If at first you don't succeed....

After a few get togethers at a friend’s house a few years ago I became well acquainted with a couple of mixtapes of his that got some deserved repeat plays. These cassettes had been given to our friend back in the Eighties by one of his friends. They contained, mostly, a mixture of jazz, jump blues, early r&b, rock&roll and doo wop. He was concerned that one day soon these cassettes would wear out so I copied them onto CD for him and also kept a copy for myself. Unfortunately these tapes had no accompanying tracklistings. At the time I attempted to identify some of tracks I was particularly taken with by putting some of the lyrics into Google. There was no chance of course with the jazz tracks, and I drew a blank on just about everything else too.

It had been long time no play for my CD copies of these tapes but a recent mini CD reorg had put them back in my mind, and last week they made it into the car where I have been enjoying them all over again. This prompted me, on one track in particular, to do some fresh Google searches – I figured the Internet is a constantly growing pool of information so if at first you don’t succeed it is always worth another try from time to time.   

Boom! This particular mystery track was identified straightaway this time around. It could be the first time I had tried identifying this track I had missed out an all important ‘h’ in the lyric/title? when constructing the search, but I thought I had tried it both ways. Or it could be that this track has recently been included on a compilation that has resulted in some fresh listings on the Internet. Certainly the YouTube entry I homed straight in on has only been posted in the last few months.

Whatever, the important thing is I know what the track is now, and in following this link I also put artists and titles to a few more of the previously unknown tracks on one of those old mixtapes. Must go and tell my friend now.

Every now and then I’m sure that, like me, you hear a record and think, well, that’s just perfect; anybody else making a similar record, or any record in that vein, is/was just wasting their time because this one has completely and utterly nailed it. This, I think, is one of those records. Shtiggy Boom!

This song was recorded by a number of artists in 1955 it seems. This Billboard advert implies that The Nuggets recorded it originally, but it’s difficult to be sure. The Nuggets version, at least, got a 45 release but I can’t find mention of Patti Anne’s version on anything but 78. I have no 78s in my collection and I don’t own a turntable capable of playing them. But I think I could easily find myself buying a copy of this and a player just to be able to play this one record, it is so good. (THIS JUST IN: but wait, I just found the Aladdin 45 discog at globaldog and it did get a 45 release: Aladdin 3280 – as a B side).  

My Googling also threw up this, another recent addition to the wonderful www, that gives some more background to the record and the lead singer Patti Anne.  

PS: Shirley & Lee’s “The Flirt” is also on the mixtape, and was also taken from the NME “Little Imp” cassette. Go check that out on YouTube too because it is also great.