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