Frank Minion - Watermelon

Since stumbling upon this 1958 ditty by Frank Minion quite by accident last week, I must have played it about 50 times… It’s one of those tunes that just gets under your skin. Bongo, tom tom and high hat provide the lolloping beat - which combines with one of the most pared down and groovy bass lines of all time to create what I can only describe as a minimal groove - over which Frank Minion delivers a flippin’ great vocal about having to sell Watermelons all day long (hollering “Watermelon” all the time to advertise his wares) in order to feed his baby / make a living. Wow.

Louis Prima - Beep! Beep!

There aren’t that many white artists whose music would sit naturally on a rhythm’n'blues compilation - but “Uncle” Louis Prima is one of them. This is a cut of his from 1957 that I just love with it’s talk of a space-travelling girlfriend and some frankly awesome, Clanger-like beep-beep-beepings in the chorus. And his delivery of the line, “Aw lay that sound on me” just before the final beeps of the track is just brilliant.

Sam & Dave - She’s Alright

I included this record in my Shing-A-Ling podcast No.1 - but thought it deserved a post all of its own because it’s such an awesome early Sam & Dave record, dating from 1963. My copy is so mint that either it’s been safely stowed in a factory outlet or something for years unplayed - or it’s a re-issue. I’m not really that bothered either way - this one will probably never leave my record box!

Sprinkle me with flour and bake me for forty minutes… is it really FIVE YEARS ago that me and a few buddies set up a little monthly clubnight called Gerry’s Joint with the intention of playing the most cooking, jumping and infectious 50s and 60s records we could lay our hands on?

YES IT IS! Myself, Leo, Max and Roo will be celebrating Gerry’s Joint’s 5th birthday up at The Boogaloo this Saturday night. And as it’s our birthday, we’d very much LOVE for the night to go off in a special way - so if you like what you hear on this ol’ blog - and if you’re in the London area - come and join the fun!

We will, but of course, be spinning records and generally encouraging shimmying, shaking and other dancefloor hi-jinks with our selection of - well, you know, Gerry’s Joint style tunes!

As it’s a landmark anniversary for Gerry’s Joint, (I can still hardly believe we’ve been doing the night for FIVE YEARS!) I’d also like to let y’all know that over the course of this year we’ll be releasing a series of special mixes - each created by one of us Gerry’s Joint dee-jays as a personal celebration of what Gerry’s Joint has meant to us / taught us over the last five years… Oh yes, and each mix will have it’s own artwork - created specially by the man, the legend: James Joyce. Good times! Got no idea when the first of these mixes will present itself - but it’ll be soon.

PLUS there are exciting plans afoot to produce a Gerry’s Joint CD compilation of rare old gold selected by us and mastered directly from original vinyl for the most authentic listening experience. That’s work-in-progress - but we’ll keep you posted on that project as it develops…

In the meantime, it’d be great to see you up at The Boogaloo this Saturday night - as Gerry’s Joint enters it’s sixth year of rockin’ the joint!

Details on the flyer and also at http://myspace.com/gerrysjointclub

NB: We’re charging £3 entry for Gerry’s Joint this session. ALL the money we take on the door will go to the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

Barney Kessel - Honey Rock

Honey Rock is a cracking instrumental by the legendary musician, guitarist, jazz artist, record producer and all round dude, Barney Kessel. This is actually the B-side of Ricky Nelson’s second single, You’re My One And Only Love, which was released on Verve (10070) in 1957…

Kessel was head of A&R for Verve records in Beverly Hills from 1956-1960 and, the story goes, Verve president, Norman Granz, had asked him to find some “rock ‘n’ roll product” because distributors were asking for something to rival the releases of a certain Elvis Presley. Kessel, years earlier, had played in a band with Ozzie Nelson and one evening whilst watching Nelson’s TV show ‘The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet’ he spotted the young Ricky Nelson playing drums on the show. Kessel called Ozzie, and put Ricky Nelson’s recording deal together with the idea of having the kid out in front of the band with a guitar in his hand. Kessel then set about producing Ricky’s first three major hits when Nelson was still 16. The first two hits were on Ricky’s first single - across the A and the B side - and this record posted here contained the third hit in the shape of A side You’re My One And Only Love - penned by Kessel and Jack Marshall. Apparently Kessel wrote the instrumental B side Honey Rock in all of ten seconds – and recorded it in one take. The track is basically Barney and the boys laying down a solid riff and jamming, with a chick giving it “Honey” in all the breaks. Nice!