Musical Conversations

As part of the A to Z Challenge, I visited a number of other bloggers. (Actually, I'm still trying to make my way through to visit all 1509 blogs) One blog that I ran across was The Scheherazade Chronicles.  After I had left a comment, the blogger, Samantha Mozart, paid my blog a visit. She was inspired by my T is for Tequila post. And responded with another post of her own.




Samantha writes:

May 14, 2015 — I was in eighth grade listening to hit songs on the radio sung by Doris Day and Perry Como, when my friend, Anne Sullivan, said, “You’ve gotta listen to this.”  It was “Roll With Me, Henry,” sung by Etta James (1938-2012), the first rock ‘n’ roll song (now commonly known as doo wop) I had ever heard. The song, I learned today, has an interesting backstory.

According to Wikipedia: The Wallflower” (also known as “Roll with Me, Henry” and “Dance with Me, Henry“) is a 1955 popular song. It was one of several answer songs to “Work with Me, Annie” and has the same 12-bar blues melody. It was written by Johnny Otis, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Etta James recorded it for Modern Records, with uncredited vocal responses from Richard Berry, under the title “The Wallflower” and it became a rhythm and blues hit, topping the U.S. R&B chart for 4 weeks. It was popularly known as “Roll with Me Henry”. This original version was considered too risque to play on pop radio stations.
In 1955, the song was covered for the pop market by Georgia Gibbs with the title “Dance With Me Henry”. That version charted, hitting the top five of several pop charts, including number one on the Most Played In Juke Boxes chart on May 14, 1955 , spending three weeks on top of that chart.[1] In 1958, Etta James made her own cover version of “Dance With Me Henry”.


There are no coincidences, some say, yet I stumbled on this today, May 14, 2015 , the 60th anniversary of Georgia Gibbs’s (1919-1006) “Dance With Me, Henry” topping the jukebox charts, because a fellow blogger visited my site for the first time and commented.  I responded and in turn, visited her blog — she writes about music, mostly rock ‘n’ roll (http://www.jinglejanglejungle.net).  She wrote a post about The Champs and “Tequila” and that made me think of the first rock ‘n’ roll song I had ever heard.

And in her comments she writes:

And what’s more amazing is the passing of B.B. King on the same day. There must be some connection, but I don’t know yet what it is.
Samantha Mozart
 

You can read her post in it's entirety at http://thescheherazadechronicles.org/?p=4429

You can read my recent post on BB King here.



Stop by and say hello!




Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required



Hey did you know ...

You can now submit a request for a specific Artist, Song, or Theme
Check it out up at the top of the page under "Requests"

AND... while I have your attention...

Are you interested in becoming a Guest Blogger?
I am looking for AWESOME bloggers just like you!
There are only two requirements and it is a MUST

The Guest Post MUST be FAMILY FRIENDLY
The Guest Post MUST be MUSIC RELATED

That’s not too much to ask now is it? Be sure to fill out the sign-up form, and I will send you an email with all of the details including your publishing date. Don’t delay as spaces fill-up rather fast.

Guest Blogger Sign Up Here


Comments

Recent Posts

Recent Posts Widget