Listen here to this week’s Cruising with The Commissioner:
.
Well, it’s been a busy week here in the Grand Duchy, but we weren’t distracted from our weekly musical adventure. So, we rolled out the trusty Cruise Mobile and arrived right on time to let you jump aboard, where we’d saved a seat especially for you. Pausing just long enough to let you buckle up, we set off for this week’s Cruising with The Commissioner with The Big Town Playboys setting the mood with ‘Come On’ and we got up to full cruising speed with some real R&B from Norway, delivered by Joakim Tinderholt & His Band. Indeed, we stayed in Europe a while longer for some more 50s flavoured R&B from Holland’s Mrs R&B & The Soulshakers with ‘Found Some Real Good Lovin’.
.
Back in the 50s Pat Boone covered several of Fats Domino’s R&B hits, turning them into pop hits, and UK piano man Diz Watson gave us an example of what Fats might have done with a cover of a Pat Boone hit, ‘Love Letters In The Sand’. Then, we kept that Louisiana ‘feel’ with The Dukes of Rhythm and their 1960 release ‘Defeated’, featuring vocals by Joe Carl, for which big thanks are due to Neil Pellegrin who pointed us in the direction of Joe Carl recently. With a bit more rummaging in the Cruising Library, we came across a few more by Joe Carl, including his Zynn 45 release, ‘You’re Too Hot To Handle’ with some fine harp playing from the much missed Lazy Lester. Then, Maria Muldaur turned up to take us down in the alley . . . a place that seems to bring out the worst in Mr Merlot and The Cruisettes.
This week’s Cruising Connections started its trio of tracks with a great 60s R&B favourite that was always welcome in the 60s clubs around London, Derek Martin’s 1963 Crackerjack 45 ‘Daddy Rollin’ Stone’. We followed on with Dee Clark and little 1959 hit of his ‘Hey Little Girl’. For those who were still not sure of the link between those two, we pulled out another choice by Trini Lopez. This was a song Trini recorded in London in 1967, which was never released as 45 in the US or the UK, but it did get released as a single in Mexico and originals have since become real collectors items. The link between them was songwriter Otis Blackwell who wrote all those songs and more. He was no mean singer himself as he showed with his recording, ‘Fool That I Be’.
Come On
Come On – The Big Town Playboys
Stumble’ & Fumble – Joakim Tinderholt & His Band
Found Some Real Good Lovin’ – Mrs R&B & The Soulshakers
Love Letters In The Sand – Diz & The Doormen
Defeated – The Dukes Of Rhythm (featuring Joe Carl)
You’re Too Hot To Handle – Joe Carl
Now You’re Down In The Alley – Maria Mulduar
Cruising Connections
Daddy Rolling Stone – Derek Martin
Hey Little Girl – Dee Clark
Fever – Trini Lopez
Fool That I Be – Otis Blackwell
Girls & Guitars
Drive Drive Drive – Rosie Flores
Doo Wop Delights
My Song – Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
Walking Along – The Solitaires (Old Town) 1957
Seven Nights To Rock
Louisiana Medicine Man – Coco Robicheaux
The Man With The Hex – The Atomic Fireballs
Seven Nights To Rock – Gene Taylor
Have Mercy Miss Percy – Long Tall Marvin
For this week’s Girls & Guitars, the Cruise Mobile took us to California, which is where we find this week’s featured artist, Rosie Flores. While she was still in high school in the 1970s, she played the San Diego nightclub circuit as the leader of the band Rosie and the Screamers. But , we know her best as a solo artist and she just happens to have a new album out currently which includes our choice from her, ‘Drive Drive Drive’.
While Mr Merlot was off in search of refreshments, we got into our Doo Wop Delights and first up this week was Hank Ballard & The Midnighters . . . a band better known for their up tempo numbers, but hidden away in their vast catalogue we found a doo wop ballad that got released on Wildcat records, titled ‘My Song’. So, we couldn’t resist playing it and we followed on with a late 1950s Harlem vocal group, The Solitaires. We featured their 1957 Old Town single ‘Walking Along’, which proved to be their best selling record in a long career.
Now, when I met up with Jamie Dell’Apa in New Orleans earlier this year I forgot to ask him if there was still evidence of Coco Robicheaux’s famous escapade with a chicken, live on air in the studios at WWOZ, but whether there is or isn’t, we still played Mr Robicheaux’s an unnerving mystic tale of the ‘Louisiana Medicine Man’. Meanwhile, that voodoo theme carried on with The Atomic Fireballs and one of those characters you hope not to meet on a dark lonely street ‘The Man With The Hex’. Having inspired some uninhibited dancing by The Cruisettes, they needed no additional encouragement when they heard Gene Taylor’s ‘Seven Nights To Rock’. Then, sadly, we had to turn the trusty |Cruise Mobile for home in the company of Long Tall Marvin and his little rocker ‘Mercy Miss Percy’, which to the surprise of many got us back where we started safe and sound and on time. So, until next time we go Cruising with The Commissioner . . . remember . . . have fun!
Broadcast by Miskin Radio
on 22 September 2018
(Live at Bogie’s – 2018)
s – 2018)
a very fine combination of two songs, ‘Watch & Chain’ and Donovan’s ‘Hey Gyp’. Then, we heard from Philadelphia’s Frank Bey, with the song that gives the title to his new album, the pretty autobiographical, ‘Back In Business’.
o’, which features his take on a great Muddy Waters song ‘Still A Fool’, and anything of Muddy’s is likely to bring a smile to the face of our regular guest Arfa Pinetop, who turned up this week with a classic by Sammy Lewis.
g Grace – 2018)
serenity this week, we sent Mr Merlot into the Cruising Library on a rummaging expedition and he came back with a handful of most excellent items, including that one with a real Louisiana flavour by an Oregon band, Gumbo. We kept that flavour too, as we crossed the Atlantic to the UK for The Balham Alligators, led by keyboard ace, Geraint Watkins and big favourites here from their album ‘Bayou-Degradable’.
Keep A Knocking – 2018)
Brooklyn group The Willows with their 1959 Michelle release, which we dedicated to London Tube travellers, ‘Don’t Push, Don’t Pull, Don’t Shove’. We tipped our hat to Shakin’ Sharon for introducing us to The Nitecaps with their ‘Snap Crackle & Pop’ and enjoyed a little fancy footwork to Avis & Chuck Thompson’s ‘Why So’.
celebrated James Booker. For those who were still puzzled after that, we revealed that they all recorded a little Britbeat song that was one of the few 12 bar blues ever written Lennon & McCartney . . . . which was when we played The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Her Standing There’.
heard showing off her earthy and soulful style that was evident in our choice . . . a track from her 2015 album, ‘The Offering’ called ‘Mellow Joy’.
from that celebrated blues duo, Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell. This was a number they cut for Vocalion Records in New York City on the 16th August . . . . ‘Don’t Start No Stuff’.
ge Return – 1991)
in the direction of Salinas, a town just South of San Francisco, which back in the 50s was fiefdom of the most colourful of characters, “Lord Luther” McDaniels. He was a member of vocal group The Deuces, but we heard from him with his 1959 solo release ‘A Thinkin’ Man’s Girl’. Then, we revealed an obscure link between that and the next choices from Wisconsin’s own, Al Barkle. They were both backed by The Dave Rosas Band . . . about whom we know nothing . . . so, if you know anything . . . do tell!
and blues singer Ted Taylor, who we’ve often heard here as a member of both as the Cadets and the Jacks, but we chose his 1961 solo recording for the Laurie label ‘A Heart That’s True’.
and cut their debut single for Okeh records later that year. It was our choice from them . . . ‘Please Say You Want Me’. New Jersey vocal group The Kodaks followed on with, ‘Oh Gee, Oh Gosh’, the second of four singles they cut for the Fury label . None of these made the national charts, but they are all now prized by collectors.
by Adam Franklin on his ‘Til I Hear You Talkin’ album and titled ‘Save That Roach For Me’ and it has nothing to do with creepy crawlies . . . so I’m told!
album ‘Believe, seem to have gone down well, so this week’s choice was another fine example, ‘I Came To Have A Good Time’ . . . and haven’t we all! Those with long memories, may recall some other good times with Boz Scaggs when he was one of those on the UK R&B scene back in the early 60s. Much has happened in his career since then, but for his latest album release, he’s gone back to the blues, as he demonstrated with ‘Down In Virginia’.