The Styrous® Viewfinder: Gale Storm

Showing posts with label Gale Storm. Show all posts

July 5, 2022

Smiley Lewis & Dave Bartholomew ~ 109 years later

date & photographer unknown

Today is the birthday of New Orleans rhythm and blues singer and guitarist, Overton Amos Lemons, better known as Smiley Lewis, born on July 5, 1913, in DeQuincy, LA. He played clubs in the French Quarter there, often with pianist Tuts Washington (and was sometimes billed as "Smiling" Lewis).

Dave Bartholomew, grew up in the same neighborhood as Lewis and was then beginning a career as a producer with Imperial Records, this led to a recording session for the trio in March 1950, at which they recorded the song Tee Nah Nah. Lewis had his first national hit song with The Bells Are Ringing in 1952.

Lewis was the first to record Bartholomew's song Blue Monday, in 1954; the Fats Domino recording of the song was a hit two years later. In 1955 Lewis achieved his biggest sales with I Hear You Knocking, the first recording of the song (written by Bartholomew and Pearl King), with Huey "Piano" Smith on piano.

None of Lewis's Imperial singles sold more than 100,000 copies, but cover versions of his songs were commercially successful for other artists.

Dave Bartholomew Band

date & photographer unknown

The Elvis Presley cover of the Lewis song One Night (which altered one risque lyric) was number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on UK Singles Chart. I love this song with its klink-klink-klink piano beat that makes the song smoothly glide along, in spite of the bouncy rhythm, while Presley does what he does best.

Lewis's recording of I Hear You Knocking was released when U.S. radio was still mostly marketed to exclusively white or exclusively black listeners. A version of Knocking, his first solo hit, reached number one in the UK and number four in the United States; it was recorded by Dave Edmunds in 1970, in this version, Lewis is mentioned in the lyrics, along with Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Huey "Piano" Smith. The Gale Storm pop version of I Hear You Knocking reached the top five on the charts (link below).

Lewis's recording of Shame, Shame, Shame was used in the soundtrack of the film Baby Doll in 1956. The song failed to enter the R&B chart. It was covered by the Merseybeats for their EP On Stage in 1964 and Aerosmith included it on their blues album, Honkin' on Bobo, released in 2004. The song also provided the title of the fifth episode of the HBO television series Treme, which included a rewritten version of the song with lyrics critical of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

A short clip from I Hear You Knocking is included on the Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman novelty hit, The Flying Saucer (link below), in which, in an ironic nod to his original stage name, Lewis is referred to as "Laughing Lewis." Like everyone else whose music was appropriated for the record, Lewis was never paid.

In 1975, Sylvia Robinson wrote a song with the same title performed by Shirley & Company, however, it was noting like the Lewis song. It is disco at it's best with a fantastic sax played by Seldon Powell! It was at the beginning of the disco era, so, what more can be said about that?

Lewis was hospitalized in 1965 with a diagnosis of ulcer; surgery revealed that he had stomach cancer. Bartholomew organized a benefit for him at La Ray's on Dryades Street. On October 7, 1966, three days before the benefit, Lewis died, in the arms of his second wife, Dorothy Ester Lemons, whom he had married six months before.

Lewis was inducted into the Cleveland, Ohio, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Charles & Art Neville of The Neville Brothers in 1991.

Viewfinder links:

Aerosmith

Dave Bartholomew

Chuck Berry

Buchanan & Goodman ~ The Flying Saucer

Fats Domino

Coleman Hawkins

Smiley Lewis

Smiley Lewis ~ Shame, Shame, Shame

Elvis Presley

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking

Tuts Washington

Tennessee Williams

YouTube links:

Buchanan & Goodman ~ The Flying Saucer

Fats Domino ~ I Hear You Knocking

Smiley Lewis ~

I Hear You Knockin'

Shame, Shame, Shame
Elvis Presley - One Night

Huey Piano Smith ~ Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking










Styrous® ~ Tuesday, July 5, 2022

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Music Notes

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July 11, 2021

Gordon MacRae articles/mentions

Kismet & Borodin

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking

U. S. postage stamps ~ Musicals

Gordon MacRae - 1953

publicity photo

March 1, 2021

Billy Vaughn articles/mentions

Gale Storm ‎~ I Hear You Knocking

Billy Vaughn

date & photographer unknown

Music People

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June 16, 2020

45 RPMs 46: Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking & My Little Margie

Today, June 16, My Little Margie debuted on CBS-TV in 1952. The show starred Gale Storm and I thought she was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.

Gale Storm

date & photographer unknown

Her character, Margie Albright, was always getting into trouble and her father, silent screen star, Charles Farrell, had to get her out of it. They were all silly situations but she was cute and when you're not even a teenager yet, taste is not an option.

Charles Farrell & Gale Storm - 1954

photographer unknown

Gale Storm worked with Billy Vaughn in the course of the show and together they wrote You're My Baby Doll and performed it on My Little Margie, in 1958. There is an instramental version of the song with Vaughn playing a great guitar; it is in REAL STEREO (link below)!

Gale Storm & Billy Vaughn

Before Margie, Storm made several films for the RKO Radio Pictures studio. Her first was Tom Brown's School Days, playing opposite Jimmy Lydon and Freddie Bartholomew. She worked steadily in low-budget films released during this period. In 1941, she sang in several soundies, three-minute musicals produced for "movie jukeboxes."

In Gallatin, Tennessee, in November 1954, a 10-year-old girl, Linda Wood, was watching Storm on a Sunday night television variety show, the NBC Colgate Comedy Hour, hosted by Gordon MacRae, singing one of the popular songs of the day.

Linda's father asked her who was singing and was told it was Gale Storm from My Little Margie. Linda's father Randy Wood was president of Dot Records, and he liked Storm so much that he called to sign her before the end of the television show. Her first record, I Hear You Knocking, a cover version of a rhythm and blues hit by Smiley Lewis, sold over a million copies.

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking

45 rpm record in sleeve
photo by Styrous®

I Hear You Knocking (or I Hear You Knockin') is a rhythm and blues song written by Dave Bartholomew. The orchestra and chorus was conducted by Billy Vaughn for this recording.

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking

45 rpm record in sleeve detail

detail photo by Styrous®

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking

45 rpm record
photo by Styrous®

Gale Storm ~ I Hear You Knocking

45 rpm record label
photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - I Hear You Knocking, written by D. Bartholomew*

Side 2:

B - Never Leave Me, written by Aguavina*, Varnicls*

Companies, etc.

    Record Company – Dot Records, Inc.
    Published By – Commodore Music Corp.
    Published By – Hometown Music Co., Inc.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (A-side label): MW-8951
    Matrix / Runout (B-side label): MW-8952
    Rights Society (A): BMI
    Rights Society (B): ASCAP

Gale Storm ‎– I Hear You Knocking
Label: Dot Records ‎– 45-15412
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: Aug 1955
Genre: Pop
Style: Vocal

Viewfinder links:

Dave Bartholomew
Fats Domino ~ I'm Walkin'
Charles Farrell
Movie "soundies"
Gale Storm


Net links:




YouTube links:



Fats Domino ~ I Hear You Knocking
Gale Storm ~

     I Hear You Knocking
     I Hear You Knocking (TV perfomance)
     Never Leave Me
Billy Vaughn ~ You're My Baby Doll (Rare 'true' Stereo version 1958)





Styrous® ~ Tuesday, June 9, 2020

45 RPMs Archive
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