Matt The Cat presents the soul that came before rock n’ roll: 1950s rhythm and blues. Each week, this underrated and rollicking music plays on that old Rockola Jukebox in the back.
Drop a nickel in the ol’ Rockola Juke to hear one of the best selling and most influential bluesmen and guitarists of all-time, T-Bone Walker. This week’s show looks at how T-Bone’s immense guitar talent developed from his first recordings in the early 1940s to his breakthrough after WWII with the now classic, “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just As Bad)” for Black & White Records. We’ll also get a taste of T-Bone’s work for the Cornet, Imperial and Atlantic labels. B. B. King, Ray Charles and Chuck Berry have all cited T-Bone Walker as a heavy influence. Find out why on this week’s “Juke In The Back” with Matt The Cat.
The “Juke In The Back” is proud to feature The Channels, one of New York City’s finest and most influential vocal groups of the mid-1950s. At only 15 years, Earl Lewis fronted the group who recorded one of Doo Wop’s most classic tunes, the self-penned, “The Closer You Are” for Bobby Robinson’s Whirlin’ Disc label out of Harlem. Earl Lewis joins Matt The Cat to tell his story in his own words. You’ll hear The Channels classic Whirlin’ Disc sides as well as the 2 singles they recorded for George Goldner’s Gone Label in ’57 a fantastic record cut for Robinson’s Fury Records in ’59. Earl Lewis sheds some light on a few long-standing questions and opens up about what it was like to lead a 1950s vocal group. Don’t miss Earl Lewis and the Channels on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”
Harry Vann began playing piano in Beulah’s Church in Charleston, WV around the age of 10, but thanks to hearing Jay McShann records on the radio, he was bitten by the blues bug while in his teens. After settling in Columbus, Ohio in the late-1940s, Vann was making a name for himself playing in the local clubs. He changed his name to Van Walls, taking Walls as his surname from his step-father. Tenor saxophonist and bandleader Frank Culley passed through Columbus and asked Van Walls to bring his band to New York to make some records for the fledgling Atlantic Label. After the session, the band went home, but Van Walls stayed in New York, becoming one of Atlantic’s star session players. This week, Matt The Cat looks at the incredible debt that early R&B owes to Van “Piano Man” Walls. His boogie woogie piano is featured on Frank “Floorshow” Culley’s hit records, “Cole Slaw” and “After Hour Session,” as well as major hits by Big Joe Turner, The Clovers, Ruth Brown, The Drifters and many of Atlantic’s other early acts. The label released a few records under his own name, which we’ll also hear. The spotlight shines bright on an eccentric R&B legend this week as we get the story behind the story on Van “Piano Man” Walls on the “Juke In The Back.”
This week, the “Juke In The Back” honors one of the greatest blues shouters of all-time, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. He burst on the scene in 1944 with a cover of the Joe Turner classic, “Cherry Red Blues” as the vocalist for the Cootie Williams Orchestra. He remained with Cootie Williams until 1945, when Vinson cut out and formed his own orchestra. He signed with Mercury and scored the biggest hit of his career in 1947 with “Old Maid Boogie” and “Kidney Stew Blues.” He entered that R&B charts one more time in 1949 with the sequel to “Cherry Red Blues” with “Somebody Done Stole My Cherry Red.” For those in the know, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson is an R&B, jazz and blues shoutin’ treasure, but for those who missed the boat, he’s forgotten. Join Matt The Cat as we remember one of the all-time greats on the “Juke In The Back.”
Willie Mae Thornton was a trailblazer, who in making her own rules paved the way for other groundbreaking female artists like Janis Joplin and Madonna. Known as “Big Mama,” Thornton scored her only hit record in early 1953 when “Hound Dog” topped the national Rhythm & Blues Charts, but her career spanned from 1950 to well into the 1970s. Elvis not only recorded “Hound Dog,” which was written by the young, white songwriting duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but he also took much of his swagger from Thornton, who was known to be blatantly tough and sexual on stage. Besides “Hound Dog,” her other signature song, “They Call Me Big Mama,” ranks among her best material, along with “Rock A Bye Baby,” “Mischievous Boogie” and “My Man Called Me.” Big Mama is also uncredited on a duet with friend Johnny Ace called “Yes, Baby” from 1953. She wrote many of her own songs, but like many artists of her day, did not own the publishing rights, so when Joplin recorded her “Ball and Chain,” Big Mama Thornton didn’t get any royalties from it. This week, Matt The Cat dusts off Big Mama Thornton’s best sides from Peacock Records and even digs up her first recordings for the E&W label under the group name, The Harlem Stars (1950).
This week, the “Juke In The Back” spotlights the “Prince of Primitive Cool,” Rosco Gordon. His mostly self-penned tunes, feature his unique blend of mid-tempo shuffle with a slightly behind-the-beat rolling barrelhouse piano line. He was a master at making his recordings sound rough, but there was also a lot of blues sophistication buried under the simplicity. In his early recording days at RPM Records, his name was spelled Roscoe. He would later revert back to its original spelling of Rosco. His 2nd RPM release hit the national R&B top ten in 1951, but it was 1952’s “Booted” and “No More Doggin'” that put Gordon at the forefront of Rhythm & Blues popularity. His biggest hit came in 1959 with “Just A Little Bit” on Vee-Jay. It hit #2 on the R&B lists and crossed over to #64 on the Pop Chart. More people bought this record than of his others. Rosco Gordon is often overlooked, but this week Matt The Cat sets the record straight. He was an innovator, influencing the Jamaican Ska movement of the early ’60s, a hit maker and a unique and talented bluesman. Gordon’s records spin on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”
Halloween has always been a frightfully good time of the year for the “Juke In The Back.” This year, Matt The Cat, along with Miss Rosie and Bobby The Bobcat bring you a cauldron of ghoulishly spooky tunes from the 1940s and ’50s. The program is heavy with devilish doo wop delights from The Cadillacs, The Del Vikings, The Verdicts, The Coasters, The Checkers and The Daylighters. There are tunes by Chuck Berry, Mad Man Jones and Louis Armstrong that will make your skin crawl, while Eugene Fox lays a cautionary tale on our ears about the dead returning to keep the living in line. So keep your spooks close, but your records closer and dig on some rarely heard haunted tunes on this week’s Halloween “Juke In The Back.”
This week, the “Juke In The Back” looks at how one of R&B’s greatest voices, LaVern Baker, got her start. It’s part two of a two part feature on the early career of LaVern Baker. In part two, we’ll dig on Baker’s prime recording years of 1954-56. She had 4 charting records in ’55, beginning with the crossover smash, “Tweedlee Dee,” which stayed popular for over a year, hitting #4 R&B and crossing over to #14 Pop. In 1956, she scored 5 charters, ending the year with the release of the #1 classic, “Jim Dandy.” She also headlinned the Apollo and was featured in the Alan Freed film, “Rock! Rock! Rock!” starring Tuesday Weld. LaVern Baker’s career began in Rhythm & Blues, but she ended up becoming one of Rock n’ Roll’s first female superstars. Matt The Cat spins all of her records from the end of 1954 to the end of 1956, her most popular period on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”
This week, the “Juke In The Back” looks at how one of R&B’s greatest voices, Lavern Baker, got her start. It’s part one of a two part feature on the early career of Lavern Baker. In part one, we’ll dig on Baker’s first recordings from 1949-1954. She began her recording career with Eddie “Sugarman” Penigar Orch in 1949, then recorded a few sides as Little Miss Sharecropper on National Records. She then started singing with Maurice King and His Wolverines and finally with Todd Rhodes on King Records. After leaving Rhodes’ band, Baker was determined to become a solo artist and signed up with Atlantic Records, just in time for the Rock n’ Roll Explosion of the mid-1950s. None of these early records made the national charts, but you can really hear Lavern Baker evolve as an artist as the music moved closer and closer from Rhythm & Blues to Rock n’ Roll. In part 2, Matt The Cat will feature her breakthrough record of 1955 and the many hits that followed. Don’t miss the story of Lavern Baker, one of the greatest female vocalists of the 1950s on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”
This week, for the 700th episode of “Juke In The Back,” Matt The Cat digs deep into the racks n’ stacks o’ shellac to bring you a solid hour on that catch phrase craze and cultural phenomenon, “Open The Door, Richard!” In early 1947, you couldn’t avoid hearing someone say “Open The Door, Richard” as the many recorded versions of the old Dusty Fletcher (maybe John Mason) routine were all over the radio. Though it began in the African-American community, “Open The Door, Richard!” soon spread into pop music as well as Country and Western. Dusty Fletcher had been doing this vaudeville routine for years, but it was Jack McVea who recorded it first. McVea’s record was so popular, hitting #2 on the Rhythm & Blues chart that Fletcher recorded his own version, which also went to #2. Soon, Count Basie, Louis Jordan, The Three Flames, The Charioteers and many others had versions of “Open The Door, Richard!” out and on the charts. It crossed over into the pop field and even placed on Your Hit Parade. It infiltrated American Popular Culture deep enough that the catchphrase was even used in Bugs Bunny cartoons. This week, Matt The Cat presents the story behind the “Open The Door, Richard!” phenomenon as he plays as many versions as he can find. You’ll even hear a few “Richard” sequel songs and answer records. So locate your keys as well as some loose change and dig on what everyone else was diggin’ on in 1947 on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”
At the end of the Second World War, economics forced the big bands to trim their once great size and thus, the Jump Blues combo was born. Between 1946-1954, rhythm and blues laid the tracks for what was to become Rock n’ Roll. So how come, 70 years later, this vibrant and influential music is still so unknown to so many?
Matt The Cat is going to change that with the radio program, “Juke In The Back.” These were the records that you couldn’t hear on the jukebox in the front of the establishment. To hear all this great 1950s rhythm & blues, you had to go to “Juke In The Back.”
