How Do You Think I Feel?

I first heard this as a teenager in 1965 when I bought an old EP (Extended Play) disc with Long Tall Sally, How's the World Treating You, First in Line and How Do You Think I Feel.

1965 was the year of riff based pop songs like Ticket to Ride, Mr Tambourine Man etc. and so didn't sound quite so out of place with all the new music coming out. However it was an old release that surfaced in a sale in the local record shop.

The song was written by Wayne Walker and Webb Pierce. David Neale (link to his site in the topbar menu) suggests the first version was by Red Sovine in April 1954, followed closely in November by Jimmy Rogers Snow. 

Red Sovine  

Here's Jimmy Rogers Snow's version -

This Red Sovine with a different song - Juke Joint Johnny ...

Red Sovine

"Born Woodrow Wilson Sovine on July 17, 1918 in Charleston, WV, Red Sovine made his first attempt at a musical career in his teens along with Johnnie Bailes (of the Bailes Brothers) as members of Jim Pike's Carolina Tar Heels and then as the "Singing Sailors".  Red then opted for a factory job in Elanor, WV working his way into mid-management while still doing a program on local radio.


In 1948, the Bailes Brothers encouraged Red to join them in Shreveport, LA  After a brief stint at KWKH in Shreveport, Hank Williams lent a helping hand in securing a slot at WFSA in Montgomery, AL later that same year and a recording contract with MGM.

In 1949, Red returned to Shreveport and joined the Louisiana Hayride replacing Hank Williams.  In 1952, fellow Hayride star Webb Pierce asked Red to come to Nashville to front his band which led to a recording contract with Decca in 1954 and to appearances on the Grand Ole Opry." Read more Here http://www.virtualtruckroute.com/music_sovine.html


Jimmy Rogers Snow

"Born 1936, son of country star Hank Snow, Jimmie Rodgers Snow appeared to have everything going his way. With famous friends like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, Jimmie began to rocket his way to stardom on the RCA label.

But Jimmie soon learned that there was something that wealth and fame cannot provide is lasting peace. In front of his parents house, Jimmie Rodgers Snow committed his life to Christ and soon answered the call to preach.

One of his early sermons was recently featured in a PBS documentary about Rock and Roll. The show featured a clip which is on display at the the rock and roll hall of fame of an early sermon by Jimmie Snow denouncing the evils of Rock and Roll." Source - http://www.jimmysnow.com/aboutme.html

Jimmy Rogers Snow with Elvis   Meridian, Mississippi May 26  1955

Source of photo  http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/pictures/1955_may_26.html

Here's Elvis's version - from 1956

The Songwriters

WAYNE WALKER

"Born Wayne Paul Walker, December 13, 1925, Quapaw, Oklahoma, Died January 2, 1979, Nashville, Tennessee. Wayne Walker was a prolific songwriter, with no less than 526 titles in the BMI database, 23 of which have won BMI awards. He was less successful as a singer, though he made some fine recordings, both in the rockabilly and the country field. Born in Oklahoma, Walker was raised in Kilgore, Texas, before moving to Shreveport, Louisiana. He worked as a vacuum cleaner salesman, fire escape salesman, car salesman, and roofer while getting his music career off the ground. He appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, where he met Tillman Franks and Webb Pierce and with their encouragement he was soon placing his songs with local artists. With Pierce he wrote the song "How Do You Think I Feel", which was first recorded by Red Sovine in early 1954 (Decca 29068), but the best known version is of course by Elvis Presley, on his second LP. " Read more here http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/wayne_walker.htm

There does seem to be a version by Wayne Walker himself but i can't find it on youtube although there there is a youtube by that name it seems to be compilation of some of his other songs and doesn't include How Do You Think I Feel.

Webb Pierce

"Webb Michael Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was one of the most popular American honky tonk vocalists of the 1950s, charting more number one hits than any other country artist during the decade.

His biggest hit was "In the Jailhouse Now," which charted for 37 weeks in 1955, 21 of them at number one. Pierce also charted number one for several weeks' each with his recordings of "Slowly" (1954), "Love, Love, Love" (1955), "I Don't Care" (1955), "There Stands the Glass" (1953), "More and More" (1954), "I Ain't Never" (1959), and his first number one "Wondering," which stayed at the top spot for four of its 27 weeks' charting in 1952.

For many, Pierce, with his flamboyant Nudie suits and twin silver dollar-lined convertibles, became the most recognizable face of country music of the era and its excesses.[1] Pierce was a one-time member of the Grand Ole Opry and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame." Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webb_Pierce

Hot Dog - Young Jessie

I was an Elvis fan at school during the 60's, ironically during the period when he was less popular owing to the Beatles. In April 1964, when the Beatles were No 1 with Can't Buy Me Love, I became an Elvis fan, although I still liked the Beatles and all the new music of the mid 60's. I was away at boarding school in Shropshire (UK) and the weekly 'treat' was a film show in the main hall every Saturday. Mostly old films like Fred Astaire, George Formby or war films. On this occasion we had something more up to date -  Elvis's Loving You. Even so it was 7 years old by 1964 - the latest Elvis film at the time was Love in Las Vegas. I didn't know much about Elvis at the time but the film grabbed me, the youthful Elvis and the lively music. Hot Dog was one of the tracks that grabbed me, but there were so many good songs in that film, Mean Woman Blues, Teddy Bear etc. A hobby at the time was reading Elvis Monthly and learning about some of the background to some of the early Elvis songs or listening to Mike Raven's R & B show on the radio. Hence my interest in this song.

I discovered from David Neale's site http://davidneale.eu/elvis/originals/list3.html that Hot Dog was not specially written for the film but had been written Leiber and Stoller. David tells us 'Young Jessie recorded this number in 1956 for the Modern label, but it was not issued until 1982 on the Ace label.'

Here is the Young Jessie version on Youtube. It has the more R & B feel of the Coasters (for whom he did a brief stint).

Who was Young Jessie? 

Wikipedia tells us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Jessie

" Obediah Donnell "Obie" Jessie (born December 28, 1936, Lincoln Manor, Dallas, Texas), is an African American R&B and jazz singer and songwriter. He recorded as Young Jessie in the 1950s and 1960s, and was known for his solo career, work with The Flairs and a brief stint in The Coasters. More recently he has performed and recorded jazz as Obie Jessie.


Jessie's father was a cook but had no musical background. His mother, Malinda (née Harris) was very musical, playing piano and other instruments; she had a brief musical career under the name Plunky Harris. On his mother's side of the family, Jessie was also kin to blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson.

In 1946, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he began studying music, and formed a vocal group, The Debonaires, which also included Richard Berry. The group recorded Jessie's song, "I Had A Love", in 1953, and the single was released under the name of The Hollywood Blue Jays. They then renamed themselves as The Flairs, and won a recording contract with Modern Records. However, in 1954 Jessie signed a solo contract with producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and began recording as "Young Jessie". He said: "[The name] came about because I sounded like I was forty, like ancient for a boy of 17. I had this deep baritone voice and the Biharis wanted me to get close to the rock 'n' roll market. I could have called myself Obie Jessie but I didn't want people to think I was old."

In 1955 he wrote and recorded the single "Mary Lou," later covered by Ronnie Hawkins in 1959, Steve Miller Band in 1973, Bob Seger in 1976, Gene Clark in 1977 and The Oblivians in 1997. In 1956, he released "Hit Git And Split", co-written with Buck Ram and recorded in New York City with guitarist Mickey Baker. He also briefly recorded with The Coasters in 1957 (including harmony vocals on "Searchin'" and "Young Blood"), and appeared on records by The Crescendos and Johnny Morisette, as well as being a writer for other artists' recordings, including The Chargers and Jimmy Norman. He released the single "Shuffle In the Gravel"/"Make Believe", again produced by Leiber and Stoller, on the Atco label in 1957."

Read More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Jessie
Here's Young Jessie's Mary Lou

And The Flairs - She Wants to Rock

And finally, of course Elvis's version of Hot Dog

Hot Dog

Words & Music Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller 

Hot dog, you say you're really coming back

Hot dog, I'm waiting at the railway track

Hot dog, you say you're coming home for good

Hot dog, I'm going to keep knocking on wood

And baby, I can hardly wait

I'm gonna meet you at the gate, hot dog

I fell in love with you and then you went away

But now you're coming home to stay

Hot dog, soon everything will be all right

Hot dog, we're gonna have a ball tonight

I've got a pocketful of dimes

It's gonna be just like old times, hot dog

You went away and every day was misery

But now you're coming back to me

Hot dog, my heart is gonna go insane

Hot dog, when you come walking off the train

Oh how lonely I have been

But when that Santa Fe pulls in

Hot dog, baby, baby, hot dog

Stay Away - based on Greensleeves.

The song Stay Away was recorded for (but not used) for the 26th Elvis movie Stay Away Joe in 1968. It was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C Bennett but based on the tune on the English folk tune Greensleeves and not to be confused with the title song - Stay Away Joe which has a more hill-billy feel. Stay away was used however for the B side of US Male.

Whether the 'racing country guitars' do the traditional melody justice is a good question of course! Robert Mathew-Walker, in  Elvis Presley - A Study in Music, felt that " the words and the arrangement do not come up to the haunting quality of the original "

Still the film itself and the music marked an important break from the usual formula Presley films and the original song is interesting.

"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, a ground either of the form called a romanesca or of its slight variant, the passamezzo antico (see below for definitions) 

It is often thought that Greensleeves was written by King Henry V111 but -

"There is a persistent belief that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Boleyn allegedly rejected King Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection may be referred to in the song when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously". However, Henry did not compose "Greensleeves", which is probably Elizabethan in origin and is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death.


A broadside ballad by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580,by Richard Jones, as "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves". Six more ballads followed in less than a year, one on the same day, 3 September 1580 ("Ye Ladie Greene Sleeves answere to Donkyn hir frende" by Edward White), then on 15 and 18 September (by Henry Carr and again by White), 14 December (Richard Jones again), 13 February 1581 (Wiliam Elderton), and August 1581 (White's third contribution, "Greene Sleeves is worne awaie, Yellow Sleeves Comme to decaie, Blacke Sleeves I holde in despite, But White Sleeves is my delighte". It then appears in the surviving A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) as A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green Sleeves.
The tune is found in several late-16th-century and early 17th-century sources, such as Ballet's MS Lute Book and Het Luitboek van Thysius, as well as various manuscripts preserved in the Cambridge University libraries.

Lyrical Interpretation

One possible interpretation of the lyrics is that Lady Green Sleeves was a promiscuous young woman and perhaps a prostitute.At the time, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown", a reference to the way that grass stains might be seen on a woman's dress if she had engaged in sexual intercourse out-of-doors.

An alternative explanation is that Lady Green Sleeves was, through her costume, incorrectly assumed to be immoral. Her "discourteous" rejection of the singer's advances supports the contention that she is not.
In Nevill Coghill's translation of The Canterbury Tales, he explains that "green [for Chaucer’s age] was the colour of lightness in love. This is echoed in 'Greensleeves is my delight' and elsewhere."


Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensleeves

Shakespeare

In Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, written around 1602, the character Mistress Ford refers twice without any explanation to the tune of "Greensleeves" and Falstaff later exclaims:

'Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'!

These allusions indicate that the song was already well known at that time.


Musical Structure
"A ground or an ostinato is (derived from Italian: "stubborn", compare English: 'obstinate') is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice, usually at the same pitch. The best known ostinato based piece may be Ravel's Boléro." Read more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostinato#Ground_bass

"A Romanesca (originating in Spain) was a song form popular in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was most popular with Italian composers of the early Baroque period. A romanesca is composed of a sequence of four chords with a simple, repeating bass, which provide the groundwork for variations and improvisation. A famous example is the refrain of "Greensleeves" (whose verses follow the progression of the passamezzo antico, of which the romanesca is an alteration). The romanesca is usually in triple meter and its soprano formula (melody) resembles that of the passamezzo antico but a third higher." Read more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesca

"The passamezzo antico was a ground bass or chord progression popular during the Italian Renaissance and known throughout Europe in the 16th century. The progression is a variant of the double tonic: its major mode variant is known as the passamezzo moderno.

The sequence consists of two phrases as follows: (For an explanation of this notation see Chord progression)

i	VII	i	V
III	VII	i V	i

In the key of A minor this gives:

Am	G	Am	E
C	G	Am E	Am

Read More here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passamezzo_antico

Tender feeling - (based on Shenandoah)

Tender Feeling is based on the melody of Shenandoah and was recorded 17th October 1963 as part of the soundtrack for the presley movie Kissin' Cousins. It's a kind of unacknowledged form of Folk Rock, but before the term was coined. 

It was a gem of a song among an album of mainly nondescript film plot songs for the film which was released in 1964. The film's plot revolves around "The U.S. government wanting to build a missile silo inside a Tennessee mountain, but the backwoods hillbillies who own it refuse to lease it to them" 

Presley plays two parts in the film and even fights his own look a like - a GI scout and his lookalike hillbilly cousin! 

Tender Feeling was written by - or rather adapted from - Shenandoah, with new lyrics by songwriting team Giant Baum and Kaye who penned Devil in Disguise. The song structure is AABA where A = a verses, B = the Bridge. Shenandoah became a film itself shortly afterwards in 1965, starring Jimmy Stewart.

Shenandoah is a sea shanty, logging song, fur traders’ ballad. Some lyrics of this song heard before 1860 tell the story of a fur trader who fell in love with the daughter of the Oneida Iroquois pine tree chief Shenandoah . Paul Robeson famously recorded Shenandoah but the earliest recorded version is by Albert Campbell & Henry Burr 1917.

Shenandoah was first printed as part of William L. Alden's article "Sailor Songs", in the July 1882 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. There have been several lyric sets to Shenandoah.The lyrics refer to the Native American chief and the missouri not the later adaption in Virginia of the Shenandoah Valley. and river.

Tender Feeling follows an AABA song pattern where A = a verse and B = the Bridge or middle / contrasting section. The original song seems to be an AAA pattern - ie verses without a bridge section, which is one of the musical / lyrical differences between Tender Feeling and Shenandoah.

Shenandoah
" Oh Shenandoah (also called simply Shenandoah, or Across the Wide Missouri) is a traditional American folk song of uncertain origin, dating at least to the early 19th century. The song is number 324 in the Roud Folk Song Index, but is not listed amongst the Child Ballads.

The lyrics may tell the story of a roving trader in love with the daughter of an Indian chief; in this interpretation, the rover tells the chief of his intent to take the girl with him far to the west, across the Missouri River. Other interpretations tell of a pioneer's nostalgia for the Shenandoah River Valley in Virginia, or of a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home in Virginia. The provenance of the song is unclear. The song is also associated with escaped slaves. They were said to sing the song in gratitude because the river allowed their scent to be lost.

The song had become popular as a sea chanty with sailors by the 1880s. Alfred Mason Williams' 1895 Studies in Folk-song and Popular Poetry called it a "good specimen of a bowline chant". In his 1931 book on sea and river chanteys entitled Capstan Bars, David Bone wrote that "Oh Shenandoah" originated as a river chanty or shanty and then became popular with sea-going crews in the early 19th century.

The U.S. congressman for Missouri Ike Skelton noted in 2005 that local artist George Caleb Bingham immortalized the jolly flatboatmen who plied the Missouri River in the early 19th century; these same flatboatmen were known for their chanties, including the lovely "Oh Shenandoah". This boatmen's song found its way down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to the American clipper ships, and thus around the world." Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Shenandoah

The lyrics to the varying versions of Shenandoah can be viewed by following the above Wikipedia link - Oh Shenandoah. As per the folk / blues oral traditions, lyrics and melodies weren't etched in stone back then before the commercialisation of popular music and varied place to place, time to time.

Here's Paul Robeson's version.

The Shenandoah Valley history - This area in Virginia isn't the setting for Shenandoah which mentions 'the wide missouri" - but has somehow adopted the name. "“Everything had a thrifty look,” wrote a Confederate soldier in the Shenandoah Valley in 1861. “The horses and cattle were fat and sleek; the large barns were overflowing with the gathered crops; the houses looked comfortable; and the fences were in splendid order. It was a truly a land of milk and honey.” Read more here http://southernnationalist.com/blog/2011/06/03/the-shenandoah-valley-in-1861-imperiled-land-of-milk-honey/

Shenandoah Valley and river

Moonlight on the Shenandoah, engraving by J.D. Woodward

From this site on the Shenandoah river - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenandoah_River 

As for Tender Feeling - the Kissin' Cousin's screenplay was set in the Great Smoky Mountain range

seen here - 

From this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smoky_Mountains

You Don't Know Me - Eddy Arnold

I had always though the original version of this song was Ray Charles, who had a hit with it in 1962 but actually it was written by Cindy Walker and Eddie Arnold and sang by him in 1956..

Eddie Arnold - You Don't Know Me

It was first recorded by Eddie Arnold in 1955 and released as a single on April 21, 1956 on RCA Victor.

"The first version of the song to make the Billboard charts was by Jerry Vale in 1956, peaking at #14 on the pop chart. Arnold's version charted two months later, released as an RCA Victor single, 47-6502, backed with "The Rockin' Mockin' Bird", which reached #10 on the Billboard country chart. Cash Box magazine, which combined all best-selling versions at one position, included a version by Carmen McRae that never appeared in the Billboard Top 100 Sides listing." Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Don't_Know_Me_(Eddy_Arnold_song)

You Don't Know Me - Jerry Vale (1st version to make Billboard chart)

Jerry Vale (born Gennaro Luigi Vitaliano; July 8, 1932, The Bronx, New York) "is an American singer.

In high school, to earn money, Vale took a job shining shoes in a barbershop in New York City. He sang while he shined shoes, and his boss liked the sound so well that he paid for music lessons for the boy. Enjoying the lessons, Vale started singing in high school musicals and at a local nightclub. This led to additional club dates, including one that lasted for three years at a club in the suburb of Yonkers, New York, just north of the city. When Paul Insetta, (who was a road manager for Guy Mitchell and a hit songwriter) heard him there, he signed him to a management contract, changed his name, and further coached him. He then arranged for Vale to record some demonstration records of songs he'd written, and brought the demos to Columbia Records. Vale then signed a recording contract with Columbia, and Insetta managed him for many years. His version of "The Star-Spangled Banner", recorded in the late 1960s, was a fixture at many sporting events for years." Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Vale

In 1962 Ray Charles had a hit with You Don't Know Me

Elvis recorded You Don't Know me in 1967 for disc and an orchestrated version for inclusion in Clambake.

The Songwriters

Cindy Walker (July 20, 1918 – March 23, 2006) "was a prolific American songwriter, as well as a country music singer and dancer. As a songwriter Walker was responsible for a large number of popular and enduring songs recorded by many different artists. She adopted a craftsman-like approach to her songwriting, often tailoring particular songs to specific recording artists. She produced a large body of songs that have been described as “direct, honest and unpretentious”. She had Top 10 hits spread over five decades. Walker was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame in March 2011." Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Walker

Eddie Arnold Richard Edward "Eddy" Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) "was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. He sold more than 85 million records. A member of the Grand Ole Opry (beginning 1943) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (beginning 1966), Arnold ranked 22nd on Country Music Television's 2003 list of "The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music." He co-wrote the country and pop standard "You Don't Know Me".

In 1944, Arnold signed a contract with RCA Victor, with manager Colonel Tom Parker, who later managed Elvis Presley. Arnold's first single was little noticed, but the next, "Each Minute Seems a Million Years", scored No. 5 on the country charts during 1945. Its success began a decade of unprecedented chart performance; Arnold's next 57 singles all scored the Top Ten, including 19 number one scoring successes."

Read more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Arnold

Devil in Disguise

I owe this one to the Colonel Snow, who commented on the Rip it Up post and directed me to Elvis the kings site http://www.elvisthekingscourt.com/- worth a look for information and links if you haven't visited it.

I found some interesting links which Colonel Snow posted on the Elvis forum which I think is part of the same site. http://www.theelvisforum.com/post65037.html Thank you Colonel Snow.

This is one of them - the demo version of Devil in Disguise. Unlike most of the posts on here, Devil in Disguise wasn't a song Elvis picked up on but one which was specially written for him by the prolific team Giant Baum and Kaye who wrote many of his film songs. This was one of the better songs that was not featured in any of Presley's movies.



"(You're the) Devil in Disguise" is a UK number one single by Elvis Presley which was written by the songwriting team Giant, Baum and Kaye and published by Elvis Presley Music in 1963. It peaked at number three in the US on the Billboard singles chart and number nine on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues singles chart, becoming his last top ten single on the Rhythm and Blues charts. The single was certified "Gold" by the RIAA for sales in excess of 1 000,000 units in the US. The song also topped Japan's Utamatic record chart in the fall of 1963.


In 1963, when the song was debuted to a British audience on the BBC television show Juke Box Jury, the celebrity guest John Lennon voted the song “a miss” stating on the new song that Elvis Presley was "like Bing Crosby now."
Presley originally recorded the song May 26, 1963 at RCA Studios in Nashville. "(You're the) Devil in Disguise" and its flipside, "Please Don't Drag That String Around", was recorded for a full-length album that was scheduled for release in 1963, but RCA chose instead to release the album piecemeal on singles and as soundtrack album bonus tracks.
The song is noted for Presley's singing in a low register to represent the Devil with the repeated phrase "Oh, Yes, You Are", before the song's fade." Source  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(You're_the)_Devil_in_Disguise

In 1963 Elvis's chart positions slipped from a string of No 1's and 2's in the UK NME charts to No 9 for One Broken Heart for Sale and then hitting various points outside the top ten, perhaps 11, 12 14. Devil in Disguise hit the No 2 spot in the UK NME charts, kept from the top, not by the Beatles, but Frank Ifield's Confessing (that I Love you) in July 1963.

Chart positions faltered again after that until in 1965, to great surprise, Crying in the Chapel topped the charts in the UK.

THE WRITERS
The song was written by Giant, Baum and Kaye. http://rarerockinrecords.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/giant-baum-kaye-poof-up-in-smoke.html

Bill Giant (who sang on the demo) "(March 2, 1930 – November 26, 1987) was a songwriter whose work included over 40 songs for Elvis Presley. Giant grew up in New York City and was known as Bill (Harvey) Zimmerman. He was part of the popular songwriting team Giant, Baum and Kaye, writing songs with Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye. The majority of their work was used in Presley movies, although their most popular recording was "(You're The) Devil in Disguise" which reached #3 on the Billboard charts. They were also credited with writing the American version of Osamu Tezuka's anime "Kimba the White Lion" (1965). Bill also wrote the Pat Boone hit "Speedy Gonzales". Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Giant

"Bernie Baum  (October 13, 1929 – August 28, 1993) would be the first to have any sort of success, he wrote with Stephen Weiss "Music, Music, Music" which went to number 1 in 1950 and was recorded by numerous people including Petula Clark, Bill Haley & The Comets, The Happenings and many other versions. This made Bernie very popular and he was only 19 years old and he became the "Golden Boy of The Brill Building". It was during this period in 1950 where Florence meets Bernie in front of the Brill Building and they decided to be a songwriting team.

The first two important compositions were "Heaven Knows Why" & "Believing In You" were recorded by The Four Sensations and released on Rainbow Records in 1952. It was reviewed by Billboard on January 26, 1952 giving "Heaven Knows Why" an Excellent rating. "Heaven Knows Why" was covered by Bob Connolly, Wini Brown & Her Boyfriends & Bill Farrell all in 1952. In 1953 Lee Fields recorded the Baum-Kaye written with Mark Woods song "Apron Strings, Apron Strings" backed with her own version of "Believing In You" it was released in 1953 by Barry Records and Billboard released an Ad for the record on March 7, 1953. Other versions of "Believing In You" are by Sandy Solo also on the Barry label. "Apron String, Apron String" became "Mama's Boy" in 1959 and recorded again by Lee Fields under the name of Linda Fields on Brunswick Records. Another notable song is "Can You" recorded by Micki Marlo in 1954 for Capitol Records." Source http://rarerockinrecords.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/giant-baum-kaye-poof-up-in-smoke.html

Florence Kaye "(January 19, 1919 - May 12, 2006) was a member of a song-writing trio that also included Harvey Zimmerman (better known as Bill Giant) and Bernie Baum. She was born in New York City. She performed a radio show in Georgia and entertained troops for United Service Organizations." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Kaye

Read more about their careers here http://rarerockinrecords.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/giant-baum-kaye-poof-up-in-smoke.html

Hi Heel Sneakers - Tommy Tucker

"Hi-Heel Sneakers is a blues song recorded by Tommy Tucker in 1963. The song, an uptempo twelve-bar blues, "has a spare, lilting musical framework" with a strong vocal. Tommy Tucker's original recording hit number one on the Cash Box R&B Locations chart and number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100. Tommy Tucker was the stage name of Robert Higginbotham

Picture of Hi-Heel Sneakers

Over 1000 artists have recorded Hi-Heel Sneakers including Elvis in September 1967, Nashville. The song, which Tucker penned, has appeared in several soundtracks, for example The Who's Quadrophenia (1979); the HBO special The Promiseland; motion pictures, e.g. Lion of Africa, Lackawanna Blues, Frankie's House; commercial jingles and television shows such as Late Night with David Letterman, sitcoms Rags to Riches, Redd Foxx Show; plus at sporting events such as the women's 1997 NCAA Basketball Championship." Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Heel_Sneakers

It was recorded in 1963 and released in 1964.

"Robert Higginbotham better known by his stage name, Tommy Tucker (March 5, 1933 – January 22, 1982) was an American blues singer-songwriter and pianist. He is best known for the 1964 hit song, "Hi-Heel Sneakers", that went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart.


He was born Robert Higginbotham, to Leroy and Mary Higginbotham, the fifth of eleven chidren, in Springfield, Ohio. Tucker's follow-up release, "Long Tall Shorty", was less successful. Nevertheless, musicians that played on his albums included Louisiana Red, Willie Dixon and Donny Hathaway.

Tucker co-wrote a song with Atlantic Records founder executive Ahmet Ertegün, called "My Girl (I Really Love Her So)". Tucker left the music industry in the late 1960s, taking a position as a real estate agent in New Jersey. He also did freelance writing for a local newspaper in East Orange, New Jersey, writing of the plight and ignorance of black males in America, and the gullibility and exploitation of African Americans in general by the white-dominated media.[citation needed] Tucker currently has four albums selling in Europe and over the internet, through the Red Lightnin' record label.

Tucker was the father of up-and-coming blues artist Teeny Tucker (real name Regina Westbrook),[citation needed] and was the cousin of Joan Higginbotham, the U.S. female astronaut who launched in November 2006 on the Space Shuttle Discovery. Tucker died in 1982 at the age of 48 at College Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, from inhaling carbon tetrachloride while refinishing the hardwood floors of his home; though his death has been alternatively attributed to food poisoning." Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tucker_(singer)

Robert Mathew-Walker says of Elvis's version of Hi-Heel Sneakers in Presley - A Story in Music
"Hi-Heel Sneakers (a hit for Tommy Tucker three years before), Presley's performance, to use the then current jargon 'more rocker than mod'. The song does not stand up to this treatment, and although the treatment is subtle and erotic, its cleverness means Presley has little chance to get going."