There is no doubt that Atlantic Records played a huge role in exposing a wider audience to the sound of Rhythm & Blues. The label, which was founded by jazz lovers Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson in 1947, boasted a roster of artists that at one time or another included Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Sam & Dave. But in the beginning, there were pioneers at the label. They included artists like Ray Charles, Sticks McGhee, Ruth Brown, Joe Morris, the Clovers, the Clyde McPhatter-led Drifters, and Lavern Baker.

She was born in Chicago in 1929. Her given name was Delores Baker and she was the niece of not one but two singers — jazz vocalist Merline Johnson, who was primarily responsible for raising Baker, and the legendary blues singer Memphis Minnie. By the age of 12, Baker was not only singing in her church choir but she was leading soloist. It was just five years later, having attained legal status, that Baker began performing in the South Side clubs under the stage name “The Little Sharecropper.” Her rustic schtick proved popular with the record number of black people who were migrating to Chicago from the south as well as the hip city people.

At the time, Detroit had a growing reputation as a center for R&B so Baker headed there. She landed a gig at The Flame Show Bar. The club’s owner, a guy named Al Green, became her manager. Baker’s first recordings were released by RCQ in 1949 with Baker fronting Sugarman Penigar’s band. “I Wonder Baby” and “Easy Baby” proved very popular in the clubs where Baker was performing. But the winds of change were blowing and by the early 1950s big band music was on its way out and R&B was rising. 1952 was a big year for Baker. She dumped the “Little Sharecropper” thing, joined the Todd Rhodes Orchestra, changed her stage name to Lavern Baker, released an R&B ballad called “Trying,” and toured nearly non-stop.

The momentum continued in 1953. Baker quit the band and successfully toured Europe as a solo act. That was also the year that she signed with Atlantic Records and released her first single for the label, the classic “Soul On Fire.” Her true breakthrough was still ahead and it took place with a single that Baker recorded in October 1954. “Tweedlee Dee” was a huge hit all through 1955. The Winfield Scott song, written specifically for Baker, rose to #4 on the R&B chart and #14 on the pop chart. The problem was that there was a despicable practice known as “whitewashing” going on at the time. Many radio stations and record stores would only push records by white artists. So white artists like Georgia Gibbs made whole careers out of covering black hits and getting substantial airplay and sales. The Gibbs cover or “Tweedlee Dee” sold over a million copies and she subsequently cover the Baker hits “Jim Dandy” and “Tra La La.”

But Baker didn’t let racism stop her. She continued releasing hits like “Play It Fair” and “Bop-Ting-A-Ling” and made an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1955. As rock and roll began to eclipse R&B, Baker adapted again, releasing rock and roll-styled hits like “Jim Dandy,” “Jim Dandy Got Married,” and “Humpty Dumpty Heart.” Her greatest success, however, came in 1958 with an epic single “I Cried a Tear.” Baker’s string of hits continued into the 1960s with songs like “So High, So Low,” “Saved,” and “See See Rider.” But the river of time kept flowing and the rise of Motown and the appearance of the Beatles on these shores relegated artists like Baker to “oldies” status. By 1965, Baker had decamped from Atlantic and landed at Brunswick records. She had a couple of small hits for the label, “Think Twice,” and “Wrapped, Tied, and Tangled.”

While entertaining troops in Vietnam on a USO tour in 1966, Baker fell ill with pneumonia. She was airlifted to Thailand for treatment and by the time she recovered, the tour had ended and she was left alone in southeast Asia.

“I didn’t know what to do, who to go to,” Baker told biography.com. “The tour was gone and I was in a strange country where telephone service was practically nonexistent. I hitched with farmers on wagons to Bangkok. I’d had to slog through rice paddies in water up to my shoulders in some places to get to Bangkok, so by the time the Marines got me to the base I’d had a relapse.”

Baker was then airlifted to the Philippines where she spent four more months recovering. Her then-husband, comedian Slappy White, used the lack of communication (Baker insisted that she made numerous attempts to contact him) from Baker to have her declared dead and assumed ownership of her catalog.

“For all I know he heard my voice and hung up. Probably did, the no-good &%@S#!!,” Baker said.

Baker decided to make the best of a bad situation. She stayed in the Philippines, running a nightclub for 21 years, before returning to the U.S. in 1988. She got back in time to win acclaim with her performances at the Atlantic Records 40th-anniversary show at Madison Square Garden and in the Broadway production of Black and Blue. In 1991, Baker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She continued to tour until her death from heart failure in 1997.

Pioneer. Trailblazer. These are terms that we tend to toss around but they fit Lavern Baker like a glove. She’s not called the Empress of Rock and Roll for nothing and if her life had a tragic tinge to it as a result of losing millions of dollars because of the covers of her hits by white artists and being an exile from the country of her birth for more than 20 years, she lived with dignity and unshaken optimism.

“I just did what I had to do,” she said. “Don’t we all?”

 

The summer of 1966. I spent it on the beach and Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Incredible music poured out of tinny sounding transistor radio speakers everywhere I went. The songs of that summer included “Paint It, Black” by the Rolling Stones, “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James and the Shondells, “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb, “Sweet Talkin’ Guy” by the Chiffons, “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge, and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by the Temptations.” But the Tempts and their Motown colleagues were not the only ones pushing great music out of the Motor City. Because 1966 was also the summer of the Capitols.

They got together in 1962 as an actual band, as opposed to a vocal group, called the Caps. The original lineup included drummer Samuel George who was also the lead singer. Don Storball played guitar and sang backup vocals, and Richard Mitchell was the keyboard player who also sang backup. At the time, an Ann Arbor DJ named Ollie McLaughlin owned a label called Karen Records. When the Caps opened for Barbara Lewis, McLaughlin caught their act and signed them to his label. In 1963, they released their first single “Dog and Cat” b/w “The Kick.” The record had plenty of energy, just like their later singles would, but the lyrics were pretty childish and the Caps failed to find an audience for it. As a result, the group fell apart and the members went their own ways.

The 1960s were known for a number of dance crazes. There was the twist, the watusi, the frug, and many others. One of the biggest was a dance called the jerk. The jerk was more sexually suggestive than some of the others, so much so that in some Detroit clubs it was known as the “pimp jerk.” Storball could sense which way the wind was blowing and he wrote a song hoping to capitalize on the jerk craze. He was smart enough to worry that such a song might end up being banned on the radio so instead of calling it “Pimp Jerk” he called it “Cool Jerk.”

The other Capitols saw the potential in Storball’s song and decided to get back together. They got in touch with McLaughlin to give him the good news and to book some studio time. On March 14, 1966, they went into the studio and although “Cool Jerk” was not technically a Motown record, the backing group that day was none other than Motown’s legendary Funk Brothers. McLaughlin served as producer. There were supposed to be horn players on the record but perhaps fearful of the wrath of Berry Gordy, Jr. they failed to show up for the sessions. The session went on without them, the horn parts simply left out of the mix.

The “Cool Jerk” single was released two weeks later on Karen Records (it was eventually picked up by Atlantic for distribution) and it rose to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 while reaching the #2 spot on the R&B chart. Not content to rest on their laurels, the Capitols released two albums in 1966 hoping to capitalize on the success of the “Cool Jerk” single. Both albums, Dance the Cool Jerk and We Got a Thing, were primarily made up of Motown and other soul covers. Neither album did very well although Dance the Cool Jerk managed to scrape into the Top 100 for a week.

The Capitols released eight more singles in the wake of their “Cool Jerk” smash. Only two of them charted and none higher than #65. As a result, the Capitols will always wear the one-hit wonder tag. In 1969, they broke up for good. Don Storball became a cop and still lives in Detroit. Samuel George died in 1982, and Richard Mitchell died two years later.

The Capitols may have only had the one hit but it’s a hit that has been covered many times over the years and one that has influenced generations of musicians. Among the artists doing their own versions of “Cool Jerk” were Todd Rundgren, the Tremeloes, the Coasters, the Outsiders, and the Go-Gos. The song has also been featured in numerous films including a memorable version that had Bootsy Collins performing the song backed by the Funk Brothers in Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

In the year 2019, some 33 & 1/3 years after they started (give or take), The Reverend Horton Heat is bigger than ever. This past November, Victory Records released the band’s 12th album, Whole New Life, described by front man Jim Heath as “the most positive material I have ever written. It focuses heavily on rock and roll but there is a human interest parallel – songs about growing up poor, vices, marriage, having children and walking the rapturous streets of America.”

The album landed high on my Best Albums of 2018 list and keeps getting better by the day. There are few sure things in pop culture these days, but the Reverend’s albums always entertain and their live sets are guaranteed to shake your booty and soak you to the bone. The mosh pits might be lively, but you’re not going to meet a nicer crowd anywhere on Earth.

With this new album and tour, two new members, drummer Arjuna ‘RJ’ Contreras and pianist Matt Jordan, join Heath and his trusty sidekick Jimbo Wallace (slapper of the stand-up bass). The band, one that plays up to 200 dates annually, is off on the road as we speak, preaching the gospel of rock and roll to the masses. Popdose caught up with Heath between gigs.

POPDOSE: In the early press for this album, you mentioned you were channeling a Sam Phillips/1950s vibe while recording Whole New Life. How did this recording experience differ from your time in the studio with the likes of Al Jourgensen and Gibby Haynes? 

JIM HEATH: I’m the producer and studio engineer on most of this record. I pretty much try to channel the energy from Sun Records all of the time. It’s hard to do. Those are great, great records. Sam Phillips was a genius. I think the pumping piano on ‘Whole New Life’ channels Jerry Lee Lewis.

I’m now getting more and more into tape. This album actually has some vintage style microphones and microphone amps that I built myself as well as a lot of old equipment. From a studio engineer point of view, my favorite recordings are Bill Haley and the Comets, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio. If I could get the sound that Bill Haley and the Comets got, I’d do that all of the time. Fortunately, I can’t, therefore I’m forced to find my own thing.

These days, especially in Texas, people either feel like we’re living in heaven or hell; did the current social/political climate inspire the positive tone of the new songs?

JH: People need positivity in their lives no matter what’s going on in the news. My job is to make people smile.

Your guitars – and Jimbo’s — are as much the stars of show as the band – do you still play the same ones or do you upgrade with new models every few years?  

JH: Jimbo has been through multiple basses. I’ve been on the same Gretsch RHH 6120 since 2004. I’ve got several of my model of Gretsch, but there’s one main one and then another that I put heavier strings on for solo shows and some recording sessions. I’d love to dig my old guitars out of the closet, but I don’t have time!

Congrats on the new members – how long til they are immortalized with a theme song ala J.I.M.B.O? 

JH: Thanks. RJ and Matt are so much fun to play with. Super fun and they are both extremely talented musicians in their own ways. Awesome. 

I’ve been a fan almost since the beginning but clearly don’t have the stamina to enter the pit at one of your shows anymore – how are the crowds these days? Slowing down? Or are the new kids up front and the rest back at the bar?

JH: One thing that I think that Reverend Horton Heat has more than any band on the planet is diversity of the types of shows that we do and diversity among our fans. We’ll play a country place one night with elderly square dancers, then the next night we’re playing to a giant mosh pit of metal or punks, then the next night its hippies or something… I genuinely love anybody who is nice, respectful and willing to rock out! It’s really crazy. I’ll adjust our set list to the crowd as much as it takes, but it’s still our original songs and it’s a Reverend Horton Heat show. Of course, there’ going to be some rockabilly people at any Rev show too.

Quick aside – one of the all time coolest things I have ever seen at a live gig. At one of your shows at Metro in Chicago back in the day, a kid in the pit had his glasses knocked off mid-song everyone around him stopped on a dime until someone found them – and the pit picked right up once they were recovered. No question there, just awe at how cool your fans are.

JH: Right. One thing that all RHH fans have in common is they’re nice and have a good sense of humor. Well…most are nice.

As you get older, have your vices and habits on the road changed at all? Or are you still sticking with the classics? With this new style of raspier singing, how do you keep your voice fresh for 200+ annual shows? Does whisky help?

JH: No, whiskey does not help. I don’t drink before the show ever, but once we start, I’ve got a little cup of whiskey – hey, I want to have some fun too! But, yes, we’ve changed. We used to be pretty much of a 24/7 travelling party. Then, one day Jimbo and I had a long heart to heart and decided that we needed to be really on top of performing for EVERYONE – not just there to party with the old hanger-on’ers from ‘back in the day’. That discussion saved our career and maybe our lives as well. Professional singing coaches are amazed that I sing six nights on/one night off. I’m kind of surprised I can do it as well. I have to sleep a lot during the day when we’re on tour.

Viva Las Vegas is such a natural cover for the band, how has this version ever not ALWAYS existed? Has it been in the live set for a while? What inspired you to record it?

JH: It’s kind of a long story why we recorded it, but it does work very, very well with all sorts of crowds. It’s what we call a barn-burner.

Who’s heading out on the road with you this round? Any special guests as openers or on-stage guests?

JH: We’ve got Big Sandy with us a lot these days. He’s so busy with his band and regular gigs we can’t always get him. He is with us in January and February of 2019. We’re going to be doing a thing at the Ameripolitan Awards and possibly at Viva Las Vegas this year with Big Sandy as well. He’s a dear friend. We’re also excited to get Bloodshot Bill as a guest in the middle of 2019. As far as openers, there are too many to list. Voodoo Glow Skulls and The Delta Bombers. Hopefully more with Junior Brown and the Blasters.

I still feel the Heat on CD, always have, always will. But now that streaming is all the rage, have you made enough to at least buy a good beer with the royalties?

JH: The streaming thing is hurting artists, producers, musicians and everyone who makes recorded music. I hope that they figure out something more equitable very soon. In the meantime, my artform is music, which actually has very little to do with recording.

Whole New Life by The Reverend Horton Heat is available to buy on CD and Vinyl from your local, independent record store, if you’re lucky enough to have one nearby, or Amazon if you don’t.