Ricky Nelson - Fathers Know Best

Have I blogged about Ricky Nelson yet? Don't remember, but Ricky had an influence on everyones music, even all of Oklahoma. Every kid in Oklahoma couldn't wait until the next Fathers Knows Best show would come on, just to see if Ricky would introduce a new song. I have his greatest hits album. One of my favorite Ricky songs is, "Lonely Street." I can play it, but I have never memorized it.

His dad managed his career at first. They really were a family and his dad was a producer. Of course, when Ricky sang a song on the show, it would be lip-sinc, because the Jordanaires, a Gospel Quartet, would back him up. Later, Elvis made a better deal to his lead guitar man and bought him aboard his career. I'm going to check and see if I have blogged Ricky. If I have, I will add more here.

The picture above was with the Jordanaires. I met one of their original singers, once. He was the one who crafted, "There Will Be Peace In The Valley," for the Jordanaires and he never was given credit for it. His last name is Matthews and his son's name is Monty Matthews, I think. I will check on that.

"Warren (Monty) Matthews: Born August 25, 1927, was Baritone for The Jordanaires 1948 -1952.
Monty passed away March 5, 2005. One of the Original founding members, along with his brother, Bill Matthews."

Look at that, and you will notice that his brother and Monty were both original members of the original Jordanaires. I love to study about Quartets, and the Jordaires really didn't have to travel around and do shows. They were paid handsomely just to hang around Nasvhille and Memphis and do background vocals for Elvis and RIcky, and the many others that they worked with. I know that Monty has a son, and he was in the music business too. He went to Ozark Bible College, but they kicked him out, because they didn't like the way he dressed, nor the type of Gospel Songs he wrote and performed.

DooWop in Oklahoma

Doo Wop Daze

DooWop Era, is an absolutely definable time of music. It predated rock and roll and was a time that close harmonies were king. The music came from New York of Philadelphia where 4 guys would stand on the corner and sing, and find their harmony parts, slamming them home.

In Oklahoma, it meant a time when "draggin' mainstreet" was big. Cool cars with cool names, like "Blue Velvet," while the windows were down and a "doo wop," song was playing. We had a 1956 Pontiac, 4 door. Cool car. It was white and blue.

One evening, Mom and Dad, had an invitation to go over and visit a school board member, in Marland, Oklahoma. Dad gave the keys to Ray, my oldest brother and said, "You kids can drive it to Ponca City and get something to drink. When your through, you can come back, and we'll go home." Not these days. Back then the gas was 18 cents a gallon.

The cars filled the main street in Ponca City. Everyone was out, and the windows were down. You could hear, "doowop" music from every car. We pulled up beside a car that had 4 girls in it. The chase was on.

Ray began to follow them, up and down the street. The girls, then tried to ditch us, but they couldn't. Soon, they led us east, over Kaw River and into a group of houses. The girls parked and streamed, hurridly into the house. Our Doowop night was over.

"What took you so long?" Dad asked. "We've been waiting for about a half hour."

Do you think we told? Nope!

DooWop was a time when harmony was king. 4 guys would stand on the corner of New York or Philedelphia, and they would sing and harmonize without music. The bass would have a heavy part, where he would sing, "Doo Wop, Doo Wop, baby, Doo wop Doo Wop!" One of my favorite Doo Wops, is "Mr. Bassman." Have Mr. C, download a DooWop song and listen to it. Would you like it? Do you like it? Look up the word in Wikipedia.

Our favorite DooWop song, was "Daddy's Home," on a 45 rpm. We took it to the Junior Prom, and it was played over and over. When it was time to go home, we couldn't find our "Daddy's Home." What do you think happened with it?

Okay. Now, read the following, word for word, articles I cut and pasted from he Internet, and then go over the 100 all time favorite Doo Wop songs. Ask Mr. Cecil to download a Doo Wop song from the list and have him play it. Me? Well, ... I have been listening to, "Mr. Bass Man," yes, Bro Cec, over and over and over again.

Have a great DOO WOP, Time while you work on this Blog. Is this cool or what? What would you name your 1949, all black Ford? Or how about your 2 door, 1957 Chevy, worth thousands, today.

okharpman!!

Old-time rock-and-rollers never die; they just retire to Tucson.

By LEE ALLEN email the Weekly
Doo Wop Daze
Lee Allen

Ron Neuman (second from left) and Mel Rivers (above) take four-part harmony to a new level as the five voices of American Thunder at TCC.


Doo Wop Daze
Lee Allen
A young Jeff Haskell (1958) plays an R&B gig in a Philadelphia Italian Club.
Doo Wop Daze

Longtime Tucson oldies DJ Ed Alexander still does his platter chatter.
They don't write music like that anymore. And if you can hum the tune or sing the words like you meant them, you were probably a part of the era that made musical history through harmony.

This was a simpler time, even before sexy saxophones and pumpin' pianos and far in advance of today's amped-up, bleed-through-the-ears heavy metal or the pounding beat of do-yo-ho gangsta rap.

These were the days when groups like the Drifters, Platters, Coasters, Flamingos and a zillion others of that ilk harmonized memorable musical phrases such as "chu bah chu bah" and "oop shoop." Darned if the words didn't make sense then, and continue to bring comfort and memories now.

Still like that old time rock and roll
That kind of music just soothes my soul
I reminisce about the days of old
With that old time rock and roll


"LIFE WAS MORE BASIC in the 1950s and '60s, and four-part harmony telling love stories is about as basic as you can get," says Tucson resident Mel Rivers, former bass voice of the Drifters. Rivers, who shared the stage with a long list of musical greats such as Tina Turner, started his singing career on the street corners of Brooklyn. "There was a group in every hallway, down every subway station and on every stoop. I liked the competitiveness, the spiritual uplifting and the fact that we could earn spending money harmonizing."

Another Tucson musician, Sam Taylor, brought his Alabama gospel roots to New York just in time to be a player in the emerging industry. "I knew harmony since I was four years old," says Taylor, now 66. "We didn't have no piano, no guitar, no organ or microphone in our church, just the a cappella voices of gospel singers." The singer-songwriter-session guitarist remembers performances on the stage and on subway platforms that helped introduce black music to the white world.

"A lot of folks never got an opportunity for a show-and-tell field trip into a black congregation, so this was their first introduction to finger-poppin' rhythm," says Jeff Haskell, longtime stage performer and University of Arizona music professor.

"This music is infinitely singable. It's mnemonic, easily remembered with hooks like simple cord changes, which made it more appealing to the younger crowd and folks less musically sophisticated." (C Am F G7 - a million songs were written to those basic chords, like Elvis's "Gotta Letter from the Mail Man" or "Return to Sender.")

Rivers, who drifted with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Drifters group for seven years, sings his answer when asked why the music is so enduringly popular. "It's poetic--boom--wop--why do fools fall in love? It was catchy--hmmm--whispering bells, love me so. It was about love and caring and romance. You told a story by creating a mental picture through words and music."

This was music you could sing along with, dance to, understand and relate to, says Ron Neuman, flashing a smile as brilliant as the 36 diamonds in his ring, a memento from his days as a member of the Diamonds. His group, popular in the mid-to-late '50s, was known for hits such as "Little Darlin'" and "The Stroll" (the two songs sold more than 8 million records).

"I'll always be a doo-wopper who likes to return to that age of innocence where you could actually understand the words of a song," he says. "Entertainment back then was enjoyable," says Neuman, who has shared stages with Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Platters, the Coasters and a host of other well-known performers.

Don't want to listen to a tango,
Just wanna hear some blues or funky old soul
There's only one sure way to get me to go,
Start playing old time rock and roll


DISK JOCKEYS SUCH AS the author (in the '50s); Frank Kalil (in the '60s); Ed Alexander ('70s) and Alan Michaels ('80s) helped make and perpetuate the musical history. As a teenage DJ for a daytime 1,000-watt station back east in 1957, I listened under my pillow at night to the newly emerging sounds spun by Alan Freed at WINS radio in New York. Then I drove my station management--and my parents--crazy by playing the Olympics ("Western Movies"), the Oreos ("Crying in the Chapel") and numerous iterations of Little Richard at full volume. Constantly.

"We helped create a doo-wop culture by selecting a song as the "Pick Hit of the Week" and playing it once per hour, every day, for a week," says Frank Kalil, afternoon drive-time DJ for Tucson's KTKT in the mid-'60s. "There was less fractionalization of listener attention and we got most of what was available. It was gut hunch and blind luck, with perhaps a dose of divine guidance, but we were instrumental in making a lot of the songs and performers successful."

Ed Alexander, fresh out of Rincon High School, entered the business in 1970. "We'd bring our own music from home and play just about whatever we wanted to. It was all intuition and feel back then. We did what we thought was right, and if we liked a song, we played it, over and over again, to see if it got listener reaction. I can remember playing some titles as original releases, new music, and I'm still playing a number of those same songs--30 years later--as classic golden oldies."

Morning radio host Alan Michaels has been playing many of the same tunes for more than 20 years. "This stuff is timeless," he says. "This is raw harmony where groups rise or fall on talent alone, and there's no background blare to muffle their musical talent. You can feel the music of the doo-wop era; there's passion involved in the lyrics and layering of voices. We cared about people back then in times that were simpler and softer. That's why it was enjoyable then and is still popular today."

Call me a relic call me what you will,
Say I'm old fashioned say I'm over the hill
Today's music ain't got the same soul,
I like that old time rock and roll


SAM TAYLOR, A songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, recording artist and band leader who is well known to his Tucson audiences, has been involved in the genre for more than 50 years. He's proud of the 136 tunes he's written for the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Jackie Wilson, Jay and the Americans and others. He's also proud of the joy he's brought to audiences while performing with the likes of Otis Redding, the Isley Brothers, the Rascals and Sam and Dave.

"I was in the middle of it right from the start," Taylor admits, telling about a European tour with Joey Dee and the Starlighters where they shared stages with the Beatles prior to their introduction to American audiences. "They, the Beatles, opened for us, and we toured England for a couple of months with Paul and John always asking me about the music of BB King and Bo Diddley. Six months later they did the Ed Sullivan Show and a new era was born."

Despite two open-heart bypass surgeries, "I still bust a pretty good sweat," he says. "I'm playing better and singing stronger now than I ever have in my life. I love what I do. I live for the music and can't wait to play. You can't beat the natural high of performing for an appreciative audience. I live to play and play to live."

If you believe in forever
Then life is just a one-night stand.
If there's a rock and roll heaven
Well you know they've got a hell of a band.
--The Righteous Brothers


SOME PERFORMERS CAN'T stand it when the Klieg lights are dimmed and the microphones disappear. When the roar of the crowd is gone, they are lost--and want to return. Some do reappear, like Neuman and Rivers, who are now involved with a local group, American Thunder. In addition to the two former top bills, the band includes other heavy-hitters who once played with Marty Robbins and Glen Campbell and a writer who used to pen lyrics for the Oak Ridge Boys.

"Music is something that stays with you for life. Once you've been in the industry and made a living from it and enjoyed being at the top with a well-known group, it's hard to walk away completely," says Neuman. "It goes beyond missing the trappings, the standard 'smell of the greasepaint, roar of the crowd' thing. When there's music inside you, you have to express it and let it out for others to enjoy."

Neuman's American Thunder group plays a combination of both old and new music, including gospel, country and classics that call for traditional four-part harmony. "What a way to retire," says his singing partner, Rivers. "To leave one place and time and years later to show back up on another stage still doing something you love."

Doo-Wop-O-Philes

By LEE ALLEN email the Weekly
"The old 45s and LPs from the '50s are getting harder to find," says Duane Miller, store manager of PDQ Records and Tapes. "As the years go by, it happens less and less, but we still get a cardboard box full of goodies from time to time. Supplies may be dwindling, but the interest level remains high among collectors."

Ethan Cox, music manager at Bookman's on Grant Road, says he still takes in both 45 and 78 rpm records on a daily basis, but quantities are diminishing. "We don't get a lot of the old-format records," he says. "Much of what comes in is run-of-the-mill stuff that gets marked a dollar a record and goes out the door fast at that price."

Richard ("no last name--no photo, please") is one of the regulars who makes the rounds looking for specialty records. He's kind of like Tony the Tiger whose face remains in the shadows while he fesses up to a fondness for frosted flakes. "I went into a thrift store to buy a shirt and came out with an old record that cost me 50 cents," says the transplanted New Yorker. "That was 10 years -- and 5,000 records ago," he says, insisting on anonymity to protect his collection from others who might like to relieve him of it.

"Tucson is one of those rare places where you can still make discoveries," Richard admits. "I have a lot of old rhythm and blues tunes from relatively unknown artists, good stuff that I've picked up at yard sales, swap meets and various thrift stores around town. Military personnel making frequent moves, both into and out of the city, may unload their record collections. And there's a lot of retired folks here that ultimately get tired of carting around their old record collection and decide to part with the past. I just hope I'm on hand when they make the decision to sell."

1. Earth Angel - Penguins - 1954
2. In The Still Of The Nite - Five Satins - 1956
3. I Only Have Eyes For You - Flamingos - 1959 / Swallows - 1952
4. Since I Don't Have You - Skyliners - 1958
5. You Belong To Me - Duprees - 1962 / Orioles - 1952
6. Gloria - Cadillacs - 1954 / Passions - 1960
7. Sincerely - Moonglows - 1954
8. Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite - Spaniels - 1954
9. For Your Precious Love - Jerry Butler & the Impressions - 1958
10. The Great Pretender - Platters - 1955
11. Tears On My Pillow - Little Anthony & the Imperials - 1958
12. Story Untold - Nutmegs - 1955
13. Tonite, Tonite - Mello-Kings - 1957
14. The Wind - Diablos - 1954 / Jesters - 1960
15. Sunday Kind Of Love - Harptones - 1953
16. 16 Candles - Crests - 1958
17. I'm So Young - Students - 1958
18. My Prayer - Platters - 1956
19. Could This Be Magic - Dubs - 1957
20. Life Is But A Dream - Harptones - 1955
21. A Thousand Miles Away - Heartbeats - 1956
22. The Closer You Are - Channels - 1956
23. Chapel Of Dreams - Dubs - 1958
24. Only You - Platters - 1955
25. Daddy's Home - Shep & the Limelites - 1961
26. Long Lonely Nights - Lee Andrews & the Hearts - 1957
27. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Platters - 1958
28. Maybe - Chantels - 1957
29. Have You Heard - Duprees - 1963
30. Teardrops - Lee Andrews & the Hearts - 1957
31. Deserie - Charts - 1957
32. Oh What A Nite - Dells - 1956
33. Once In Awhile - Chimes - 1960 / Ravens - 1948
34. Till Then - Classics - 1963 / Orioles - 1953
35. Where Or When - Dion & the Belmonts - 1959
36. Don't Ask Me (To Be Lonely) - Dubs - 1957
37. Lovers Never Say Goodbye - Flamingos - 1958
38. Florence - Paragons - 1957
39. There's A Moon Out Tonight - Capris - 1958
40. Ten Commandments Of Love - Moonglows - 1958
41. Dedicated To The One I Love - Shirelles -1959 / "5" Royales -1957
42. To The Aisle - Five Satins - 1957
43. One Summer Night - Danleers - 1958
44. That's My Desire - Channels - 1957 / Dion & the Belmonts - 1959
45. There Goes My Baby - Drifters - 1959
46. Baby Oh Baby - Shells - 1957
47. Can I Come Over Tonight - Velours - 1957
48. Glory Of Love - Velvetones - 1957
49. Close Your Eyes - Five Keys - 1955
50. Heaven And Paradise - Don Julian & the Meadowlarks - 1955
51. Crying In The Chapel - Orioles - 1953
52. My True Story - Jive Five - 1961
53. Blue Velvet - Clovers - 1955
54. I Believe - Earls - 1963
55. This I Swear - Skyliners - 1959
56. Twilight Time - Platters - 1958
57. Silhouettes - Rays - 1957
58. A Casual Look - Six Teens - 1956
59. Please Say You Want Me - Schoolboys - 1956
60. Devil Or Angel - Clovers - 1956
61. Stardust - Billy Ward & the Dominoes - 1957
62. Happy Happy Birthday Baby - Tuneweavers - 1957
63. Out of Sight, Out of Mind - Five Keys - 1956
64. When We Get Married - Dreamlovers - 1961
65. Two People In The World - Little Anthony & the Imperials - 1958
66. Those Oldies But Goodies - Little Caesar & the Romans - 1961
67. Been So Long - Pastels - 1957
68. Diamonds And Pearls - Paradons - 1960
69. The Way You Look Tonight - Jaguars - 1956
70. I'll Be Home - Flamingos - 1955
71. Why Don't You Write Me - Jacks - 1955 / Feathers - 1955
72. Nite Owl - Tony Allen & the Champs - 1955
73. My Memories Of You - Harptones - 1954
74. Share - Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers - 1956
75. To Be Loved - Pentagons - 1961
76. You Cheated - Shields - 1958
77. Just To Be With You - Passions - 1959
78. Crazy For You - Heartbeats - 1955
79. You Were Mine - Fireflies - 1959
80. Image Of A Girl - Safaris - 1960
81. Sometimes (When I'm All Alone) - Danny & the Juniors - 1957
82. Island Of Love - Sheppards - 1959
83. Lover's Island - Blue Jays - 1961
84. Golden Teardrops - Flamingos - 1953
85. The Angels Sang (You're Back With Me) - Solitaires - 1956
86. You Gave Me Peace Of Mind - Spaniels - 1956
87. The Girl I Love - Cadillacs - 1956
88. Once Upon A Time - Rochell & the Candles - 1960
89. The Letter - Medallions - 1954
90. Chapel Bells - Fascinators - 1958
91. A Kiss From Your Lips - Flamingos - 1956
92. Most Of All - Moonglows - 1955
93. A Thousand Stars - Kathy Young & the Innocents - 1960 / Rivileers - 1954
94. My Love Will Never Die - Channels - 1959
95. Let It Please Be You - Desires - 1959
96. The Things I Love - Fidelitys - 1958
97. Smoke From Your Cigarette - Mellows - 1954
98. There Goes My Love - Fantastics - 1959
99. Guided Missiles - Cufflinks - 1956
100. Coney Island Baby - Excellents - 1962