68 years ago in Murcia Spain -- that's the official story but there is dispute about the year of her birth -- María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza was born, But that name was way too long for Las Vegas billboards or Tonight Show credits, so the singer/dancer/comedian/flamenco guitarists became known simply as Charo.
If you watched more than five minutes of television in the '70s you couldn't have missed her. She was a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's show, though she first got national TV exposure on the Ed Sullivan Show in the '60s singing with her then-husband Xavier Cugat's band.
Despite her many talents, Charo in her heyday probably was known best for her sex appeal. She was quoted in Billboard saying, "Around the world I am known as a great musician. But in America I am known as the cuchi-cuchi girl. That’s okay because cuchi-cuchi has taken me all the way to the bank."
Here are some videos of Charo at work. Have a cuchi cuchi birthday, Charo!
Let's start with Charo on a Dean Martin special with Dino and Danny Thomas.
Here's Charo with Cher-o
But yes, she did have real musical talent having reportedly studied flamenco guitar at a school for unprivileged children founded by Andre Segovia. She shows her stuff on this 1977 video:
Sunday, March 10, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Jungle Drums by The Dexter Romweber Duo
I Need You by the Rationals
Someone Else is in Control by Mystery Lights
Suburban Junky Lady by Royal Trux
Child of Mercy by The Yawpers
Cinderella by The Flesh Eaters
She Don't by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Lost in the Dunes by The Vagoos
Rootie Tootie Baby by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Hobo Bill's Last Ride by Jason Ringenberg
Hey There Stranger by The Compressions
The Hippies Killed the Polka Star by The Polkaholics
Hit It and Quit It by Ty Segall
A Nod by Ty Segall & White Fence
Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl by The Barbarians
Only One by Lonesome Shack
Mirage by The Mekons
I It Were Me by Homer Henderson
Primitive by The Groupies
Pyscho by The Sonics
From the Estate of John Denver by DBUK
Circumstance by Eleni Mandell I Ain't Got Nobody by Fats Waller CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican March 8, 2018
I’m not sure how religious you gentle readers are, but I’m going to spotlight the latest albums by three righteous rock ’n’ roll reverends —the Reverend Horton Heat, Reverend Peyton, and Reverend Beat-Man. (Sorry, Reverend Gary Davis, but you’re, uh, dead.) All of these hell-raising holy men preach wild gospels that, to those with ears to hear, can lead to sweet salvation.
Let’s start with Rev. Heat, aka Jim Heath, the longest running member of this trinity, and his new record, Whole New Life. The Dallas native’s debut album, Smoke ’Em If You Got ’Em, was released by Sub Pop Records around the height of that influential label’s heyday, back in 1992.
Heath didn’t invent the term “psychobilly,” which was sometimes used to describe The Cramps in the late ’70s and early ’80s and was picked up by a bunch of British bands like The Meteors and Demented Are Go later in the ’80s.
But the term has been applied to Heath and his band, and they helped popularize it via an instrumental on their first album called “Psychobilly Freakout” — which, judging by the couple of times I’ve seen him perform, remains perhaps his most requested number.
Nobody would call Reverend Horton Heat “psychobilly” anymore. Like most of us who were around in the early ’90s, he’s mellowed and his songs aren’t quite as frenzied as they used to be. But he’s still got a rockabilly heart and the new album has plenty of high-powered rump-shakers. “Perfect” is a perfect example, as is “Got It in My Pocket.” (No, it’s not a rocket, like that old 1958 rockabilly classic by Jimmy Lloyd goes. It’s a diamond ring for a woman to whom he’s going to propose.)
Other standout tracks on Whole New Life include the bluesy “Hog Tyin’ Woman”; the jaunty Professor Longhair/Fats Domino-style New Orleans romp called “Tchoupitoulas Street,” which shows off the talents of the band’s new piano player Matt Jordan; and an uptempo slice of craziness called “Wonky.” (I’m still trying to wrap my mind around a rockabilly song titled “Wonky.”)
Late last year, the prolific Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band (as fans know, a trio from rural Indiana headed by singer/slide guitarist Josh Peyton), released its latest album, Poor Until Payday.
The Big Damn Band — which includes the reverend’s wife, Breezy Peyton, on washboard and background vocals, and drummer Maxwell Senteney — doesn’t break a lot of new musical ground. Basically, if you liked any of their blues-infused, touched-by-gospel albums in the past 15 years or so, or if you’ve enjoyed any of their live shows (they’ve played in Santa Fe and Albuquerque several times in recent years), chances are you’ll like this record.
While Peyton has yet to top his greatest song (“Your Cousin’s on Cops,” from 2008’s The Whole Fam Damnily), there are some fine new tunes in this latest batch. The rousing title song is a soulful rocker about a guy promising to show his woman a good time once his next check comes.
“Get the Family Together” is a rowdy but sweet little tune with some good advice: “Don’t wait for a funeral to get the family together.” And, speaking of funerals, “Church Clothes” is an acoustic song about a guy who needs decent threads because “you know we got the worst kind of call/and I can’t go to town in these dirty overalls.”
And just like Reverend Heat’s latest, Reverend Peyton’s new one has a song about a street in New Orleans. Unlike “Tchoupitoulas Street,” “Frenchmen Street” doesn’t have a lot of Professor Longhair in it. (No piano, for one thing.) And there isn’t a hint of brass either, but every time I hear it, in my mind’s eye I see and hear the impromptu brass band I saw forming one night on Frenchmen Street a few years ago.
And then there’s Reverend Beat-Man, aka Beat Zeller, a Bern, Switzerland, wild man who is more than just a “reverend” when it comes to primitive, trashy rock. He’s the high priest — naw, he’s the dang pope — of “Blues Trash Folk Noir,” the name he gives to the music on Baile Bruja Muerto, his latest album, which is co-credited to Izobel Garcia, a honey-voiced singer (who also plays drums and keyboards) from Los Angeles. Garcia collaborated with Beat-Man on last year’s dandy album, Blues Trash.
Dedicated Beat-Man fans will recognize that the first two songs on this record are ones he’s recorded before. “Pero Te Amo” (But I Love You), sung in Spanish by Garcia, who also performed it on Blues Trash. The Baile Bruja Muerto version is more hard-edged, but Garcia’s voice is equally stunning.
Meanwhile, “Come Back Lord” is a Beat-Man rewrite of an obscure old ’60s garage-rock tune (“Come Back Bird” by an Abilene, Texas, band called Chevelle V), with lyrics about God, sex, and the devil.
At the moment, my favorite tracks are the fuzzed-out rocker “I Never Told You,” sung by Garcia; a cover of a Venom song, “Black Metal,” which has lyrics that seem personally tailored for Beat-Man (“Lay down your soul to the gods of rock ’n’ roll ...”); and Garcia’s take on the Costa Rica-born Chavela Vargas’ “Macorina,” another song she sings in Spanish.
The album ends with a trademark Beat-Man seven-minute spoken-word, sometimes obscene psychosexual religious rant/sermon called "My Name Reverend Beat-Man." Nobody does it like the Rev.
Last week I regaled and delighted you readers with a deep dive into the song "Just a Gigolo."
But to fans of Louis Prima & Keely Smith -- and David Lee Roth and The Village People, "Just a Gigolo" is just a half a song -- the other half being "I Ain't Got Nobody."
"I Ain't Got Nobody" was copyrighted in 1915 by lyricist Roger A. Graham and composer Spencer Williams. But authorship is disputed. The late St. Louis pianist Charles Warfield claimed that he'd actually written it with lyrics by Dave Peyton.
Whoever wrote it, the song had legs.
A singer named Marion Harris might have been the first to record it back in 1916,
A decade later Bessie Smith turned it into a blues song.
Louis Armstrong recorded the tune in 1929. (On a later, separate record, he also did a version of "Just a Gigolo.")
Fats Waller picked up the tempo on his mid '30s version. He'd also recorded instrumental versions of the song back in the '20s including one featuring Fats on pipe organ.
In the 40s, Bob Wills swung the song to Texas.
And just a few years ago, Patti Smith sang a retro take, probably closest to the one by fellow Smith Bessie, for the closing credits of HBO's Prohibition-era crime drama Boardwalk Empire.
To conclude, here is Louis Prima's first recording of the "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody" medley in 1945. I still prefer the one we know and love from the '50s, but this is where it started:
In case you missed the link for my look at "Just a Gigolo," CLICK HERE And for the Stephen W. Web Log Songbook, CLICK HERE
Sunday, March 3, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Journey to the Center of the Mind by The Amboy Dukes
Cramp Stomp by The Cramps
Cosmonaut by Mean Motor Scooter
Death of a Rockstar by Echocentrics
Good Good Crack by The Fleshtones
Lonely by Lonesome Shack
Surrealistic Feast by Weird Omen
Little Girl by John & Jackie
I'm a Man by Ty Segall
RATFINK by Balzac
Twice Thrice by Alien Space Kitchen
My Life to Live by The Flesheaters
Moon by REQ'D
Hand in Hand by Unknown Instructors
Looking by Archie & The Bunkers
In the Desert by The Mekons
Stuck in a Static in Camber by Mekons 77
It's All About the Money by The Standells
Don't Bother Me by Mark Sultan
Desert Mile by King Khan
Demona by Martha Fields
Many Happy Hangovers to You by Jason Ringenberg
Butterfly by Charlie Gracie
The Man of Your Dreams by Johnny Dowd
Don't Let the Devil Ride by Leo "Bud" Welch
Lass Uns Liebe Machen by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Thirty-nine and Holding by Jerry Lee Lewis
Nostalgia by Full Speed Veronica
Gotta Lotta Love by The Cactus Blossoms Just a Gigolo / I Ain't Got Nobody by Louis Prima & Keely Smith with San Butera & The Witnesses CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
