All That Jazz: Hubbin’ It

Asleep at the Wheel with Huey Lewis: Hubbin‘ It

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I couldn’t let this week’s theme go by without sharing some western swing with y’all. And I can’t think of a better way to do that than to feature Asleep at the Wheel paying tribute to Bob Wills. Huey Lewis, (Really? That Huey Lewis? Really!) is just a bonus.

Western swing is a hybrid of country music and big band swing. It arose in the 1930s and 40s. Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies are the pioneers of the style, but Bob Wills was the man who popularized it. Western swing was almost a fad and nothing more. By the 1950s, a song or two might show up in the repertoire of a Texas country artist, but nobody played it full time. I first heard of the style growing up. My father grew up in Oklahoma, and he would fondly reminisce at times about hearing Brown, Wills, and the Light Crust Dough Boys on the radio during his childhood. Then, in the 1970s, Asleep at the Wheel emerged. They were a band that was committed to reviving western swing, and they succeeded to the extent possible. The style is still not massively popular, but new bands have emerged, and country artists such as George Strait have had hits with western swing songs.

Hubbin’ It was written by Cindy Walker, and was a standard for Bob Wills and his band. Huey Lewis used to play the song with his band Clover before he became famous. In Clover, someone else sang the song, so this is the only recording of Huey Lewis singing it.

Cars: Maybellene

Chuck Berry: Maybellene

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Is there a better car song than Maybellene? Chuck's crunchy chords keep cadence as he sings about his V8 Ford motivatin' over the hill towards Maybellene's Coup de Ville. No matter how many times I listen, I find myself rooting for the V8, as if I'm not quite sure of the ending - Berry sucks me in every time.

Alan Freed used to regularly stage shows at the Brooklyn Paramount, almost all of Rock's early pioneers played there. This was recorded for Alan Freed's Rock And Roll Dance Party Vol. 1 and my mom was part the audience when this song was recorded, I'd like to think somehow the notes reverberate through my DNA.

Maybellene is a permeation from another song, a traditional American fiddle tune called Ida Red that dates back to the 19th century. In 1938, Bob Wills recorded a modernized version.

Berry's piano player, Johnnie Johnson, claims that the both of them rewrote it on the order of Leonard Chess, the head of their label:

"It was an old fiddle tune called 'Ida Red.' I changed the music and re-arranged it, Chuck re-wrote the words, and the rest, as they say, was history. Leonard Chess asked me to come up to record it live. At that time, someone else already had a song out by the same name, so we had to change our version. We noticed a mascara box in the corner, so we changed the name to 'Maybellene.'"

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: Ida Red

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