What's with the mask? He's not fool enough to give up his day job, that's what!

February 2005

28 days of R&B

Update April 2005: The musical selection below has been officially approved via email by Matt the Cat, the coolest DJ on XM Radio (channel 5 for "fifties"):

"Good to her from ya, brotha. I checked out your webpage and it looks great. I can't really disagree with any of your 28 choices. Nice job. It's good to know cats like you are out there groovin' and diggin' on the show.

Soulfully,

Matt the Cat"

This page was inspired by a discussion in the lab, between two 40-something guys, pining for the good old days of the 1970s, the "decade which all the good music comes from", or so they thought. Well, maybe all bad haircuts were derived from the 1970s, but much good music came from the 1950s and 1960s. We'd trade a good doo-wop song for just about any disco song you can think off, any day of the week.

For Black History month 2005 we have chosen 28 R&B artists, one song each, that are worth collecting on your hard drive, listed in chronological order. Each day in February we will feature one of the artist's pictures on the index page of Microwaves101. For many of the songs listed we provide links to MP3 files we scraped from the web, so check them out when you have some free time. When this page gets posted on February 1, we might still be a little behind on the links, but we'll catch up before the first week is over.

The hardest thing to do was limit the list to 28 songs, so we might still be doing this into March for a while!

Every time I look at this I want to add some names... for example, omitting "Sh-Boom" by the Chords was a huge oversight! Chubby Checker's "Pony Time", the Marcels "Blue Moon", etc, etc, there's just not enough days in one month.

Where possible, we've included links to the songs, but sometimes there just isn't a file out there on the Web just yet, and we're not fools enough to offer downloads ourselves... If the link appears on the song title, it goes to at least a clip of the song itself. If the link is on the artist's name, it goes to information about the artist or album, where you can click on a link to a clip of the song (hopefully).

Wynonie Harris "Good Rocking Tonight" 1948 Rock and roll in 1948???	Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats "Rocket 88" 1951 Regarded as the first rock and roll song.
The Swallows "It ain't the Meat" 1951 Cool picture, even cooler song, turn up the speaker and play it now! Thanks, Southside Johnnie, for covering this forgotten masterpiece during the seventies.	Guitar Slim "The Things That I Used To Do" 1953 GS used to play with a 300 foot wire so he could jump out in the audience. Think of him as the original Jimmy Hendrix.
Big Joe Turner "Shake, Rattle and Roll" 1954 Who was the devil in nylon hose?	Bo Diddley "Bo Diddley" 1955 One of the most famous beats.
Laverne Baker "Tweedle Dee"January 1955 She "retired" to play at an NCO club overseas	Nappy Brown "Don't be Angry" April 1955
Fats Domino "Ain't that a Shame"July 1955 Boogy-woogie New Orleans beat	Chuck Berry " Maybelline" August 1955 A great entertainer, served time for his affections for a white girl
Smiley Lewis "I Hear You Knocking" September 1955	Screaming Jay Hawkins "I Put a Spell on You" 1956 This dude is so good he's scary
The Turbans "When you dance" January 1956 The first known use of the expression "doo-wop" is in this song.	The Cadillacs "Speedoo" February 1956 Speedo didn't believe in wasting time
Frankie Lymon "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" June 1956 Too young to die	Little Richard "Good Golly Miss Molly" 1956 Ex-hairdresser, the self-described "handsomest man in rock and roll"
Dell Vikings "Whispering Bells" July 1957 Yes, that's a white dude with them!	The Bobbettes "Mr. Lee" August 1957 From a Harlem public school, ages 11 to 13, original lyrics were about a teacher they hated. If your daughters had half as much talent, you wouldn't be looking at Microwaves101!
Jackie Wilson "Reet Petite" 1957 Rolls his R's better than an Irishman	The Coasters "Yakety Yak" January 1958 Every song they sang was a hit. Good sax.
Lloyd Price " Stagger Lee" January 1959 A craps game argument, a stolen Stetson and a murder spawned maybe 100 songs, but this one is the best	Ray Charles "What I Say" July 1959 Some say that the musical universe is Ray-centric
Hank Ballard " Finger-Popping Time" July 1960	Ernie K-Doe "Mother-in-law" April 1961 A song that needs to be played at every bachelor party
Bobby Lewis, "Tossin' and Turnin' " May 1961 A MONSTER hit, 3,000,000 sold	Sam Cooke "Twisting the Night Away" February 1962
Little Eva "Locomotion" July 1962 Remade in the 1970s, but why mess with perfection?	Charlie and Inez Foxx "Mockingbird" August 1963 Carly Simon and Toby Keith and others have tried, but none could beat this brother and sister
Junior Walker "Shotgun" March 1965 Part of MLK's dream was that black singers wouldn't have to sing about being shot while in a chain gang	Lee Dorsey "Workin’ In A Coal Mine" August 1966 One of three songs we know of that feature a hammer as a percussion instrument
The Jackson 5 "I want you back" December 1969 Always remember Michael J from this, not his Neverland trial	Lou Bega "Mambo Number 5" 1999 In case you wondered where the spirit of R&B has been recently, ask Monica and her girlfriends

Check out the Unknown Editor's archives when you are looking for a way to screw off for an hour or so!