Rockabilly legend Delmar Allen (Dale) Hawkins sadly passed away at the weekend (on February 13) in Little Rock, Arkansas, age 73. He’d been fighting colon cancer for the best part of four years and his condition had been getting steadily worse this year. Hawkins will be best remembered best for his track Susie-Q which he cut for Chess’s Checker label in 1957 - and as the “architect of swamp rock boogie”. There’s a really good biography here.

Susie-Q was covered by among others, the Rolling Stones in 1964, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, who recorded an 11-minute quasi-psychedelic version on their first LP in 1968. Among Hawkins’ other hits were “La Do Da Da,” later recorded by the Blue Things. He has been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and The Lousiana Music Hall of Fame.

Dale Hawkins – Lifeguard Man

Rather than stick up Susie-Q, I wanted to flag up a lesser known track by Dale that I only discovered last year called Lifeguard Man. Top seaside spin! RIP Dale.

Frank Minion - Watermelon

Since stumbling upon this 1958 record 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 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.