| ARTIST | SONG | ALBUM |
|---|---|---|
| Billy Wright | Thinkin' Blues | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | Bad Luck, Heartache and Trouble | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | Fore Day Blues | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | After Dark Blues | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Jackie Brenston | Make My Love Come Down | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | Rocket 88 | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | Independent Woman | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | Much Later | The Mistreater |
| Billy Gayles | A Woman Just Won't Do | Trailblazer |
| Billy Gayles | Take Your Fine Frame Home | Trailblazer |
| Billy Gayles | I'm Tore Up | Trailblazer |
| Billy Wright | You Satisfy | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | I Keep Drinking | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | Billy's Boogie Blues | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | Married Woman's Boogie | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Jackie Brenston | What Can It Be | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | You Ain't The One | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | You Won't be Comin' Back | The Mistreater |
| Billy Gayles | Night Howler | R&B Confidential No. 1: The Flair Label |
| Billy Gayles | Do Right Baby | Ike Turner: Classic Early Sides |
| Billy Gayles | Sad As a Man Can Be | Trailblazer |
| Billy Wright | Mercy, Mercy | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | Stacked Deck | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | When The Wagon Comes | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Jackie Brenston | Tuckered Out | The Sun Blues Box 1950-1958 |
| Jackie Brenston | Jackie's Chewing Gum | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | Juiced | The Sun Blues Box 1950-1958 |
| Billy Wright | Drinkin' And Thinkin' | Billy Wright 1949-1951 |
| Billy Wright | Let's Be Friends | Hey Baby Don't You Want A Man Like Me |
| Billy Wright | Don't You Want a Man Like Me? | Hey Baby Don't You Want A Man Like Me |
| Billy Gayles | Peg Leg Woman | Down On Broadway And Main |
| Billy Gayles | Just One More Time | Ike Turner: Classic Early Sides 1952-57 |
| Jackie Brenston | Want You to Rock Me | 45 |
| Jackie Brenston | 88 Boogie | The Mistreater |
| Jackie Brenston | My Real Gone Rocket | The Mistreater |
| Billy Wright | Do Something For Me (Live) | Stacked Deck |
| Billy Wright | Man's Brand Boogie | Hey Baby Don't You Want A Man Like Me |
| Billy Wright | Live the Life | Hey Baby Don't You Want A Man Like Me |
Show Notes:
Today’s show is part of a semi-regular feature I call Forgotten Blues Heroes that spotlights great, but little remembered blues artists that don’t really fit into my weekly themed shows. Today’s installment spotlights several fine singers who were active from the 1940s through the 1960s. Two Singers, Jackie Brenston and Billy Gayles, sang with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. Brenston was a singer/saxophonist who hooked up with Turner in Clarksdale in 195o. The following year, backed by Turner and the band, he scored a massive hit with “Rocket 88” as well as several fine singles through 1963. Like Brenston, Gayles was in Clarksdale in the early 50s where he hooked up with Turner, first recording with in 1954 and waxing a handful of singles through 1963. Atlanta singer Billy Wright made his debut for Savoy in 1949, with several R&B hits through the early 50s. He was a key figure in Atlanta blues scene and had a major influence on Little Richard, whom he helped get his first recording contract. In addition to our show notes I’ve included several excellent articles and liner notes at the bottom.
As a child, Billy Wright excelled at singing gospel music in his local church. In his youth, he worked as a dancer and as a female impersonator but developed as a singer when he began performing at Atlanta’s 81 Theater. The saxophonist Paul “Hucklebuck” Williams saw Wright’s performance when the two shared a bill with Charles Brown and Wynonie Harris. Williams recommended him to Herman Lubinsky of Savoy Records. His first record, “Blues for My Baby”, recorded with Howard Collander’s orchestra, rose to number 3 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1949. He had three more records on the R&B chart: “You Satisfy” (number 9, 1949), “Stacked Deck” (number 9, 1951), and “Hey, Little Girl” (number 10, 1951).
A flamboyant performer, he was known as the “Prince of the Blues” throughout his career. He was a key figure in Atlanta blues after World War II and had a major influence on the rock-and-roll pioneer Little Richard, whom he helped get his first recording contract in 1951. In the early 1950s, the openly gay Wright also helped in establishing Richard’s look, advising him to use pancake makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style similar to his. In 1954, Wright signed a contract with Peacock Records, owned by Don Robey, in Houston, Texas. He made his last recordings in 1959. He primarily worked as an MC in Atlanta but continued to perform until he suffered a stroke. He died of a pulmonary embolism just before his 1991 Halloween show at the Royal Peacock in Atlanta.
Jackie Brenston was born in Clarksdale, MS where he returned after his stint in 1946. Brenston learned to play the tenor saxophone and linked up with Ike Turner in 1950 as a tenor sax player and occasional singer in Turner’s band, the Kings of Rhythm. The local success of the band prompted B. B. King to recommend them to studio owner Sam Phillips in Memphis where the band made several recordings in early March 1951, including “Rocket 88” on which Brenston sang lead and was credited with writing. Turner led the band but provided no vocals for “Rocket 88”. Brenston later said that the song was not particularly original; “they had simply borrowed from another jump blues about an automobile, Jimmy Liggins’ ‘Cadillac Boogie.” Turner continued to maintain that he wrote the music and that he and the band jointly wrote the lyrics. Phillips licensed the recordings to Chess Records in Chicago, which released “Rocket 88” as by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats instead of Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm featuring Jackie Brenston. Turner blamed Phillips for this error. The record soon reached number one on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart. It sold approximately half a million copies. Turner and the band had been paid $20 each for the record. The exception was Brenston, who sold the rights to Phillips for $910.
After “Rocket 88” Brenston cut “My Real Gone Rocket b/w Tuckered Out” for Chess. The success of “Rocket 88” caused friction within the group. After one further recording session, Brenston left Turner’s band to pursue a solo career. Brenston later went on to perform in Lowell Fulson’s band for two years. He returned to play in Turner’s band in 1955. Although he occasionally sang with the band, Turner allegedly barred him from singing “Rocket 88”. In 1957 Brenston cut “Much Later b/w The Mistreater” and “What Can It Be b/w Gonna Wait For My Chance” for Federal and as Jackie Brenston With Ike Turner’s Kings Of Rhythm.
In 1958, Brenston played saxophone in the Cobra session with Turner which produced the singles “Double Trouble” and “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)” by Otis Rush. By now an alcoholic, Brenston continued playing in local bands. In 1960, Turner signed with Sue Records and released “A Fool In Love” with his future wife Tina Turner. Turner wrote one of Brenston’s last recordings, “Trouble Up The Road b/w You Ain’t The One” was released on Sue in 1961. Brenston’s final recording session was in Chicago with Earl Hooker’s band in 1963 (“Want You To Rock Me t b/w Down In My Heart”) , and released on Mel London’s Mel-Lon label, but alcoholism took a toll on his career. He returned to Clarksdale and worked occasionally as a truck driver. Brenston died of a heart attack at V.A. Hospital in Memphis on December 15, 1979.
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| Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm (1956). Back: Jackie Brenston, Raymond Hill, Eddie Jones, Fred Sample, Billy Gayles. Front: Jesse Knight Jr., Ike Turner, and Eugene Washington |
Willie James Gayles was born in Missouri on October 19, 1931. He became interested in blues and jazz music after he moved to Cairo, Illinois as a teenager. Gayles learned to play the drums and toured with blues musicians Earl Hooker and Robert Nighthawk. In the early 1950s, he relocated to Clarksdale. In March 1954, Gayles recorded with Ike Turner’s King’s of Rhythm, resulting in the release of the Turner-penned single “Night Howler b/w My Heart In Your Hands” on Flair Records. By 1956, Gayles had joined Ike Turner’s the band now based in East St. Louis, mainly as a vocalist. That year, Turner took the band to Cincinnati to record for Federal Records. The single, “I’m Tore Up b/w If I Never Had Known You,” featuring Gayles singing lead, became a regional hit. In 1956 he cut “Take Your Fine Frame Home b/w Let’s Call It A Day”, “Do Right Baby b/w No Coming Back” and “Just One More Time b/w Sad As A Man Can Be”, “Peg Leg Woman b/w Mistreating Me” and “Take Your Fine Frame Home b/w “Let’s Call It A Day.”
Gayles briefly left Turner’s band to pursue a solo career. He returned to the band as a drummer. In 1958, Gayles traveled to Chicago with Turner to record for Cobra Records. Gayles and Turner sang on the Cobra release “Walking Down The Aisle,” the B-side to “Box Top.” They also backed Otis Rush in a Cobra session that produced the singles “Double Trouble” and “All Your Love (I Miss Loving).” Gayles performed off-and-on with Turner until 1963. He later formed his own band and played around St. Louis. Gayles backed blues musician Larry Davis on his 1982 album Funny Stuff. In 1986 and 1987, Gayles toured Europe with several original members of the Kings of Rhythm as part of the St. Louis Kings of Rhythm. Mayor Vincent Schoemehl officially appointed them as ambassadors for the City of St. Louis. In the early 1990s, Gayles played in a band called Billy and the Preachers. After being hospitalized for three months at St. Louis Regional Medical Center, Gayles died from inoperable cancer at the age of 61 on April 8, 1993.
-Bernholm, Jonas. Billy Wright the Prince of the Blues: Stacked Deck. Sweden: Route 66 KIX-13, 1980.
-Lowry, Pete B. Billy Wright: Goin’ Down Slow. USA: Savoy Jazz SJL 1146, 1984.
-Huggins, Cilla; O’Shaughnessy, Mark. “Billy Gayles.” Juke Blues no. 29 (Summer 1993): 24–25.
-Penny, Dave: “Jackie Brenston – The Mistreater.” Rev-Ola Bandstand – CR Band 25, UK, 2007.
-Jackie Brenston article at Mount Zion Memorial Fund.
Writer Roger Wood has called the Duke/Peacock labels “the largest and most influential African American-owned-and-operated record conglomerate in the world during the 1950s and early 1960s.” Houston businessman and nightclub owner Don Robey had become the personal manager of Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown in 1947 and felt that Brown’s label, Aladdin Records, hadn’t been promoting the guitarist’s recordings. Convinced he could do a better job himself, Robey founded Peacock Records (named after the Bronze Peacock, his nightclub in the heart of Houston’s Fifth Ward) in 1949. In addition to Brown, other big names on the label included Big Mama Thornton who’s “Hound Dog” was a hit for Peacock in 1953, Floyd Dixon, Memphis Slim, Little Richard, Big Walter Price, Jimmy McCracklin and Johnny Otis. In 1952, Robey gained control of the Duke Records label of Memphis. Of course, there was a slew of exceptional lesser known artists featured today including artists like Edgar Blanchard, Dr. Hepcat, Lloyd “The Fat Man” Smith, Billy Wright, Sonny Parker, Iona Wade, Paul Monday, Elmore Nixon and others. Today’s two-part spotlight focuses on the great blues recordings by the label.
Taking an interest in music, 
Let’s start our survey of some of the singers with several I first heard on that Savoy LP. Eddie Mack and Carl Davis were part of the Brooklyn blues scene in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Mack fronted various groups by Cootie Williams & His Orchestra (he replaced Eddie Vinson), Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra and others. He cut some two-dozen sides between 1947-1952. Mickey Baker appears on Mack’s final four sides for the Savoy label which are among his best. Chicago Carl Davis cut ten sides between 1949 and 1953 for Savoy, Regent and a couple other New York labels. He performed as Reverend Carl Davis who’s act included preacher’s robes, a sawed off stovepipe hat, large rim glasses (without lens) and a fat telephone book he used to beat on as though it were a Bible. His brother was famous tenor man Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis who played on his Savoy sides.
T.N.T. Tribble was a drummer and singer who cut some fine jumping sides for Victor in 1951, for Gotham 1952-1954, with later sessions for 20th Century in 1955, for Chart in 1957 and East-West in 1958. He was a featured vocalist with Frank Motley’s band 1951-1952. Back in the 80’s the Krazy Kat label issued two volumes of his sides and the Flyright label issued a collection of his sides and Frank Motley’s titled The Best Of Washington D.C. R ‘n B.
