Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Sonny Flaharty and His Young Americans on PAQ


Sonny Flaharty and His Young Americans

10845 ~ Coconut Stomp  Part 1
10846 ~ Coconut Stomp  Part 2

Bushbaum & Flaharty, Ridge Pub. BMI (both)

Recorded Live at The Coconut Lounge

PAQ Records

A Young American Production No. 21

1963

Note : recorded in a Dayton studio (not live, and neither in Springfield)



The saga of the Stomp

The song went like this:

“There’s a place I know where the cool kittens go, it’s a place that the hippies found, where you stomp and shout and knock yourself out, it’s a place called the Coconut Lounge.”

The song, “Coconut Stomp (Part I),” by Sonny Flaharty and His Young Americans, is as primal and enthusiastic as the day it was cut, 47 years ago.

And that’s the problem.

“It still makes me want to dance,” Flaharty, now 68, confessed, “but I can’t afford the hip replacement.”

While they hailed from Moraine, Flaharty and the Young Americans became the house band at the Coconut, playing their own shows, opening for national acts and even backing acts like The Crystals, which didn’t have a touring band.

“We were always pretty starstruck with the people we were with,” recalled Flaharty, who mostly writes music nowadays for his Unity church in Southern California and has become something of a legend with collectors of ’60s garage-rock records.

While backing The Orlons locally, Flaharty heard a word in their song “South Street” that intrigued him.

Hippie.

“I had never heard that word before,” he said, “but I thought it was cool.”

Cool enough to be included in his own tribute to the kids who hung out at the Coconut.

“They were hip and needed their own dance,” he said.

The song became a regional hit, even making the list of the most-requested songs at the Peppermint Stick, a similar club in Lima.

But pay no attention to the fact that the record says the song was “recorded live at the Coconut Lounge.”

It was actually recorded in a Dayton studio, Flaharty revealed, with the aid of a sound-effects record for crowd noises.
 
 
Doug Porter :

By 1960, I was Sonny Flaharty and the Young Americans' full time drummer. I was still in Junior High School. I stayed with the Young Americans for about 5 years, until we broke up. We traveled every weekend. We backed up many of the early stars. We all were card-toting musicians and I could site read. We worked with Lou Christie, Bobby Vinton, The Shirelles, The Four Seasons, Bobby Darin, Chuck Berry, The Four Tops (we backed the Tops up several times and they offered me a road job but I was still in high school). The list goes on and on but one sticks out with me.

The Rolling Stones came to Dayton, Ohio just about the time the Young Americans were at their peak and we were the opening band for them. We shared the dressing room with the Stones. That is a story all to itself. Soon after that, the group broke up. It consisted of Sonny on lead vocals and sometimes rhythm guitar,Terry Nieus on lead guitar, Mike Flaharty on bass, me on drums, Ray Bushbaum on piano/organ, and Bobby Brain on tenor sax.

We never played nightclubs - just road gigs, proms and private parties. Bobby Brain came to us from Teddy & The Rough Riders. They were also a hot group in the area. We both played things for WING radio. Check out: www.thecoolgroove.com. That's Jim Colegrove's site out of Texas. You'll see Sonny and I both mentioned. I played in Jim's band, the Knights, when the Young Americans parted ways.



Sources:



Sunday, July 28, 2013

Live At The Zodiac (Various Artists)


 

( Various Artists)
Live At The Zodiac

Rite 29981/2

August 1972



Side 1 :

Royal American Showmen: Dance To The Music
Mississippi Rain: That’s Why I Sing The Blues
Katmandu: Mississippi Queen
Strawbridge: Run Run Run
Union Jack: No One To Depend On

Side 2 :

Mace: Revival
Everybody’s Pillow: Don’t Eat The Children
Sweet Fever: Your Love Took Me By Surprise
Age Of Aquarius: Slippin’ Into Darkness
Papa Joe’s Traveling Show: Miami
Bacchus: Where Are You Going

Produced by Gerrald Stephenson with contributions of Frasco Entertainement Agency (Jackson, Mississippi), WRBC, Band Aid Entertainement (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Malaco Records (Jackson, Mississippi)


Malaco started as a partnership between two brothers-in-law Mitch Malouf and Tommy Couch as a company focused on booking musical acts.  Somewhere along the way Gerald "Wolf" Stephenson bought out Mitch.  They evolved into a recording studio when Wolf came on board.  Wolf owned the Zodiac Club  in Mart 51, a shopping center on Terry Road in Jackson.  He had just remodeled the club and had started bringing in bands to play every night.

In 1967, Malaco opened a recording studio in a building that remains the home of Malaco. Experimenting with local songwriters and artists, the company began producing master recordings. Malaco needed to license their early recordings with established labels for national distribution. Between 1968 and 1970, Capitol Records released six singles and a Grammy Award-nominated album by Mississippi Fred McDowell.  Revenue from record releases was minimal, however, and Malaco survived doing jingles, booking bands, promoting concerts, and renting the studio for custom projects.


Sources :  

Note : last link has separate audio files for each track. I've gathered the eleven tracks HERE for your convenience.


Arthelene Rippy


 Arthelene Rippy

It's A New Life

New Life Records

Evangelist & Mrs F. Don Rippy,
1100 South 14th, Fort Smith, Arkansas

Rite # 12419/20
1964

Accompanying Arthelene Rippy :

Dawn Crabtree, John R. Garrison, Sharon McClure, Kaye Middlebrook, Harold Brown, Juanita Debusk


Side 1 : It's A New Life / It's Not The First Mile / Man Of Galilee / I Believe / In The Garden / Oh How I Love Jesus

Side 2 : How Big Is God? / Wasted Years / When Jesus Forgives, He Forgets / Jesus, Lover Of My Soul / He Giveth More Grace / The Great Judgment Morning


 

An exhilarating existence

Arthelene Rippy's background of being a minister's daughter as well as her present status as a minister's wife, gives to her a wealth of experience in the realm of Gospel songs.  On this album,  Arthelene shares with you her own exhilarating existence in Christian living in the exciting theme song of "It's a new life!"  Her conception of God shines through in the challenging cry of "How Big is God?"  Suddenly, you are taken into His presence by such old favorites as "In the Garden".

A woman under constant influence

Since childhood, Arthelene Rippy has been under the constant influence of the Gospel. 
Dr. B. Owen Oslin,Pastor, Evangel Temple, Fort Smith
  


Arthelene Rippy's father was Rev. R.A. McClure. She divorced Don Rippy in November 1975.   Rev. Don Rippy was found dead in his apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida in September 1977.




Arthelene Rippy has been with CTN (Christian Television Network) since it began in 1978. Tragic events in her life left her to raise her family alone, but God used this tragedy for His glory through "Solo Act,"  Arthelene's first CTN program that inspired millions of other struggling single mothers. In 1995 Arthelene shifted gears to address the needs of the entire family with her nationwide program, "Homekeeper's"


Friday, July 26, 2013

Andy Jennings & Cindy Miller


Andy Jennings & Cindy Miller

"My Everything Is You"

    Limited Edition Recordings

2231 Stratford Road Richmond VA.
    RR-42420
1982

Side A:
My Everything Is You  / I Sing The Body Electric / Casey's Lastride / Bunch Of Thyme / Donna Donna / Where Do You Go To My Lovely


Side B :
The Sea Around Us / The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda / Rattling Bog / Beautiful Brown Eyes / Whiskey In The Jar


College student at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Cindy Miller was an upper class woman from New-Jersey when, just before she graduated, she met Irishman Andy Jennings. 

Cindy & Andy formed a partnership on and off the stage.  They performed authentic Irish music for 30 years.  Andy was the Publican of Rare Olde Times Public House since 1994, where Andy and Cindy had guest performers on a regular basis.

Andrew P. "Andy" Jennins was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1961. He died in 2012 in Richmond, Virginia.



Mirror Existence


Mirror Existence

27809 - The Chance  (Larry Russell)
27810 - Nobody Cared (Jack Hayford) Arr. Jimmy Owens

Huntington College
Huntington, Indiana
1971



Huntington College students Tom Martin (from Chillicothe, Ohio) , Dan Cory, Ruth Gage, Tom Krause, Pat Cory (from Blissfield, Michigan) and Larry Russell (from Peoria, Illinois) were the Mirror Existence.

Previously, in 1968, Larry Russell helped to organize the Collegiate Singers, one of the college four deputation teams and was a member of The Freshman Trio, a jazz band (1969). 


Label picture is from ebay recent auction
(page has a clip of "The Chance")
or else DL the sample HERE




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tom Dooley on Dana


Tom Dooley

    18295 - Have A Happy, Happy Time (Dooley, Oakley Music BMI)

18296 - Bring It On Home (Sam Cooke, Kags Music BMI)

Dana 001

1966

 Prod. by Cincinnati Good Guy production

Note :also issued on Hickory 1446; blue eyed soul; b-side is Sam Cooke cover

"Tom" Dooley was born George Patrick Dooley, Jr. January 18, 1947 in Chicago, IL to George and Rebecca Dooley, and he had an older sister, Patricia.   Tom’s father ran a strip club. It was the destination for all of the family’s social events including Tom’s christening. Tom’s father was physically abusive to his wife and family, and when Tom’s mother finally fled to Cairo, IL, with at least one tooth knocked out, she opened her own strip club. Tom was frequently sent to live with other families, some related and some not. But when he was home, he was often left to fend for himself in the clubs, behind the bar, surrounded by topless women and drunks.

Tom Dooley,  was heard on WSAI-AM (1360) from the mid to late 1960s when it was a powerhouse rock ‘n’ roll station in the 1960s.

He worked for many top rock stations, and had a regional hit with his band, Tom Dooley and the Lovelights. He was on WAKY-AM in Louisville, WFIL-AM in Philadelphia and KHJ-AM in Los Angeles.  For about 20 years, he hosted two-hour Christian music and inspirational show called “The Journey” that originated at Dallas Christian station KVTT, and was picked up by stations around the country.

Tom Dooley died in 2010 in Texas.



Links :

Tom Dooley and the Lovelights on YouTube :

Friday, July 19, 2013

Paul Christopher on Blue Diamond



Paul Christopher


Blue Diamond 773

1977
  
Canonsburg, Pa.

Billy Carter on Jessup

Billy Carter
(Rodgers, clearance : Tommy Crank Music BMI)
22710 - Blue Against The Gray
Jessup 209
1968

Tommy Crank,  was the artist and repertoire representative of Jessup Records in Jackson, Michigan.   Born William Thomas Crank in 1926 in the mountainous region of Jackson County, Kentucky.  A bluegrass artist himself, he also worked as promoter, producer, disc jockey, songwriter, and even did factory work, all while maintaining his full time ministry, spreading the gospel.   At one time he had even been the banjo player for Tommy's old friend Ralph Stanley.  He died in 2007.   More info HERE
Owner of Jessup Music was Glenn M. Jessup (1915-2011) operated Jessup Music & Vending from 1950 until he retired in 1987. He was a veteran of World War II and served in Japan. 

Two earlier Jessup singles pressed by Rite Records are listed HERE

Credit : label picture and soundclip are from ebay (seller : oneslickpig, Muskegon, MI) where this record is still on sale HERE..



Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Gypsies on Greenwood


Gypsies

14801 ~ Do It Do It (M. Romano)
14802 ~ There Was A Time (B. Ek)

Both Mead Music BMI
 Coordinated by R. Boisvert 
 Greenwood Records 297

1965
Listed here  as a Manchester, CT. label.

Label certainly owned by Boisvert (name of french origin  : bois=wood and vert=green). Some copies have an additional songwriter name (L.Bayliss) on the A-side stamped under M. Romano.