Jukebox Saturday Night is not an anomaly in Jukebox Heart so much as it is a moment to take a trip back to our roots. In a previous article on Jukebox Saturday Night, we established a link between the street music of the Urban US in the 1950s to modern hip hop and R&B focusing on several labels and key individuals. It’s important to look back on and appreciate this music; it is arguably the product of the first wave of independent labels, fueled by many of the same frustrations that launched punk rock and industrial music in the 70s, and indeed all independently produced music since the second world war.
So here is the sound of NYC in 1956. These were the groups heard on the radio and echoing from record hops everywhere. This album was issued in late 1957 and is considered to be one of the most desirable doo-wop collectible records, especially in this first pressing incarnation. I’m lucky enough to have owned this since I was a kid. Record geek history will, of course, follow. But first, the music:
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Side 1 Playlist: The Cleftones – Little Girl of Mine |
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Side 2 Playlist: The Cleftones – You Baby You |
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As promised, Geek History is below the cut. Read about the history of Gee Records, and some little known info about the fabulous house band…
Gee Records was undoubtedly one of the most popular labels both regionally in NYC and nationally with breakout hits by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and later by the Regents. But there were also countless other hits, and a solid dozen are sampled here. The label began its history being run by a man named George Goldner.
George Goldner, along with Paul Winley, whom we reviewed in the last Jukebox Saturday Night, was a key figure in the development of rock-n-roll music. George Goldner operated many labels over the years, starting with Tico in 1948 ending with Firebird in 1970.
In the early ‘50s, Goldner was operating dance halls in metro NY and north Jersey. He was married to a Latino woman, who introduced him to Latin music. He became so involved in Latin music that he decided to form a record label to record this type of music which was drawing increasing numbers to his dance halls. In 1948 he formed the Tico record label, named after a Latin standard “Tico Tico”. Tico soon became the most prominent Latin music label with influential artists Tito Puente, Joe Loco, Machito and Tito Rodriguez all on the roster.
A national mambo/cha-cha craze in the early ‘50s began to draw a more diversified audience to his dance halls including black people who introduced Goldner to blues and rhythm. Goldner became deeply involved with this music and decided to try to find groups to record. Since Tico was identified with Latin music, he formed a new label called Rama in early 1953. This label was to record “race” music as R&B was called in those days. Rama released several sides which sold well in the Rhythm and Blues market, but it was the release of “Gee” by the Crows which made musical history. Some people call “Gee” the first rock and roll record. This was a focal point in rock. It may not have been the first rock and roll record, but it is certainly the first to jump the charts from “race” music to the previously all-white pop charts, thereby making history on that very singular point.
Goldner was having considerable success with Rama, but at that time disc jockeys would play only a limited number of records on any one label, so he took the name of his most successful song to date and formed Gee Records. His earliest attempts ranged from moderate successes to all out failures. The first 12 records were either less successful Latin sides, country and western or more urban blues. Sometime in late 1955, Goldner sold 50% interest in all three labels to Joe Kolsky, who was a in business with Morris Levy, a nightclub owner. and the label swiftly shifted gears. The label design changed colors, and the catalog numbers reset to “1000″. Gee Records simultaneously discovered Queens’ The Cleftones and Harlem’s Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. The Cleftones’ unpredictable harmonies set them apart from everyone else, and the Teenagers’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” set the style for countless other recordings to follow.
In January of 1957, Joe Kolsky and George Goldner founded Roulette Records with Morris Levy as President of the company, but the partnership did not last long. The April 6, 1957, Billboard Magazine announced that “(George) Goldner has sold his interests in the Roulette, Rama, Gee and Tico labels outright to the Morris Levy Combine.” The unofficial story is that this was all because of Goldner’s bad gambling debts, a problem that would plague him throughout his career.
Sometime in early 1957, George Goldner formed the hugely successful End and Gone labels. One of the successful groups on Gee had been the Valentines, who had a lead singer named Richard Barrett. George Goldner discovered that Richard Barrett had a real feel for the music and soon he was bringing in his own discoveries and arranging and producing records on End and Gone. One of the first groups Barrett brought to the company was the Chantels, with a superb lead singer named Arlene Smith. Richard Barrett’s production of “He’s Gone” by the Chantels was one of the first releases and a big success on the End Record label. The Chantels ushered in the girl group era of rock and roll. The Gone Label got off to an auspicious start with “Don’t Ask Me To Be Lonely” by the Dubs and End scored again with “Tears on My Pillow” by Little Anthony and the Imperials. Barrett would go on well into the 1970s as a disco producer; his most recognizable hit is probably “When Will I See You Again”, by the Three Degrees.
Sometime in the early 1960s, George Goldner also sold End and Gone to Morris Levy’s Roulette Records, but he continued in the record business. In 1964, he formed a partnership with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller to start the Red Bird Record company. Red Bird was very successful, with it’s first release “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups reaching Number 1 on the national charts. They had other successes with the Dixie Cups, Shangri-Las and Ad-Libs. The partnership lasted through mid-1966, when Leiber and Stoller sold their interest in the company to Goldner for one dollar. Goldner continued with Red Bird for about another year, but without Leiber and Stoller and their creative team (Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich, George “Shadow” Morton, etc.), the hits stopped.
What set most of the records on Rama and Gee records apart from the rest was most definitely the house band that backed all of these bands: The Jimmy Wright Orchestra. In a different, fairer reality, the mere mention of tenor saxman Jimmy Wright’s name would evoke the word “cool”; he’d be right there in the minds of serious rock ‘n roll enthusiasts with Scotty Moore, Cliff Gallup, Rudy Pompili, and Franny Beecher, as maker of a sound at the heart and foundation of rock ‘n roll. Yet Wright has always remained in the shadows, unless you happen to be a special aficionado of the Gee or Rama labels. Recognized or not, Jimmy Wright was one of the most influential musical figures in the history and development of early rock ‘n roll, as well as a huge chunk of New York City-based R&B of the mid-1950’s. As the resident band leader and, with Bert Keyes, the de facto music director for George Goldner’s Rama Records and Gee Records labels from 1953 until the end of the 1950’s, Wright had more to say about what most of the music on incredibly influential labels sounded like than many of the artists themselves.
The Jimmy Wright Band, also known as the Jimmy Wright Orchestra, variously included 40’s jazz and jump blues veterans Skeeter Best, Jimmy Shirley, and Jerome Darr on guitar, Abi Baker and Al Hall on bass, Freddie Johnson or Jimmy Phipps on piano, and Gene Brooks on drums, he helped create a new sound that turned radio, the recording industry and music on its head. And with Wright’s honking saxophone sharing space for the lead, he was nearly as visible a musical presence as anyone on any of Elvis Presley’s records from Scotty Moore, Bill Black, and D.J. Fontana on down, his instrument defining the texture and power of rock ‘n roll on records like “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” and dozens of other Rama and Gee sides.
Wright and his band showed up on practically every rock ‘n roll session ever cut for Rama or Gee Records and gave the resulting music its drive. The sound that he and his band got was particularly compelling, a mix of elements embracing components of big-band swing, jump blues, old-style R&B, and road house raunch, all carefully balanced depending upon the song–his sax could be quietly elegant, even gently lyrical, or honk like the grossest strip joint accompaniment ever committed to record. Wright usually decided whether a ballad brought in by a group was better as a jump number or visa versa, often working from the most rudimentary material and building the song from scratch as far as written annotation. The collaboration between Wright and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers was especially productive. The group never had more success in the studio than when Wright and his band were playing behind them, and it was when they stopped getting that kind of support that the group’s sound softened and declined. It was also Jimmy Wright who suggested a change in name for the group, from The Premiers, which is how they arrived at their first session late in 1955, to The Teenagers.
Wright and his band also cut a few singles on their own for Gee and Rama, but not enough, alas to build a full LP or CD around. “2:20 A.M.,” released on Rama late in 1955, is a staggering tenor sax and guitar showcase, three minutes of sharp, piercing, wailing, yet lyrical blues, while its B-side, “Move Over,” is a frantic workout showcasing the bandleader, who is seemingly in a race with his drummer to see who can trip the other up with the quicker tempo, and the guitar coming in to try and nail them both about one minute in.
The Jimmy Wright Orchestra played all of the music heard on Teenage Party. Check out those drums and that sax. Just amazing.