Ready teddy

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Ready teddy
Cover
Little Richard
publication June 1, 1956
length 2:05
Genre (s) Rock and roll
Author (s) John Marascalco
Bumps Blackwell
Publisher (s) Venice Music
Label Specialty Records
album Here's Little Richard

Ready Teddy is a rock 'n' roll - song , that of John Marascalco in collaboration with Robert Blackwell for Little Richard was written. It was first released on Specialty Records in June 1956 . The song structure is the twelve-measure blues that are common in rock 'n' roll , the lyrics are an invitation to have fun partying. Ready Teddy quickly became a standard of rock 'n' roll thanks to many cover versions that were soon to be released and was also taken up by musicians in Europe. The title also found performers during the rock 'n' roll revival in the 1970s and in the neo-rockabilly scene since the 1990s. The song reached number eight in the original version of Little Richard on the rhythm and blues charts and, as a crossover, number 44 on the pop charts of Billboard magazine. None of the at least 50 cover versions could follow the original into the charts.

Emergence

After the young songwriter John Marascalco from Grenada , Mississippi, tried in vain to pass his composition Rip It Up on to Elvis Presley , he heard Little Richard's second single Long Tall Sally on their radio debut. The presenter Gene Nobles brought it exclusively on the Saturday evening show "Randy's Record Hi-Lights" on the Nashville- based broadcaster WLAC when Marascalco was playing the car radios with some friends on the Yalobusha River . Marascalco had left Little Richard's debut single Tutti Frutti cold, he was enthusiastic about the energetic rock 'n' roll of Long Tall Sally and announced to his friends that he would write a song for Little Richard. The following day he sketched the refrain while attending church . With his friend Louis Breeland, who was stationed in Long Beach , California, in the Navy, he drove to Los Angeles to offer the record company Specialty Records the title for Little Richard.

During the five-day drive in March 1956, he completed Ready Teddy . In the Specialty office he first met Dorothy Rupe, the wife of label owner Art Rupe , who called producer and A&R manager Bumps Blackwell from the adjoining recording studio. Marascalco, who had neither a demo version nor an accompanying instrument ready, sang the song for Blackwell. Blackwell liked the title and asked for other pieces available. So Marascalco intoned Rip It Up and the producer sent him away with some suggestions for changes. Marascalco translated them on the beach the following day, typed the revisions in the motel, and returned them to Specialty the following Monday. After consulting a sales partner who was present, Blackwell decided to record both titles with Little Richard. He was hoping for a double-sided hit single if he would combine both songs as two sides of a vinyl single. In addition, Marascalco left another song sketch in the Specialty office with Rock 'n' Roll Dance , which Blackwell reworked for Lloyd Price .

The songs were first recorded on May 9, 1956 in Cosimo Matassa's J&M studio in New Orleans , where Little Richard had already recorded Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally . The studio band played under Blackwell's direction with Edgar Blanchard and Ernest McLean on guitars, Frank Fields on bass, Lee Allen on tenor saxophone, Alvin Tyler on baritone saxophone and Earl Palmer on drums. At least five takes of Ready Teddy have been preserved, probably take 6 was mastered by Art Rupe for release on single.

Musical structure

As is often the case in rock 'n' roll, Little Richards Ready Teddy is based on a twelve-measure blues scheme, the functional chords of which can be represented with the theory of stages . The first level corresponds to the tonic , the fourth level to the subdominant and the fifth level to the dominant :

|| I | I | I | I | IV | IV | I | I | V | IV | I | I ||000000000000000000000000

The four beginning bars on the first level serve as a stanza , bars five to twelve as the refrain . The third and fourth stanzas have been extended by a further four bars of tonic. The song sequence begins with verses one to three, whereupon two consecutive schemes take up the saxophone solo. Then stanzas two and three are repeated. The song ends with the fourth verse. The blues scheme is thus repeated eight times. The stanzas are presented as stop times, with the rhythm section and wooden section only playing single beats in the back and offbeat of a bar and otherwise being silent, while the singer "roars" the text in a staccato manner and reduced melody. Later cover versions varied the sequence given by the original.

content

Ready Teddy is one of a long series of rhyming song titles from Little Richard's repertoire such as Tutti Frutti , Heeby-Jeebies or Good Golly Miss Molly . Marascalco, who knows his songwriting is inspired by the everyday scenes that surround him, explained the title with the synonym "hot to trot" (German: hot, spicy), a slang expression from the southern states . Thematically, the text includes an invitation to everyone to have fun, and is thus in the tradition of the Bill Haley song Rock Around the Clock . Even Roy Brown Good Rocking Tonight , Shirley and Lee Let the Good Times Roll and Fats Dominos I'm Ready have with Ready Teddy wanting in common, Staying out that roared readiness of presenters the night. Stuart Colman attests to the great talent of the author John Marascalco, as the motifs used in youth culture seem to come from a completely different social milieu, where “phrases like 'flattop cats' (German: types with a haired brush) and 'dungaree dolls' (German: girls in dungarees) form antitheses to a world in which the style cut and pearl twinsets were the norm. ”In particular the verse“ The music really sends me; I dig the crazy style. ”(German: This music really drives me, I totally love this crazy style.) Explain what the new rock 'n' roll music genre is essentially about.

Publications

It was not until May 31, 1956 that Venice Music, the music publisher of the label boss Art Rupe , registered the title in the Library of Congress ; Just in time for the June 1st release along with Rip It Up as two double A-pages on Specialty 579. The producer had his arrangement honored with authoring rights for both titles , so Marascalco and Blackwell have been co-authors on publications since then can be found. The single was released on both a 10-inch shellac single and a 7-inch vinyl. London Records held the license for Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan and New Zealand . In Belgium the single was released on Ronnex Records , in the Netherlands on Artone Records and in Canada on Regency Records . The first publications outside of the United States dragged on until 1959. Specialty Records only released the 6-disc series Here's Little Richard as EP , the second edition of which was Specialty EP-401 in March 1957 Ready Teddy next to Slippin 'and Slidin' , Oh Why? and baby was presented. At the same time, the title found its way into the track list of the first album of the same name Here's Little Richard under the number Specialty 100 or 2100.

Ready Teddy found its way into Little Richard's live program and has been played regularly over the years. Some of the concerts were also recorded for live albums. On January 17, 1966, the singer gave his standard repertoire at the Domino Club in Atlanta , Georgia for the best, which appeared in January 1967 on the album Little Richard Sings His Greatest Hits - Recorded Live on Modern Records . Ready Teddy is barely 40 seconds long. The recording was also reworked and released on single with Tutti Frutti and Do You Feel It - Part 1 largely without audience noise . A similar program was recorded on August 30, 1976 for SJ Productions at the Jack Clement Studio. The liner notes of the album Little Richard Live! on K-tel Records as well as the title of the record claim a live session. In 1992 Little Richard recorded a full album for the last time. It consisted of previous hits and was a collaboration with Japanese guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka . Under the corresponding title Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka , the record came out on EMI Music Japan under the number TOCT 6619 and contained Ready Teddy as the seventh track .

Cover versions

Ready Teddy has been covered at least 50 times since it was first released.

Some well-known rock 'n' roll colleagues quickly took on Little Richard's chart number.

  • 1956 - Elvis Presley on RCA 45-7906 and on the Elvis album , RCA LPM 1382
  • 1958 - Buddy Holly on the album Buddy Holly , Coral CRL 57210
  • 1958 - Carl Perkins on the album Whole Lotta Shakin ' , Columbia CL-1234
  • 1959 - Gene Vincent on the album Sounds Like Gene Vincent , Capitol T 1207

Not all early recordings were published, but came out much later in the course of music-archival work.

In Europe, the Scandinavian rock 'n' roll scene first became aware of the song.

The British Merseybeat scene also quickly adapted the standard.

In the early 1960s, the title arrived in France.

  • 1961 - Vince Taylor on EP Barclay 70424
  • 1963 - Eddy Mitchell on the Eddy album in London
  • 1964 - Johnny Hallyday in a French version under the title Belle on the EP Les rocks les plus terribles: vol. 1 , Philips

Ready Teddy was recorded in Spain as early as the late 1950s.

In 1965 the German beat scene tried its hand at one piece.

In Australia, the title was picked up by Johnny O'Keefe.

  • 1964 - Johnny O'Keefe on the album The J.O'K. Sound - Songs With Soul, Songs With Beat , Leedon LL 31292

Latin American editions are also known.

The rock 'n' roll revival that began in the 1970s picked up the song again.

After a few years' break, the song celebrated its comeback through the neo-rockabilly scene.

  • 1992 - Karel Zich & Flop in a Czech version under the title Jsem Ready on the album Za to muže Rock 'n' Roll
  • 1995 - Brian Setzer on the Blue Suede Sneakers compilation , Lightyear Entertainment
  • 1996 - The Baltimores on the album Booze, Battle & Women , Pollytone PEPCD 116
  • 1996 - The Paralyzers on the album Calling Elvis , Vampirella VMLP 170435
  • 1996 - Good Rockin 'Tonight on the album On the Rebound , GRT 4
  • 2003 - Jerry J. Nixon on the album Gentleman of Rock 'n' Roll , Voodoo Rhythm Records VRCD16
  • 2004 - Terry Buchwald on the album Good Rockin '- Then and Now , Rhapsody
  • 2005 - 78Twins on the album Twins in Town , bmb-studio & twins tunes musikverlag
  • 2005 - Scotty Moore with Paul Ansell on the video DVD A Tribute to the King , Universal Music
  • 2009 - The Neatbeats on Beat Side Hits album , Majestic Sound Records MSCD-042
  • 2013 - The Malditos on the album Evil Robot Stole My Girl , ERSMG1201

The London-based musical Buddy was recorded with the original cast in 1991 and includes Ready Teddy .

  • 1989 - Original London Cast on the live album Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story , First Night Records

Importance, Criticism, and Success

Little Richard adopted Ready Teddy into his live repertoire, which he played into old age with only a few interruptions due to religious studies. Because of this and the many cover versions of well-known performers, Ready Teddy belongs as an "absolute classic" to the canon of well-known and much-played rock 'n' roll standards. In addition, Ready Teddy records the success of the Afro-American original interpreter as a crossover , who was able to score points with white buyers in the pop market beyond his rhythm and blues market, as, conversely, white artists interpreted the title and thus stimulated the black rhythm and blues market . Culture critic and music journalist Greil Marcus describes the effect that the “wildly hammering rock 'n' roll driver” must have on the audience : “You shake your head in disbelief that something like this could ever happen, that it could could have been recorded that it is now present directly in front of you, as if it was happening for the first time, not as a reproduction of something, but as an event itself. "

In addition to the title song The Girl Can't Help It and She's Got It , Little Richard Ready Teddy was able to perform in the playback process in the 1956 Hollywood film The Girl Can't Help It . Little Richard plays himself in a cautiously staged appearance with his live band The Upsetters . However, the recording with the studio band was used as the sound track, so that Lee Allen's tenor saxophone solo in the film had to be dubbed by the upset Grady Gaines , who climbed the grand piano for this purpose .

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Ready teddy
  R&BTemplate: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / country wrong 8th 07/07/1956 (8 weeks)
  US 44 07/07/1956 (8 weeks)

Even before it officially entered the chart, the single sold so well in the first ten days after its release that the label, in Little Richard's name, wrote an open letter in Billboard Magazine to radio hosts, dealers and sales people, thanking them for 342,000 units sold . Over time, the number of sales increased to over two million. The record thus achieved gold status without being certified with a gold record , which was only officially awarded by the RIAA from 1958 .

The Billboard R&B charts passed in 1956 with the sales charts (“R&B Best Sellers in Store”), the jukebox charts (“Most Played R&B in Juke Boxes”) and the radio charts (“Most Played R&B by Jockeys”) three separate leaderboards. In the case of the first two, the single was rated primarily by its main title, only the radio charts led both sides of the record separately. Specialty Records deliberately refrained from being assigned to the A and B sides and left it to the market to decide which title was preferred. Specialty 579 first charted on June 30, 1956, but due to demand for Rip It Up . The marking on the back of Ready Teddy in bold letters makes it clear, however, that a notable contribution to the sales success of the record was ascribed to the title. Also in the course of the jukebox charts, Ready Teddy was only named after Rip It Up for six weeks . Ready Teddy was able to position itself independently in the radio charts : On July 7, 1956, the song debuted there at number eight in its top position and even surpassed the otherwise successful Rip It Up by one place this week . The title lasted six weeks until August 11th. After a one-week break, the title returned to eleventh place on August 25 and was last listed on the chart the following week, number 14. According to Joel Whitburn's usual method of chart statistics, Ready Teddy spent eight weeks in the R&B charts and occupied eighth place as the highest position. As a crossover, Ready Teddy was also able to score in the top 100 charts: The entry also took place on July 7, 1956 at 80th place. The highest position in 44th place was reached on July 21st. After a total of eight weeks, the title was listed for the last time in the pop charts on August 25, 1956. In addition to the top 100 list, similar to the R&B charts, sales, radio and jukebox charts were also shown in the cross-genre pop segment, but only up to 25th place, but the Ready Teddy missed.

Although no other single made it into the charts apart from the version by Little Richard, the title was featured on five albums that made it into the album charts: Elvis Presley covered the title on his album Elvis , RCA LPM-1382 , which was number one on the album charts for five weeks in 1956 and recorded a total of 32 weeks in the album charts. In 1957, Here's Little Richard was released on Specialty 2100, the first LP by Little Richard, on which the single version of Ready Teddy was. The LP reached number 13. In 1975 John Lennon took the title in a rock 'n' roll medley as part of his album Rock 'n' Roll on Apple 3419, reaching a sixth place. Also in 1975 the sampler More American Graffiti by disc jockey Wolfman Jack was released . On the double album, the version of the song by Little Richard was re-released. The album came in at number 84. In 1988, Elvis Presley's version was re-released on the soundtrack of the film Heartbreak Hotel . The double album with the number Asylum 90004 could only advance to number 176.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ken Sharp: Elvis Presley. Writing for the King . FTD Books, Denmark 2006, John Marascalco, p. 37-39 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Stuart Colman: The Killer Quillers. John Marascalco . In: Trevor Cajiao (Ed.): Now Dig This . No. 362 . Bensham, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear May 2013, pp. 13-16 (English).
  3. ^ Charles White: The Life and Times of Little Richard. The Quasar of Rock . Pan Books Ltd, London 1985, pp. 214 .
  4. ^ Ray Topping: Little Richard. The Specialty Sessions . 6 CD set. ACE Specialty, 1992 (English, Liner Notes).
  5. ↑ a b Simon Frith, Andrew Goodwin: On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word . Routledge, London 2000, ISBN 0-415-05306-4 , pp. 279 f . (English).
  6. ↑ Nik Cohn: AWopBopaLooBopALopBamBoom . Piper, Schott, Munich / Mainz 1995, ISBN 3-492-18402-2 , Klassischer Rock, p. 32–52 (English: Pop from the Beginning . Translated by Teja Schwaner, first edition: 1969).
  7. ↑ Bob Leszczak: Who Did It First ?: Great rhythm and blues cover songs and Their original artists . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8866-1 , Ready Teddy, pp. 175 (American English).
  8. ↑ Rick Coleman: Blue Monday. Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll . 1st edition. Da Capo Press, Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-306-81531-7 , Be My Guest, pp. 193 .
  9. ↑ John Garodkin: Little Richard Special . 2nd Edition. Mjoelner Edition, Praestoe 1984, ISBN 87-87721-14-7 , Specialty Records, pp. 23-66 .
  10. ↑ John Garodkin: Little Richard Special . 2nd Edition. Mjoelner Edition, Praestoe 1984, ISBN 87-87721-14-7 , Modern Records, pp. 106-113 .
  11. ↑ John Garodkin: Little Richard Special . 2nd Edition. Mjoelner Edition, Praestoe 1984, ISBN 87-87721-14-7 , SJ Productions, pp. 149-153 .
  12. ↑ Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka by Little Richard & Masayoshi Takanaka. In: Second Hand Songs. Retrieved July 1, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Recuerdos nueva ola Chilena. In: Radio Magallanes. Retrieved August 15, 2014 (Spanish).
  14. ↑ Rick Coleman: Blue Monday. Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll . 1st edition. Da Capo Press, Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-306-81531-7 , My Blue Heaven, pp. 122 .
  15. ^ A b Paul MacPhail: Little Richard: The Originator Of Rock . 2008, p. 14 .
  16. ^ Charlie Gillett, Peter Guralnick, David Halberstam, Greil Marcus: Rock 'n' Roll 39–59 . Steidl, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86521-609-0 , p. 399 (American English).
  17. ↑ David Kirby: Little Richard. The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll . 1st edition. Continuum, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-8264-2965-0 , All around the World, pp. 176 ff . (American English).
  18. ↑ Little Richard. Billboard singles. In: All Music Guide. Retrieved May 31, 2008 (originally published in Billboard Magazine, multi-author database).
  19. ↑ Little Richard: Open Letter . In: The Billboard . June 23, 1956, p. 52 .
  20. ^ Joel Whitburn: Hot R&B Songs. Billboard 1942-2010 . 6th edition. Record Research Inc., Menomonee Falls 2010, ISBN 978-0-89820-186-4 , The Artist Section, pp. 401 (American English).
  21. ↑ a b Ready Teddy . In: The Billboard . (Issues June 23, 1956 to September 8, 1956).
  22. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Pop Albums. 1955-1996 . Record Research, Menomonee Falls 1996.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 20, 2014 .