Original artist, original hit!:

Great info AndyClifton, thanks for posting again. Gene Vincent is someone that I remember from the old days of course. His " Be Bop A Lula " hit is probably the song that people remember most today, but lots of his music is up on Youtube now. The Hombres is a act that is listed as a one hit wonder ( of which there were many ) and with my poor memory for names I had forgotten them but their hit song seems familiar. Billy Lee Riley is listed as a early member of the Rockabilly crowd and in one of my earlier posts I mentioned the strong connection between Rockabilly artists and Rock & Roll. Little Willie John is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame I believe, however he had a very sad life and was dead by age 30.

    A good movie that covers some of the early history of Blues music and also the connection of that music to the British Invasion is " Cadillac Records ", a well made film. Getting back to one hit wonders I noticed that Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs are shown on Youtube doing " Wooly Bully ". I love that song and tho they had a couple of other songs out I think they just had the one hit. You tube certainly is a terrific feature on the internet, no end of interesting info to be found there ( so much info, so little time  lol ).       

Thanks for the info Electricpawn. I guess Willie Dixson is possibly as well known for his songwriting as he is for his performing. " The Little Red Roster " is a song of his that was covered by several of the top groups including The Doors. 

Dixon may be known more for his writing, both because most of his recordings are from so long ago, but also many of his songs were not recorded first by him.  For instance, Dixon wrote all three of the songs posted above, but Little Red Rooster (called "The Red Rooster") and Back Door Man were both first recorded by Howling Wolf, and You Shook Me (which Dixon co-wrote with J.B. Lenoir) was first recorded (as vocals) by Muddy Waters.  Of course, Led Zeppelin also covered You Shook Me on their 1st album.  B.B. King didn't get around to covering You Shook Me until the early 1990s! 

The Rolling Stones had a successful cover of Little Red Rooster, and it was also covered by Greatful Dead and Tom Petty, among others.  Back Door Man was covered by The Doors on their debut album (the song's most widely known version), Lovin' Spoonful, Cream, and many others.

Anyway, by the time Dixon himself finally got around to releasing recordings of himself playing his own compositions, he was essentially doing covers of recorded versions made famous by other artists. 

Thanks for posting again Cystem_Phailure, and Wow, Thanks for all of the info !

Also I must apologize to any serious music fans that have been reading thru this thread as I've been guilty of a major oversight. I've been talking about the Blues and I've missed mentioning one of UK's early pioneers of that music. Long John Baldry was one of the true pioneers of the Blues on the London scene and then in later years lived in Vancouver, Canada until he passed away around 2005. I notice his music is also up on Youtube so let me just add: Don't Lay No Boogie Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll ! 

Big Joe Williams wrote and did a Blues song "Baby Please Don't Go" in 1935. "Them" did a great Rock version in 1965, however "The Amboy Dukes" in 1967 with an 18 year old Ted Nuggent on lead gutair and John Drake on vocals took that blues song to a "Hard Rock" Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi8h9_KgFpc

don't forget PinkFloyd

 I, too, quit satellite radio after the merger.  Prior to it, XM had a great blues channel and a lousy bluegrass channel.  Sirius had a great bluegrass channel and a lousy blues channel.

After the merger, they got rid of the good stuff and kept the garbage.  Bob Dylan had a pretty cool radio show on one of those XM stations, too.

Thanks for the new posts everyone. Big Joe Williams probably does pre-date Willie Dixion by a few years. Somehow I didn't come across the Group " Them " in my early days and so I didn't realize that was where Van Morrison served his apprenticeship, mind you he is still hard at it today which is good to see. With Nugget and Davis in the group " The Amboy Dukes " certainly were off to a terrific start as well.  

When the subject of " Pink Floyd " comes up then we are going to talk about one of my ( many ) favorite songs. Yup I love their song " Another Brick In The Wall ", one of the great tunes of Rock & Roll.

On the subject of Satellite radio all I can say is that they can steal my old car and they can steal my old truck, they can even steal my old garden tractor but please don't let them take my Satellite radio away  lol. 

For younger people that read thru this thread and who may not be too familiar with Rock from the 50's there are several enjoyable movies on DVDs that have great older music in them. The original American Graffiti has a teriffic soundrack full of Solid Gold from the early days of Rock. For example early in the movie one hears the lively " Rock Around The Clock " by Bill Haley and The Comets followed a couple of songs later by " Runaway " done by Del Shannon and then Buddy Holey's hit " That'll Be The Day ". There are 41 songs listed in this movie's soundtrack album also including numbers by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Knox, The Platters and many others. A good movie and a great sondtrack, things don't get much better  lol.      

@ cabadenwurt: I am pretty sure you have heard "Gloria" written by Van Morrison and preformed by "Them" in 1965. It is #211 on Rolling Stones 500 top Rock songs. This song was banned from many markets because of the lines:

When she comes to my house
She knocks upon my door She comes around here
Just about midnight
Ha, she make me feel so good, Lord
I wanna say she make me feel alright

Comes a-walkin' down my street
When she comes to my house
She knocks upon my door
And then she comes in my room
Yeah, an' she make me feel alright




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkaMVLHxzWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZRB12zrNgM

Great Rock Ivandh. Turn the volume up until it hurts.

Thanks for posting here again HessianWarrior. Yes I very much like the song " Gloria " but I had not heard about that controversy, Thanks for the update. I do remember that on one of the Rolling Stones appearances on Ed Sullivan the censors asked them to change a couple of lines in the song "  Can't Get No Satisfaction ".