The Magnificent Goldberg Posted October 26, 2009 Report Share Posted October 26, 2009 I've been reading John Broven's book "Record makers and breakers" and there's this nice little story from Dave Burgess, the guitarist with the Champs. I had been working with my guitar, plaing around wit ha thing called "Train to nowhere". So I came in to Joe [Johnson, of Challenge Records] and said, "Look, I've got a idea for an instrumental." So it was, let's get a band together. Johnson had seen a sax player a few nights before, Danny Flores (aka Chuck Rio). They got him in and did the record. "but we gotta have a B side." I said, "Give us a little while; we'll come up with something." So we had listened to a guitar player from Tiajuana, Mexico, by the name of Little Joe Washington, who had mixed this R&B/Latin rock thing. I started playing that riff on the guitar, and Danny started playing this melody on the saxophone, which was just a great melody, and the bass player Cliff Hills fell in with it; so did the drummer, Gene Alden, and the guitar player, Buddy Bruce. I said to Danny, "why don't we do a bridge on it and stop and let you say 'Tequila!'" because he had this raspy voice." Then a big movie producer, Les Baxter, said, "I wrote 'Tequila'; that's my melody."... So he sent it over. In that little clip of the movie was this girl i nthe islands with a basked on her head walking through the rain and they were playing that song. It was note for note! The movie ["Bop girl goes calypso"] was released in 1957 and Chuck [Danny Flores] had seen the movie. So in the end, Challenge paid Les Baxter ten grand. And when you think of it, it's right up Baxter's street. I liked that little story. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Great story, MG! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 i have to digest this and comment later, i dont understand it- i dont tyhink i followed....im going to put on my Tequlia 78 rpm and try again later Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) Yeah, nice story. But please, MG, don't keep on spilling the beans from that book in public! I've still got to continue with "How Britan Got The Blues" before I can make any serious progress with "Record Makers and Breakers" which is awaiting me on my bookshelf! :D Anybody seen Bop Girl Goes Calypso anytime in recent decades? It's one of those flicks that crops up in books about r'n'r/teen/JD movies of the 50s but seems to remain off the screen otherwise. I mean, the very idea hatched by music music moguls at that time, i.e. promoting calypso as the next biggest thing that would immediately oust r'n'r, was as dead as a doornail by the time the first calypso records hit the TEEN record stalls back then. Sure calypso had a certain following and still has some oldie appeal, but considering it was supposed to replace r'n'r as an even bigger TEEN fad then it really just was a (minuscule) flash in the pan. Edited October 27, 2009 by Big Beat Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted October 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Yeah, nice story. But please, MG, don't keep on spilling the beans from that book in public! I've still got to continue with "How Britan Got The Blues" before I can make any serious progress with "Record Makers and Breakers" which is awaiting me on my bookshelf! :D OK - Sorry Steve. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Beat Steve Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Hey, just kidding ... and I suppose you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted October 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Hey, just kidding ... and I suppose you know. Yea, but you're right, too. I knew you had this book. I'm about two thirds through. MG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Interesting story, thanks for sharing MG. Never knew this. "Bop Girl Goes Calypso" has got to be one of the greatest titles ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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