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Posted By: Jim Liddane on: 08/24/2010 06:40:41 EDT
Subject: RE: Before They Were Hits - Poetry In Motion (1960) - Johnny Tillotson

Message Detail:
John wrote....

Neat to find it recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville!

Jim replied....

Did not even know that! I think Studio B was hired out by RCA to indie producers and small labels, so perhaps all of the Cadence stuff was done there?

I wonder if Chet Atkins played on this session? He played on a lot of Cadence stuff, and was generally the "fixer" on the sessions on which Cramer and Randolph performed together, but I do not hear much guitar on this, so perhaps not.

Years later, Cramer, Atkins and Randolph set up a "group" (for want of a better word) called something like The Master Festival Of Music or The Master Class In Music (not too sure which), and they toured for about ten years together.

I met Chet Atkins once - he came to Ireland frequently as one of his children lives here - but sadly, I never got to meet one of my heroes - Floyd Cramer.

Oh well, I would have probably asked the wrong questions anyway!

At least now, we seem to be getting a lot of facts and figures that we never knew before (or perhaps, that we never asked about before!).

And anyway, now that we are all grown up (well, physically anyway - mentally I think at times I am still 14), the truth is easier to take.

But when I was really 14, it was not, and the truth once proved a terrible disappointment for me.

Back in the 50's, The Crickets had a number of hits, and I became quite a fan.

On their first album cover, they were described as a "vocal group with instrumental accompaniment", and I (who loved vocal groups, and harmonies), was entranced by them.

Then a slightly unnerving thing happened.

They appeared on stage in the UK in 1958, playing instruments but doing no backing vocals.

We were confused, but we quickly came to the conclusion that they sang on the records alright - but for some reason or other, could not do both instruments and vocals simultaneously on stage.

And their vocals on record seemed to get better and better! The backing vocals on "That'll Be The Day" had been a bit sparse, but by the time "Maybe Baby" came out, the vocals were fuller.

When "Think It Over" came out, they were even fuller again!

But then Buddy Holly died, and another unnerving thing happened.

On the next Crickets album (the first without Holly), there were virtually no backing vocals at all, while the voices of the new lead vocalists did not sound similar to the backing voices on the earlier records.

But not to worry, when they recorded "Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets", the vocals were back - and they sounded even better than ever.

All was well.

But then a shrewd fan had to go and pose the question - did the Crickets sing at all on any of their records, or were they simply an instrumental backing group for Buddy Holly, using session singers to do the vocals?

As a loyal Crickets fan - I was appalled, and a huge controversy started in the Buddy Holly Fan Club, the general tone of which was that of course The Crickets sang.

It said so on their albums.

They were a vocal group, with instrumental accompaniment.

Had they not won the Top Vocal Group Of The Year award?

OK said the doubters - how come they don't sing on stage, and also, how come that if you listen carefully, the backing vocals on all their records, all sound different to each other?

This was too much for me. It was the equivalent of blasphemy.

Buddy Holly (a canonised saint by now) was no sooner in his grave, than people were slandering his vocal group!

I decided to prove that the Crickets sang, and so I wrote a grovelling letter to Norman Petty who had produced them.

This would end the matter for once and for all.

Of course, I did not expect the reply I got.

No, said Norman, they had sang backing vocals on none of their records.

Some had used a vocal group called The Picks and some had used a group called The Roses, and as for "Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets", well Norman had nothing to do with that, but it sounded to him as though it might be somebody like the Johnny Mann Singers.

My dreams were shattered - way too much information alotgether - and all of it unwanted.

Twenty years later of course, when I had matured to fourteen and a half, I realised that not only had the Crickets not sung on "Bobby Vee Meets The Crickets", they had not (barring one member), played on it either.

Session musicians and session vocalists had been used, and the Crickets had merely contribited the photograph!

From then on, I rarely believed the liner notes on the albums, and when it turned out that (despite the lovely group photo), Ronnie & The Daytonas was not a group but one guy multi-tracked to infinity, or that "He's A Rebel" by The Crystals, was actually performed by The Blossoms, I did not turn a hair.

In fact, if tomorrow, somebody told me that Ral Donner performed on all of Elvis's hits, while Elvis was really a black guy who performed under the name B B King, I would be not remotely surprised.

As a result, I seem to have gone from a guy who believed everything to a guy who believes nothing, but worse of all, I have never been quite able to listen to The Crickets records again with the same innocent enjoyment I had as a teenager.

I might have been happier (even if more ignorant) not knowing the truth.

Of course, isn't that often the case?


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