Hugh Downs - An Evening with Hugh Downs (1959)

"Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" by Hugh Downs

With a new Tonight show host, came a new Tonight show announcer: so with Jack Paar, came Hugh Downs. Hugh Downs was not Tonight's first announcer, but he was the first announcer who released an LP: An Evening with Hugh Downs in 1959 on Epic Records.

Hugh Downs, every six months on Tonight, broke out his guitar to show off his hidden talent as a folksinger. Actual folksinger Burl Ives witnessed one of these performances and was impressed enough to quip that Downs "deserved to wear a beard" like a proper folkie. Hugh Downs wouldn't go that far for folk music, but such praise meant that he could not not cut a record as a result.

But it's one thing to play a song or two every six months and another to string twelve into a sequence. Downs, thus, expands his catalogue of genres from folk to add a spiritual, hymn, cowboy ballad, work and war songs and a sea shanty (a favorite: the short and funny "The Delaware Light.") Due to Downs's limited range and serious style, the tracks all would have sounded like one meandering 30 minute song without the arrangements of Mundell Lowe. Lowe's touches are spare, almost medieval, and focuses Hugh's singing (Hugh Sings!) and the guitar (though I doubt he's the one playing on the record as he is on the cover.) The record is a pleasant surprise: the kind of surprise a hobbyist enjoys enticing when they play for friends at a party or...on a television show to fill time. Surprising, that is, but not memorable enough for the audience to give it much thought in the sixth months between performances.

Note: This is another album that hasn't been digitized but for a couple songs crate diggers have put on the internet.

Here is the discography surrounding Hugh Downs's debut album:

An Evening with Hugh Downs

"The Ride Back from Boot Hill" by Hugh Downs

Jack Paar Walks Off Tonight

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Jack Kerouac - Poetry for the Beat Generation (1959)

"October in the Railroad Earth" by Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen

Columbia University dropout Jack Kerouac was also there in the friendships that made up the Beat Generation. Despite the movement's diversity of style, experimentation and subject matter, Kerouac's auto-fictional book On the Road, with its jazz-inspired language and improvisatory writing style, became a testament to and textbook for the fifties subcultural and defined the Beats in the public imagination for generations. Accompanied by Steve Allen on the piano, Kerouac released Poetry for the Beat Generation in 1959 on Hanover Records.

Here is the discography surrounding Jack Kerouac's debut album:

Poetry for the Beat Generation

Jack Kerouac on The Steve Allen Show

"Charlie Parker" by Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen

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Allen Ginsberg - Howl and Other Poems (1959)

"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg

Lawrence Ferlinghetti moved to San Francisco in the early fifties and opened the City Lights bookstore. City Lights would also be the name of his publishing house founded a few years later. Ferlinghetti was arrested—then acquitted—for publishing Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem Howl. A recording of Ginsberg's poetry readings Howl and Other Poems was released by Fantasy Records in 1959.

Here is the discography surrounding Allen Ginsberg's debut album:

Howl and Other Poems

"A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg

"Kaddish" by Allen Ginsberg

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Billy Grammer - Travelin' On (1959)

"Barrel House Bessie" by Billy Grammer

Roy Clark and Jimmy Dean never shared a cross word with each other but that didn't stop Jimmy Dean from firing Clark after one too many tardies.  Clark's replacement was singer and guitarist Billy Grammer.  Grammer released his debut album Travelin' On in 1959 on Monument Records.

Here is the discography surrounding Billy Grammer's debut album:

Jealous Heart (1948 single as Bill Grammer's Shenandoah Valley Boys)

When You Know (1950 single as Bill Grammer and His Virginia Playboys)

Gotta Travel On (1958 single)

Bonaparte's Retreat (1959 single)

Billy Grammer Hits (1959 EP)

Travelin' On

Willy, Quit Your Playing (1959 single)

Loveland (1960 single)

Grammer's Guitar (1960 EP)

Unknown Soldier (1960 single)

Big, Big Dream (1960 single)

"Gotta Travel On" and "I'm Letting You Go, Goodbye" by Billy Grammer on The Jimmy Dean Show

"Bonaparte's Retreat" by Billy Grammer

Grammer's Guitar by Billy Grammer

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James Brown and The Famous Flames - Try Me! (1959)

"Try Me" by James Brown and The Famous Flames

The T.A.M.I Show's end is nigh and it climaxes with James Brown and The Famous Flames giving a performance that doesn't disappoint (an understatement).  James Brown and The Famous Flames released their second album Try Me! in 1959 on King Records.

Here is the discography surrounding James Brown and The Famous Flames's second album:

I Want You So Bad (1959 single)

I've Got to Change (1959 single)

Got to Cry (1959 single)

Doodle Bee (1959 single as James Davis)

Try Me!

James Brown and The Famous Flames Live on the T.A.M.I. Show

"I Won't Plead No More" by James Brown and The Famous Flames

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Chuck Berry - Berry Is on Top (1959)

"Beautiful Delilah" by Chuck Berry

The T.A.M.I. Show is a landmark in the history of concert films.  A first of its kind, the film showcased some of the hottest acts of the day, those who would become the future of rock and roll, and some legendary acts giving legendary performances.  Gerry and The Pacemakers's inclusion in the show was not so much curious as it was an obvious stand-in for the unavailable Beatles.  The resident Liverpudlians didn't open the show, that right deservedly went to Chuck Berry, but the second song, "Maybellene", that Berry started was finished by The Pacemakers.  In a setlist's attempt to explain the cross-Atlantic trajectory of Rock and Roll that was now coming back to the States, the two artists would continue to take turns with the Beat boys benefiting and Chuck Berry being denied the more prominent and sustained spotlight he deserved.

In a first for this blog, this is Chuck Berry's third whistle stop!!  He released his third album Berry Is on Top in 1959 on Chess Records.

Here is the discography surrounding Chuck Berry's third album:

Johnny B. Goode (1958 single)

Beautiful Delilah (1958 single)

Carol (1958 single)

Sweet Little Rock and Roller (1958 single)

Pickin' Berries (1958 EP)

Merry Christmas Baby (1958 single)

Sweet Little 'Rock and Roller' (1959 EP)

Anthony Boy (1959 single)

Almost Grown (1959 single)

Back in the U.S.A. (1959 single)

Berry Is on Top

Chuck Berry clips from The T.A.M.I. Show

"Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry

"Little Queenie" by Chuck Berry

"Run Rudolph Run" by Chuck Berry

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Ronnie Hawkins - Ronnie Hawkins (1959)

"Mary Lou" by Ronnie Hawkins


Dale Hawkins's brother was also a rockabilly roller.  Ronnie Hawkins, occasionally credited with his backing band The Hawks (more on them in the distant Tour future), released his debut album Ronnie Hawkins in 1959 on Roulette Records.

Here is the discography surrounding Ronnie Hawkins's debut album:

Summertime (1958 single)
Hey! Bo Diddley (1958 single)
Forty Days (1959 single with The Hawks)
Mary Lou (1959 single with The Hawks)
Ronnie Hawkins

"Forty Days" by Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks

(Note: The drummer has a bright future.)

"Mister and Mississippi" by Ronnie Hawkins


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The Moonglows - Look! It's The Moonglows (1959)

"Sincerely" by The Moonglows


When Etta James's contract with Modern Records ran up, she signed with the Chicago-based Chess Records.  Part of her decision to switch labels likely came due to her relationship at the time with Harvey Fuqua of The Moonglows, a successful Chess doo-wop group and bridge to early rock and roll.

Here is the discography surrounding The Moonglows's debut album:

I Just Can't Tell You No Lie (1952 single)
Baby Please (1953 single)
Just a Lonely Christmas (1953 single)
Secret Love (1954 single)
I Was Wrong (1954 single)
My Gal (1954 single)
Sincerely (1954 single)
So All Alone (1954 single as Bobby Lester and The Moonlighters)
Hug and a Kiss (1954 single as Bobby Lester and The Moonlighters)
Most of All (1955 single)
Starlite (1955 single)
In My Diary (1955 single)
We Go Together (1956 single)
See Saw (1956 single)
Over and Over Again (1957 single)
I'm Afraid the Masquerade Is Over (1957 single)
Please Send Me Someone to Love (1957 single)
The Beating of My Heart (1957 single)
Too Late (1958 single)
In the Middle of the Night (1958 single)
This Love (1958 single)
Ten Commandments of Love (1958 single as Harvey and The Moonglows)
I Want Somebody (1959 single by Harvey)
I Hope You're Satisfied (1959 single by Betty & Dupree)
Love Is a River (1959 single)
Look! It's The Moonglows (1959 EP)
Look! It's The Moonglows (1959 EP)
Look! It's The Moonglows
Twelve Months of the Year (1959 single by Harvey)
Mama Loocie (1959 single as Harvey and the Moonglows)
Blue Skies (1959 single by Harvey)
If I Can't Have You (1960 single by Etta & Harvey)
Beatnick (1960 single)
Spoonful (1960 single by Etta & Harvey)
Blue Velvet (1962 single)
The Best of Bobby Lester and The Moonglows (1962 compilation album)
Been a Long Time (1962 single by The Five Quails)
What Can You Do Now (1962 single by Harvey and Ann)
She Loves Me So (1962 single by Harvey)
She Loves Me So (1962 single by Harvey)
Memories of You (1963 single by Harvey)

"Over and Over Again" by The Moonglows


"Ten Commandments of Love" by The Moonglows


"If I Can't Have You" by Etta & Harvey


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The Teddy Bears - The Teddy Bears Sing! (1959)

"Seven Lonely Days" by The Teddy Bears


Phil Spector might just be famous as only a producer, but out of high school, he performed in his own band The Teddy Bears.  The Teddy Bears and Spector broke out with an out-of-nowhere #1 hit single "To Know Him, Is to Love Him" in 1958.  The recording featured Spector (guitar, backup vocals), Marshall Lieb (backup vocals), Harvey Goldstein (who would soon leave the band), and Sandy Nelson (drums) performing behind the lead vocals of Annette Kleinbard.  The band released a couple more singles and an album, but they ended up being just a one-hit wonder and broke up by the end of 1959.

Here is the discography surrounding The Teddy Bears's debut album:

To Know Him, Is To Love Him (1958 single)
Oh Why (1959 single)
The Teddy Bears Sing!
Don't Go Away (1959 single)
If You Only Knew (The Love I Have for You) (1959 single)
Wonderful, Loveable You (1959 single)
Greatest Hits (2013 compilation album)

"To Know Him, Is to Love Him" by The Teddy Bears


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Cliff Richard and The Drifters - Cliff (1959)

"Apron Strings" by Cliff Richard and The Drifters


Harry Webb joined as lead singer of The Drifters (originally a skiffle group turned rock and roll) in the late fifties, but despite his Presley-like performance and look, his name wasn't rock and roll enough.  They dubbed him Cliff to imply "rock" and gave him the surname Richard, named for his favorite rock and roll artist.  The other Drifters consisted of Ian Samwell (guitar), Terry Smart (drums), and Norman Mitham (guitar).  None of these members, however, would last long in the band as they would be replaced by a professional touring group consisting of Jet Harris (bass), Bruce Welch (rhythm guitar), Hank Marvin (lead guitar), and Tony Meehan (drums).

The first record was a break out hit for Cliff Richard as "Move It" soared to number two on the UK charts, brought Richard and his band to instant stardom, and is often considered Britain's first real rock and roll record.  The need to follow up the success led to a series of followup singles (all charting well), film appearances, and Cliff Richard and The Drifters's debut album Cliff in early 1959.  The album was a live performance album performed in front of maybe 300 fans at Abbey Road Studios and featured a couple of B-Sides but mostly Presleyan covers of songs from the great American rock and roll song book from Little Richard's "Ready Teddy", Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day", and Ritchie Valens's "Donna".  The album hit #4 to continue Cliff's success.  Although backing bands took to the shadows as nothing but the support of a charismatic lead singer, The Drifters started early to establish themselves as legitimate songwriters and musicians in their own right by releasing two singles without Richard.  Both singles charted well.  With both entities successful in the UK, they began the turn away of Britain's fascination with skiffle music towards a native rock and roll.

Here is the discography surrounding Cliff Richard and The Drifters's debut album:

Teenage Love (1958 by The Chesternuts)
Move It (1958 single)
High Class Baby (1958 single)
Livin' Lovin' Doll (1959 single)
Serious Charge (1959 EP)
Mean Streak (1959 single)
Feelin' Fine (1959 single by The Drifters)
Cliff
Cliff No. 1 (1959 EP)
Cliff No. 2 (1959 EP)
Living Doll (1959 single)
Jet Black (1959 single by The Drifters)

"Move It" by Cliff Richard and The Drifters


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Willie Dixon - Willie's Blues (1959)

"Walking the Blues" by Willie Dixon


Willie Dixon signed as a recording artist to Chess Records while he still played with Big Three Trio in 1951, so when the band broke up he wasn't out of a job.  That said, he didn't record much under his own name with Chess.  He had a couple singles in the late fifties, but he was much more renown for his work as producer, talent scout, session bassist, and songwriter.  He would eventually record his debut album for Prestige and release Willie's Blues in 1959.  Although it is considered his first solo album, a prominent role (and place on the cover) was given to pianist Memphis Slim.  The two would continue to play together for years to come as Dixon started performing his own songs more often.

Here is the discography surrounding Willie Dixon's debut album:

Walking the Blues (1955 single)
Crazy for My Baby (1956 single)
29 Ways (1957 single)
Willie's Blues
Nervous (1960 single)

"Nervous" by Willie Dixon


"Weak Brain, Narrow Mind" by Willie Dixon


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Babatunde Olatunji - Drums of Passion (1959)

"Jin-Go-Lo-Ba (Drums of Passion)" by Babatunde Olatunji


When Sophie B. Hawkins started studying African percussion, she had quite the teacher, Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji.  Baba came to the United States to study in 1950 under the Rotary International Foundation scholarship.  He attended Morehouse then NYU.  In order to support himself and keep from feeling homesick, he formed an African drumming group.  He won a following amongst New York's jazz circles and eventually won himself a recording contract with Columbia Records, signed by John Hammond.

Here is the discography surrounding Babatunde Olatunji's debut album:

Drums of Passion

"Akiwowo (Chant to the Trainman)" by Babatunde Olatunji


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