New eBay Listings

I've been away from eBay for a few months but have recently found a little time...and a few rhythm & blues 78s...to start listing again.

If you feel inclined to take a look, please click on the eBay link in the header above to see what's been listed.

Johnny Otis Quintette (Vocals by The Robins & Little Esther) - Savoy 731 (1950)

From Wikipedia...

Double Crossing Blues is a 1950 collaborative song by Johnny Otis Quintette, The Robins (which would later become the basis of The Coasters), and Little Esther. The single went to number one on the R&B chart. The single was the debut single for Esther Phillips, who at the time of "Double Crossing Blues" release was fourteen years old, becoming the youngest female singer to have a number-one single on the R&B chart.

Valentine's Day Gifts

My wife just surprised me for Valentine's with a couple of pretty neat gifts!

Jimmy Ricks - Baton 236 (1957)

I grew up on the beach hearing Jimmy Ricks and the Ravens singing the 1955 recording of Green Eyes each and every summer that came and went. It was...and is...a staple for the shagging Beach Music crowd around the Carolinas decades after its release. (Still looking for a 78 of this great tune)

Here we have a solo effort by the great Bassman from 1957.



Fats Domino - Imperial 5058 (1949)

I was sitting here at the computer with The Grammys on the television but not really watching as my interest in 'new' music died sometime in the early 90s...and even then it was on life support. I happened to glance up at the screen to see an elderly gentleman playing the trumpet...it was a clip of Dave Bartholomew showing where he had just received this year's Grammy Trustees Award.

This man was instrumental (<--no pun intended) in the emergence of Crescent City Rhythm & Blues. He opened the door for many New Orleans' artists but none as great...in my opinion...as Antoine Fats Domino.

I recently found this 78 of Detroit City Blues / The Fat Man on Imperial 5058 from 1949 at a local record store in a box tucked away under some LP shelving. It took several visits but I finally became the owner.

To honor Dave Bartholomew for his Grammy award tonight...here is Fats Domino's first release under his own name performing 2 songs written by Fats and Mr. Bartholomew.

Fats Domino p, v / Dave Bartholomew t / Joe Harris as / Herb Hardesty, Clarence Hall ts / Alvin 'Red' Tyler bar / Ernest McLean g / Frank Fields sb / Earl Palmer d.

Recorded in New Orleans on December 10, 1949.


Deryck Sampson - 12-inch Beacon 2 (1943)

Almost 20 years ago while living in SoCal...I frequented a record shop in the antique district of downtown Pomona. Although the owner specialized in the usual rock & roll LP & 45 fare, he did have 78s and 10" jazz LPs.

One visit found me with a dilemma. He had just been given boxes and boxes (about 100) of 12" classical sets. A recently widowed lady had dropped her husband's collection off even though the shop owner said he didn't want them. I walked in and saw the collection of almost untouched wax and walked out with my trunk bottoming out going over the smallest bumps in the road.

I couldn't bear the thought of these records headed for the dumpster even though I didn't care for this music nor did I have room for them as I was preparing for a cross country move within the year.

I packed them up and they followed me through several moves since and finally, after almost 20 years, opened them to see what I had...plenty of Beethoven, Mozart and all those other long haired composers...and tucked in one of the sleeves of a partial set...a 17 year old Deryck Sampson soloing on a couple of 1943 boogie woogie pieces. I haven't been able to find out much about him other than he was born in 1926 (and that site didn't know if he was still living or not).

A 1943 Billboard magazine had a blurb about a virtually unknown 17 year old lad playing some inspired boogie woogie. Another tidbit of information came from the biography of the 1940s blues singer Billie Hayes. It said that the interest sparked by the recent re-release of her work was due more to her accompanist, the "brilliant pianist Deryck Sampson."