The blues grasp from Dunleith, Mississippi, Jimmy Reed, was at it once more as the brand new 12 months of 1959 dawned. Now aged 33, Reed had half a dozen High 10 R&B hits to his identify – together with two together with his most up-to-date releases “Honest I Do” and “I’m Gonna Get You Baby” – when he made a brand new displaying on Billboard’s Scorching R&B Sides chart for January 5 with “I Told You Baby.”
Over at Brunswick Information, Jackie Wilson was persevering with his reign on that countdown with the seminal “Lonely Teardrops,” which might rule the roost for seven weeks. Reed, in his heyday on the Vee-Jay label, entered the chart alongside Fat Domino’s “Coquette” and Child Washington’s “The Time.”
There have been additionally entries, which could now appear fairly incongruous, by artists whose core viewers was in pop, not R&B, comparable to Ricky Nelson with a re-entry for “Lonesome Town” and Connie Francis with “My Happiness.” Even Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra have been on that first survey of the brand new 12 months with “Tea For Two Cha Cha.”
The simple swagger of “I Told You Baby,” illustrated as so typically by Reed’s lyrical harmonica enjoying, lower an infectious groove that light nearly earlier than it had began, on a single with a period of exactly 2’19”. He wrote it together with his spouse Mary, often known as Mama, who additionally sang uncredited backing vocals on lots of Jimmy’s recordings. Though this new 45 was maybe a bit of too slight to turn into considered one of his largest hits, it climbed to No.19, backed by the catchy instrumental “Ends & Odds.”
An fascinating perspective on the standing of Reed and his fellow blues notables on the time got here from Vee-Jay president Ewart Abner. In an April 1959 interview with Billboard, during which he was oddly named Abner Ewart, he was described as “the man who makes those great records with such outstanding rhythm and blues artists as Jimmy Reed.”
Abner’s R&B perspective
Abner talked in regards to the R&B market of the day, during which though he may promote “75,000 to 100,000 copies of a Jimmy Reed record,” there have been frustrations. “You’ve got a group of top names in this field who are always going to sell, people like B. B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Junior Parker, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed,” he mentioned.
“You lose out, however, because it’s practically impossible to get a new artist started in the field anymore. Why? Simply because the record companies and the independent distributors pump out so many records today that are designed for the big volume market, that anything with any kind of limited potential to start with doesn’t have a chance.”
Take heed to the Blues Classics playlist.
Because it turned out, future Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame inductee Reed had just one extra High 10 R&B single in him, together with his 1961 trademark “Bright Lights, Big City.” However “I Told You Baby” was one other ingredient in a catalog that will affect blues and rock audiences, and fellow artists, proper as much as the current day.
Purchase or stream “I Told You Baby” on Mr. Luck: The Full Vee-Jay Singles.
