I'm Back with more Patty McCoy

Sorry I've been away from the blog for some time, busy with other things, but I'm back!

Patty McCoy and the Renegades were from St. Louis and had a couple of songs on the Counsel label. This song came out in the spring of 1963 and has a Phil Spector flavor.



Hope you enjoy the tune.

The St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniverary Baseball Card set pt 6

Here's the final pages from the McDonalds St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniversary set from 1992.

These are pages 6 and 7.

Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Harry Brecheen, Howard Pollet, John Tudor, Bob Forsch, Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith, Todd Worrel

Al Hraboski, Checklist

Bob Gibson is the best Redbird pitcher I've ever seen. Bob Forsch pitched not one, but two no-hitters for the Redbirds. Forsch along with his brother Ken, are the only brother act to have both pitched no-hitters; Ken was with the Astros. "The White Rat" Whitey Herzog is one of the best managers I can remember. Then we have the Four Firemen, and of course the obligatory checklist.

Hope you've enjoyed the cards. This was a fun set to collect; but I ate a lot of Micky D's stuff during the time the set was available.

The St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniverary Baseball Card set pt 5

Here are the next nine cards from the McDonalds St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniversary set from 1992.

Tommy Herr, Ozzie Smith, Joe Torre, Terry Pendleton, Ken Reitz, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee, Bake McBride, George Hendrick

"The Wizord," Ozzie Smith is perhaps the greatest Cardinal of the last part of the 20th Century.

The St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniverary Baseball Card set pt 4

This is the forth page from the McDonalds 1992 St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniversary card set.

On this page are some of the greatest Cardinals that I remember having the privilege of seeing on the field:

Dick Groat, Ken Boyer, Lou Brock, Mike Shannon, Curt Flood, Joe Cunningham, Reggie Smith, Ted Simmons, Tim McCarver

I must point out that the greatest Cardinal third baseman that I have ever seen is in the middle of the top row. I know there are those who loved Scott Rolen; he was a great third baseman. But I believe Ken Boyer was the greatest Cardinal to play that position.

DooWop from St. Louis!

Got a goodie for you here. This is Patty McCoy & the Renegades from my own home town, St. Louis MO. This was released in 1962.



Hope you like it as much as I do. Enjoy.

The St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniverary Baseball Card set pt 3

Well it's still very cold here in St. Louis, so I thought I would do part 3 of the McDonalds tribute set of baseball cards for the 100th anniversary of the St. Louis Cardinals back in 1992.

And so here is the third set of cards. This page contains the following Redbirds:

Mart Cooper, Burleigh Grimes, Red Schoendienst, Stan "The Man" Musial, Enos Slaughter, Keith Hernandez, Bill White, Orlando Cepeda, Julian Javier

Finally we see some players I actually saw playing baseball for the Redbirds, starting with the greatest Cardinal of them all, Stan "The Man" Musial.

The St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniverary Baseball Card set pt 2

It's about 5 degrees here in St. Louis, a perfect time for more baseball.

Here is the second installment of the St. Louis area McDonalds restaurants 55 card commemerative set celebrating the St. Louis Cardinals 100th anniversary, 1892-1992.

Page two features:

Terry Moore, Chick Hafey, Pepper Martin,Bob O'Farrell, Walker Cooper, Dizzy DeanGrover Cleveland Alexander, Jesse Haines, Bill Hallahan

The St. Louis Cardinals 100th Anniverary Baseball Card set pt 1

In 1992, St. Louis area McDonalds restaurants issued a 55 card commemerative set celebrating the St. Louis Cardinals 100th anniversary, 1892-1992. Here are the first nine cards in the set.

This page features:

Jim Bottomly, Rip Collins, Johnny Mize, Rogers Hornsby, Miller Huggins,
Marty Marion, Frank Frisch, Whitey Kurowski, and Joe Medwick

More to come later.

One for All the Folks from St. Louis

My fellow St. Louisians, this is a song from a St. Louis radio legand, KXOK DJ, Nick Charles. I don't know the actual date of the record; but judging from it being on the Satelite label, that means it's an early Stax recording. Nick probably did this when he was in Memphis, before he landed on 630, KXOK.



Enjoy.

I Didn't Start the Fire Pt 2

So who else is to blame for my love of Old Rock & Roll, or even more so, my love of DooWop. I mean after all, I’m a lifelong resident of St. Louis MO, where DooWop was not always at the forefront of Pop music back in the 50’s and early 60’s. Oh sure The Five Satins singing “In the Still of the Night” and The Del Vikings “Come Go With Me” and “Whispering Bells” were part of the tunes of the day here in St. Louis. “I Only Have Eyes for You” from The Flamingos along with The Skyliners classic “Since I Don’t Have You” are favorite songs of a folks here in St. Louis.

But there’s an awful lot of outstanding DooWop music that I just don’t recall hearing on local radio stations back then. So who do I blame for my obsession with DooWop? Well, I’d point the finger to the before-mentioned Larry Miller; for it was on his show that I would first hear The Chandellears from Kansas City and the great “Blueberry Sweet,” and “Long Tall Girl” by The Carnations; that song didn’t get a lot of airplay around here. I’d also have to point a finger at a few people who I crossed paths with right here on the Internet. I’d like to single out three people who have since passed away; I wish I had gotten the opportunity to meet all three. I did meet one of them in person. Let me explain further.

First I’d like to mention a gentleman by the name of Ron Tuskan, or as we knew him back in the days of the old AOL DooWop Diner, "RTUSKAN." Ron sent me a tape of a CD that changed me forever. The disc is Mr. Maestro’s “Memory Lane.” To this day, it remains one of my favorite CD compilations of all time. The title track “Memory Lane” came from a group I knew as The Hippies on Parkway records in 1963. I learned it was actually recorded in 1959. It was reissued on Parkway and had moderate air play in ’63 here in St. Louis. A few other songs on this CD were known to me, including “A Casual Look” from the Six Teens, “W-P-L-J” by The 4 Deuces, and The Rainbows “Mary Lee.”

However, it was the rest of the tracks on this disc that totally blew me away and left me wanting more, More, MORE! I’ll mention just a few songs: “Dance, Dance, Dance” by Scott Stevens & the Cavaliers, Baby, I Love You So” from Joe Weaver and the Don Juans, “Pledge of a Fool” from The Barons, “Now that I Found You” by The Willows, “There Goes (a Pretty Girl)” by The Enchanters, “Kiss and Make Up” by the Crowns, a group I would later learn would become The Drifters, the early 60’s version, “Something Cool” from The Academincs, “Shirley” by John Fred & the Playboy Band, and yep that’s John Fred of “Judy In Disguise with Diamonds” fame, plus two songs that simply put me in orbit: The Students “That’s How I Feel” and “Rainy Day Bells” from The Globetrotters; a song shrouded in mystery even today. I’m still not sure which story to believe about it

Ron sending me that tape, plus others I got from various folks I met through the net, left me starving for more DooWop gems.

Then there was Marsha Grant, aka "MGDOOWOP." I did get the fortune to meet this East coast DooWop queen back in 1998 when she came to visit me here in St. Louis. Marsha was another person who put me on to many, many songs, too numerous to mention.

Finally, I proudly mention Jerry Skokandich aka "Tuneman." I deeply regret never having the pleasure of meeting Jerry in person; however, we corresponded a great deal in the late 90’s and up until his untimely death. Jerry led me to discover so many great DooWop tunes I’d never heard before. He also was mainly responsible for my increased admiration of those wonderful DooWop Ballads. We’d go round and round via E-mail about ballads vs. up-tempo DooWops. I recall Jerry telling me that he once preferred the more upbeat, familiar music, and then he too discovered those more obscure ballads, and even some great up-tempo sides as well. This guy knew his stuff and was more than generous when it came to passing the knowledge along. Jerry, I know you’d be proud of me; my list of most favorite DooWop tunes is now filled with those dreamy ballads; thanks in a great part to you my friend.

Jerry turned me on to those great Relic Record survey’s that were done back in the 1990’s. Through Jerry, and a couple of other Internet friends, I was even able to hear the broadcast of the last few shows they did. That was quite enlightening for my musical education. Recently Hometown AOL shut its doors; we lost a number of great web sites when this happened. But thanks to Big Jack at the DooWop Café, Jerry’s outstanding “Rhythm and Blues Highway” is once again available. He spent a great deal of time and effort putting this site together; and I’ve been assured that is has been recreated with Jerry’s wife’s permission and is now available at http://www.doowopcafe.net/; you can find the link to the R&B Highway on the left hand side of the page. Thank you Jack.

There are so many other people whom I’d love to mention or blame for putting me on the road to this great music. I’ll drop a few more names from time to time. So again, stick around and see if I drop your name.

I Didn't Start the Fire Pt 1

I could call this: "Who Can my Wife Blame For All of These Records, CD etc"

As I mentioned in the beginning of this thing, when I was a kid I listened to the radio more than anything else. The radio has been a mighty good friend of mine all my life. When Rock & Roll was still in the growing stage in the late 50’s, the radio stations played hits from Rock, Pop, Country, Folk, Early R&B, and Novelty records. So I got to hear it all. This type of formatting continued into the early 60’s when, at least in St. Louis, stations began to go in separate directions such asTop 40, Country, R&B, and Easy Listening. Then in 1964, things really changed with the British Invasion, the rise of Motown, the Folk music era, and other musical trends.

The funny thing for me was that by listening to The Beatles, The Beach Boys and other big artists of the mid 60’s, my desire to go back to the beginning of Rock & Roll and pick up on the sounds that I missed when this music was new, became more important. For instance, hearing The Beatles singing those Carl Perkins’ songs that I’d not heard back in the day of “Blue Suede Shoes,” would cause me to want to hear those songs performed by Perkins himself. The same was true with The Beatles covers of Larry Williams’ “Slow Down,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” and “Bad Boy,” along with Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love.” These songs and others, made me hungry for more of the lesser known early songs from the legends of Rock & Roll, and those artists and groups who were not as well known.

In the beginning of the decade of the 70’s, several events would change the way I looked at the Rock & Roll era for ever. KADI, An FM radio station here in St. Louis, hired a guy from New York City whose name was Larry Miller. Miller began to play those old 45’s from the 50’s and early 60’s during his program. After a few weeks, this show evolved into what would become the Sunday Night Oldies Show. Larry Miller played the songs I was longing to hear for years. He played those Carl Perkins songs I’d not heard along with Buddy Holly, Larry Williams, Little Richard, Elvis, and Dion & the Belmonts, to name a few. Miller also introduced the local audience to some vocal group music that had not hit the airwaves here in St. Louis back in the 50’s.

These lesser known songs really wet my whistle and I started to have a desire to acquire them. So began the great hunt for the old music. I’d rummage through the “cut outs” section in any store that had one. I would buy up LPs that had one or two songs I knew, and a bunch of others I did not recognize by their titles. I’d take these records home and play them. To my surprise and delight, I’d find that Larry Miller was playing a lot of these songs on his Sunday Night Oldies Show.

The desire to search the bargain bins in stores such as E.J. Korvette, Arlands, Viscount Records, and later Camelot Music and Peaches would stay with me to this day. If there was a rack of LPs for $2.00 or less, I’d thumb through them, hoping to strike gold.

So I guess Larry Miller is partially to blame for the state of “musical” mind that I am in today.

There are other people, both living and deceased, who I hold personally responsible for fueling the flames of my continuing hunger for great old Rock & Roll records. I will mention these people as I proceed with these pages. So stay tuned to this blog and see if your name shows up on list. You never know.

Well, here we go!

When I was a kid back in the late 1950’s here in St. Louis, I listened to a lot of radio; we had three stations playing Rock & Roll music back then on AM; KXOK, WIL, and KWK. That’s what I listened to.all the guys were playing Cowboys and Indians while I was diggin’ the tunes on the radio. The music was in my blood. From Carl Perkins to Fats Domino to Dion and the Belmonts to The Platters to Buddy Holly to The Everly Brothers to Elvis to Little Richard to The Chantels to The Shirelles and every other vocalist, group, or band that the radio played.

Like other kids back then, I collected Baseball cards, from ’58 to ’63 and then some. And like other kids I loved to play with those Lionel Trains we’d put up over the Christmas Holidays. As time went by, people who thought they were helping me grow up, told me to stop listening to that music, stop collecting those Baseball cards, and definitely stop playing with those Lionel Trains. Like so many others, I listened to them. Only later to learn I should have never given those things up.

It’s been over 50 years and while I don’t have those old Baseball cards, I still have some of our family Lionel Trains and I’ve managed to once again acquire that great music I listened to back then on the radio.

And that brings me to today; after 11 years surfing the net, I’ve found a way to let it all out; to tell everyone about those great songs from that great musical era that was the 50’s and 60’s. I’ve managed to compile a lot of information inside this old head of mine and it’s time to share it with the world.

Oh yes, on the way I’ll mention those great Baseball cards and let’s not forget those Lionel Trains too.
That’s what all of this is about; the music, the memories, the feeling of those wonderful care-free years.