(420) BOBBY VEE : A TRUE INVADER OF BRITAIN : MUSICALLY THAT IS!

Bobby Vee had "Go Away Little Girl, and "Take Care of My Baby" and also "Run to Him." in the early 1960's. Since then he has a multitude of hits and gold records. His career has spanned 50 years, and in that time he truly invaded Britain, with top ten hits and albums. He appeared on television shows like, Hollywood A Go Go and Shindig, and is one of several Americans who gave the Beatles some good competition.

Recently it was in the news that Bobby, a few years younger than me, has a mild form of Alzheimer's. He announced that on his own web site and the news zipped around the world. Meanwhile, back home at Tuscan, Arizona, Bobby's been recording.

We're linking to his official site above, which will also take you to his sites on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame,



Just a short excerpt from Bobby's own fine site, linked above.

" If "Susie Baby" served as Bobby Vee's entrance into the world of Billboards hot 100, then 'Devil or Angel' was certainly the foundation for a string of hit records reaching the nations top 20 throughout the entire 60's era. Bobby's hits were not limited to America. By 1963 he had collected seven top ten hits in England as well as a number 2 album called "Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets" and in 1963 shared the charts for forty weeks side-by-side with the Beatles. His tours took him to Japan, Australia and Europe as well as the United Kingdom, where he is still a yearly visitor. His thirty plus year recording career has produced over twenty-five albums including a Gold Album from England for his 1981 "Singles Album" release. Back in the US, Billboard Magazine called him, "One of the top ten most consistent chart makers ever."

I met Bobby when we was about 16 years old in New York City when he was on a promotional tour for his song "Rubber Ball." Wes

(396) WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE A LABEL YOU MARKET YOURSELF

What does a musical artist do when they don't have a label?

Today there are so many Independent ("Indie") artists who know the answer to that question!

You pay for your own studio time and record not just a demo to send around to agents but a CD for sale on the Internet. You have a web site. You use Social Networking sites to reach your fans. The Internet means that you have potential International Readership. (Just as we've experienced here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC - Hello Latvia!)

Today you can be your own company, your own boss, the talent and the marketing department. If you are successful, you make money, and more money than if you had a contract with a label. Sell enough and the major labels may even come calling.

Earlier in this blog I may've mentioned that I was surprised - maybe even shocked - to learn several years ago that I was on the net - the Rockabilly Hall of Fame site and RCS Discography. (Christine calls this "Web Presence.") It took me some time to get used to it. I had lived the life of a private citizen for many years at that point.

Steve Jobs, one of three founders of Apple Computers, has just passed on, and there's been so much media coverage of this inventor and business mogul who became a billionaire. (Christine uses PC's for this blog but swears by Apple.)

In the early 1960's all this was not technologically possible. Wasn't possible for another 30 years or so.

Marketing depended before the age of the Internet on word of mouth - who you knew or who you could network with personally. It was by ads placed individually in newspapers or trade journals or by writers who were syndicated.

Small labels that so many of us depended on often didn't have the marketing power that the big labels did so you had to entertain on live radio programs or television shows.

(364) DONNIE BROOKS RECORDED UNDER SEVERAL NAMES BEFORE HE HIT IT BIG

I first met DONNIE BROOKS in the late 1950's - early 1960's in New York City. Then, since he also moved out to LA, I saw him on this coast.

He became a very good friend of mine, as well as Dorsey Burnett's and P.J. Probys.

We're linking to the DONNIE BROOKS ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME LINK ABOVE!

Donnie, like many others who moved between studio work - making demos - and entertainment, recorded under different names and on different record labels before he settled on Donnie Brooks and had that hit. In 1964 he moved on to Frank Sinatra's label, Reprise (where Jimmy Bowen had become a producer), and eventually Gene Autry's Challenge, continuing his career into the 1970's.



And sadly, an article from the United Kingdown, Independent newspaper, his obit...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/donnie-brooks-439032.html

ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME SITE IS TERRIFIC !

We're linking to the ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME which has a listing of about 5000 Rockabilly Artists! (I'm on the list!) We've linked to this site quite a bit over time, since Rockabilly is one of our subjects here! Revisit and enjoy!

(308) THE ROSES - ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME BACKGROUND SINGERS

The ROSES were a background singing group who worked on my recording with Norman Petty as producer. We're linking to the ROCKABILLY HALL article and pictures of the men. They worked with Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Buddy Knox, Waylon Jennings, and me - to name a few.

UPDATED JANUARY 2013 with link renewal:
ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME : THE ROSES

March 2014 - Link added to side bar

(297) SUNSET STRIP RECORD COMPANIES : CRYSTALETTE

Crystalette was a small label in Hollywood that seemed to be most interested in signing local talents like Johnny Stark and Dodie Stevens, who had a hit with 'Pink Shoelaces' and then headed over to sign with Dot Records to make albums. I confess I never met either of them, but I knew of them, because of the association I had with Dot.

Johnny is profiled over at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame site:
http://www.rockabilly.nl/artists/johnnystark.htm
According to this site "Johnny also sang on the Gene Vincent show doing his hit record Be-Bop-A-Lula and sang with Elvis's past group the Bill Black Combo. Johnny also worked with Eddie Cochran & Ritchie Valens..."

JOHNNY STARK :



And here is DODIE STEVENS in an interview along with a song sample:

(60) CARL PERKINS : THE ORIGINAL BLUE SUEDE SHOES

Another inspiration for me when I was performing on the Buddy Knox tour was Rockabilly artist Carl Perkins.

I met Carl Perkins the day that I played on Wink Martindales, in Memphis, in the fall of 1957. I was supposed to be on another show with him, a show that belonged to Dewey Phillips, but when Elvis invited me to Graceland TM, I went off with him without thinking, and skipped the show. As a result Carl Perkins did four songs instead of two, to cover my absence!

Anyone who was into Rockabilly and the brand new Rock and Roll, had to know Carl Perkins, the original "Blue Suede Shoes." I covered that song as part of my show on the Buddy Knox tour. It was one of the few songs I covered that Elvis also covered but then again, so did Eddie Cochran and a whole lotta other performers.

Rockin Country Style Discography - Carl PerkinsRCS DISCOGRAPHY CARL PERKINS

Rockabilly Hall of Fame - Carl Perkins
ROCK A BILL HALL OF FAME - CARL PERKINS

Link above to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME - CARL PERKINS

(46) DEWEY PHILLIPS : THE DJ WHO PLAYED BLACK AND WHITE MUSIC on RED HOT and BLUE !

So, George Klein sent me the money for the ticket and I flew to Memphis before Elvis was due to return. There I was greeted by George Klein and introduced to another person who had been very important to Elvis' early success, yet another DJ (That's 3 in Elvis' personal collection of friends at the time - Cliff Gleaves, George Klein, and Dewey Phillips.) Dewey was the first DJ to ever play an Elvis Presley record, and when I say played it, I mean over and over again without another record in between. It was a copy of the song Elvis had recorded over at Sun Records with Sam Phillips (no relation to Dewey) "That's All Right, Mama."

Dewey Phillips, like Cliff Gleaves, was one of the Personality DJ's of the era, and shortly, when radio stations stripped Dj's of much of their power to discover talent and play whatever they wanted to, Dewey would find himself trying to hold on to his style and ultimately find himself out of work. But Elvis appreciated him and he was an informal member of the group of friends Elvis surrounded himself in those early years, and into his early years in Hollywood. (Since this is going to come up sooner or later, the term "Memphis Mafia" which is now a TM, never referred to Dewey, or me, or people who were friends of Elvis' rather than employees!)

After sleeping on the sofa at George Klein's for a while, Dewey Phillips invited me to stay at his house with his wife and children. During this time before Elvis returned from the Army I went to the radio station to hear George Klein on the air and went around quite a bit with Dewey. I liked him a lot, and I felt privileged to have been accepted by so many of the "insiders," who surrounded Elvis.

I also began to realize that it wasn't just Elvis friends' idea that I be there to meet the train. Those parting words the night I met him in the fall of 1957 "See you on the coast!" really had meant something.

Here is Jim Dickenson speaking on Dewey at a terrific Internet site, the Experience Music Project... Jim says Dewey's impact on Memphis Tennessee was incredible and I have to agree. Red, Hot and Blue was a program on which both Black and White artists' music was played - an integrated program at a time when Segregation was still the law in the South. (Jim was the last artist to release a single on Sun Records, the label Elvis first recorded on, then owned by Sam Phillips - no relation to Dewey. His song was "Cadillac Man."

Be sure to hear the audio of Dewey Broadcasting at the Cruisin the 50's link here and remember, this is the personality, the voice, that launched the great Elvis Presley!

http://www.empsfm.org/programs/index.asp?articleID=895

And to get to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame presentation on Dewey Phillips click on the title above!

(21) ERSEL HICKEY - A GREAT GUY WITH A CLASSIC ROCK N ROLL POSE!

Ersel Hickey was a great friend of mine in New York. He had one of the most frequently screwed up names and was often called Edsel, like the Ford car. He taught our friend Johnny Rivers a few cords and Johnny helped Ersel get work around town. Ersel was very much a part of what was a united drive to succeed. He never stepped on anyone's toes.

We guys were always writing songs, presenting songs or demo records to other artists that we thought could do a song justice. WE WERE IN THE COVER TUNE ERA! Ersel's song "Crooked Little Man" was one of the first songs he ever sold.

ROCKIN COUNTRY STYLE DISCOGRAPHY - ERSEL HICKEY!

http://rcs-discography.com/rcs/artist.php?key=hick1000 new link!

ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME - ERSEL HICKEY link click on title above!

Ersel Hickey singing his famous "Blue Birds Over The Mountain"

Video updated January 20 2011

THE ORIGINAL ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME!

The Original Rockabilly Hall of Fame®, created March 21, 1997 and is self described as "dedicated to honoring the pioneers of rock and roll and to today's artists who are keeping the music alive."

Check out this amazing site!