Jimmy Witter And The Shadows - What Are Little Girls Made Of

I've had this 45 sitting in my "i'll get ti it soon" box but i had it in the soul pile. Since it's on Neptune Records and all my other records on Neptune are soul (Baby Washington comes to mind) i assumed incorrectly. This is a nice little rockabilly Elvis wanna be cut from 1960. Enjoy.

Jimmy Witter And The Shadows - What Are Little Girls Made Of

Joe Clay - Duck Tails / Sixteen Chicks

Rockabilly from 1956 from Joe Clay on the Vik label.

Joe Clay (b. Claiborne Joseph Cheramie, 1939) is an American rockabilly musician from Gretna, Louisiana.
Clay first began performing at age 12 in a country band, who were offered a spot performing on local radio station WWEZ. RCA subsidiary Vik Records signed him a few years later, while he was still in his teens; he recorded in New York with guitarists Mickey Baker and Skeeter Best, bassist Leonard Gaskin, and drummers Bobby Donaldson and Joe Marshall. In 1956, he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, a few months before Elvis Presley played there, and played a cover of The Platters' hit "Only You". Clay would later play guitar on some of Elvis's recordings, but his manager would not let him tour outside the New Orleans area, and he never scored a hit.
After being dropped from RCA, he continued performing in New Orleans for over 30 years. In the 1980s, the rockabilly revival in Europe resulted in renewed interest in Clay; he then toured England in 1986.
Further info about Joe Clay is from source LP 'Ducktail' in 1986; Bear Family Records BFX 15224 (made in West Germany).
Drove a school bus for 15 yrs. in the New Orleans area (reported on the back LP cover in 1986 from Bear Records)
LP back cover "During 1955 his local reputation enabled him to play the prestigious Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport where he shared billing with the newly emerging Elvis Presley." It also mentions he even filled in as a drummer for Elvis when he played Pontchartrain Amusement Park in New Orleans and D.J. Fontana could not make the gig.
Joe Clay's parents encouraged an early interest in country music and at the age of 12, he was already a competent drummer, later also learning rhythm guitar & electric bass.
The LP "Ducktail" back cover article was written by Ian Wallis, June 1986.
In 2008, Joe Clay appeared in an award-winning Canadian documentary entitled Rockabilly 514 directed by Patricia Chica and Mike Wafer. He speaks about his early beginnings as a rockabilly musician in the 1950s and his fascination for the new generation of rockabilly kids. He's also seen performing live his single Sixteen Chicks among an enthusiastic crowd of young rockabilly fans.

Joe Clay - Duck Tails

Joe Clay - Sixteen Chicks

The Videos - Trickle Trickle

I've been digging for this record for a while now to tell a little story that goes along with it.

This here record was one of Old Man Mike's favorite records. He told me a story about it once that i will now tell to you.

See he grew up in North Jersey and used to go to this little soda shop joint after school with his pals. I guess they'd buy burgers and what not but they would always play the juke box. I guess it must have been right around when this 45 was released in 1958 that a copy made its way in to the soda shop and Mike would play this 45 over and over and over again day after day for weeks until one day he walked in and went over the the juke box to play his favorite record and to his shock and dismay the record was no longer in the juke box.
slightly agitated at the missing 45 he walked over and asked the owner "what happened to my favorite record?" The owner then reached under the counter handed a then young Old Man Mike that very same 45 from the juke box and then said "Here its yours! Go play this at home!"

The old man still had that very same record in his collection some 50 years later...

This one has seen some wear. Good records most time do as they are played and played again. This isn't the same 45 as spoke about above but Mike did sell this too me and he gave me the story for free.

Thanks Mike! RIP Old pal...

The Videos - Trickle Trickle