Frazier wrote several other songs in the same vein in the mid-’60s while Charlie was recording for Smash. Here’s “She’s a Yum-Yum.”
This is Rich’s golden age. The Complete Smash Sessions CD is out of print in the US, but I see there’s an import version of this material called It Ain’t Gonna Be That Way – The Complete Smash Sessions that isn’t too expensive. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Here’s “Just a Little Bit of You.”
These songs are almost novelty songs, which is a genre I usually despise, but they’re redeemed by the great singing and the funky rhythm section.
Dallas Frazier was mostly a songwriter, but he also recorded some too. Here’s his own version of “Elvira,” later made famous by the Oak Ridge Boys.
I like the drums. There’s a nice two-fer of Frazier’s two albums Elvira/Tell It Like It Is on Raven. He’s not a great recording artist, but the songs are good.
He was identified as a country artist, but he could get really funky. Here’s his version of “Wearing That Loved on Look.”
I’d never heard of this guy, but I knew a few of these songs. I love that beat he lays into in just about every song you’ve posted. Did “Mohair Sam” or “She’s About a Mover” come first? Surely its an accent from some kind of American folk music I don’t know real well (like an exaggerated version of the accent driving Chuck Berry’s “Memphis”). Anyhow, it’s hard to write a turd based around that heavily accented beat.
Funny I’d never made the connection To She’s About a Mover till I was putting this together today. The beginning of Just a Little Bit of You is a dead ringer for its rhythm, down to the way the ride cymbal sounds. Both were from 1965, and they were recorded in different states so I don’t think there’s any influence one way or the other. And SDQ has the Tex Mex organ, while Rich has the New Orleans style piano — the piano licks that open She’s a Yum Yum and Mohair Sam are totally Professor Longhair/Dr. John — so they take that beat in different directions.
Excellent work Big Steve — my mom was a big Charlie Rich fan\ and those cuts brought back some warm memories. It’s also inspiration for me to dig deep and break out the old Brinsley Schwarz this weekend.
Some of that stuff was pretty cool but that Elvira song is:
a) horrible, and
b) a direct rip of Searchin’ by the Coasters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Q0FhNpfUc
Mission accomplished then. Listening to Brinsley Schwarz is never a bad thing.
Hey, BigSteve — this is awesome stuff, and you have my sincere thanks for posting it. The knowledge that there’s a Smash-era Charlie Rich comp out there is enough to make my day. Thanks again!
All this is getting me so pumped up for Ben Vaughn. Ya know what I mean.