It was that group, with the addition of Bill Yates on piano and organ, that assembled back in  the Sun studio on January 29, 1966 to cut a session in the Johnny Cash mould. It was  apparently Phillips' idea to recreate the Cash sound and possibly update it a little. By this  point Phillips was staring at the bottom of the barrell in terms of recycling his titles by Cash  and he possibly thought he could re-create the magic. Perhaps he should have borne in mind  the old proverb about lightning striking twice. Stinit sounds uneasy in his approximation of  Cash's soulful baritone and, by the time Stinit reappeared for his second session, Phillips had  decided to let him sound like himself.

JANUARY 21-23, 1966 FRIDAY-SUNDAY

The Trips Festival, a multimedia event featuring performances by the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company, is held in San Francisco.

JANUARY 23, 1966 SUNDAY

Rick Nelson appears as a musical guest on CBS' ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. Others who perform include Duke Ellington, Eydie Gorme and comedian Jo Anne Worley.

JANUARY 24, 1966 MONDAY

Columbia Records released Claude King's ''Catch A Little Raindrop''.

George Hamilton IV recorded the Gordon Lightfoot-penned ''Early Morning Rain'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

JANUARY 25, 1966 TUESDAY

The Byrds recorded the psychedelic hit ''Eight Miles High''. The band features future country hitmaker Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman.

JANUARY 26, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Jean Shepard and Ray Pillow recorded ''I'll Take The Dog''.

JANUARY 28, 1966 FRIDAY

Jimmy C. Newman recorded the Tom T. Hall-penned ''Back Pocket Money'' at Nashville's RCA Studio B.

The Everly Brothers and Jody Miller are guests on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

This was one of the last occasions when Sam Phillips worked the Sun mixing board in pursuit of a hit recording. In fact until Dane Stinit fired him up, he hadn't participated in any kind of hands-on manner for some time. The artist was out of Kentucky and happened to be visiting Memphis when he came to Sam's notice. This ''golden throat'' vehicle ''Don't Knock What You Don't Understand'' surfaced complete with a melody hocked from the British song, ''No Other Baby''. What Johnny Cash thought of the endeavour is unknown.

STUDIO SESSION FOR DANE STINIT
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: SATURDAY JANUARY 29, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – SAM PHILLIPS
AND/OR KNOX PHILLIPS

Composer: - Mitt C. Addington-Allen Reynolds
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Screen Gems
Matrix number: - U 368 - Take 11 Master (2:17)
Recorded: - January 29, 1966
Released: - May 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 402-A mono
DON'T KNOCK WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND / ALWAYS ON THE GO
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2-15 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
 
Composer: - Mitt C. Addington-Allen Reynolds
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Screen Gems
Matrix number: - U 368 - Take 11 Stereo Master (2:20)
Recorded: - January 29, 1966
Released: - May 1966
Reissued: 1988 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A/1 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS
 
Composer: - Mitt C. Addington-Allen Reynolds
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Screen Gems
Matrix number: - None - Count-In -  Take 7 - Not Original Issued (2:21)
Recorded: - January 29, 1966
Released: - May 1966
Released: 1988
First appearance: Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A-2 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

''Don't Knock What You Don't Understand'' takes 1-3 with piano & takes 11-13 with piano. Masters takes 4-10 with organ.

HEARTACHE CATCHES UP WITH ME
Composer: - Dane Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Sun Unissued
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
 
Dane Stinit arrived on the scene ten years too late. He might have been dismissed with a bemused stare had Sam Phillips not walked in the studio when Stinit was cutting a custom session for Ivory Joe Hunter's manager, Bettye Berger. Something about Stinit stirred some nostalgia in Phillips. At least it must have been nostalgia, because it's a cinch that Phillips didn't think he could put Sun back on the map in May 1966 making records that sounded like this.
Stinnett (his real name) was a transplanted Kentuckian working in the steel mills in Gary, Indiana. Putting it mildly, his style owes a considerable debt to Johnny Cash. Between January and November 1966, Stinit recorded 12 titles for Sun.
 
''Don't Knock What You Don't Understand'' has an appropriately political title for a mid-1960s record, but this ain't no protest song! Rather, Stinit is just telling his girlfriend to back off and let him be.
''Always On The Go'' is a rambler's biography. The track has its share of timing problems and bears an unmistakable similarity to Cash's opus ''Bad News''. For good measure, Stinit recorded a version of Cash's ''Mean Eyed Cat'' before he left Sun. If there is a clear lack of originality in Stinit's music, no one can accuse it of suffering from the overproduction that plagued much country music in 1966.

Composer: - Bettye Berger-Kerry Dortch-Charles Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Duchess Music
Matrix number: - U 369 - Master (1:50)
Recorded: - January 29, 1966
Released: - May 1966
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 402-B mono
ALWAYS ON THE GO / DON'T KNOCK WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/16 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5
 
Composer: - Bettye Berger-Kerry Dortch-Charles Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Duchess Music
Matrix number: - U 369 - Stereo Master (1:53)
Recorded: - January 29, 1966
Released: - 1988
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A/2 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

> MEAN EYED CAT (1) <
Composer: - Johnny Cash
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - False Start - Count-In - Not Originally Issued (2:20)
Recorded: January 26, 1966
Released: - May 1975
First appearance: - Hallmark Records (LP) 33rpm SHM 864-B3 mono
VARIOUS ARTISTS - KINGS OF COUNTRY - VOLUME 2
Reissued: -1988 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A5 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS
Composer: - Dane Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:00)
Recorded: January 29, 1966
Released: 1988
First appearance: Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A/4 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

Composer: - Charles Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:06)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - 1988
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A/7 stereo
DANE STINIT - ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS
Reissued: - United States (CD) 500/200rpm Cactus Cash 1-27 mono
VARIOUS ARTISTS - THE HOUSE OF CASHALIKES - VOLUME 1

Composer: Dane Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:41)
Recorded: January 29, 1966
Released: 1978
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm CR 30150-B8 mono
SUN SOUND SPECIAL – TENNESSEE COUNTRY
Reissued: 1988 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-A/6 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Dane Stinit – Vocal & Guitar
Billy Adams - Drums
Bill Yates - Piano/Organ
Billy Wood - Bass
 
For Biography of Dana Stinit see: > The Sun Biographies <
Dane Stinit's Sun recordings can be heard on his playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
JANUARY 30, 1966 SUNDAY
Sergeant Barry Sadler performs ''The Ballad Of The Green Berets'' from New York on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''.

JANUARY 31, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Bill Phillips' ''Put It Off Until Tomorrow'' with harmony vocals by Dolly Parton.

Brian Wilson recorded his pop single ''Caroline, No'' at the Western Recorders in Los Angeles. Glen Campbell appears as a musician on the session, as does his future producer Al de Lory.
FEBRUARY 1, 1966 TUESDAY
The singles, Sun 399 ''Big Big World'' b/w ''I Dropped My M&Ms'' by Bill Yates; Sun 400 ''Cadillac Man'' b/w ''My Babe'' by The Jesters; Sun 401 ''Open The Door Richard'' b/w ''Rock Me Baby'' by Billy Adams issued.

FEBRUARY 2, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Milburn Stone and Ken Curtis, of ''Gunsmoke'', are the first to perform at the Astrodome as part of the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. Over the next 35 years, Reba McEntire, Charley Pride and George Strait all play to more than 1 million at the rodeo.

FEBRUARY 3, 1966 THURSDAY

When Stevie Wonder performs at Scotch of St. James Club in London, the concert is attended by ''I Feel Fine'' songwriter Paul McCartney.

Republic Pictures founder Herb Yates dies at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. His company, established in 1935, launched the careers of western actors Gene Autry, John Wayne and Roy Rogers.

FEBRUARY 4, 1966 FRIDAY

Bass player Dave Buchanan is born. He becomes a member of Yankee Grey, whose 1999 debut album yields a pair of hits and gains them an Academy of Country Music nomination for Best New Duet or Group.

Stonewall Jackson recorded ''Blues Plus Booze (Means I Lose)''.

The Tennessean reports Johnny Cash will file a $25-million defamation of character lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan, which has circulated messages demanding boycotts of his concerts, falsely believing he married an African-American woman.

Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper begin a run of 34 days in West Germany, performing for U.S. soldiers with guitarist Joe Edwards and songwriter L.E. White.

FEBRUARY 5, 1966 SATURDAY

Leroy Van Dyke's five-year-old son, Ray Van Dyke, dies when he falls through the ice on a lake near the family home.

FEBRUARY 7, 1966 MONDAY

Capitol Records released ''Roll Out The Red Carpet For Buck Owens And His Buckaroos''.

George Hamilton IV recorded ''Steel Rail Blues'', written by Gordon Lightfoot, at RCA Studio A in Nashville, Tennessee.

FEBRUARY 8, 1966 TUESDAY

Porter Wagoner begins two days of recording that yield most of his concept album ''Confessions Of A Broken Man''. The album becomes the first Nashville release to win a Grammy for Best Cover Photography.

FEBRUARY 9, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Chet Atkins pulls together a recording session at Nashville's RCA Studio B on 17th Avenue, in which the musicians add new instrumental support to the voice of the late Jim Reeves, taken from demo recordings of ''Distant Drums'' and ''Nobody's Fool''.

Eddy Arnold guests on ''The Danny Kaye Show'' on CBS-TV.

FEBRUARY 10, 1966 THURSDAY

Songwriter Billy Rose dies of pneumonia in Jamaica. His compositions include ''Barney Google'', ''Does The Spearmint Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight'' and ''Without A Song'', a 1984 country hit for Willie Nelson.

FEBRUARY 11, 1966 FRIDAY

Roger Miller picks up his second gold album with ''Golden Hits''.

Sergeant Barry Sadler, Billy Grammer and The Andrews Sisters drop by the ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.

FEBRUARY 14, 1966 MONDAY

Roger Miller gets a whopping nine nominations in the Grammy awards, with ''King Of The Road'' in the running for Record of the Year. Jody Miller's satire, ''Queen Of The House'', is nominated for Best Country Vocal by a Female.

Bob Dylan begins recording his album ''Blonde On Blonde'' at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studios, using top Music City session men, including Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss, Kenny Buttrey, Henry Strzelecki and Hargus ''Pig'' Robbins.

Buck Owens recorded ''Where Does The Good Times Go'' at the Capitol Studios in Hollywood. The version is placed in the vault after a more satisfactory version gets cut several weeks later.

Columbia released Johnny Dollar's ''Stop The Start (Of Tears In My Heart)''

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans host the circus in Greensboro, North Carolina.

FEBRUARY 15, 1966 TUESDAY

Buck Owens recorded ''Think Of Me'' at the Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.

Earl Scruggs, Marty Robbins, Stringbean, Waylon Jennings, The Carter Family and Tex Ritter appear on the ABC special ''Anatomy Of Pop, The Music Explosion''. Also featured, Tony Bennett, The Supremes, Richard Rodgers and Peter, Paul and Mary.

FEBRUARY 16, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Ray Price recorded ''A Way To Survive'' at the Columbia Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

FEBRUARY 17, 1966 THURSDAY

Waylon Jennings recorded the Gordon Lightfoot-penned ''(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sergeant Barry Sandler captures gold certification for ''Ballad Of The Green Berets''.

FEBRUARY 18, 1966 FRIDAY

''The Jimmy Dean Show'' features guests Roy Clark and Molly Bee on ABC-TV.

FEBRUARY 19, 1966 SATURDAY

Buck Owens launches a seven-week run at number 1 on the Billboard country singles chart with ''Waitin' In Your Welfare Line''.

FEBRUARY 21, 1966 MONDAY

Elvis Presley begins shooting ''Spinout'' in Los Angeles, California.

FEBRUARY 22, 1966 TUESDAY

Wilma Lee Cooper and Stoney finish a 34-concert tour of U.S. military bases in West Germany with guitar player Joe Edwards and songwriter L.E. White.

FEBRUARY 25, 1966 FRIDAY

Elton Britt, Warner Mack and The Browns appear on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.

Norma Jean is featured in a concert at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York.

FEBRUARY 28, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Warner Mack's ''Talkin' To The Wall''

The Everly Brothers perform ''Cathy's Clown'' on Dick Clark's daytime ABC show ''Where The Action Is'', also featuring Paul Revere and The Raiders.

Capitol released Merle Haggard's ''Swinging Doors''.

Roger Miller, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens are double-winners at the inaugural Academy of Country and Western Music awards, held at the Palladium in Hollywood. Miller is named Man of the Year and Top Songwriter.
EARLY 1966
The sad truth was that disc jockeys no longer rushed to open the little package of singles  postmarked from Memphis and bearing the distinctive gold mailing label. In its attempt to  sustain a national profile, Sun was becoming a local label again.
MARCH 1966
The LP, London HAS 8265 ''The Blues Came Down From Memphis'' issued.   A good selection of Sun's blues material, including representative cuts by Doctor Ross and James Cotton as well as Rufus Thomas's ''Bear Cat'' and ''Tiger Man''.
The United States launched the Gemini 8 space mission during March of 1966. It carried astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott into space where they became the first mission to dock two spacecraft while in orbit. Unfortunately, soon after they completed the docking the two spacecraft began to violently tumble in what was also the first catastrophic failure during a U.S. Space mission that potentially threatened the lives of the astronauts on board. Armstrong and Scott were able to stabilize the craft but had to abort the rest of their mission. The mission lasted just over 10 hours and they successfully returned to Earth despite the issues. Armstrong would later become the first person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

MARCH 1, 1966 TUESDAY

Clinton Gregory is born in Martinsville, Virginia. A singer and fiddler, he manages a minor hit in 1991 with ''(If It Weren't For Country Music) I'd Go Crazy''.

Gene Clark leaves The Byrds. The group will become a major influence on the country-rock movement, with Chris Hillman later forming The Desert Rose Band and Gram Parsons inspiring Emmylou Harris.

Construction begins on the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Among the artists whose likeness will be housed there, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, George Jones, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash and The Carter Family.

MARCH 3, 1966 THURSDAY

Buffalo Springfield, an important link in the growth of country-rock, forms in Los Angeles. Founding members include guitarists Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay, drummer Dewey Martin and bass player Bruce Palmer.

MARCH 4, 1966 FRIDAY

The Beatles' John Lennon, co-writer of the future country hits ''I Feel Fine'' and ''I Don't Want To Spoil'', is quoted controversially in The London Evening Standard, ''We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now''.

Don Gibson makes a return visit to ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show'', which also features pop singer Al Martino and gospel act The Statesmen Quartet.

MARCH 7, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Jimmy C. Newman's ''Back Pocket Money''.

Hank Williams Jr. recorded ''Standing In The Shadows'', a song recognizing the daunting influence of his father, in Nashville.

Capitol Records released Brian Wilson's solo pop single ''Caroline, No'' with support on guitar from Glen Campbell.

MARCH 8, 1966 TUESDAY

Robert Lunn dies in Nashville. His ''talking blues'' made him one of the early stars of the Grand Ole Opry.

Bob Dylan recorded ''Just Like A Woman'' and ''Absolutely Sweet Marie'' at the Columbia Studios in Nashville during sessions for the album ''Blond On Blonde'', using country session men Charlie McCoy, Kenny Buttrey, Wayne Mos, Henry Strzelecki and Hargus ''Pic'' Robbins.

MARCH 9, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Jan Howard recorded ''Evil On Your Mind'' in Nashville, Tennessee.

MARCH 10, 1966 THURSDAY

Everybody must get stoned, Bob Dylan recorded ''Rainy Way Women Number 12 and 35'' at the Columbia Studios in Nashville, with country  session men Charlie McCoy, Kenny Buttrey, Wayne Mos, Henry Strzelecki and Hargus ''Pic'' Robbins.

Rock musician Edie Brickell is born in Oak Cliff, Texas. In 1992, she marries singer/songwriter Paul Simon, who authored a pair of country hits, ''The Boxer'' and ''Bridge Over Troubled Water''.

MARCH 11, 1966 FRIDAY

Nashville sax player Boots Randolph appear on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.

MARCH 12, 1966 SATURDAY

Jeannie Seely recorded ''Don't Touch Me''.

MARCH 14, 1966 MONDAY

Columbia Records released Ray Price's ''A Way To Survive''.

MARCH 15, 1966 TUESDAY

Roger Miller wins six times at the eighth annual Grammy Awards. ''King Of The Road'' takes Best Contemporary Male, Contemporary Single, Country and Western Male, Country and Western Single and Country and Western Song, and ''The Return Of Roger Miller'' snags Country and Western Album.

Sandy Posey recorded the pop hit ''Born A Woman'' in Nashville, Tennessee.

MARCH 16, 1966 WEDNESDAY

First docking of two spacecraft Gemini 8 Commanded by Neil Armstrong docks with unmanned Agena Target Vehicle.

MARCH 18, 1966 FRIDAY

''The Jimmy Dean Show'' takes on a baseball theme, featuring players from the previous year's World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Maury Wills and the Minnesota Twins' Jim ''Mudcat'' Grant.

MARCH 19, 1966 SATURDAY

Johnny Cash overdoses following a performance in Toronto. His manager, Saul Holiff, discovers him the next morning and prevents his death.

MARCH 21, 1966 MONDAY

Bobby Goldsboro appears on MBC's ''Hullabaloo''. The Bobby Fuller Four also performs the Sonny Curtis-penned ''I Fought The Law''.

Capitol Records released Sonny James' ''Take Good Care Of Her''.

MARCH 22, 1966 TUESDAY

Neil Young sets out from Toronto for Los Angeles, moving with five friends all loaded in a hearse. In the U.S., he becomes a significant singer and songwriter, writing the country hits ''Are You Ready For The Country'' and ''Love Is A Rose''.

MARCH 23, 1966 WEDNESDAY

The bluegrass duo Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs appears on ''The Beverly Hillbillies''. The CBS sitcom theme song is performed by the twosome.

MARCH 24, 1966 THURSDAY

Wilma Burgess recorded ''Misty Blue'' and ''Don't Touch Me'' in Nashville, Tennessee.

''Roy Orbison's Greatest Hits'' becomes the singer's first gold album.

MARCH 25, 1966 FRIDAY

Buck Owens recorded a live album at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall, kicking off the concert with ''Act Naturally''. Opening the show, Dick Curless.

George Jones and Billy Grammer guest on ABC's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.

MARCH 26, 1966 SATURDAY

Up to 200,000 protestors attend anti Vietnam war protests around the world.  

MARCH 27, 1966 SUNDAY

Roy Orbison breaks his foot in a motorcycle accident in England.

MARCH 28, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''I Like 'Em Country'' album.

MARCH 30, 1966 WEDNESDAY

United Artists released Elvis Presley's ''Frankie And Johnny''. The role of "Frankie" was played by Donna Douglas from The Beverly Hillbillies TV series. The film reached number 40 on the Variety weekly national box office list for 1966. The budget of the film was estimated at $4.5 million. The director was Frederick De Cordova, who was the director and producer of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' beginning in 1970.

Neil Diamond is issued his first royalty check. The pop star destined to score on the country charts as the writer of ''Sunflower'', ''Solitary Man'' and ''You Don't Bring Me Flowers'', is paid a whopping 73 cents.
APRIL 1966
The Soviet Union’s Luna 10 spacecraft became the first man-made object to orbit the Moon during April of 1966. Luna 10 was launched by the USSR at the end of March, its mission being to orbit the Moon, observe the environment of the Moon, and to experience how to complete orbital operations in preparation for a potential manned-mission. As the craft orbited the Moon it collected data about the lunar magnetic field, radiation levels, its gravity field, and the composition of the lunar surface. Luna 10 completed a total of 460 lunar orbits during its 56 active days before it lost communication abilities when its battery died, ending the mission. 
 
APRIL 1, 1966 FRIDAY

''The Jimmy Dean Show'' makes its final prime-time appearance on ABC-TV.

Neil Young arrives in Los Angeles in a hearse, following a 10-day trip from Toronto with five friends.

Johnny Paycheck holds his first recording studio for Aubrey Mathew's Little Darlin' label at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

APRIL 2, 1966 SATURDAY

Sergeant Barry Sadler performs ''The Ballad Of The Green Berets'' on ABC-TV's music series ''The Hollywood Palace''.

APRIL 4, 1966 MONDAY

Capitol Records released the album ''Just Between The Two Of Us'' by Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens.

APRIL 5, 1966 TUESDAY

Molly Bee guests on the ABC-TV special ''Jack Jones On The Move'' with Milton Berle and Tony Bennett.

APRIL 6, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Buck Owens recorded ''Open Up Your Heart'' and ''Where Does The Good Times Go'' at the Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.

APRIL 7, 1966 THURSDAY

Connie Smith recorded ''Ain't Had No Lovin''' during a late-night session at Nashville's RCA Studio B.

NBC airs ''Highlights Of The 1966 Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus'' hosted by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Dean Martin sings the Ted Daffan standard ''Born To Lose'' while hosting the NBC variety series ''The Dean Martin Show''. Guests for the week include Lanie Kazan and The Righteous Brothers.

Roger Miller performs at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco for an audience that includes Tony Bennett and The Kingston Trio's John Stewart.

APRIL 8, 1966 FRIDAY

Elvis Presley wraps up principal photography for the movie ''Spinout'' in Los Angeles, California.

Kitty Wells recorded ''It's All Over (But The Crying)''.

APRIL 11, 1966 MONDAY

Frank Sinatra recorded ''Strangers In The Night'' in Hollywood with Glen Campbell on guitar and future executive Jimmy Bowen as producer.

Buffalo Springfield performs for the first time at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. It includes Neil Young and Stephen Stills. The group later adds Jim Messina, who writes Lynn Anderson's ''Listen To A Country Songs''.

APRIL 13, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Jean Shepard and Ray Pillow recorded ''We Could''. The song becomes a hit eight years later for Charley Pride.

APRIL 18, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Wilma Burgess' version of ''Don't Touch Me''.

Capitol Records released Jean Shepard  Ray Pillow's ''I'll Take The Dog''.

APRIL 19, 1966 TUESDAY

Eddy Arnold recorded ''The Tip Of My Fingers'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

Gene Autry's California Angels hold their first regular-season baseball game at their new Anaheim Stadium. The team loses to the Chicago White Sox, 3-1.

Wanda Jackson recorded ''Tears Will Be The Chaser For Your Wine''.

APRIL 20, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Eddy Arnold recorded a pair of hits, ''Somebody Like Me'' and ''Misty Blue[[, at Nashville's RCA Studio B.

APRIL 21, 1966 THURSDAY

Roger Miller and Patty Page make guest appearance on NBC-TV's ''The Dean Martin Show'', where Miller and Martin duet on ''King Of The Road''.

APRIL 24, 1966 SUNDAY

Burl Ives joins Florence Henderson and John Gary in the lineup for the week's edition of ''The Bell Telephone Hour'' on NBC-TV.

APRIL 26, 1966 TUESDAY

Bobby Bare recorded ''The Streets Of Baltimore''.

Keyboard player Jeff Huskins is born in Arlington, Texas. He replaces Brady Seals in Little Texas in 1994, and makes his first recordings with the band for its ''Greatest Hits'' album.

APRIL 28, 1966 THURSDAY

Just weeks after Ray Charles' version of Buck Owens' ''Crying Time'' peaked in pop's Top 10, doctors pronounce the singer clean of his addiction to heroin.

APRIL 30, 1966 SATURDAY

Ray Pillow joins the Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Stoneman Family debuts a syndicated weekly television show, ''The Stonemans'' on 10 stations.
MAY 1966
Sun 402 ''Don't Knock What You Don't Understand'' b/w ''Always On The Go'' issued.

NASA launched the Surveyor 1 space probe during May of 1966. Surveyor 1 became the first U.S. spacecraft to successfully conduct a soft landing on the Moon. The Soviet Union had already done accomplished this feat earlier in the year with Luna 9. The unmanned Surveyor 1 mission was highly successful in its objectives and the robotic probe was able to transmit over 10,000 images of the lunar surface back to Earth. The Surveyor 1 mission was important in that it laid the groundwork for an eventual manned mission to the Moon which was accomplished in July of 1969.

MAY 2, 1966 MONDAY

Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''Think Of Me'', and Owens' gospel album ''Dust On Mother's Bible''.

MAY 3, 1966 TUESDAY

Bill Phillips recorded ''The Words I'm Gonna Have To Eat''.

Leslie ''Sissy'' Fitzgerald is born. When she dies 41 year later in a motorcycle accident, she's memorialized by her boss, Alan Jackson, in ''Sissy's Song''.

MAY 6, 1966 FRIDAY

Mel Tillis recorded ''Stateside'' during his first session after signing a new contract with Kapp Records. The song provides his touring band with its name, The Statesiders.

MAY 7, 1966 SATURDAY

Johnny Cash kicks off his first British tour at The Empire in Liverpool, with June Carter and The Statler Brothers.

MAY 9, 1966 MONDAY

Marty Robbins recorded ''The Shoe Goes On The Other Foot Tonight'' and ''You Gave Me A Mountain'' at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studio. The latter eventually becomes a pop hit for Frankie Laine and a country hit for Johnny Bush.

The Righteous Brothers collect a gold record for their single ''(You're My) Soul And Inspiration'', with Glen Campbell in a supporting role on acoustic guitar.

MAY 10, 1966 TUESDAY

Charley Pride recorded ''Just Between You And Me''.

Mel Tillis recorded ''Mental Revenge''. The song becomes a hit for Waylon Jennings the following year, and Tillis has his own hit with it in 1976.

Janis Joplin begins her second pilgrimage from Texas to San Francisco, where she eventually establishes herself. Her 1970 recording of ''Me And Bobby McGee'' will rank among country's 500 top singles in a Country Music Foundation book ''Heartaches By The Number''.

MAY 11, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Bob Dylan plays Sofia Gardens in Cardiff, England. On hand to visit, Johnny Cash.

''The Las Vegas Hillbillys'' debuts in Fresco. The movie features Ferlin Huskey, Don Bowman, Wilma Burgess, Del Reeves, Connie Smith, Roy Drusky, Sonny James, the Duke of Paducah and Bill Anderson, performing ''Bright Lights And Country Music''.

MAY 12, 1966 THURSDAY

Eddy Arnold's ''My World'' album receives gold certification.

Songwriter Bobby Tomberlin is born in Luverne, Alabama. A singer on the CMT game show ''The Singing Bee'', he authors Darryl Worley's ''A Good Day To Run'' and Diamond Rio's ''One More day''.

MAY 13, 1966 FRIDAY

Warner Bros. released Johnny Sea's ''day For Decision'', a conservative recitation in answer to Barry McGuire's pop protest song ''Eve Of Destruction''. Tracking at more than five minutes, it closes with a chorus of ''America, The Beautiful''.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band gives its first performance at The Paradox in Orange, California.

Some fine pickin' and finger lickin', Colonel Sanders makes a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, where he promises a free chicken dinner to the first 1,000 people who write him in care of WSM Radio.

Darius Rucker is born in Charleston, South Carolina. The lead singer of Hootie and The Blowfish, he becomes a solo country artist in 2008, winning the Country Music Association's New Artist of the Year in 2009.

MAY 16, 1966 MONDAY

After a year away from the group, Scotty Stoneman rejoins The Stoneman Family.

Columbia Records released Bob Dylan's album ''Blonde On Blonde'', the first of three he recorded in Nashville during the 1960s.

Scott Reeves is born in Santa Monica, California. After working as a soap star on ''The Young And The Restless'', he forms Blue County with Aaron Benward, earning a hit with ''Good Little Girls'' in 2004. He also co-writes Toby Keith's ''Made In America''.

Capitol Records released The Beach Boys' ''Pet Sounds'' album, prominently featuring Glen Campbell as rhythm guitarist on numerous tracks.

Decca Records released Kitty Wells' ''It's All Over (But The Crying)''.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs recorded Tom Paxton's ''The Last Thing On My Mind'', destined to become a hit for Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton.

MAY 17, 1966 TUESDAY

Wiley Walker dies in Oklahoma City. Along with Gene Sullivan, he made up half a significant duo, which recorded the original version of ''When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again'', and had a hit in 1946 with ''Make Room In Your Heart For A Friend''.

David Houston recorded ''Almost Persuaded'' at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

MAY 18, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Reprise Records released Frank Sinatra's ''Stranger In The Night''. Produced by Jimmy Bowen, the single features Glen Campbell on guitar.

MAY 19, 1966 THURSDAY

One night after receiving a gold record from Johnny Carson on ''The Tonight Show'', Eddy Arnold appears at New York's Carnegie Hall with a 19-piece orchestra.

MAY 20, 1966 FRIDAY

Beatle George Harrison visits the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India for the first time. Harrison is destined to write the Johnny Rodriguez country hit ''Something''.

MAY 22, 1966 SUNDAY

Bruce Springsteen writes his first song in the back seat of a Mercury on the way to a recording session. A future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, he also writes the Mel McDabiel country hit ''Stand On It''.

MAY 23, 1966 MONDAY 

Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''You Ain't Woman Enough''.

MAY 24, 1966 TUESDAY

Waylon Jennings begins recording his first album since moving to Nashville, a collection of Harlan Howard songs.

MAY 28, 1966 SATURDAY

Elvis Presley recorded ''Fools Fall In Love'' at Nashville's RCA Studio B. Jacky Ward will have a country hit with the song. "Fools Fall In Love" is a song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally recorded by The Drifters, who took it to number 10 on the Rhythm and Blues in 1957. The song reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100. Two renditions, one upbeat and one torch ballad, were included in the musical revue, ''Smokey Joe's Cafe'', and John Pizzarelli recorded an uptempo jazz version in 1994.

MAY 30, 1966 MONDAY

Dolly Parton marries Carl Dean in Ringgold, Georgia.

Anne Murray signs a contract making her a regular on ''Singalong Jubilee'', a weekly TV series presented by the Canadian broadcasting firm, the CBC.

MAY 31, 1966 TUESDAY

Bill Anderson recorded ''I Get The Fever''.
JUNE 1966
Janis Joplin, a Texas blues and folk singer, teamed up with a San Francisco band called Big Brother and the Holding Company. The following summer, their set was one of the highlights of the Monterey Pop Festival. They signed with Columbia Records and released ''Cheap Thrills'', which hit number one. Fiercely independent, Joplin was a rarity in the male-dominated rock world and became a feminist symbol. Sadly, she lost her battle with drugs and alcohol and died of a heroin overdose in a Hollywood hotel on October 4, 1970.

JUNE 2, 1966 THURSDAY

Having barely returned from a lengthy overseas tour, Johnny Cash leaves his home in Casitas Springs, California, without telling his wife whereabouts. Vivian Cash files for divorce before the end of June.

JUNE 2, 1966 THURSDAY
 
Soviet Union Lands Luna 9 on the Moon in February and the US follows with the Surveyor 1 soft moon landing. The Luna 9 spacecraft arrives on the Moon during February of 1966. The Luna 9 mission was launched by the Soviet Union at the end of January and became the first spacecraft to make a successful soft landing on the Moon in February. It also became the first mission to take and transmit photographs on the surface of the Moon back to Earth. The craft measured the radiation that was detected on the Moon’s surface and determined that potential future landers would not sink into the surface as well. The signal from the Luna 9 spacecraft stopped after a few days, ending the mission.

JUNE 4, 1966 SATURDAY

Janis Joplin arrives in San Francisco, where she is destined to become a major star. Her 1970 recording of ''Me And Bobby McGee'' gains ranking among country's greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number'' book.

JUNE 5, 1966 SUNDAY

Roy Orbison sings ''Oh, Pretty Woman'' on Dick Clark's ''American Bandstand''.

JUNE 6, 1966 MONDAY

From one Hall of Famer to another, Roy Acuff recorded an entire album in one day, ''For The First Time - Roy Acuff Sings Hank Williams''.

Columbia Records released Marty Robbins' ''The Shoe Goes On The Other Foot Tonight''.

Decca released The Wilburn Brothers' ''I Can't Keep Away From You''.

JUNE 7, 1966 TUESDAY

Claudette Orbison dies in a motorcycle crash near Gallatin, Tennessee. Roy Orbison and his wife Claudette were setting off on a motorcycle holiday when a truck driver pulled out in front of her bike. She died in his arms an hour later, at just 24 years old. Roy was devastated to lose his beautiful wife. The tragic lyrics and haunting melody of 'Too Soon To Know', which reached number three in the British charts just two months later, still tug at the heartstrings four decades on. Claudette had inspired Roy to write The Everly Brothers hit ''Claudette''.

The Chuck Wagon Gang takes part in the gospel concert staged at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Ronald Reagan enters politics becoming governor of California.

JUNE 8, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Willie Nelson recorded ''The Party's Over'', providing Don Meredith something to sing on ''Monday Night Football''.

Neil Young signs first professional management contract, as a member of Buffalo Spriengfield. The group also included Stephen Stills and Jim Messina.

JUNE 10, 1966 FRIDAY

The Mamas and The Papas earn a gold single for their pop hit ''California Dreamin''', featuring guitarist Glen Campbell. Also on the record, bass player Joe Osborn, drummer Hal Blaine and flute player Jim Horn.

JUNE 11, 1966 SATURDAY

Singer and songwriter Bruce Robison is born in Bandera, Texas. Finding an artistic home in alternative-country, he earns commercial success as the songwriter of Tim NcGraw's ''Angry All The Time'' and The Dixie Chicks' ''Travelin' Soldier''.

JUNE 13, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Wilma Burgess' ''Don't Touch Me'', Warner Mack's album ''The Country Touch'', Kitty Wells' album ''Country All The Way'', and The Wilburn Brothers' album ''Let's Go Country''.

Miranda Rights come into being after the Supreme Court overturns the conviction of a confessed rapist ruling he had not been properly informed of his right to council and to not testify against himself.

On March 2 1963, Patty McGee while waiting for a bus in Phoenix, Arizona is abducted and raped then returned home. On March 13, 1963, Ernesto Arturo Miranda was arrested based on circumstantial evidence linking him to the kidnapping and rape of Patty McGee 10 days earlier. On March 13, 1963, Ernesto Arturo Miranda was not informed of his right to remain silent part of The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (part of the Bill of Rights) codifies the right to silence. On March 13, 1963  while in Police custody Ernesto Arturo Miranda admitted to having committed the crime and signed his confession. On June 1963 Judge Yale McFate sentenced Ernesto Arturo Miranda to 20 to 30 years on each charge, to be served concurrently. On February 28, 1966 through March 2 Miranda v. Arizona case is heard in the Supreme Court of the United States which disputed the verdict based on the issue on the Sixth Amendment issue of the right to counsel before interrogation. On June 13, 1966 Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion in Miranda v. Arizona The person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he has the right to remain silent, and that anything he says will be used against him in court; he must be clearly informed that he has the right to consult with a lawyer and to have the lawyer with him during interrogation, and that, if he is indigent, a lawyer will be appointed to represent him. On February 1967, after the Supreme Court decision set aside Miranda's initial conviction, the state of Arizona retried him. At the second trial, with his confession excluded from evidence, he was again convicted, and he spent 11 years in prison. On December 1972 Ernesto Arturo Miranda after serving only a third of his sentence was released.

The Miranda warning / Miranda Rights is the name of the formal warning that is required to be given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial situation) before they are interrogated, in accordance with the Miranda ruling. Its purpose is to ensure the accused is aware of, and reminded of, these rights.

JUNE 15, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Guitarist Michael Britt is born in Fort Worth, Texas. He joins Lonestar, which claims the Academy of Country Music's Top New Group honor in 1995. The band's single ''Amazed'' takes a pair of ACM trophies in 2000.

Skeeter Davis recorded the Dolly Parton-penned ''Fuel To The Flame''.

JUNE 17, 1966 FRIDAY

''I Feel Fine'' songwriter Paul McCartney buys a farm in Kintyre, Scotland.

JUNE 18, 1966 SATURDAY

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs perform for an hour as a pre-speech warm-up when Nashville attorney John J. Hooker begins his campaign for governor with a rally in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Faron Young, Waylon Jennings and Norma Jean provide a pre-game concert at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, where the hometown Cardinals Baseball team edges the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2.

Billy Walker. Lorne Greene and Boots Randolph headline a country show at the historic Hollywood Bowl. The bill also features Justin Tubb, Stonewall Jackson, Pat Buttram, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis, Warner Mack, Billy Mize, Skeers McDonald, Tex Williams, Marion Worth, Billy Wallace and Bonnie Guitar.

JUNE 24, 1966 FRIDAY

Warner Mack recorded ''It Takes A Lot Of Money'' and ''Leave My Dream Alone''.

A trio featuring Karen and Richard Carpenter wins a battle of the bands at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The Carpenters go on to net a country hit with ''Sweet, Sweet Smile''.

JUNE 25, 1966 SATURDAY

Neil Diamond makes his first national TV appearance, performing ''Solitary Man'' during Dick Clark's ''American Bandstand'' on ABC-TV. The song becomes a country hit 10 years later for T.G. Sheppard.

Willie Nelson makes his last appearance as a member of The Grand Ole Opry at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.

JUNE 27, 1966 MONDAY

Capitol Records released Jean Shepard's ''If Teardrops Were Silver''.

JUNE 28, 1966 TUESDAY

Merle Haggard recorded ''The Bottle Let Me Down'' at the Capitol Recording Studios near Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, California.

Bobby Bare Jr. is born. He forms an alternative rock band in Nashville during the 1990's, years after he first appeared, at age seven, on his father's sentimental country hit  ''Daddy What If''.

JUNE 30, 1966 THURSDAY

Vivian Cash files for divorce from Johnny Cash. Uncertain where he is residing the court orders in The Nashville Banner four times during August.
JULY 1966

The Gemini 10 space mission launches in July of 1966. The spacecraft carried astronauts John Young and Michael Collins aboard the eighth manned Gemini flight. The astronauts performed two important space walks and several other experiments. The Gemini 10 mission became the first to execute a double rendezvous and it had also reached the highest point in space that a human had ever been at the time. The mission was successful and they returned to Earth after nearly 3 days.

JULY 1, 1966 FRIDAY

Slim Willet dies of a heart attack at Hendrick Memorial Hospital in Abilene, Texas. He wrote the classic ''Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes'', a Top 10 hit in 1952 and 1953 for Willet, Skeets McDonald, Ray Price and Red Foley.

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Session Published for Historical Reasons

STUDIO SESSION FOR JERRY LEE LEWIS
FOR SMASH RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: SATURDAY JULY 2, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - SHELBY SINGLETON

Note: One source lists July 22, 1966 as recording date (The date given by Nick Toshes in Goldmine, January 7, 1966, is incorrect).

> MEMPHIS BEAT (2) <
Composer: - Dickey Lee Lipscomb-Allen Reynolds-Milton Addington
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Screen Gems Music-Columbia
Matrix number: - YW1-38195 - Single Master (2:41)
Recorded: - July 2, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (S) 45rpm Smash S 2053 mono
MEMPHIS BEAT / IF I HAD IT ALL TO DO OVER
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B3 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968

''Memphis Beat'' is an album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on the Smash label in 1966. More than half the songs on ''Memphis Beat'' were recorded on January 5 and 6, 1966 at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis. The remaining selections were taken from a rare New York City session eight months earlier and Lewis's earliest sessions at Smash in 1963. The album includes a rare Lewis original called "Lincoln Limousine'', a garbled tribute to John F. Kennedy. In his book ''Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found'', Joe Bonomo calls the track "simply weird, so ambiguous and amateurishly written that it's impossible to determine exactly what motivated him to write it''. The album also includes "Too Young'', a piano lounge number that Bonomo deems "a real laugher" and "hysterically uncomfortable''. Lewis fares better on "Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" and the George Jones classic "She Thinks I Still Care," but the collection contained no new hits.

After ''Memphis Beat'' was released in May 1966, it stalled at 145 on the Billboard albums chart despite solid promotion from Smash and decent reviews. Lewis's commercial slump would continue until 1968, when he finally broke on the country charts with "Another Place, Another Time''. In 2014 Lewis biographer Rick Bragg wrote, "Throughout the mid-1960s he cut one album after another of other people's music... but none of it was new, not really''. Bruce Eder of AllMusic praises the album: "After veering hard into country (and country-pop) territory with Country Songs for City Folks, Jerry Lee Lewis came roaring back with Memphis Beat in 1966, featuring his hardest rocking sounds in years, and a band who were as good as any with whom he'd ever recorded''.

> TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY <
Composer: - Bobby Lee Trammell
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-38196 - Not Originally Issued (1:55)
Recorded: - July 2, 1966
Released: - 1986
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B9 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968

> TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY <
Composer: - Bobby Lee Trammell
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - YW1-38196 - Alternate Take 2
Recorded: - July 2, 1966 - Not Originally Issued

> SWUNGING DOORS (1) <
Composer: - Merle Haggard
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Blue Beck Music
Matrix number: - YW1-38197 - Not Originally Issued (2:49)
Recorded: - July 2, 1966
Released: - 1986
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-8-A1 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968

"Swinging Doors" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard. It was released in February 1966 as the first single and title track from the album ''Swinging Doors''. The song peaked at number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles. The story of the song tells the narrator has been dumped by his woman and tells her that he has what he needs.

> SWINGING DOORS (2) <
Composer: - Merle Haggard
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Blue Beck Music
Matrix number: - YW1-48544 - New Mix on Master (2:46)
Recorded: - July 2, 1966
Released: - October 1971
First appearance: - Mercury Records (LP) 33rpm SR 61346 mono-A-3 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS – WOULD YOU TAKE ANOTHER CHANCE ON ME?
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-6-B10 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968

Note: Master 48544 is a new mix of master 38197. The original recording ''without strings'' remained as unissued.

> IF I HAD IT ALL TO DO OVER <
Composer: - Paul Selph
Publisher: -B.M.I. - Ligatto Music
Matrix number: - YW1-38198 - Single Master (2:05)
Recorded: - July 2, 1966
Released: - 1966
First appearance: - Smash Records (S) 45rpm Smash S 2053 mono
IF I HAD IT ALL TO DO OVER / MEMPHIS BEAT
Reissued: - 1986 Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15210-8-A2 mono
JERRY LEE LEWIS - THE KILLER 1963-1968

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Vocals & Piano
Reggie Young - Guitar
More Details Unknown

For Biography of Jerry Lee Lewis see: > The Sun Biographies <
Jerry Lee Lewis's Smash recordings can be heard on his playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

JULY 3, 1966 SUNDAY

4,000 demonstrated against the U.S. war in London outside the U.S. Embassy a number are arrested.

JULY 4, 1966 MONDAY

George Jones opens his first amusement park, the George Jones Rhythm Ranch, and begins a friendship with guest performer Merle Haggard.

''Swingin' Country'', a daytime country showcase, debuts on NBC. The weekday program features Rusty Draper, Roy Clark and Molly Bee.

Johnny Sea sings his Vietnam-connected ''Day For Decision'' on Independent Day during a Liberace concert at Las Vegas' Sahara Hotel.

JULY 5, 1966 TUESDAY

Waylon Jennings recorded ''Green River'' and the theme song to the movie ''Nashville Rebel'' during an evening session at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ray Stevens performs ''Ahab, The Arab'' on Dick Clark's ABC daytime music show, ''Where The Action Is''.

Columbia Records released Stonewall Jackson's ''Blues Plus Booze (Means I Lose)''.

JULY 6, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Paramount Pictures released Elvis Presley's ''Paradise, Hawaiian Style. ''The movie is a 1966 musical comedy and it was the third and final motion picture that Presley filmed in Hawaii. The film reached number 40 on the Variety weekly box office chart, earning $2.5 million in theaters.

JULY 10, 1966 SUNDAY

When Neil Young spots Buffalo Springfield associate Richard Davis being shook up by police over a parking ticket in front of The Whiskey in Los Angeles, he tries to assist Davis. He ends up jailed, and receives multiple lacerations and head injuries.

Bill Monroe performs on the same bill with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at a bluegrass festival at Whippoorwil Park near Warrenton, Virginia. It marks the first time Monroe has been willing to share the stage with his former band members since they left him in 1948.

JULY 11, 1966 MONDAY

Shooting begins for Elvis Presley's ''Double Trouble'' in Los Angeles, California.

''The Newlywed Game'' debuts on ABC. The game show gets referenced five years later when Loretta Lynn recorded ''One's On The Way''.

JULY 12, 1966 TUESDAY

The Wilburn Brothers recorded ''Hurt Her Once For Me''.

JULY 15, 1966 FRIDAY

Dottie West recorded ''Paper Mansions''.

JULY 18, 1966 MONDAY

Pop singer Bobby Fuller dies in Los Angeles of asphyxiation, just months after scoring a hit with ''I fought The Law''. The song, written by former Buddy Holly cohort Sonny Curtis, is remade in a 1978 country hit by Hank Williams Jr.

Jimmie Rodgers and comedian George Carlin guest on NBC's 13-week replacement series ''The Kraft Summer Music Hall''.

JULY 19, 1966 TUESDAY

Johnny Rivers recorded the pop hit ''Poor Side Of Town''. Joe Stampley revives the song as a country hit in 1983.

JULY 20, 1966 WEDNESDAY

''The Best Of Jim Reeves'' achieves gold certification.

Guitarist Stone Gossard is born in Seattle, Washington. He becomes an original member of Pearl Jam, an alternative rock band name-checked in Lonestar's 1996 country hit, ''No News''.

Eddy Arnold and The Smothers Brothers are guests on the CBS summer replacement series ''The John Gary Show''.

JULY 25, 1966 MONDAY

The Monkees recorded ''Last Train To Clarksville'' at RCA Studio A in Hollywood, California. More than 35 years later, the Country Music Foundation surprisingly ranks it among country's 500 greatest singles in the book ''Heartaches By The Number''.

Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''Carnegie Hall Concert'' album, and Sonny James' single ''Room In Your Heart''.

JULY 29, 1966 FRIDAY

Martina McBride is born in Medicine Lodge, Kansas. The diminutive powerhouse claims the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year award four times behind such message-soaked singles as ''Independence Day'' and ''A Broken Wing''.

Bob Dylan breaks several bones in his neck in a motorcycle wreck when he hits an oil slick and flies through the handlebars in Woodstock, New York. During his recovery, he writes ''You Ain't Going Nowhere'', a 1999 hit for Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn.

JULY 30, 1966 SATURDAY

Marty Robbins finished 25th driving a 1962 Plymouth in a late-model stock car race at the Nashville Speedway.

JULY 31, 1966 SUNDAY

John Lennon's comment that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ is ''publicized'' by the U.S. media, provoking widespread outrage and burning of records.

England wins its first World Cup victory, defeating West Germany at Wembley Stadium with 4-2.

AUGUST 1966

NASA’s Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched during August of 1966 and became the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the Moon, the Soviet Union had accomplished the same feat during April of that year with their Luna 10 mission. The Lunar Orbiter 1 mission’s main purpose was to photograph the Moon while also conducting experiments. The orbiter made it into the Moon’s orbit successfully and took over 200 high resolution and medium resolution images, including the first two photos of Earth taken from the distance of the Moon. The spacecraft continued to orbit the Moon until the end of October of 1966 when it was purposefully crashed into the surface of the Moon.

AUGUST 1, 1966 MONDAY

Merle Haggard recorded ''The Fugitive'' at the Capitol Recording Studio in Hollywood, California.

George Ducas is born in Texas. He edgy, guitar-driven music finds the Top 10 in 1994 via ''Lipstick Promises''. He also writes Radney Foster's ''Just Call Me Lonesome'', The Eli Young Band's ''Always The Love Song'' and Sara Evan's ''A Real Fine Place To Start''.

The Everly Brothers perform on NBC's John Davidson-hosted replacement series ''The Kraft Summer Music Hall''.

Capitol Records released Merle Haggard's ''The Bottle Let Me Down''.

Decca released Bill Anderson's ''I Love You Drops'' album.

AUGUST 3, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Lonestar's keyboard player Dean Sams is born in Garland, Texas. Winners of the Academy of Country Music's Best New Group or Duo for 1995, the band earns hits with ''Tequila Talkin''', ''No News'' and the pop crossover single ''Amazed''.

Jimmie Rodgers guests alongside Frank Gorshin and Viki Carr on CBS-TV's ''The John Gary Show''.

Roy Orbison perform ''Mean Woman Blues'' and ''Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)'' on Dick Clark's after-school TV show ''Where The Action Is''.

AUGUST 4, 1966 THURSDAY

Roger Miller achieves his third gold album with ''Dang Me''.

AUGUST 5, 1966 FRIDAY

New York's Yankee Stadium hosts a country concert, featuring Roy Acuff, Kay Adams, Dick Curless, Pete Drake, Roy Drusky, Flatt and Scruggs, The Geezinslaw Brothers, Stonewall Jackson, Warner Mack, Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Dottie West and Hank Williams Jr.

AUGUST 8, 1966 MONDAY 

Decca Records released Bill Anderson's ''I Get The Fever''.

AUGUST 9, 1966 TUESDAY

Jack Greene recorded ''There Goes My Everything''.

AUGUST 10, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Brenda Lee recorded the pop hit ''Coming On Strong'' at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studios.

The movie ''The Gold Guitar'' opens in Atlanta. The picture features a bevy of country stars, including Bill Anderson, Bill Carlise, Skeeter Davis, Roy Drusky, Margie Bowes, Del Reeves, Hugh X. Lewis, Charlie Louvin, Eddie Hill and Don Barber.

AUGUST 11, 1966 THURSDAY

Six weeks after an unsatisfactory attempt at it, Ray Price recorded ''Touch My Heart'' during the evening at Nashville's Columbia Recording Studios.

Sheb Wooley, under the name Ben Colder, recorded ''Almost Persuaded'' number 2 parody of David Houstin's original hit during a late-night session in Nashville, Tennessee.

AUGUST 12, 1966 FRIDAY

Tree Publishing cuts the first big songwriting paycheck of Roger Miller's career. The document gives him more than $166,000.

AUGUST 13, 1966 SATURDAY

David Houston's ''Almost Persuaded'' goes to number 1 on the Billboard country chart.
 
China under Chairman Mao launches China's Cultural Revolution and begins purging intellectuals.  China has announced It's Cultural Revolution and that by reorganizing the current small farming collectives into great communes workers would be released to work in industry. With the Cultural Revolution came persecution of radical students and teachers and colleges were effectively closed down, and Chairman Mao also used the time to purge his rivals. A bi-product of the Cultural Revolution was that grain output declined leading to the country's largest famine in history.

AUGUST 15, 1966 MONDAY

Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''Open Up Your Heart''.

Bobby Darin recorded ''If I Were A Carpenter'', developing a Top 10 pop hit in the process. Johnny Cash and June Carter remake it as a country hit three years later.

AUGUST 16, 1966 TUESDAY

Colgems Records released The Monkees' pop hit ''Last Train To Clarksville''. In 2003, the Country Music Foundation book ''Heartaches By The Number'' lists it among country's 500 greatest singles of all-time.

Brenda Lee sings ''I'm Sorry'' on Dick Clark's daytime ABC-TV series.

AUGUST 19, 1966 FRIDAY

Lee Ann Womack is born in Jacksonville, Texas. A superb traditionally minded vocalist, she reaches her commercial peak with the 2000 release ''I Hope You Dance'', named Song and Single of the Year by the Country Music Association.

AUGUST 20, 1966 SATURDAY

Jerry and Carolyn Abbott have a son, Darrell ''Dimebag'' Abbott, in Ennis, Texas. The son goes on to form heavy metal band Pantera with brother Vinnie Paul Abbott. Dad co-writes the Buck Owens and Emmylou Harris hit ''Play Together Again Again''.

AUGUST 21, 1966 SUNDAY

Jerry Lee Lewis signs on to take the role of lago in a London production of ''Catch My Soul'', an adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Othello''.

AUGUST 22, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released Warner Mack's ''It Takes A Lot Of Money''.

Pop vocalist Yvonne King divorce her second husband, Delmore Courtney. The split comes 20 years after The King Sisters recorded their only country hit, the appropriately titles ''Divorce Me C.O. D''.

Johnny Cash fails to appear in court during the first day of divorce proceeding in Ventura, California.

''Island In The Stream'' co-writer Barry Gibb marries his first wife, Maureen Bates.

AUGUST 24, 1966 WEDNESDAY

The movie ''Girl From Tobacco Row'' appears in theaters. The cast includes Tex Ritter, Johnny Russell, Martha Carson and Ralph Emery, playing a hired killer.

AUGUST 25, 1966 THURSDAY

Connie Smith recorded ''The Hurtin's All Over'' in a late-night Nashville session at RCA Studio B. She also takes the first of three attempts at ''I'll Come Runnin'''. 
 
AUGUST 29, 1966 MONDAY

The Beatles perform their final live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The lead singer for the opening act, The Remains, is Barry Tashian, who goes on to sing background vocals with Emmylou Harris.

Sam Phillips is coaxed into producing his first Sun sides (with newcomer Dane Stinit) in   several years. The Jesters, featuring Sam's younger son Jerry, offer hope for the future with   their hard-driving single, "Cadillac Man''.
As unwanted background noise had been steadily reduced, so the demand grew for even   greater reduction. The film sound engineers had long been using sophisticated devices to   achieve noise reduction but recording studios had been slow to follow their example. In   1966 Dr Ray Dolby introduced the Dolby Noise Reduction System which became a universal   standard.
Singer and songwriter Shawn Camp is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Signed to Reprise Records in the 1990s, he earns hits as a songwriter  with George Strait's ''River Of Love'', Garth Brooks' ''Two Pina Coladas'' and Josh Turner's ''Would You Go With Me''.

Claude Gray recorded ''I Never Had The One I Wanted''.

Columbia Records released Ray Price's ''Touch My Heart''.

AUGUST 30, 1966 TUESDAY

''McHale's Navy'' ends its prime-time run on ABC-TV, with Kitty Wells' son, Bobby Wright, portraying crew member Willie Moss.

Filming is completed in Los Angeles for Elvis Presley's movie ''Double Trouble''.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs recorded ''I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow'', 35 years before The Soggy Bottom Boys redo it for ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?''.

AUGUST 31, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Eddy Arnold recorded ''Lonely Again'' at Nashville's RCA Studio B.

Bobby Bare recorded ''The Game Of Triangles'' with Norma Jean and Liz Anderson.
 
AUGUST 1966

Former Sun recording artist, Curtis Hobock retired from music in August, 1966 and moved to Fresno, California. He only played music   once more in his life, at a Christmas party for the employer of his brother in-law, Hugh Johnson. He took   many short-terms and part time jobs until 1967 when he became the maintenance supervisor for Duncan   Ceramics, staying there until his retirement in 1977. After retirement, he built a diorama of his home town, Hatchie, Tennessee. Curtis Hobock died in Fresco, Tennessee on September 29, 1988, unaware that  collectors far away were parting with large sums for his original singles.
The Jefferson Airplane release their debut album, ''Jefferson Airplane Takes off''.

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR BARBARA BROWN & THE BROWNS
FOR XL/ATCO/CADET/TOWER RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
STUDIO SESSIONS: AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 5, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - STAN KESLER & DON GREER
ARRANGER: CHARLES CHALMERS

Session Published for Historical Reasons

Barbara and the Browns were an American soul and gospel vocal group, fronted by Barbara Brown who also recorded as a solo singer. The group were from Memphis, Tennessee, and originally comprised Barbara Brown with her sisters Roberta, Betty, Maurice, and brothers Walter and Richard writing some of their material. In 1963 they auditioned with Chips Moman, intending to record gospel music, but Moman persuaded them to record his secular song "Big Party". The song was released as a single on Wilmo Records, and after it became locally successful the master was leased to Stax Records. The record rose to number 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 during a period when no Rhythm & Blues chart was being published. Stax released two more singles by the group, "In My Heart" and "I Don't Want Trouble" in 1964-65, but neither were commercially successful.

The group were then signed by Gene Lucchesi to the XL label, who recorded the group - and, then, Barbara as a solo artist - using producer Charles Chalmers. Several singles were released on the Cadet, Atco and Tower labels, and on XL itself. Although subsequently highly regarded by critics and aficionados of Southern soul, the records sold poorly at the time. Barbara Brown did not record after 1972. A compilation of her recordings, ''Can't Find Happiness'', including several unreleased recordings, was issued by Kent Records in 2007. She died in Detroit, Michigan on February 3, 2010.

Thanks to Jay Halsey for his tenacity for this new updates (2022).

For Barbara Brown's audio recordings click on the available > buttons <

> CAN'T FIND NO HAPPINESS <
Composer: - Paul Self-Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 67C-13658-MO - Single Master (2:15)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Atco Records (S) 45rpm standard single Atco 6549-A mono
CAN'T FIND NO HAPPINESS / A GREAT BIG THING
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-1 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> IF I CAN'T RUN TO YOU I'LL CRAWL <
Composer: - Don Culver
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Publishing
Matrix number: - 71-L-2628 - Single Master (2:39)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM-750-A mono
IF I CAN'T RUN TO YOU I'LL CRAWL / YOU DON'T LOVE ME
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-2 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT <
Composer: - Don Culver
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 14975 - Single Master (2:45)
Recorded: - September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - Cadet Records (S) 45rpm standard single 5544-A mono
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT / PLENTY OF ROOM
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-3 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> PLAY THING <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Carlin Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - 14975 - Unissued LP Master (1:54)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-14 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-4 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> I'M GONNA START A WAR <
Composer: - Don Culver
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Carlin Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - 14975 - Unissued LP Master (2:22)
Recorded: - August 31, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-8 stereo
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-5 stereo
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> YOU DON'T LOVE ME <
Composer: - Willie Cobbs
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Katrine Music
Matrix number: - 71-L-2627 - Single Master (2:29)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM-750-B stereo
YOU DON'T LOVE ME / IF I CAN'T RUN TO YOU I'LL CRAWL
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-6 stereo
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> MAN AROUND THE HOUSE <
Composer: - John Russell
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Bluewater Music
Matrix number: - None - Unissued Master (2:50)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-11 stereo
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-7 stereo
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> GOT TO BE SOMEBODY <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Unissued (2:22)
Recorded: - August 31, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-12 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-1 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> IT HURTS ME SO MUCH (TO BE ABLE TO LOOK AND KNOW I CAN'T TOUCH) < 
Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Unissued Master (2:20)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-2 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-2 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> IT HURTS ME SO MUCH (TO BE ABLE TO LOOK AND KNOW I CAN'T TOUCH) <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None - Alternate Take (2:27)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-20 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

> THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES <
Composer: - Leon Payne
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Burlingham Music
Matrix number: - None - Single Master (4:07)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Tower Records (S) 45rpm standard single 429-A stereo
THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES / THERE'S A LOOK ON YOUR FACE
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-3 stereo
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES <
Composer: - Leon Payne
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Burlingham Music
Matrix number: - None - Demo Undubbed (4:14)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-19 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

> THERE'S A LOOK ON YOUR FACE <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers-Paul Selph
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Simply Grand Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Single Master (2:47)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Tower Records (S) 45rpm standard single 429-B mono
THERE'S A LOOK ON YOUR FACE / THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-4 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> A GREAT BIG THING (TILL YOU CAME) <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 67C-13659-MO - Single Master (2:45)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Atco Records (S) 45rpm standard single Atco 6549-B mono
A GREAT BIG THING / CAN'T FIND NO HAPPINESS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-5 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> PLENTY OF ROOM < 
Composer: - Richard Brown
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 14976 - Single Master (2:26)
Recorded: - September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - Cadet Records (S) 45rpm standard single 5544-B mono
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT / PLENTY OF ROOM
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-6 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY – THE XL SESSIONS – 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

''PITY A FOOL''
Composer: - Don Greer
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Sounds of Memphis Music
Matrix number: - 72-L-3504
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1972
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM 709-A stereo
PITY A FOOL / IF IT'S GOOD TO YOU
Reissued: - 2007 Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-5 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

''IF IT'S GOOD TO YOU''
Composer: - Don Greer-Stanley Carter
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Sounds of Memphis Music
Matrix number: - 72-L-3503
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1972
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM 709-B stereo
IF IT'S GOOD TO YOU / PITY A FOOL /
Reissued: - 2007 Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-17 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Barbara Brown - Vocal
Roberta Brown, Betty Brown,
Maurice Brown, Richard Brown - Vocals

Reggie Young - Guitar
Tommy Cogbill - Bass
Gene Chrisman - Drums
Bobby Wood - piano
Probably Charles Chalmers - Saxophone
More Details Unknown

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

BARABA BROWN - THE SINGLES A-B SIDES

STUDIO SESSIONS FOR BARBARA BROWN & THE BROWNS
FOR WIL-MO/STAX/XL/ATCO/CADET/TOWER/SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDS 1963-1966

PROBABLY SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
STUDIO SESSIONS: UNKNOWN DATS9S) & AUGUST 31, SEPTEMBER 5, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEERS - MISCELLANEOUS

Sessions Published for Historical Reasons

> BIG PARTY <
Composer: - Jerry L. Williams
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - None Single Master Long Version (2:39)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1963
Released: - 1963
First appearance: - Wil-Mo Records (S) 45rpm standard single 101-A mono
BIG PARTY / YOU BELONG TO HER

> YOU BELONG TO HER <
Composer: - Jerry L. Williams
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - None Single Master (2:30)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1963
Released: - 1963
First appearance: - Wil-Mo Records (S) 45rpm standard single 101-B mono
YOU BELONG TO HER / BIG PARTY

> BIG PARTY <
Composer: - Jerry L. Williams
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - STX-101-A Single Master (2:10)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearance: - Stax Records (S) 45rpm standard single S 150-A mono
BIG PARTY / YOU BELONG TO HER

> YOU BELONG TO HER <
Composer: - Jerry L. Williams
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - STX-101-B Single Master (2:30)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearance: - Stax Records (S) 45rpm standard single S 150-B mono
YOU BELONG TO HER / BIG PARTY

> IN MY HEART <
Composer: - Cropper-Parker
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Publishing East Music
Matrix number: - STX-8141 Single Master (2:45)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearance: - Stax Records (S) 45rpm standard single S 158-A mono
IN MY HEART / PLEASE BE HONEST WITH ME

> PLEASE BE HONEST WITH ME <
Composer: - Richard Brown
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - STX-8142 Single Master (2:35)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1964
Released: - 1964
First appearance: - Stax Records (S) 45rpm standard single S 158-B mono
PLEASE BE HONEST WITH ME / IN MY HEART

> I DON'T WANT TROUBLE <
Composer: - Richard Brown
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - STX-8493 Single Master (2:00)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1965
Released: - 1965
First appearance: - Stax Records (S) 45rpm standard single S 164-A mono
I DON'T WANT TROUBLE / MY LOVER

> MY LOVER <
Composer: - Barbara Brown-Richard Brown
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing
Matrix number: - STX-8492 Single Master (2:20)
Recorded: - Unknown Date(s) 1965
Released: - 1965
First appearance: - Stax Records (S) 45rpm standard single S 164-B mono
MY LOVER / I DON'T WANT TROUBLE

> I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT <
Composer: - Don Culver
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 14975 - Single Master (2:45)
Recorded: - September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - Cadet Records (S) 45rpm standard single 5544-A mono
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT / PLENTY OF ROOM
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-3 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> PLENTY OF ROOM <
Composer: - Richard Brown
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 14976 - Single Master (2:26)
Recorded: - September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - Cadet Records (S) 45rpm standard single 5544-B mono
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT / PLENTY OF ROOM
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-6 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> CAN'T FIND NO HAPPINESS <
Composer: - Paul Self-Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 67C-13658-MO - Single Master (2:15)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Atco Records (S) 45rpm standard single Atco 6549-A mono
CAN'T FIND NO HAPPINESS / A GREAT BIG THING
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-1 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> A GREAT BIG THING (TILL YOU CAME) <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - II Gatto Music
Matrix number: - 67C-13659-MO - Single Master (2:45)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Atco Records (S) 45rpm standard single Atco 6549-B mono
A GREAT BIG THING / CAN'T FIND NO HAPPINESS
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-5 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> THINKS HAVE GONE TO PIECES <
Composer: - Leon Payne
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Burlingham Music
Matrix number: - 45-62100 - Single Master (4:07)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Tower Records (S) 45rpm standard single 429-A stereo
THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES / THERE'S A LOOK ON YOUR FACE
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-3 stereo
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> THERE'S A LOOK ON YOUR FACE <
Composer: - Charles Chalmers-Paul Selph
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Simply Grand Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - 45-62101 - Single Master (2:47)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Tower Records (S) 45rpm standard single 429-B mono
THERE'S A LOOK ON YOUR FACE / THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 B-4 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> YOU DON'T LOVE ME <
Composer: - Willie Cobbs
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Katrine Music
Matrix number: - None - Single Master (2:29)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - XL Records (S) 45rpm standard single (no number) XL-A stereo
YOU DON'T LOVE ME / IF I CAN'T RUN TO YOU I'LL CRAWL
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-6 stereo
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> IF I CAN'T RUN TO YOU I'LL CRAWL <
Composer: - Don Culver
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Publishing
Matrix number: - None - Single Master (2:39)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1971
First appearance: - XL Records (S) 45rpm standard single (no number) XL-B mono
IF I CAN'T RUN TO YOU I'LL CRAWL / YOU DON'T LOVE ME
Reissued: - 2019 Ace Records (LP) 33rpm Kent 517 A-2 mono
GOT TO BE SOMEBODY - THE XL SESSIONS - 1960'S MEMPHIS GOLD

> PITY A FOOL <
Composer: - Don Greer
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Sounds of Memphis Music Publishing
Matrix number: - 72-L-3504 – Single Master (2:52)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1972
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM 709-A stereo
PITY A FOOL / IF IT'S GOOD TO YOU
Reissued: - 2007 Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-5 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

> IF IT'S GOOD TO YOU (IT'S GOOD FOR YOU) <
Composer: - Don Greer-Stanley Carter
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Sounds of Memphis Music Punlishing
Matrix number: - 72-L-3503 n- Single Master (2:13)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1972
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM 709-B stereo
IF IT'S GOOD TO YOU / PITY A FOOL /
Reissued: - 2007 Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-17 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

> BIG PARTY <
Composer: - Jerry Williams
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Beckie Music Publishing-Gre-Jac Music
Matrix number: - 72-L-4262 – Single Master (2:40)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1972
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM 713-A stereo
BIG PARTY / WATCH DOG
Reissued: - 2007 Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-6 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

> WATCH DOG <
Composer: - Don Greer
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Cre-Jac Music-Gene Music
Matrix number: - 72-L-4263 - Single Master (2:21)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 1972
First appearance: - Sounds Of Memphis Records (S) 45rpm standard single SM 709-B stereo
WATCH DOG / BIG PARTY
Reissued: - 2007 Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-10 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

> WATCH DOG <
Composer: - Don Greer
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Cre-Jac Music-Gene Music
Matrix number: - 72-L-4263 - Alternate Take (2:35)
Recorded: - August 31 / September 5, 1966
Released: - 2007
First appearance: - Kent Records (CD) 500/200rpm CDKENT 278-18 mono
CAN'T FIND HAPPINESS - THE SOUNDS OF MEMPHIS RECORDINGS

*- Digitally Remastered

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Barbara Brown - Vocal
Roberta Brown, Betty Brown,
Maurice Brown, Richard Brown - Vocals

Reggie Young - Guitar
Tommy Cogbill - Bass
Gene Chrisman - Drums
Bobby Wood - piano
Probably Charles Chalmers - Saxophone
More Details Unknown

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

Barbara Brown never had an official LP release during her lifetime. Like so many soul acts her career was defined by a slow and sometimes interrupted stream of singles stories of love and heartache, told over 7-inches and at 45rpm. Often alongside her family group the Browns, Barbara had more releases than most, while the CD we released a decade ago - together with further discoveries made since - show that she left behind a body of work as illustrious as any of her Memphis-based peers. Here is an approximation of what a 1968 Barbara Brown album would have 13 tracks, in Memphis over the previous 18 months. An unadulterated expression of pure emotion, an artist deserves to be better known. This album should be in soul lover's home, a 'testament to the music she made for Gene Lucchesi under the direction of Stan Kesler and produced by Charles Chalmers.

The Browns were a local Memphis family consisting of ten girls and two boys. The boys, Richard and Walter, would record two wonderful tracks for Gene Lucchesi, ''Love Just Ain't There'' and ''I Love You'', but neither would see release until years later. The family as a whole sang in church and it become clear that Barbara was a dynamic lead singer. Backed by three of her sisters Roberta, Betty and Maurice - they started to sing as a group and one of the brothers tried to convince Chips Moman to record them as a gospel act.

Moman had just left Stax where he had fallen out with owners Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton over payment and ownership issues. He was still a couple of years away from the triumphant success of his American Sound Studio and was trying get his own projects off the ground. He had a new Song ''Big Party'' which he convinced the group to try out. In short order it was released on Moman's Wil-Mo label, and sold on to Stax for national distribution where it sneaked into the Billboard Hot 100 at number 97. Two singles followed - ''In My Heart'' b/w ''Please Be Honest Me'' and ''My Lover'' b/w 'Í Don" Want Trouble'', before the group returned to Moman who sold their contract to Gene Lucchesi.

Lucchesi, whose main business interest was liquor distribution, once described the music industry as ''his game of golf'', essentially a hobby, a way to relax after the main work of the day. However he was successful from the get-go; at the time he signed Barbara and the Browns he was riding high on the success of Sam The Sham and the Pharoahs ''Wooly Bully''. Over the next few years his business model attempted to replicate that success by recording and sometimes releasing locally, and them licensing the recordings to major labels in an attempt to have a hit. With and without the Browns Barbara would release three singles in the second half of the 1960s in this manner (with a fourth scheduled but never released), and would also record the rest of the tracks featured here at the same time.

Never a studio man, Lucchesi would leave the recording side of things to his partners Stan Kesler, who was responsible for putting together the band and overseeing things, and producer/arranger Charles Chalmers - famed for his saxophone work on some of Aretha Franklin's greatest hits.

The recording sessions are not especially well documented, but the information we have gleaned from the tape boxes and the acetate labels we think this is how things went down. Barbara and the Browns' first post-Stax sessions happened in 1966 and were recorded at Sam Phillips' studio. The session players are undocumented but the sound and educated guess work it is likely that Reggie Young, Tommy Cogbill, Gene Chrisman and Bobby Wood were all present for most of these sessions. At these sessions the August 1966 Chess 45 ''Plenty Of Room'' b/w 'l Don't Have To Wait'' were recorded alongside ''If I Can't Run To You I'll Crawl'', ''Got To Be Somebody', ''Can't Find No Happiness'' and ''I'm Gonna Start A War''. The last two were scheduled for a Cadet single but that was scrapped, and Barbara's next single appeared in 1968 when ''Can't Find No Happiness'' was coupled with one of the tracks that Barbara had recorded in 1967.

The 1967 recordings also included ''Play Thing'', ''It Hurts Me So Much'' and the B-side of Barbara's second 1968 single ''There's A Look On Your Face''. Released on Capitol's Tower subsidiary it was paired with one of tracks recorded at her 1968 session ''Things Have Gone To Pieces'', a country hit for George Jones. The country feel continued with the John Russell song ''Man Around The House'' whilst the final was a cover version, this time Willie Cobb's standard ''You Don't Love Me''. This track would be coupled with the 1966 recording ''If I Can't Run To You I'll Crawl', released as a single on XL in 1971, and then as the inaugural release on Sounds Of Memphis.

This would be the year that Barbara returned to the recording studio for a final time, releasing two more singles for Sounds Of Memphis - which fall outside the scope of this LP - before retiring to bring up her family in Detroit. Although she died on February 3 in 2010, she had been informed of the wonderful reaction to her recordings that their reissue on Kent had engendered. This LP, in rounding up just her 1960s recordings, strengthens her claim to be one of the greatest singers to have recorded in the city during that decade.

Liner notes by Dean Rudland, March 2019

SEPTEMBER 1, 1966 THURSDAY
''Born To Buck'', a documentary about wild horses. makes its debut in movie theaters with Rex Allen narrating.

Arlene Harden, of The Harden Trio, signs a solo recording deal with Columbia Records.

SEPTEMBER 2, 1966 FRIDAY

''Sing Along With Mitch'' makes its last prime-time appearance on NBC-TV. The show, which encourages inhome karaoke, is hosted by Mitch Miller, who produced numerous Marty Robbins hits, including ''A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)''.

SEPTEMBER 3, 1966 SATURDAY

''The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet'' makes its final prime-time appearances with former teen idol Rick Nelson having matured into 25-year-old husband.

Twelve days after the dissolution of her previous marriage, Yvonne King marries Bill Burch. The King Sisters had a lone country hit 20 years prior ''Divorce Me C.O.D.''.

SEPTEMBER 7, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Roy Orbison begins filming ''The Fastest Guitar Alive'', originally planned for Elvis Presley, in Hollywood, California. ''The Fastest Guitar Alive'' is a 1967 MGM motion picture starring singer Roy Orbison in his only starring role as an actor. A musical western, the story is set near the end of the American Civil, War with Orbison portraying a Southern spy with a bullet-shooting guitar given the task of robbing gold bullion from the United States Mint in San Francisco order to help finance the Confederacy's war effort. 

The film features Orbison performing seven original songs which appeared on his 1967 MGM record album of the same name. His song "There Won't Be Many Coming Home" is featured in the 2015 western film ''The Hateful Eight''.

''The Fastest Guitar Alive'' is also the soundtrack title for the 33rpm record album from MGM Records released in June 1967. Its single "There Won't Be Many Coming Home" reached number 18 in the United Kingdom and entered the Australian chart at its highest position of number 32 before slipping down the chart.

''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' ends a five-year run on CBS-TV. The cast includes Morey Amsterdam, who wrote Dick Jurgens', ''(Oh Why, Oh Why, Did I Ever Leave) Wyoming'', and Mary Tyler Moore, who founds MTM Records.

SEPTEMBER 9, 1966 FRIDAY

Star Trek premieres on NBC.

Phil and Jacqualine Everly have their first child, Phillip Jason Everly, in New York.

Tammy Wynette recorded her first single, ''Apartment Number 9'', at the Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

SEPTEMBER 11, 1966 SUNDAY

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are featured alongside Ella Fitzgerald on NBC-TV's ''The Andy Williams Show''.

SEPTEMBER 12, 1966 MONDAY

The Monkees TV show has its premiere on American TV.

''The Roger Miller Show'' debuts on NBC-TV, with ''King Of The Road'' as its theme song. Guests for the first week include Bill Cosby and The Doodletown Pipers.

As ''The Last Train To Claksville'' begins making waves, the weekly series ''The Monkees'' debuts on NBC-TV. The recording is later tabbed among country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation book ''Heartaches By The Number''.

SEPTEMBER 17, 1966 SATURDAY

Penn State defeats Maryland, 15-7, in college football. The game is the first for Nittany Lion defensive tackle Mike Reid, who recorded three safeties. He goes on to write country hits for Ronnie Milsap, Lorrie Morgan and Conway Twitty.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1966 MONDAG

Decca Released Brenda Lee's pop hit ''Coming On Strong''.

''Last Train To Clarksdale'' is featured in ''Monkey See, Monkey Die'', the second episode of NBC's ''The Monkees''. The song is eventually named one of country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.

''I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'' songwriter John Lennon flies to Spain to shoot the movie ''How I Won The War''.

NBC's ''The Roger Miller Show'' welcomes pop singer Jack Jones and country comedians The Geezinslaws.

Decca Records released Loretta Lynn's ''You Ain't Woman Enough'' album.

SEPTEMBER 21, 1966 WEDNESDAY

''The Las Vegas Hillbillys'' debuts in general theaters. The movie features appearances by Ferlin Husky, Don Bowman, Wilma Burgess, Del Reeves, Connie Smith, Roy Drusky, Sonny James, the Duke of Paducah and Bill Anderson, performing ''Bright Lights And Country Music''.

SEPTEMBER 26, 1966 MONDAY

''Last Train To Clarksville'' is featured in ''Monkey Vs. Machine'', the third episode of NBC's ''The Monkees''. The song is eventually named one of country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.

Decca Records Jack Greene's ''There Goes My Everything''.

SEPTEMBER 27, 1966 TUESDAY

Bill Anderson and Jan Howard recorded ''For Loving You''.

SEPTEMBER 28, 1966 WEDNESDAY

''Road To Nashville'' opens, starring Marty Robbins, Webb Pierce, Bill Anderson, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Dottie West, Faron Young and Connie Smith, The Stoneman Family also appears in the film, performing ''Tupelo County Jail''.

Big-band leader Lucky Millinder dies in New York City. A mid-century jazz and rhythm and blues figure, he planned two 1944 singles, ''Sweet Slumber'' and ''Hurry, Hurry'' on Billboard's folk charts, with ultimately became the magazine's country list.
OCTOBER 1966
The United States Department of Transportation is created in October of 1966 by an act of Congress. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into law on October 15, 1966. The purpose of the department was to create a level of Federal oversight in the development of transportation policy and the creation of public transportation infrastructure. Alan S. Boyd was appointed as the first Secretary of Transportation in January of 1967 and the department began its official operations on April 1, 1967. 

OCTOBER 1, 1966 SATURDAY

Several hundred hippies protest the criminalization of LSD with a Love Pageant Rally in San Francisco's Pamhandle Park. Janis Joplin, who will recorded ''Me And Bobby McGee'', drinks cheap wine at the event's periphery. 

OCTOBER 3, 1966 MONDAY

Elvis Presley begins filming ''Easy Come, Easy Go'' in Los Angeles, California.

''Lat Train To Clarksville'' is featured in ''Your Friendly Neighborhood Kidnappers'', the fourth episode of NBC's ''The Monkees''. The song ranks among country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.

Decca Records released Wilma Burgess' original version of ''Misty Blue''.

Filming begins in Hollywood for the movie ''What Am I Bid?''. Leroy Van Dyke performs ''Actioneer'' in the picture, which also features Tex Ritter, Faron Young, Darrell McCall, Johnny Seay and Al Hirt.

''The Roger Miller Show'' features folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary and New York Mets manager Casey Stengel in the NBC prime-time lineup.

Capitol released the Merle Haggard album ''Swinging Doors And The Bottle Let Me Down''.

OCTOBER 5, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Loretta Lynn recorded ''Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)'' during an afternoon session at Bradley's Barn in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

Ned Miller recorded ''Heart, We Did All That We Could''. Within months, a cover version becomes a hit for Capitol labelmate Jean Shepard.

OCTOBER 6, 1966 THURSDAY

Tim Rushlow is born in Airlington, Texas. He becomes the lead singer of Little Texas, a six-man harmony group that earns consistent success in the early-1990's. He later adds a 2001 solo hit and forms another group in 2002, Rushlow.

OCTOBER 7, 1966 FRIDAY

Ray Stevens drops by on Dick Clark's ABC-TV show ''Where The Action Is'', also featuring Paul Revere and The Raiders.

OCTOBER 8, 1966 SATURDAY

Ray Charles perform the Buck Owens song ''Crying Time'' on ABC-TV's ''The Hollywood Palace''. Adam West hosts the episode, which also features guests Ray Rogers and Dale Evans.

OCTOBER 9, 1966 SUNDAY

The Beatles' John Lennon meets future wife Yoko Ono at the Indica Art Gallery in London. His name later appears in the songwriters credits on Rosanne Cash's ''I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'' and Sweethearts Of The Rodeo's ''I Feel Fine''.

OCTOBER 10, 1966 MONDAY

After more than six months of recording and production work, ''Good Vibrations'' by the Beach Boys is released.

Sun 403 ''Sherry's Lips'' b/w ''Miss Brown'' by David Houston issued. Note: Reissue of Phillips International 3583.

Jerry Reed recorded his first chart recorded, ''Guitar Man''. The song goes on to become a posthumous hit for Elvis Presley.

Capitol released The Beach Boys' pop single ''Good Vibrations'', featuring guitar player Glen Campbell.

Johnny Cash buys land in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He builds a house on the property, which becomes his primary residence for the remainder of his life.

The NBC variety series ''The Roger Miller Show'' highlights broadcaster Arthur Godfrey and comedy duo Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber.

OCTOBER 12, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Registered bloodhound Beauregard is born. The dog becomes a star on ''Hee Haw''.

OCTOBER 14, 1966 FRIDAY

Del Reeves joins the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, singing ''Girl On The Billboard''. 

OCTOBER 16, 1966 SUNDAY

The Stanley Brothers give their final full-length concert in Bean Blossom, Indiana. Carter Stanley dies less than two months later.

OCTOBER 17 , 1966 MONDAY

Dazzling and funny, Flamboyant pianist Liberace appears on the NBC variety series ''The Roger Miller Show''.

The Dillards make their final appearance as the fictitious band The Darlings on CBS' ''The Andy Griffith Show'', co-starring Don Knotts and George ''Goober'' Lindsey.

OCTOBER 18, 1966 TUESDAY

Frank Sinatra recorded ''That's Life'' in Hollywood with record producer Jimmy Bowen, who becomes a major Nashville producer.

OCTOBER 21, 1966 FRIDAY

Aberfan disaster in South Wales in United Kingdom, a slag heap containing unwanted rock from the local coal mine slid down Merthyr Mountain. As it collapsed it destroyed twenty houses and a farm before going on to demolish virtually all of Pantglas Junior School 144 people were killed, 116 of whom were children mostly between the ages of 7 and 10.

From 1916 to 1966 Merthyr Vale Colliery dumps millions of cubic metres of excavated mining debris on Mynydd Merthyr directly above the village of Aberfan. From 1963 - 1966 Many fears about the safety of the Aberfan tip complex are raised due to the unstable nature of the slurry being dumped on the mountain and it's possible instability due to heavy rains and the heavy gradient. On October 16th to October 21st heavy rains are seen in the area. On October 16th 9:15 a.m. more than 150,000 cubic metres of water-saturated debris broke away and flowed downhill towards the village at high speed. On October 16th 9:15 a.m. due to the fog Nobody in the village was able to see the slurry but everyone could hear the roar of the approaching landslide. On October 16th 40,000 cubic metres of debris smashed into the village in a slurry 39 ft deep. On October 16th The slurry destroyed a farm and twenty terraced houses along Moy Road and slammed into the northern side of the Pantglas Junior School and part of the separate senior school, demolishing most of the structures and filling the classrooms with thick mud and rubble up to 10 metres (33 ft) deep. Hundreds of miners from local collieries rushed to Aberfan, especially from the nearby Merthyr Vale Colliery, as well as miners from Deep Navigation Colliery and Taff Merthyr Colliery in the neighbouring Taff Bargoed Valley, and also from pits across the South Wales coalfield to help in rescue efforts which continued throughout the night. The disaster took the lives of 116 children and 28 adults.

The Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster Stated That: "Blame for the disaster rests upon the National Coal Board. This is shared, though in varying degrees, among the NCB headquarters, the South Western Divisional Board, and certain individuals. … The legal liability of the NCB to pay compensation of the personal injuries, fatal or otherwise, and damage to property, is incontestable and uncontested''.

OCTOBER 22, 1966 SATURDAY

Eddy Arnold, music publisher Jim Denny, Grand Ole Opry founder George D. Hay and Uncle Dave Macon are added to the Country Music Hall Of fame, with the proceeding airing on ABC-TV's ''The Jimmy Dean Show''.

OCTOBER 23, 1966 SUNDAY

Eddy Arnold appears on ''The Andy Williams Show''. Also in the NBC program's lineup, Steve Allen and Petula Clark.

OCTOBER 24, 1966 MONDAY

Wynn Stewart recorded ''It's Such A Pretty World Today''.

Decca Records recorded Claude Gray's ''I Never Had The One I Wanted'', and The Wilburn Brothers' ''Hurt Her Once For Me''.

From one joker to another, NBC's ''The Roger Miller Show'' features Soupy Sales.

OCTOBER 27, 1966 THURSDAY

The Monkees' pop hit ''Last Train To Clarksville'' is certified gold. In 2003, the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number'' lists at among the 500 greatest country singles in history.

OCTOBER 28, 1966 FRIDAY

Connie Smith recorded ''Cincinnati, Ohio'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

OCTOBER 30, 1966 SUNDAY

Tennessee Ernie Ford guests with Bing Crosby and Kate Smith on NBC-TV's ''The Andy Williams Show''.

OCTOBER 31, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released the Loretta Lynn single ''Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)''.

Jean Shepard recorded the Ned Miller song ''Heart, We Did All That We Would''.

Broadcaster Arthur Godfry makes a return appearance on ''The Roger Miller Show''. The NBC variety series also features Brasil '66 among the week's guests.
NOVEMBER 1, 1966 TUESDAY
Three albums by the King mine gold, ''Elvis Presley'', ''50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong'', ''Elvis' Golden Records'', Volume 2'', and ''Elvis' Golden Records, Volume 3''.

Johnny Duncan's first recording contract with Columbia goes into effect. He remains with the label for more than 15 years.

NOVEMBER 2, 1966 WEDNESDAY

The Johnny Cash movie ''Door To Door Maniac'' debuts in theaters, five years after it was originally filmed. Also featured are Merle Travis and Ron Howard. ''Five Minutes To Live'' is a 1961 American crime film. It was re-titled ''Door-To-Door Maniac'' for a re-release in 1966. The film stars Johnny Cash and Cay Forrester, who wrote the screenplay and whose husband, Ludlow Flower, produced. ''Five Minutes To Live'' was one of only two theatrical film roles Cash performed on-screen in his career (A Gunfight, ten years later, was the other); he would appear in several made-for-television films and do some voice-over work in film later in his career.

NOVEMBER 5, 1966 SATURDAY

The Stoneman Family and The Geezinslaw Brothers are featured guests on ABC's ''The Hollywood Palace''.

NOVEMBER 6, 1966 SUNDAY

Jimmy Dean appears on the NBC series ''The Andy Williams Show''.

NOVEMBER 7, 1966 MONDAY

Primary filming for Elvis Presley's ''Easy Come, Easy Go'' wraps in Los Angeles.

''The Roger Miller Show'' welcomes pop singer Petula Clark and comedian George Carlin as guests in NBC-TV's prime-time lineup.

NOVEMBER 8, 1966 TUESDAY

Buck Owens recorded ''Your Tender Loving Care'' in a midday session at the Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.

Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California. In the position, he pardons Merle Haggard in 1972 for an attempted robbery conviction from the late 1950s.

Ray Price recorded ''I'm Still Not Over You'' and ''Danny Boy'' in the evening at the Columbia Studios in Nashville.

NOVEMBER 9, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Jim Ed Brown recorded ''Pop A Top'' at Nashville's RCA Studio B, using Dr. Pepper cans supplied by Jimmy Dean to create the sound of a beer can opening.

George Hamilton IV recorded ''Break My Mind'' and ''Urge For Going'' at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

Par-Lo Records released Aaron Neville's pop hit ''Tell It Like It Is''. The song will become a country hit when a Billy Joe Royal version is released in 1989.

NOVEMBER 11, 1966 FRIDAY

Texas Jim Robertson commits suicide. Three of his four 1940s hits came when he remade Ernest Tubb singles, and he was a familiar presence on the radio shows ''Death Valley Days'' and ''Dick Tracy''.

Porter Wagoner recorded ''The Cold Hard Facts Of Life''.

NOVEMBER 14, 1966 MONDAY

Bobby Darin and The Doodletown Pipers fill out the guest card for NBC's variety series ''The Roger Miller Show''.

NOVEMBER 15, 1966 TUESDAY

Los Angeles youth and police clash on Sunset Strip, leading to a temporary ban on live rock music after dark. The Troubadour, on Santa Monica, reacts by ending a ban on electric instruments, luring fans and becoming a country-rock breeding ground.

NOVEMBER 16, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Merle Haggard makes his third attempt at recording ''I Threw Away The Rose'' at the Capitol Studios in Hollywood, California.

NOVEMBER 17, 1966 THURSDAY

Johnny Duncan holds his first Columbia recorded session.

NOVEMBER 19, 1966 SATURDAY

Francis Craig dies following a heart attack in Sewanee, Tennessee. The Nashville orchestra leader wrote ''Near You'', the first million-seller recorded in Music City. The song is remade as a country hit by George Jones and Tammy Wynette in 1977.

NOVEMBER 21, 1966 MONDAY

Lisa and Teresa McCarter are born in Sevierville, Tennessee. The twins join older sister Jennifer to create The McCarters, whose thick harmonies yield a trio of late-1980s hits, ''Timeless And True Love'', ''The Gift'' and ''Up And Gone''.

Tex Ritter recorded ''Just Beyond The Moon'' in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Kingston Trio and comedian George Carlin guest on the NBC variety series ''The Roger Miller Show''.

NOVEMBER 22, 1966 TUESDAY

''Nashville Rebel'' makes its national debut with Waylon Jennings in the leading role. Others in the picture, Archie Campbell, Sonny West, Cousin Jody, Loretta Lynn, Tex Ritter, Porter Wagoner, The Wilburn Brothers and Faron Young.

Kandilyn Harris is born in Las Vegas, Nevada. She's destined to marry Jay Osmond, of The Osmond Brothers.

NOVEMBER 23, 1966 WEDNESDAY

MGM released Elvis Presley's ''Spinout'', with co-star Shelly Fabares. This 1966 American musical film and comedy starring Elvis Presley as the lead singer of a band and part-time race car driver. The film was number 57 on the year end list of the top-grossing films of 1966. Elvis was paid $750,000 plus 40% of the profits. The script was written by Theodore Flicker and George Kirgo. They originally pitched the idea of a film based on Presley's life but this was vetoed by Colonel Parker. Working titles include ''Never Say No, Never Say Yes'' and ''The Singing Racing Car Driver''. Flicker eventually left the project to work on ''The President Analyst'' and Michael Hoey worked on the script uncredited with Kirgo. Jack Mullaney, who also appeared with Elvis in ''Tickle Me'' (1965), plays Curly, one of the male band members. Jimmy Hawkins, who plays Larry, the other male band member, also appeared with both Presley and Fabares in ''Girl Happy'' and coincidentally portraying one of Presley's band members in that film as well. Carl Betz (Howard) and Shelley Fabares (Cynthia) had played father and daughter before, on ''The Donna Reed Show''.

NOVEMBER 28, 1966 MONDAY

Bill Anderson recorded ''Get While The Gettin's Good''.

The Byrds recorded the pop hit ''So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star''. It's written by group members Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, bound to team up with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band for the 1989 country hit ''You Ain't Going Newhere''.

NBC's ''The Roger Miller Show'' features pop singer Nancy Ames.

NOVEMBER 29, 1966 TUESDAY

Jan Howard's oldest son, Jimmy Howard, is drafted for military service. He eventually killed in Vietnam.

NOVEMBER 30, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Fifty to 100 students stage a sit-down protest around a Navy recruiter table in the University of California in Berkeley Student Union. Six protestors are arrested. Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali– formerly known as Cassius Clay, declared himself a conscientious objector and refused to go to Vietnam war. Gallup Polls show the American Public Support Changes from over 52% support for war to 37%.

The Anti-Vietnam War Protests continue until for 5 more years and American Support continues to erode, America Formally ends the war on January 23rd 1973 following the signing of the Paris agreement, I will cover the period from 1966 to the end of the war in a later year.
NOVEMBER 1966
The second session of Dane Stinit for Sun Records featured the cream of the local Memphis   pickers from the American Sound studio from Memphis, led by the incomparable Reggie   Young. This is the nucleus of the group that would work on Elvis Presley's Memphis sessions   two years later.
The songs assembled by Bettye Berger included a Gene Simmons composition ''That Muddy   Old River (Near Memphis, Tennessee)''. The session, Phillips' last at the helm of Sun Records,   was held on November 26, 1966 and the single was issued in February 1967. The last Sun   single would be issued just short of a year later. ''Most everybody had left the label'', recalls   Stinit, ''and I got the feeling they wasn't going to be in the business much longer''.
In the wake of the singles, Stinit played a few shows outside Gary, Indiana. He remembers   being part of a package show that played Atlanta and Mississippi but, like all of his musical   activities, it was sandwiched between the day shifts at LTV Steel. ''I was security minded'',   said Stinit, ''I couldn't break away''.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR DANE STINIT
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – SAM PHILLIPS
AND/OR KNOX PHILLIPS

Composer: - Gene Simmons-Bettye Berger
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Dortch Music
Matrix number: - P 373 - Master (1:56)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - February 1967
Fist appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 405-A mono
THAT MUDDY OLE RIVER (NEAR MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE) / SWEET COUNTRY GIRL
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/22 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

For his second, and final Sun session, Dane Stinit sounded a lot more like himself than Johnny Cash. Both of the tracks were released on Sun 405. ''Sweet Country Girl'' is a competent country record for that day and time. Commendably, it is under produced. These is no chorus, strings or social commentary. In fact, other  than the Floyd Cramer-style piano riffs (courtesy of Bobby Wood), you'd barely know this record was produced in 1966.
 
The side ''That Muddy Ole River'' was written by Sun alumnus Gene Simmons. The song was worthy of a single release, although with Sun's faltering stature in the business, it is not surprising that there were few takers.

> THAT MUDDY OLE RIVER (NEAR MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE) <
Composer: - Gene Simmons-Bettye Berger
Publisher: - Dortch Music
Matrix number: - P 373 - Stereo Master (1:56)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - February 1967
Released: - 1988
Fist appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B/2 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS
Composer: - Gwen McEwen-Buddy Cunningham
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Dortch Music
Matrix number: - P 372  - Master (2:09)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - February 1967
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 405-B mono
SWEET COUNTRY GIRL / THAT MUDDY OLE RIVER (NEAR MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE)
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/21 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

Composer: - Dane Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Sun Entertainment
Matrix number: - None – Take 10 - Not Originally Issued (2:16)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - 1988
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B-3 stereo
DANE STINIT - ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

Composer: - Dane Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Take 15 - Not Originally Issued (2:16)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - 1988
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B-5 stereo
DANE STINIT - ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

''Heartache Catches Up With Me'', all other takes have not been saved; Masters, Take 15 has an overdubbed vibraphone.

Composer: - Johnny Cash
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued
Recorded: January 26, 1966
Released: - May 1975
First appearance: - Hallmark Records (LP) 33rpm SHM 864-B3 mono
VARIOUS ARTISTS - KINGS OF COUNTRY - VOLUME 2
Reissued: -1988  Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B/8 stereo
DANE STINIT ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

''Mean Eyed Cat''has technical problems with the vocal track, therefore the quality is not up to standard.

Composer: - Sammy Fain-Francis Paul Webster
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Remmick Music
Matrix number: - None – Take 15, 10 - Not Originally Issued (1:48)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - 1988
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B4 stereo
DANE STINIT - ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

Composer: - Mack Vickery
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:04)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - April 1989
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sunbox 109-8/6 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - ONE MORE MEMORY
Reissued: - 1 988  Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B/6 stereo
DANE STINIT - ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS  

Composer: - Dane Stinit
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Copyright Control
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:36)
Recorded: - November 26, 1966
Released: - 1988
First appearance: - Bear Family Records (LP) 33rpm BFX 15337-B/7 mono
DANE STINIT - ORIGINAL SUN RECORDINGS

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Dane Stinit - Vocal & Acoustic Guitar
Reggie Young - Lead Guitar
Gene Chrisman - Drums
Mike Leech - Bass
Bobby Wood - Piano
Unknown - Vibraphone
 
For Biography of Dana Stinit see: > The Sun Biographies <
Dane Stinit's Sun recordings can be heard on his playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
NOVEMBER 1966

Sun 405 was Dane Stinit second and last single. After taking early retirement from the steel  mill, Stinit formed another band that plays in homesick southerners in the land of the Wind  Chill Factor but, even with the security afforded by his pension, he has no thoughts of  turning professional. He still works a little Johnny Cash material into his repertoire but has a  significant lack of regret for what might have been. Sam Phillips saw the sessions as a  ''statement about the roots of country music'', certainly country music as he knew and  understood it. As such, Stinit's music has held up remarkably well, suffering from none of the  overproduction that was beginning the plague Nashville. Perhaps Stinit's work lacked the  rawness that Phillips cherished but when he sealed up the Stinit tape boxes with a little  splicing tape and left the producer's chair at Sun for the last time, Phillips had produced  music that was true to his essential credo.

DECEMBER 1, 1966 THURSDAY
 
Carter Stanley dies in Bristol, Tennessee. Along with younger sibling Ralph Stanley, The Stanley Brothers joined Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs among bluegrass' pioneers, and their mountain harmonies significantly influence Ricky Skaggs.
 
Warner Mack recorded ''Drifting Apart''.
 
Eddy Arnold and Arthur Godfrey appear on NBC's ''The Dean Martin Show''. Arnold delivers ''The Tip Of My Fingers'' and duets wih Martin on ''Singing The Blues'', ''Blue Blue Day'' and ''Anytime''.
 
DECEMBER 2, 1966 FRIDAY
 
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are guests on ABC-TV's ''The Milton Berle Show''.
 
DECEMBER 3, 1966 SATURDAY
 
A Boston court convicts Ray Charles of heroin and marijuana possession. He receives a five-year suspended sentence and a $10,000 fine. Charles had a pop hit earlier in the year with Buck Owens' ''Crying Time''.

© - UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR BARBARA PERRY
FOR GOLDWAX RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
STUDIO SESSIONS: DECEMBER 4, 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – QUINTON CLAUNCH & DOC RUSSELL

Session Published for Historical Reasons

Barbara Perry had recorded for Fernwood Records, Memphis in 1961 and other labels like Rice, Klondike and Cyclone.

> SAY YOU NEED IT <
Composer: - Cage-Claunch-Greer-Jackson-Russell
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Rise Music-Aim Music
Matrix number: - 7030 - Single Master (2:33)
Recorded: - December 4, 1966
Released: - 1967
First appearance: - Goldwax Records (S) 45rpm standard single 318-A mono
SAY YOU NEED IT / UNLOVABLE

> UNLOVABLE <
Composer: - Don Greer
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Rise Music-Aim Music
Matrix number: - 7031 - Single Master (2:23)
Recorded: - December 4, 1966
Released: - 1967
First appearance: - Goldwax Records (S) 45rpm standard single 318-B mono
UNLOVABLE / SAY YOU NEED IT

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Barbara Perry - Vocal
Reggie Young - Guitar
More Details Unknown

© - UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

DECEMBER 5, 1966 MONDAY
Stonewall Jackson recorded ''Help Stamp Out Lonelines''.

Capitol Records released Merle Haggard's ''The Fugitive''.

French singer and songwriter Charles Aznavour appears with the King of the Road on NBC's ''The Roger Miller Show''.

DECEMBER 7, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Rick Nelson appears on the ''ABC Stage 67'' network.

DECEMBER 8, 1966 THURSDAY

Dean Martin performs the Hank Williams classic ''Cold, Cold Heart'' on an installment of ''The Dean Martin Show'' on NBC-TV.

DECEMBER 9, 1966 FRIDAY

Mel Tillis recorded ''Ruby, Don't Take Your Love Town''. The song will come to prominence when it gets remade by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition.

DECEMBER 12, 1966 MONDAY

''The Roger Miller Show'' features comedian Frank Gorshin in its half-hour on NBC-TV.

DECEMBER 13, 1966 TUESDAY

Singer and songwriter Ray Pennington recorded his version of ''I'm A Ramblin' Man''. The song will become a hit for Waylon Jennings eight years later.

DECEMBER 14, 1966 WEDNESDAY

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs are part of the plot for CBS-TV's ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' for the second time during the year. The script finds the duo in Los Angeles to make a commercial for fictitious Foggy Mountain soap.

Guitarist Howard Ragsdale dies. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry act The Fruit Jar Drinkers.

DECEMBER 15, 1966 THURSDAY

Walt Disney dies of lung cancer. The entertainment mogul, responsible for Disneyland and Mickey Mouse, left a conglomerate that will expand to include a country label, Lyric Street, which develops hits for Aaron Tippin, She Daisy and Rascal Flatt.

Elvis Presley gives a yellow Cadillac convertible to crony George Klein.

DECEMBER 16, 1966 FRIDAY

In his fourth attempt at the song, Merle Haggard recorded the hit version of ''I Threw Away The Rose''.

DECEMBER 17, 1966 SATURDAY

Tracy Byrd is born in Vidor, Texas. Pledging a love for traditional country, he emerges in 1993 to recorded a series of hits, including ''Lifestyles Of The Not So Rich and Famous'', ''Watermelon Crawl'' and ''The Keeper Of The Star''.

Connie Smith sings ''Ain't Had No Lovin''' and ''Hey, Good Lookin''' on the ABC music series ''The Lawrence Welk Show''.

DECEMBER 19, 1966 MONDAY

Decca Records released the Jack Greene album ''There Goes My Everything''.

Claudia Horton Pryor, the mother of the late Johnny Hortin, dies.

Mick Jagger, of The Rolling Stones, announces he has broken up with longtime girlfriend Chrissie Shrimpton. Jagger goes on to co-write ''Honky Tonk Woman'', ranked among country's greatest singles in a Country Music Foundation publication, ''Heartaches By The Number''.

''The Roger Miller Show'' features pop singer Joanie Sommers during its half-hour on NBC prime-time.
 
DECEMBER 20, 1966 TUESDAY

Johnny Horton earns a gold single for ''The Battle Of New Orleans''.

DECEMBER 22, 1966 THURSDAY

Tennessee Ernie Ford performs ''Sixteen Tons'' during a guest appearance on NBC's ''The Dean Martin Show''.

Roy Drusky loses $4,500 worth of equipment and stage clothes when thieves break into his trailer.

DECEMBER 24, 1966 SATURDAY

Elvis Presley proposes to Priscilla Beaulieu at Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

Jack Greene's ''There Goes My Everything'' begins a seven-week run at number 1 on the Billboard country singles chart.

DECEMBER 26, 1966 MONDAY

''The Roger Miller Show'' ends its four-month prime-time run.

''Last Train To Clarksville'' is featured in an episode of NBC's ''The Monkees''. The song is ranked among country's 500 greatest singles in the Country Music Foundation's ''Heartaches By The Number''.

Capitol Records released Buck Owens' ''Where Does The Good Times Go''.

DECEMBER 27, 1966 TUESDAY

Capitol released Buck Owens' ''Open Up Your Heart'' album.

DECEMBER 29, 1966 THURSDAY

''Second Fiddle To A Steel Guitar'' debuts in movie theaters with Minnie Pearl, Sonny James, Lefty Frizzell, Kitty Wells, Johnny Wright, Connie Smith, Billy Walker, Curly Fox, Dottie West, Webb Pierce, Faron Young, Bill Monroe and Little Jimmy Dickens.

DECEMBER 30, 1966 FRIDAY

Don Gibson's second wife, Rosalene, files for divorce in Knoxville, saying the singer drinks excessively and has threatened to kill her.

NBC airs ''Swingin' Country'' for the last time, ending a six-month run. The half-hour daytime program featured regulars Ray Clark, Rusty Draper and Molly Bee.

DECEMBER 31, 1966 SATURDAY

Where does the good times go? Buck Owens and His Buckaroos wave bye-bye to 1966 with a show at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Also on the bill, Dick Curless, Dorsey Burnette and Tom Tall.
 
DECEMBER 1966
By the time Sun neared the end of its course, Memphis was making its mark on the music  business once again. Stax, Hi and Goldwax Records were the new foci of activity, the new  bearers of the ''Memphis Sound'' banner. Sun played a minor role as a custom studio, but  when Knox Phillips tried to capitalize on the new wave of black music emerging from the  city, the results were mixed. One of his signings, the Climates, fronted the stellar rhythm  section of Reggie Young, Mike Leech, Tommy Cogbill, and Gene Chrisman, but never rose  above mediocrity.
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
Harmony-wise, the Climates took a leaf out of Curtis Mayfield's book to try and glean some of the success he'd achieved with the Impressions. In terms of a groove, the players looked no further than to Stax Records for inspiration and to guitarist Tommy Cogbill for the arrangements. Sam's older son Knox was in charge of this production, whilst Judd Phillips was back on the scene running the promotion department. Further sides were issued on the short-lived Holiday Inn label.
 
STUDIO SESSION FOR THE CLIMATES
FOR SUN RECORDS 1966/67

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE LATE 1966 / EARLY 1967
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER – KNOX PHILLIPS

Composer: - B.M.I. - James Thomas
Publisher: - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - None - Take 3 - Not Originally Issued (2:22)
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1966 / Early 1967
Released: - 1976
First appearance: - Charly Records (LP) 33rpm CR 30106 B-7 mono
SUN - THE ROOTS OF ROCK - VOLUME 6 - SUNSET SOUL
Reissued: - 1987 P-Vine Records (LP) 33rpm PLP-343-A-1 mono
EARLY MEMPHIS SOUNDS - DEEP SOUL CLASSICS VOLUME 6

Composer: - James Thomas
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - P 370 - Master (2:22)
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1966 / Early 1967
Released: - February 1967
First appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 404-A mono
NO YOU FOR ME / BREAKING UP AGAIN
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/19 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

This record by the Climates is one of the high points in Sun\s latter day release schedule. In fact, there wasn't much schedule left by this point. In February 1967, this release, along with Sun 405 and 406 were mailed out to disc jockeys. Three records and virtually no promotion. This one, soul, 405 a dated Johnny Cash clone; and 406, a surprising slice of black gospel. Had the Sun label become directionless?

Of this 1967 crop. Only the Climates stood a real chance of success. Signed by Knox Phillips in an attempt to tap into the evergrowing local crop of young soul acts, the group was backed by some of Memphis's finest pickers and players: guitarists Reggie Young and Tommy Cogbill; Mike Leech on bass; Gene Chrisman on drums; Bobby Wood on organ. There was no lack of pedigree here.

''No You For Me'' is an engaging and melodic blend of rhythm and blues, doo wop and even countryish feeling. The pleasant hybrid was surrounded by soulish riffing horns and might have garnered some pop or rhythm and blues attention.
The other side, Breaking Up Again'', has a different, far more churchy feel. This tempo is far more bouncy and Bobby Wood's organ offers prominent counterpoint to James Thomas's vocal. Two titles from this session turned up on the Holiday Inn label after Phillips assumed the presidency. But like that brief-lived record company, the single by the Climates sank without a trace.

Composer: - James Thomas
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Knox Music Incorporated
Matrix number: - P 371 - Master (2:35)
Recorded: - Unknown Date Late 1966 / Early 1967
Released: - February 1967
Fist appearance: - Sun Records (S) 45rpm standard single Sun 404-B mono
BREAK UP AGAIN / NO YOU FOR ME
Reissued: - 1998 Bear Family Records (CD) 500/200rpm BCD 15805-2/18 mono
THE SUN SINGLES COLLECTION - VOLUME 5

Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Catto Music
Matrix number: HIR 507 - Master (2:40)
Recorded: Unknown Date Late 1966 / Early 1967
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Holiday Inn Records (S) 45rpm Holiday Inn 2206-A mono
TELL HIM TONIGHT / DON'T BE CRUEL
Reissued: - 1987 P-Vine Records (LP) 33rpm PLP-343-A-5 mono
EARLY MEMPHIS SOUL - DEEP SOUL CLASSICS – VOLUME 6

Composer: - Otis Blackwell-Elvis Presley
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Elvis Presley Music Incorporated
Matrix number: HIR 507 - Master (2:00)
Recorded: Unknown Date Late 1966 / Early 1967
Released: - 1968
First appearance: - Holiday Inn Records (S) 45rpm Holiday Inn 2206-B mono
DON'T BE CRUEL / TELL HIM TONIGHT
Reissued: - 1987 P-Vine Records (LP) 33rpm PLP-343-A-4 mono
EARLY MEMPHIS SOUL - DEEP SOUL CLASSICS – VOLUME 6

Composer: - Charles Chalmers
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Catto Music
Matrix number: - None – Not Originally Issued (2:57)
Recorded Unknown Date Late 1966 / Early 1967
Released: - 1987
First appearance: - P-Vine Records (LP) 33rpm PLP-343-A-3 mono
EARLY MEMPHIS SOUL - DEEP SOUL CLASSICS – VOLUME 6
Reissued: April 1989 Charly Records (LP) 33rpm Sunbox 109-10/7 mono
SUN RECORDS INTO THE 60S - BETCHA GONNA LIKE IT

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
The Climates consisting of
James Thomas Rosser - Vocal
Raymond Edwards,  David Glenn, 
and Robert Chisem - Vocal Harmony
Probably Willie Bollinger attend this session.

Reggie Young – Guitar
Tommy Cogbill – Guitar
Mike Leech – Bass
Gene Chrisman – Drums
Bobby Wood – Organ
Charles Chalmers – Tenor Saxophone
Floyd Newman – Tenor Saxophone

UPDATE - Willie Bollinger's daughter, Leslie Bollinger-Morrow, has written with details of her fathers life. "My father was born March 8th 1933 in Cape Girardeau MO, to Pinkie Robinson Bollinger and Monroe Bollinger. He wasn't from Chicago and he was at Chess from 1959 to 1962. Then he Left with Charlie Chalmers for Memphis where he recorded under Sam Phillips at Sun records. Which is when he came home and met my mother. He was recording and performing until he passed away on May 24th 2003''.

– Deep Soul Heaven, 2012
 
For Biography of The Climates see: > The Sun Biographies <
The Climates' Sun recordings can be heard on their playlist from 706 Union Avenue Sessions on > YouTube <
 
 
© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©
THE CLIMATES - a legendary vocal ensemble, signed with Sun Records, in 1966 and had  several hits in the 1960’s such as ''Breakin’ Up Again'', ''No You For Me'', ''All My Weakness'',  ''Tell Him Tonight'', and ''Don’t Be Cruel''. The latter was also recorded by the legendary Elvis  Presley and made it to the top of the charts.  The Climates were the first black artists to  become number one on a white radio station in the South (WHBQ-3 months and WMPS-1  month). In 1967, The Climates charted number two in France, Italy, and England, second  only to the Beatles, making the front page of Billboard Magazine that year.
On June 20, 1992, Sam Phillips, President of Sun Records, declared the group legendary  artists. They each received Proclamations from the state and the city of Memphis, and that  day was declared ''“Climates Day''. Sam once said, ''These guys of the Memphis Sound, James  Rosser, Raymond Edwards, David Glenn, and Robert Chisem, were truly trendsetters with  their flashy outfits and their well-polished performances that were so disciplined''.
The group has had the pleasure of being backed by Memphis greats such as Isaac Hayes,  Booker T. and the MG’s, The Markeys, Tennie Hodges and the Hi Rhythm Band, and some of  the former Barkays. Being successful at an early age, The Climates were helpful to others by  letting them be their opening act. Some of the artists that opened for them are J. Blackfoot  of the Soul Children, The New Comers, and Ann Peebles.

Even now, The Climates are featured on the new legendary album called, ''Into The 1960's  The Complete Sun Singles, “From the Vault Vol. 5 CD.” This album and CD features various  artists with songs from their collection.

Recently, Rodger Friedman of Fox News New York reviewed new Climates CD as being one of  the top 5 CD’s for the year. The Climates are stronger than ever. The group is under the  leadership of Robert Chisem, the only original member in the ensemble. The new members  of The Climates are Melvino Smith (1st & 2nd Tenor), Ricky Adkinsson (1st, 2nd Tenor/Lead),  Ms. Angela (Contralto), and Warren Miller (2nd Tenor/Bass). This group is very versatile. Each  member is a lead vocalist. In 2006, their song ''Rainin’ In Memphis'' was featured on WDIA’s  CD (America’s First Black Radio Station), ''The History, The Music, The Legend''. Ace Records  in England also recently released a new compilation CD entitled, ''More Perfect Harmony'',  featuring one of the Climates’ songs, ''No You For Me'' from the Sun-Days. The Climates have  recently finished a new CD entitled, ''Rainin’ In Memphis'', which will released in January  2008, and Memphis’ own, Carl “Blue” Wise produced it. It has the sound of yesterday, but  today’s real music. With all their history and background, you know it is going to be a hit! If  you are looking for a legendary sound that started it all, this group is the one The C-L-I-M-A-T-E-S!

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR JAMIE AND THE BLACKHAWKS
FOR MGM RECORDS 1966

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SUN SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE 1966
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - JACK GRADY

CANDY MAN
Composer: - Isonhood
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Goup One Music
Matrix number: - N 50 186 - Master (2:32)
Recorded: - Unknown Date 1966
Released: - December 1966
First appearance: MGM Records (S) standard single K13642-A mono
CANDY MAN / WHAT YOU'RE DOIN' TO ME

02 - ''WHAT YOU'RE DOIN' TO ME
Composer: - Anderson
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Il Gatto Music
Matrix number: - N 50 187 - Master (2:15)
Recorded: - Unknown Date 1966
Released: - December 1966
First appearance: MGM Records (S) standard single K13642-B mono
WHAT YOU'RE DOIN' TO ME / CANDY MAN

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
Details Unknown

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

STUDIO SESSION FOR THE ONE WAY STREETS
FOR SELECT-O-HITS RECORDS 1966/1967

SAM PHILLIPS RECORDING STUDIO
639 MADISON AVENUE, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
SELECT-O-HITS SESSION: UNKNOWN DATE 1966/1967
SESSION HOURS: UNKNOWN
PRODUCER AND RECORDING ENGINEER - LEON MILLER & D. MILLER
ARRANGED BY VERNON DRANE

Session Published for Historical Reasons

WHEN THE CIPS ARE DOWN
Composer: - Leon Miller
Publisher: - B,M,I, - Coby Music
Matrix number: - 101-A - Master (3:11)
Recorded: - Unknown Date 1966/1967
Released: 1968
First appearance: Select-O-Hits Records (S) 45rpm S.O.H 004-A stereo
WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN / IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A FOOL

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A FOOL
Composer: - B.McRee-C. Thomas-E. Thomas
Publisher: - B.M.I. - Crazy Cajun Music
Matrix number: - 101-B - Master (2:40)
Recorded: - Unknown Date 1966/1967
Released: 1968
First appearance: Select-O-Hits Records (S) 45rpm S.O.H 004-B stereo
IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A FOOL / WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN

Name (Or. No. Of Instruments)
The One Way Streets consisting of
Skip Phillips Strings

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©

> Page Up < 

© - 706 UNION AVENUE SESSIONS - ©