The Magnificent Goldberg

Yes, just checked the Joe Thomas/Bill Elliott LP - that one, from 1964, a bit later than the Ray Bryant I looked at earlier, has a 265 W 54 Street address. Juggy was moving about a bit, wasn't he - 4 addresses in 6 years? MG

Oh gee! Thanks to both you and Chuck. I always assumed "Paula" was named after Serrano. Looks like a slam dunk. MG

Thanks Jim & Felser. Goes to show how lucky I was over here, just looking at a list of a hundred singles each week, not having to be confused by the facts. It occurs to me that, had I lived over there, I wouldn't have been so experimental with my purchases in those days. MG

Correction, Jewel is a southern label - Shreveport. It distributes Paula. But Paula was operated (and may have been owned or part-owned) by Chicago trumpeter and recording engineer Paul Serrano, (which is how Sonny Stitt and Odell Brown and Mal Waldron etc came to record for the company.) Lately, Jewel has appeared to be using the Paula label to reissue some stuff that first appeared on Jewel. I just looked at one of these, from 1996, and it sez 'ere: "Manufactured and distributed by Jewel, Paula Ronn Records, a division of Sue Records inc, PO box 1125 Shreveport." Ha ha!!! I wonder if Stan Lewis bought Juggy Murray's company some time? (His Extreme Nerdship strikes again ) MG

Stop! Look, listen to your heart and what it's saying... Enjoy, Tom! (But don't buy any Stylistics albums.) MG

Waiting for Clem... MG

Thanks - I'll keep a little eye out for them. MG

These are their Sue hits, John. 1960 A fool in love - Sue 730 - R&B #2, Pop 27 1960 I idolise you - Sue 835 - R&B #5, pop 82 1961 It's gonna work out fine - Sue 749 - R&B #2, Pop 14 1961 Poor fool - Sue 753 - R&B #4, Pop 38 1962 Tra la la la la - Sue 757 - R&B #9, Pop 50 Over a 15 year period, only one of their 25 R&B chart singles didn't make the pop charts (but only 3 others made the top 40). MG Again, the only one of these to crack the Top 20 is It's gonna work out fine, which peaked at #14. What I'd really like to see is how many weeks, those songs were on the charts, and at what positions. Having a #14 hit can mean a lot of differnt things, and if you peaked at #14 and then next week were $25, and then #52 the week after that, that's a lot different than staying in the Top 20 for weeks on end. And even if you did have the chart position for a quick minute, that doesn't mean that the records had short-range staying power in terms of airplay or store sales. A crossover hit like that could easy get chart position by a week or two of one-time crossiver guying and a few weeks of airplay, and then, it would be over. But the charts would take note of the activity and respond accordingly. You gotta also remember that Sue was a Southern-based label, and that non-exclusively-C&W Southern audiences always had (or tended to always have) a little bit more taste for R&B than otehr parts of the country. The sociology behind this is...."interesting", but as late as the mid-1970s, John Fred & His Playboy Band were still a big time regional (i.e. - Gulf Coast) club act playing horn-driven R&B (NOT "jazz-rock" or anything like that). Plus you got the whole Beach Music thing, to say nothing of actual Blues ("real" and otherwise). The radio was segregated, the clubs were segregated (well, the white clubs were anyway, and that's a story unto itself....), but the record stores usually weren't. All I'm saying is that two Top 40 hits is not necessarily an indication of crossover success. I can state with absolute certainty that although many white Southern music fans had heard of Ike & TIna before their UA years, by no means were they a household name outside of the R&B market. I'd wager dollars to doughnuts that if you went to somplace like Phoenix or Omaha of Racine or Scranton or someplace like that at the time, you'd find next to nobody who knew who they were. America is a large country with (back then anyway) a large # of regional & local quirks which transalted in "markets". To become/have a truly "national" hit was quite a feat. Thanks Jim. I don't have those details for the Pop charts, only the R&B charts. But I accept what you say. Except that Sue was a New York label; 1650 Broadway, in the sixties - is that above Colony Records? Or is it the Brill Building? Anyway. In the fifties - the label was set up in 1958 - the address was 125 St, then Riverside Drive. (Don't forget, the label was recording Joe Thomas, Ray Bryant, Jimmy McGriff and Ernestine Anderson a couple of years later.) MG

Ah, very interesting. Thanks Paul. MG

Perhaps I should change my profile details so I live in Scotland. MG

Of course, if Customs were any good, they'd lurk on fora like this one MG

Oh. MG

The Beach Boys Jan & Dean The Ventures

Never heard that about him. But if he was, that would kind of make him not boring, wouldn't it? He was a very tough Chief Secretary to the Treasury (the job is to cut spending plans down to size) in the early days of the Labour Government. MG

I've had it up to here with him MG

If it's a secret stash, then the matter becomes rather more urgent. The sale ends 31 January. I had better put together another couple of orders for early and late January. Phew!!!! MG

Both "Playback" and "Space flight" were issued on CD in Japan. Only "Soul merchant" didn't get a CD release as far as I'm aware. MG

I didn't know they'd made an album together, Jim. Which is that? Funny, they were both ex-Pucho & the Latin Soul Brothers sidemen - but Creque seems to have joined after Alexander left. MG

Thanks for that clarification on "Buddy Holly" and "the Crickets." Seeing the list like that makes Charlie Gillette's theory that the Crickets' records were (to an extent) aimed at the black audience rather plausible - though who would admit to this at any time since Holly died? And even the name seems to have been chosen with the black R&B/Doowop groups in mind. But it is only a theory. Brunswick wasn't a label that necessarily concentrated on the black market in that period. Here's an extract from the intro to a Brunswick album discography. Here's a link to the discography. http://www.bsnpubs.com/nyc2/brunswick.html When you look at the late fifties album releases, you do get a rather wider feel for what the label was doing, at least as far as albums were concerned. But R&B was a singles genre in those days. I've never seen a Brunswick singles list. So, I guess it's a plausible, but unproven, theory. MG

These are their Sue hits, John. 1960 A fool in love - Sue 730 - R&B #2, Pop 27 1960 I idolise you - Sue 835 - R&B #5, pop 82 1961 It's gonna work out fine - Sue 749 - R&B #2, Pop 14 1961 Poor fool - Sue 753 - R&B #4, Pop 38 1962 Tra la la la la - Sue 757 - R&B #9, Pop 50 Over a 15 year period, only one of their 25 R&B chart singles didn't make the pop charts (but only 3 others made the top 40). MG

Swings and roundabouts. Because they're capitalist swine - where's Red Menace when you need him? My 'art bleeds. It's what your Left arm's for. More generally, to what extent is it true that the financial industry devises these very not-common-sense ideas, like sub-prime mortgages (which are only the most recent of their type), because it really is possible, if you're up to it, to make a fortune (or lose one) out of them when they collapse? In other words, is the economy being driven in silly directions, so the industry can play its numbers games? MG

Not always, but in your case, it's true! Have a very good one, Jim. MG

Here's a chronological list of Buddy's hits on the Cash Box chart, including catalogue numbers. The Crickets were the name on those issued on Brunswick, Buddy Holly was the name on the Coral issues. The difference was clearly NOT chronological. AUGUST 3, 1957 That'll Be The Day Brunswick 55009 #3 (20 weeks) OCTOBER 26, 1957 Peggy Sue Coral 61885 #2 (20 weeks) NOVEMBER 16, 1957 Oh Boy! Brunswick 55035 #13 (14 weeks) NOVEMBER 30, 1957 Everyday Coral 61885 #51 (3 weeks) FEBRUARY 22, 1958 Maybe Baby Brunswick 55053 #11 (11 weeks) MARCH 15, 1958 I'm Gonna Love You Too Coral 61947 #56 (1 week) MAY 17, 1958 Rave On Coral 61985 #54 (2 weeks) JULY 5, 1958 Think It Over Brunswick 55072 #42 (10 weeks) JULY 5, 1958 Fool's Paradise Brunswick 55072 #73 (1 week) JULY 26, 1958 Early In The Morning Coral 62006 #25 (10 weeks) FEBRUARY 21, 1959 It Doesn't Matter Anymore Coral 62074 #30 (14 weeks) FEBRUARY 21, 1959 Raining In My Heart Coral 62074 #88 (2 weeks) MAY 3, 1969 Love Is Strange Coral 62558 #94 (3 weeks) here's the link http://www.buddyhollyonline.com/charts.html You could well be right. Though probably not at the instigation of the company. After all, Ike & Tina recorded for Sue in this period and the company WAS aiming its other product at the white market. Ditto for King, for whom Brown and John recorded. My guess is whoever was managing these artists at the time was taking the decisions, perhaps in concert with the record company. So it's kind of amazing that Ike & Tina should have managed 3 top 40 hits in '60 and '61, plus another on the Hot 100 in that period, without intending to. MG

That's Linn for you. Klout, Lingo, Armaggedon, Ekos, Kaliber, Krapp etc. Ikea Oh, you have Ikea in Italy, do you? MG

I agree that's a shame. But all of the web news pieces over here deal with both his musical achievements as well as his relationship with Tina. Some accounts are better than others, as you'd expect. A couple are pretty good. Maybe this is more a case of kinds not caring enough about what he did for a music they're not interested in anyway to take much notice, than a poor reporting problem? You can tell kids over and over but what goes in is what they're prepared to receive. So perhaps it says more about the general state of perception of the music of that era than about what kids are taught. MG