Bill Blacks Combo-Jasmine EP Collection
Released: 2024
Record Label- Jasmine JASCD1209 www.jasmine-records.co.uk
Sound Products from Hasmick Promotions Ltd.
Compilation and Annotation: Roger Dopson
Transfers & Digital Processing: Reynolds Mastering
Manufactured and Distributed by: JASMINE RECORDS
Made in the United Kingdom
Reviewed by: Terry Mead 21/10/2024.
Bill Black was a truly remarkable man. The most famous bassist in the history of Rock & Roll, he played on a couple of dozen of R&R’s most seminal records, i.e. virtually everything that Elvis recorded before he went into the Army. That, alone, would have made for an impressive enough CV. But some eighteen months after he’d split with Presley, Black formed another group with a wholly unique, instantly identifiable sound and style, and proceeded to carve out an unlikely second-stage career.
This compilation of several of The Bill Black Combo’s classic recordings is drawn from EPs issued variously in the US, the UK, France, Sweden and Holland between 1960-62, and includes many of their early hits, a few misses/nearlies, a couple of flips, and several LP sides..
Album Review: So, we kick off this compilation with “Smokie Part 2” which was the flip side that became the hit selling over a million copies. It’s a profuse track with sax & piano breaks and a neat drumbeat. Don Rondo’s 1957 hit is up next here the Combo give it the “popcorn” effect on the organ whilst slowing the tempo down from the original. Tuxedo Junction is given a more raunchy sound compared with Glenn Millers orchestral tune with number 4 “Crank Case” being a Bill Black composition is a laid-back instrumental with a catchy riff. The Shelton Brothers “Deep Elem Blues” is given the sax treatment producing a neat cohesive melody. The original foxtrot sound of “Josephine” is turned into a slow jive, while his old buddy Elvis’s “Don’t Be Cruel” has the aurora sounding organ throwing out the riff. Another Bill Black number follows Rollin” which again was more popular on the R&B market. The next four are famous tunes which need no introduction and are given the Bill Black treatment with much success. Leroy Andersons “Blue Tango” has been regenerated into a modern upbeat affair with some catchy riffs with “Willie” the flip side being another one of Bills laid back selfies. Hearts of Stone/Royal Blue gave the combo a top 20 hit with the A-side pulling away from its Doo-Wop sound. Bill arranges the trad to “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Been” which has a bouncy organ and deep sax and to the next three tracks as well. Hoagy Carmichael is given an update next, his old wayward tune is thrown on the tracks with a lively spin to it. Movin” is a solid upbeat tune and “Honky Train” more subdued both from the hand of Bill Black. The Fats Domino classic “My Girl Josephine” B-side to “Twist Her” is kept in context with the original with some neat piano breaks. The last seven tracks all top-notch tunes from the “Movin” album played to a high degree with their originals in mind and quality produced to a fine degree.
So, to Summarise: Certainly, one for the instrumental fans and connoisseurs of the Bill Black era, thirty-two tracks on one album ain’t to be sneezed at.
Track List:
1 Smokie (Part 2)
2 White Silver Sands
3 Tuxedo Junction
4 Crank Case
5 Deep Elem Blues
6 Josephine
7 Don't Be Cruel
8 Rollin'
9 Singin' The Blues
10 Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White
11 Honky Tonk
12 You Win Again
13 Blue Tango
14 Willie
15 Hearts Of Stone
16 Royal Blue
17 Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen
18 Old Time Religion
19 He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
20 Do Lord
21 Ole Buttermilk Sky
22 Yogi
23 Movin'
24 Honky Train
25 My Girl Josephine
26 What'd I Say
27 Hey Bo Diddley
28 Witchcraft
29 My Babe
30 Forty Miles Of Bad Road
31 Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
32 The Walk
Band Bio from Alfred Rhode:
The oldest of nine children, William Patton Black Jr. (their pa, William Patton Black Sr., was a motorman for the Memphis Street Railway Co and a keen amateur musician) came into the world on September 17th, 1926, in Memphis, Tennessee. Bill first began performing in public at the age of sixteen, initially playing a home-made cigar box guitar in a Western Swing band. He was drafted in 1945, returning to Memphis in 1947 by which time he was married with a family on the way. Working in the foundry at Firestone Tires by day and playing with a succession of Hillbilly bands by night, he’d by now switched to stand-up doghouse bass, modelling his ‘slap bass’ technique after his hero, Fred Maddox, of Maddox Brothers and Rose. He also aped Maddox’s onstage clownish routines, which inevitably led to him becoming the visual focal point of any band he was playing with.
By the early 50s he was working with guitarist Scotty Moore, usually in Doug Poindexter’s band, The Starlight Wranglers, who cut a one-off single for Sun Records in early 1954. It failed to do much business, but Sun proprietor Sam Phillips started using Bill and Scotty for sessions - which of course led to that fateful day in July 1954, when he called them into the studio to work with an untried, nineteen-year-old truck driver…
Fast forward to Spring 1958. After splitting with Elvis, Bill returned to Memphis and took a regular day job, servicing air conditioning units for Able Appliances. He occasionally played in bands backing local singers - e.g. Thomas Wayne, Ed Bruce - but had no real intentions of resurrecting a musical career. However, in early 1959 he was approached by former Sun Rockabilly singer Ray Harris, by now a partner in Hi Records, with a view to putting a group together for recording purposes. Harris had already started to assemble a band, initially around guitar prodigy Reggie Young (from Eddie Bond’s Stompers); but it made more commercial sense to use Bill’s name and trade on his reputation, so they became Bill Black’s Combo.
Aside from Bill and Reggie, their original line-up featured Marty Willis (from Billy Lee Riley’s band) on sax, pianist Joe Louis Hall (from Willie Mitchell’s band) and Eddie Arnold’s nephew, Jerry ‘Satch’ Arnold, on drums. After several weeks’ rehearsals they came up with ‘Smokie’, a largely improvised shuffle built around an old Hank Thompson tune. Issued in September ’59, as ‘Smokie (Parts 1 & 2)’, the disc was very nearly Hi’s final release; the label hadn’t been a success and its major shareholder, Joe Cuoghi, was about to pull the plug. But ‘Smokie’ well and truly saved the day; it was the nominal flipside, ‘Part 2’, that did the business, eventually peaking at #17 on Billboard; #13 on Cashbox; #1 R&B, and going on to sell comfortably in excess of a million copies, the bulk of its sales being in the black, R&B market.
The key to its success lay in the band’s performance, the bass and low-tuned guitar playing in perfect unison with the drums, giving the disc an irresistible, danceable, bottom-heavy sound which sounded equally great booming out of a radio, jukebox, or dancehall loudspeakers.
The band’s personnel would fluctuate wildly, only drummer Arnold (and to a lesser extent, Black himself) remaining constant. Hall and Willis quit not long after ‘Smokie’, giving way to Jerry Lee Lewis’s cousin, Carl McVoy (keyboards) and former Sun session player Ace Cannon (sax), whilst guitarist Young was drafted shortly afterwards, with Hank Hankins, Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill deputising in quick succession. Moreover, McVoy - who was also a partner in Hi, and didn’t want to go out on tour - was replaced for live appearances by either Bobby Emmons or Bobby Wood, depending on their availability.
Their second single revived Don Rondo’s ‘White Silver Sands’ and featured Carl McVoy’s choppy Hammond organ as the lead instrument, alternating with Cannon’s cool sax. It swiftly became their biggest hit, peaking at #9 Billboard; #4 Cashbox; #1 R&B, and gave them a second consecutive million-seller.
By now The Combo were gigging regularly, playing largely across the South, primarily to black audiences. The band’s impact on the R&B market was quite extraordinary, and by 1961 they’d eclipsed Bill Doggett as the most popular live band on the circuit. Hi went out of their way to make them even more accessible to the black market by rarely putting band photo’s on either their album or 45 sleeves. Indeed, their first LP, “Smokie”, had been withdrawn shortly after release and reissued in a generic sleeve, retitled “Saxy Jazz”, with a virtually identical track listing (it would go on to make #37 on the Billboard album charts). Standout tracks on the album included ‘Tuxedo Junction’, ‘Crank Case’ and ‘Deep Elem Blues’. A lucrative by-product of the band’s lack of a strong visible identity was that Bill Black was able to send several different versions/line-ups of “Bill Black’s Combo” out on the road, to different parts of the States, at any one time.
Meanwhile, their third and fourth singles, ‘Josephine’ (#18 Billboard; #9 Cashbox; #9 R&B) and a chunky revival of Elvis’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ (#11 Billboard; #7 Cashbox; #7 R&B; b/w ‘Rollin’’), had also both become million-sellers, although their chart placings certainly didn’t reflect their true popularity - doubtless because the bulk of the sales were in the R&B market. Thus established, they proceeded to unfurl a long string of hits, including ‘Blue Tango’ (#16 Billboard; #17 Cashbox; #36 R&B) b/w ‘Willie’ (#82 Cashbox; #28 R&B), ‘Hearts Of Stone’ (#20 Billboard; #17 Cashbox; #19 R&B; b/w ‘Royal Blue’), ‘Ole Buttermilk Sky’ (#25 Billboard; #23 Cashbox; #32 R&B; b/w ‘Yogi’) ‘Movin’’ (#41 Billboard; #39 Cashbox; #24 R&B) b/w ‘Honky Train’ (#92 Billboard); ‘My Girl Josephine’ (B-side of ‘Twist-Her’).
In total they would rack up more than twenty Top 100 entries and eight chart albums, the biggest of which was “Solid And Raunchy” (#23 Billboard; # 11 Cashbox) in 1960, which included sides like ‘Singin’ The Blues’, ‘Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White’, ‘Honky Tonk’ and ‘You Win Again’. They also charted with “That Wonderful Feeling” (#40 Cashbox, also 1960) which featured ‘Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen’, ‘Old Time Religion’, ‘He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands’ and ‘Do Lord’. And although the “Movin’” album (1961) inexplicably failed to chart, it remains one of their strongest sets, with sides like ‘What’d I Say’, ‘Hey Bo Diddley’, ‘Witchcraft’, ‘My Babe’, ‘Forty Miles Of Bad Road’, ‘Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby’ and ‘The Walk’.
However, by 1962 ill health had sadly forced Bill to quit touring; and although he briefly continued to play on the sessions, his place on the road - and eventually, in the studio - was taken by guitarist/bassist Bob Tucker. By the following year he was unable to work, except in an office-bound, managerial capacity, although he insisted that the band continue to tour and record without him. Indeed, the Combo famously opened for The Beatles on the latter’s thirteen-city U.S. tour in 1964, although Bill himself was unable either to participate in or even visit the tour.
In early 1965 Bill was diagnosed with a brain tumour; he died on October 21st, 1965, whilst undergoing a third operation - he was just thirty-nine years of age. Prior to his death he’d arranged for the band to carry on trading under his name, under Tucker’s stewardship, and they would continue registering hit records through to the late 70s, by which time they’d changed musical direction, switching to the Country market. Bill Black’s main upright bass is today owned by former Beatle Paul McCartney, who received it as a birthday present from his wife Linda in the late 1970s.
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