Here's all 1'43" of the original record:
The 1958 stomper has long been one of my favourite rock 'n' roll records. Apart from the guitar break, it sounds (deliberately, one presumes) like a Little Richard number, and the singer certainly sounds black, but vocalist Mickey Hawks, who also wrote it, and his fellow Night Raiders actually looked like this (Hawks is top left):
The 1958 stomper has long been one of my favourite rock 'n' roll records. Apart from the guitar break, it sounds (deliberately, one presumes) like a Little Richard number, and the singer certainly sounds black, but vocalist Mickey Hawks, who also wrote it, and his fellow Night Raiders actually looked like this (Hawks is top left):
Hell - they don't come much whiter than that! "Bip Bop Boom" sold some 50,000 copies in the Chicago area, but never made it onto the national charts. The band returned to the Little Richard style with the frantic "Screamin' Mimi Jeanie", which, sadly, didn't chart anywhere:
They committed another heinous act of cultural appropriation with "Hidi Hidi Hidi", which (to my ears, at least) used New Orleans band Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns' wonderful "Don't You Just Know It" as a template:
Those boys could certainly rock. Odd that they should eventually gain their widest audience here in the UK via an advert for a French car. Whoever chose the music is to be commended for their excellent taste.
Thanks for the post.
ReplyDelete