Ten fave unreleased tracks chosen from my yearly Favorites lists
Today………from 1961
THE CHIMES – MEXICO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2RfB1vNTM0
Not to be confused with the white Lenny Coco-led Chimes group on Tag
label with the big “Once In A While” hit in 1960 these Chimes were black and recorded for Hy Weiss’ Old Town setup in New York City
They’re represented here with “Mexico” a song I’ve long liked by them recorded in 1961 but left in the vaults until rescued in 1993 on the
collection “Old Town Doowop Vol. 2” on Ace.
A single “Mexico”/”My Broken Heart” has since been made available
THE COASTERS – HUMDINGER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvoQZM0vtCg
Featuring Carl Gardner (lead ten) Cornel Gunter (ten) Billy Guy (bar)
Will “Dub” Jones (bass) backing here
features Steve Douglas (ten sax) and Sandy Nelson (dms) this number was recorded for Atco 10 April 1961 at
the same session that produced “Hungry” and “Teach Me How To Shimmy”
The track showed up at last in 1971 appearing on the UK album “Hungry”
on Joy label
THE DEL ROYALS – ALWAYS NAGGIN’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZ_Z-a6710
Led by Willie Harper the Del Royals group from New Orleans had a couple
of releases on the famous Minit label in that city in the early 60’s and
the track here “Always Naggin’” was scheduled for a November 1961
release (even being allocated a catalog #) but nothing came of it and
the release was shelved
It was 1986 when the track was collected up (with the title mysteriously changed to “Grumblin’ Fussin’ Nag Nag”) for the LP “It Will Stand : Minit Records 1960-1963” on EMI America
THE DELLS – DON’T TELL NOBODY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36im7NqUBnc
From the Dells very last session for Vee Jay on January 13 1961 comes
the bluesy “Don’t Tell Nobody” that was promptly consigned to the vaults---until 1984 when it was rescued from the dark depths by Solid
Smoke who put it on their LP collection “Breezy Ballads And Tender
Tunes”
THE DRIFTERS – SHE NEVER TALKED TO ME THAT WAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prclW7d_PlU
At this point in 1961 the ever changing makeup of The Drifters stood
like this – Rudy Lewis,Charlie Thomas,Dock Green and Tommy Evans. The
last session of the year for Atlantic on October 26 1961 saw three
tracks recorded – “Jackpot” (led by Rudy),”When My Little Girl Is Smiling” (Charlie) and “She Never Talked To Me That Way” (Rudy)
Both of the first two songs listed saw 45rpm release on Atlantic but
that latter song (a Pomus-Shuman composition) was left on the shelf not
to see release for some considerable time. Meantime the song was adopted
by the then current hitmaker Del Shannon with a title change to “You
Never Talked About Me” and released as the flip to his “Hey Little Girl” on London in the UK in March 1962 and as the flip to “Swiss Maid” on Big Top in the USA in August 1962
Here’s the Shannon version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqu8gCzur6c
Back to the Drifters song languishing in the Atlantic vaults……..seems to
be 1996 before the track mentioned here finally sees light of day when
it appears on the collection “All Night Boogie : The Great Atlantic
Vocal Groups Vol. 2”
THE EVERLY BROTHERS – HE’S GOT MY SYMPATHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTZdKjRO7g
Recorded at a four song session at the RCA Victor studio in Nashville on
4 November 1961 where the personnel were Don Everly (vcl/gtr) Phil
Everly (vcl/gtr) Harold Bradley (gtr) Walter Haynes (steel) Buddy Harman
(dms) + other musicians (unknown).
The other numbers recorded this day were “That’s Old Fashioned”,”Crying In The Rain” and “I’m Not Angry”
Consigned to the vaults “He’s Got My Sympathy” was left unreleased for years before being rescued and finally released on the Warner Bros LP collection “The New Album” in 1977
SLIM HARPO – SOMETHING INSIDE ME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcgKfSzWHw
Following a series of arguments (over money--what else?) with his record company Excello in 1961 after furnishing them with the big hit “Rainin’
In My Heart” Slim Harpo takes a hiatus from the company even going as
far as recording a session for Imperial later that year. Nothing came of
the tracks recorded for them---thanks to the intervention of Jay
Miller’s lawyers -------and after a period of reflection Harpo
eventually returned to the Excello fold.
The track featured here “Something Inside Me” is from that 1961 Imperial session and went unissued until 1968 when it surfaced on the LP
“Saturday Night Function : Rural Blues Vol.2 “ one of a series of “Legendary Masters” compilation LPs put out by Imperial with input from Henry Vestine,Bob Hite and other r&b fan/collectors
Here in the UK this track also appeared as a single on Liberty as the
flipside to “Wine Women Whisky” by Papa Lightfoot (both tracks being
taken from the UK edition of the LP mentioned above)
WANDA JACKSON – BEFORE I LOSE MY MIND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JM7HB0jZOk
One of my favorite country ballads by Wanda---her version of Roy
Drusky’s “Before I Lose My Mind”---- comes from a 31 October 1961 Ken Nelson supervised session at Bradley Studio in Nashville.that also
produced “Is It Wrong”,”We Could” and “You Don’t Know Baby”
The number lay in the Capitol cellars for decades before finally being
exhumed and released on the Bear Family set “Right Or Wrong” in 1992
LITTLE WILLIE JOHN – LIKE BOY LIKE GIRL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGdNN6zFfDQ
From a King session in 1961 comes “Like Boy Like Girl” that slipped
through the net for release----not seeing light of day for decades until finally rescued and released on the Charly compilation “Fever” CD in
1990
BRENDA LEE – LET THE FOUR WINDS BLOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diZME05SMLQ
Recorded 29 October 1961 at Bradley Studio, Nashville, TN featuring
Brenda Lee (vcl) Hank Garland (gtr) Grady Martin (gtr) Harold Bradley
(bs gtr) Bob Moore (bs) Floyd Cramer (pno) Charlie McCoy (hca) Boots
Randolph (sax) Buddy Harman (dms) + Anita Kerr Singers
Brenda does a pretty nice job for Decca on the old number first recorded
by Dave Bartholomew in 1955 (as “Four Winds”) and lately here made a big chart hit by Fats Domino.
Sadly it was shelved for release until 1974 when it made its record
debut on the German Coral LP “Legends Of Rock Vol. 2”
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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