Wine: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

Wine is a theme that is rich with possibilities. I hope it will allow us to make a strong comeback from our last theme. This one differs from our old Drinking Songs theme in two important ways. First, we are limited here to Wine. I thought of opening with something by Tom Waits, but his drinkers go for the hard stuff. Beer is also right out. But the second difference should open things up quite a bit. Yes, wine can get you drunk, but many songs about it describe a gentle glow, rather than a full-on drunken stupor, so I hope we will see some examples of that as we go along. I am afraid, however, that that is not the case here. I went with the first song that came to mind, and it is definitely a drinking song.

I was prepared to keep looking. I knew that Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee became one of Jerry Lee Lewis’ signature tunes, and I wasn’t looking to feature him. But it turns out that he wasn’t the original artist or writer. In fact, the song had been around for twelve years and numerous other covers before Lewis recorded his version in 1959. Let’s have a look.

Sticks McGhee: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

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Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee was written by Sticks McGhee, who first recorded a solo acoustic version in 1947 that went nowhere. But two years later he signed with Atlantic and recorded a new version, heard here, that became Atlantic’s first hit. McGhee is one of several artists in this post who could have been featured in our Forgotten theme. He was the brother of the great bluesman Brownie McGhee, and Sticks had several other hits on the R&B charts before the era of rock and roll dawned. That he is not better known probably has everything to do with him arriving on the scene too early.

Lionel Hampton with Sonny Parker: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

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Lionel Hampton certainly has not been forgotten, but the great singer heard here, Sonny Parker, has been. In his case, it had everything to do with the shortness of his career. Parker was just establishing himself in 1949 when he recorded this hit with Hampton. His career would only last until 1957, when he died of a brain hemorrhage. Based on this evidence, I for one would like to know more.

Wynonie Harris: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

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As I said earlier, Sticks McGhee’s hit version of Spo-Dee-o-Dee came out in 1949. It was the custom of record companies in those days to rush to record and release new covers of current hits. So it was still 1949 when Wynonie Harris had his own hit version. McGhee gave us an acoustic blues-based treatment, Hampton jazzed it up, and now Harris gave the song a full blown R&B treatment. What else was there to do with it?

Loy Gordon and His Pleasant Valley Boys: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

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Actually, I’m glad you asked. How about a western swing version? This one is also from 1949, and technically the musical genre here is something called bopping hillbilly music, but it sounds to me like a very close cousin to western swing. Loy Gordon and His Pleasant Valley Boys are a truly forgotten act. I could find nothing about them except for this song, but it’s a good one. If anyone has more information about them, please add it in the comments.

Jerry Lee Lewis: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

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And so it went for the next ten years. Every year, a new artist or three released their version of Spo-Dee-o-Dee, with varying degrees of commercial and artistic success. I invite the reader to seek out for themselves some fine rockabilly versions from this time. But gradually, it became more difficult to add anything new to the conversation. There are many versions that simple rehash what previous artists had done. So Jerry Lee Lewis in 1959 deserves a lot of credit for his version. He took the song and made it one of his piano-based rockers that couldn’t possibly be anyone else.

Larry Dale: Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-o-Dee

I couldn’t resist closing with one more. Larry Dale’s version is so forgotten, I couldn’t even find a purchase link. But that is a shame, because this one really cooks. Even after Jerry Lee Lewis had claimed the song as his own, Dale could still find life in it. That is a process that continues to this day, as the song has become a rock standard. I’ll drink to that.

The Naughty Bits: Keep on Churnin'

Wynonie Harris: Keep on Churnin' ('Til the Butter Comes)

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Wynonie Harris recorded what many consider to be the first rock and roll record, “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” His true calling card was a string of raunchy, but highly successful post-World War II "race records." Accusing Harris of engaging in double entendre may be generous -- often, that second entendre was barely there. The lyrics from “Keep on Churning (‘Til the Butter Comes),” a hit from 1952, are typical Harris fare: "Take the sheep, leave them be, bring the finest brown cow straight to me...Keep on pumping, make the butter flow, wipe off the batter and churn some more."

Born in 1915 to an African American mother and native American Indian father in Omaha, Nebraska, Harris was both intelligent and flamboyant. He already had established a reputation as a singer and dancer when he enrolled as a pre-med student at Omaha's prestigious Creighton University. He soon abandoned his studies to pursue a career as a singer. Working his way up from Omaha to Kansas City and eventually Los Angeles, by 1944, Harris had replaced Sister Rosetta Tharpe as lead singer in Lucky Millinder’s orchestra. The group scored a hit with “Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well?” Soon after that, Harris struck out on his own. He signed with King Records and built a huge following based on his wild records -- including “Sitting on It All the Time,” “I Like My Baby’s Pudding” and “Loving Machine” -- and even wilder stage shows. Legend has it that Elvis Presley saw Harris on stage, and soon Harris's gyrations and gestures were part of the Pelvis's act.

Ironically, rock and roll's mainstream acceptance spelled the end for the kind of raw music Harris specialized in. As Elvis struck it big with his own version "Good Rockin' Tonight," Harris's career faded. A 1960s comeback attempt failed, and Harris -- who had a reputation for spending money even more quickly than he earned it -- died broke in 1969, at the age of 53.

Horns: Blues Edition

In the 1930s, at the height of the big band era, there were (especially black) bands that featured blues singers. This meeting of blues and swing was called “rhythm and blues”, and billboard’s first R&B charts were for this music. Later this style became known as “jump blues”.

During and after World War II, two things happened that changed the sound of the blues: one, there was a mass migration of workers to the industrialized northern states, which resulted in acoustic blues players from the south plugging in and creating electric blues; and two, wartime shortages made it prohibitively expensive for large swing bands to tour, and the bands responded by shrinking. Over time, the electric blues and jump blues styles collided, and there began to be bands with drums, electric bass, maybe piano, electric guitar, and two or three horns. At this point you get what we think of today as R&B, and along the way you also get some great blues.

Wynonie Harris: Bloodshot Eyes

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Wynonie Harris began his career as one of those big band singers, but found his greatest success after the war as a jump blues singer. “Bloodshot Eyes” was not one of his biggest hits, but it has endured. The song has been covered by everyone from Asleep at the Wheel to Pat Benetar.

Willie Mabon: Seventh Son

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Willie Mabon migrated from Memphis to Chicago during the war. There he met Willie Dixon, who wrote “Seventh Son” for him. This is a boasting song, which is thematically related to the better known “Hochie Coochie Man.”

Roomful Of Blues: Walkin' Slow Behind You

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Roomful of Blues are a band that sought to bring back the jump blues style long before the recent wave of neo-swing bands. (I don’t mean to knock the neo-swing bands. Look for a post on these bands from me later.) Roomful of Blues did their best work with their original lineup, including guitarist Duke Robilard; his solo work is also well worth seeking out.

B B King: Caldonia

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Finally, no presentation of horns in blues would be complete without B B King. “Caldonia” is a classic jump blues tune that many people had recorded before, but B B King changed the balance of horns and guitar, and defined the sound of horns in blues for those who have come after him.