Baby Huey and the Babysitters

Baby Huey/James Ramey


Baby Huey (born James Ramey, August 17, 1944 - October 28, 1970) was an American rock and soul singer, born inRichmond, Indiana. He was the frontman for the band Baby Huey & The Babysitters, whose single LP for Curtom Records in 1971 was influential in the development of hip hop music.

A native of Richmond, Indiana, James Ramey moved to Chicago, Illinois at the age of nineteen, and worked with several local bands as a singer. Due to a "glandular disorder", Ramey was a large man, weighing about 350 pounds (160 kg). His size contributed to his stage presence, but also to health problems. Nevertheless, he made light of his condition, adopting the stage name "Baby Huey" after Paramount Pictures' giant duckling cartoon character of the same name. In 1963, Ramey, organist/trumpeter Melvyn "Deacon" Jones, and guitarist Johnny Ross founded a band called Baby Huey & the Babysitters, which became a popular local act and released several 45 RPM singles, including "Beg Me", "Monkey Man", "Messin' with the Kid" and "Just Being Careful".

During the late-1960s, the band followed the lead of Sly & the Family Stone and became a psychedelic soul act. Huey began wearing an Afro and donned psychedelic African-inspired robes, and adding sing-song, self-referential rhymes to his live performances. According to his bandmates, Ramey's rhymes were very similar in style to those later popularized by rappers in hip-hop music. The Babysitters were a popular live act, but never took the time out to record an album.

In 1969, the band's agent Marv Heiman secured them an audition with Curtom Records arranger Donny Hathaway. Heiman states that Hathaway came by the Thumbs Up club and was very impressed by the act, and got Curtom Records head Curtis Mayfield to come the following night. Mayfield wanted to sign Baby Huey, but not the band. Although the band participated in the recording of Ramey's debut album, there were feelings of unease among them, and Jones quit the band during the recording. It's also likely that Ross had quit some time before.

By 1970, Ramey had developed an addiction to heroin, and his weight had increased to over 400 pounds. He began regularly missing gigs or turning up late, and, at the insistence of his bandmates, briefly entered rehabilitation in the spring of 1970. In addition to the heroin problem, Ramey was also drinking. Melvyn Jones had described in his book an incident that took place: while pouring his breakfast cereal, Ramey's drug kit fell out of the box. James Ramey died of a heart attack on October 28, 1970, at the age of 26, and was found around noon in his hotel bathroom by his manager. His funeral was held on November 1, in his native Richmond, Indiana.

Baby Huey's album, The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, was released after his death. Produced by Curtis Mayfield, the album featured several Mayfield compositions, as well as a cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" and two original compositions by Ramey. The album did not sell well upon its original release, and was largely forgotten by the mainstream. Today, the album is considered a classic of its period.

On October 7, 1971, Jet Magazine ran a small piece on how his mother Mrs Ernestine Ramey Saine was granted authorisation to audit the records of two recording firms including Curtom Records. The order also permitted her to evaluate an undetermined estate left by him. According to Chicago attorney Vernon M. Rhinehart, Ramey had a salary that was $3,500 per week.

Several songs from The Baby Huey Story, including "Hard Times", "Listen to Me", and "Mighty Mighty Children", have been frequently sampled by hip hop producers since the 1980s. "Hard Times" alone has been sampled by dozens of artists, including Ice Cube ("The Birth", Death Certificate), A Tribe Called Quest ("Can I Kick It?", People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm), Ghostface Killah ("Buck 50", Supreme Clientele), and others. John Legend and The Roots covered "Hard Times" for their 2010 album Wake Up!. Many people, including the Babysitters themselves, see The Baby Huey Story as a significant and important influence on hip hop music.

So here are all of the the tracks recorded with The Babysitters, and all of the solo work.....enjoy!

 


Listen to me
Mama get yourself together
A change is gonna come
Mighty mighty (live)
Hard times
California Dreamin
Running
One dragon two dragon
Beg me
Just being careful
Messing with the kid
Monkey man

https://rapidshare.com/files/2586978070/babyhuey.zip

An OTR Two-fer: The Nash Kelvinator NK Musical Showroom: Andrews Sisters shows from 12/31/1944 and 12/19/1945

Here ya go....first up a Blue Network show from December 31, 1944...The Andrews Sisters with Bing Crosby, Gabby Hayes, Vic Schoen and his Orchestra, Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage. Marvin Miller (announcer)


https://rapidshare.com/files/3431747884/Guest_-_Bing_Crosby__Gabby_Hayes.mp3

Gabby

Marvin Miller

Foy and the Riders of the Purple Sage

Der Bingle


Next up: CBS-December 19, 1945...The Sisters with Guest Ray Noble, The Ambassadors, Curt Massey, Vic Schoen and his Orchestra, and Harlow Wilcox (announcer).




https://rapidshare.com/files/4146823963/Guest_-_Ray_Noble.mp3

Ray

Curt

Harlow

I AM TRYING TO RELOAD LINKS..not on Megaupload

Please post any requests, or items that were on Megaupload that you can't access now.....I'll try to get to those as quickly as possible. I'm trying to relink them on Rapidshare. Thanks.

Two more OTR: A Doris Day double header: 11-25-1952 and 12-23-1952 Doris Day Show on CBS

Just a fun little OTR for the afternoon....A DoDo Two-fer! The Doris Day Show from 11-25-1952, with Guest Kirk Douglas, Don Wilson as MC. Next we have the 12-23-1952 Christmas broadcast "Looking for Don Wilson's Santa Suit", with Jack Kirkwood as guest.

http://www.mediafire.com/?l2i1lco9226dxmt

Don Wilson

Kirk Douglas

Jack Kirkwood

Megaupload is gone......and what of it? Screw the Justice Department...where there's a will there's a way.....

So, the Justice Department shut down Megaupload today....I somehow knew this was coming, just maybe not quite this soon...*sigh*. A lot of the files on this site are at Megaupload, so that means they are now not available. I will start moving them to another site. Let me know any immediate request, please, so I can get to those ASAP. Thanks.

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers...w/ Charles Brown and more Part One...

Johnny Moore's Three Blazers

Johnny Moore (who was not related to the singer with The Drifters) and his younger brother Oscar grew up in Texas and then Phoenix, Arizona, where they both started playing guitar and formed their own string band. In the mid 1930s they relocated to Los Angeles, where Oscar Moore, who had become influenced by Charlie Christian and turned to jazz, joined the King Cole Trio.

Johnny Moore remained devoted to rhythm and blues, his guitar style being considered to be an influence on Chuck Berry. He joined and formed several groups, before forming The Three Blazers with two fellow Texans, bassist Eddie Williams and pianist and singer Charles Brown, who was newly arrived in the city. After the Cole Trio moved from Atlas Records to Capitol in 1943, Oscar Moore suggested to Atlas boss Robert Scherman that he replace them with his brother's group. Scherman agreed to record the Blazers if Oscar Moore would play with them, and the recordings were released as by 'Oscar Moore with The Three Blazers'. Although this upset Johnny Moore, it brought the group some exposure, and in 1945 they had their first hit, backing Ivory Joe Hunter on "Blues At Sunrise".

In 1946, they had greater success with "Driftin' Blues", sung by Charles Brown. Although Brown was the group's star attraction, Johnny Moore refused to allow him his own credit on the records. He also refused to sign an exclusive contract with any label, so that the group’s early records appeared on various labels, particularly Philo, Exclusive and Modern. The group followed up the success of “Driftin' Blues” with a number of other big R&B hits, including “Sunny Road” (1946), “New Orleans Blues” (1947) and “Merry Christmas Baby” (1947, but also a hit in 1948 and 1949).

In 1948, frustrated by his lack of recognition and financial reward, Brown left the group for a successful solo career. The remaining two Blazers continued with a succession of vocalists, notably Billy Valentine, Mari Jones, Floyd Dixon, and, in the mid-1950s, Frankie Ervin. After the Cole Trio broke up, Oscar Moore also played occasionally as a guest musician with the group. Johnny Moore and his group continued to record occasionally for small labels until the early 1960s.

Here's Part One of a nice little selection....ENJOY! B&O Blues- w/ Charles Brown Baby don't you cry- w/ CB Be cool AKA Keep cool- w/ Mari Jones Be sharp, you'll see me- w/ CB Blazer's Boogie- Blue because of you- w/ CB Blues for what I've never had- Blues in my heart-  Bobby Sox blues- w/ CB Bop-A-Bye baby- C.O.D.-   Changeable woman blues- w/ CB Christmas Eve baby- Citation- Competition blues- Copyright on your love- w/ CB Crazy with the blues- w/ MJ Cut off the fat (take out the bone)- Don't get salty, sugar- w/ CB Down in Texas- w/ MJ Dragnet blues- Driftin' blues 2- w/ CB Driftin' blues- Drifting blues- w/ MJ http://www.mediafire.com/?ywddvw9s77p7dtk  ***NEW LINK***

Not closing the website down today....but protesting

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/

███ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██. ███ ███ This comment has been found in violation of H.R. 3261, S.O.P.A and has been removed.

Humphrey Bogart and The Santana: A pictorial on men and the love of sailing....

Text from www.thesantana.com (a wonderful, highly recommended site)


The Santana -built in 1935-owned by Bogart 1945-57. (The pic below is of the Santana restored and under the current owners)

Bogie's Boat...."The trouble with having dames on board is you can't pee over the side."

Regardless of how many owners there have been or ever will be, Santana will always be known as "Bogie's" boat. In Stephen Bogart’s book, "In Search Of My Father," he writes, "While most people know that Bogie and Bacall had a great love affair, probably fewer know about my father’s other great love affair. It was with sailing. Specifically, it was with the Santana, a fifty-five-foot sailing yacht, which he had bought from Dick Powell and June Allyson. My father was not simply some movie star throwing money into a hole in the water. He was very serious about the boat and he was an excellent helmsman who earned the respect of the sailing fraternity, despite some well-entrenched prejudices they had about actors with boats. The sea was my father’s sanity. My father once answered a question about his devotion to sailing this way: "An actor needs something to stabilize his personality, something to nail down what he really is, not what he is currently pretending to be."

Bogart learned to sail as a child and once he had the good fortune to own his own boat he did it as often as possible. He sailed Santana between 35 and 45 weekends a year. Most of those weekends were stag, as Bogie felt that "the trouble with having dames on board is you can’t pee over the side." In addition to many weekends aboard the boat spent at Catalina, he also did a considerable amount of racing with respectable results. Bogart took first in his class in the San Clemente Island Race of 1950 and first in the 1952 Channel Islands Race.

Bogart and Santana played host to many of Hollywood’s greatest stars of the time, including Ingrid Bergman, Richard Burton, David Niven, and Frank Sinatra. In David Niven’s memoir "The Moon’s a Balloon," he tells of a weekend when he and his wife Hjordis were aboard Santana as guests of the Bogarts. Frank Sinatra and his party were on a chartered motor yacht. In the evening Sinatra’s boat tied up next to Santana, and accompanied by Jimmy Van Heusen on piano, Sinatra sang, literally, all through the night. "People from other boats rowed over in dinghies and sat in a circle around the two yachts, under a full moon, listening, until the sky began to grow light and the singing ended. Then they rowed quietly away."

During the years that Bogart owned the boat he made only one significant change, that being the addition of the drink holder that is installed around the base of the steering binnacle. Designed to fit a group of large highball glasses, this proved to be a practical and vital improvement for the competitive yachtsman Bogart was. One night after a race in which Santana coasted past another yacht, Bogart was asked, "What makes the boat go like that?" Bogie said "Scotch" and then just walked away. Clearly Bogart put that drink holder to good use both on and off the race course.

When Bogart wasn’t sailing, he still had Santana on his mind. When he formed his own production company in 1947, he called it "Santana Productions." Bogie starred with Bacall and Edward G. Robinson in the movie Key Largo, and his boat in the film had "Santana" on the stern. He also had a complete model of Santana on display in his home inside a glass case. Above that case sat his two Academy Awards. If asked what was more important--the Oscars or the boat--no doubt he would have replied "The Boat." When Bogart died, they eulogized the actor, the husband and the father, but it was the model of Santana, his love, that stood along side the pulpit.

Bogart certainly had a love affair with Santana. While some think of her as being special just because she was "Bogie’s Boat", in fact quite the opposite was the truth. Bogart had been a life-long sailor and he knew a good boat when he saw one. It was Santana’s indescribable virtues that attracted him. It just happened that he was also extraordinarily well-known, and this only furthered her notoriety.

The is much more history at the site this text is quoted from, including all of the owners, design and history, and also of it's sinking and restoration....VERY RECOMMENDED.

On to a few Bogart pics....

 A few later pics

A little bit of afternoon OTR: Ink Spots 1935

A nice little OTR for the afternoon: The Ink Spots, in 1935....probably on New York's WJZ, relayed coast-to-coast on NBC's Blue Network.






NEW LINK!!--RAPIDSHARE


https://rapidshare.com/files/4150043570/The_Ink_Spots_1935_Live_Radio_Broadcast.mp3

For sledder's only......another little mix

A little mix for the sledders among us.....


1, 2 Booga-The Nite Lites
A.D.-Billy The Kid Emerson
Bye Bye Baby-Mary Wells
Crazy Country Hop-Johnny Otis Revue
Do The Oop=Poo-Pah-Doo-Ronnie Dio and the Prophets
Georgia Slop-Big Al Downing
Gone, gone, gone-Everly Brothers
Good Rocking Daddy-Etta James
Guitarville-Roland James
Having Fun-Bobbettes
I'm comin' on back to you-Jackie Wilson
It's getting harder all the time-Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
Milkshake Mademoiselle-Jerry Lee Lewis
Never let your love grow cold-The Vontastics
Raunchy-Santo and Johnny
The Coffee Grind-Hank Ballard
The Hawg-Eddie Kirk
Tight skirt, tight sweater-Versatones
Wie Du-Jimmy and the Rackets
Yama yama pretty mama-Richard Berry








NEW LINK*****NOT ON MEGAUPLOAD*****


https://rapidshare.com/files/4151961008/sledding.zip

A post-ski afternoon lodge list....... :)

Here's a fun little mix for your post-ski afternoon....


Abercrombie Had A Zombie-Fats Waller
Abi Gezunt-Ozzie Nelson Orch.
Woodchopper's ball-Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
Born to swing-Artie Shaw
Flying home Pt. 1 and 2-Illinois Jacquet and his All-Stars
For dancers only-Jimmy Lunceford
Fräulein Madeleine-Horst Winter
Gotta be this or that-Pied Pipers
Grober Apfel (Big Apple)-Teddy Stauffer mit Seinen Original-Teddies
I'm feeling high and happy-Gene Krupa w/ Helen Ward
Johnny get your horn-Lionel Hampton
Moderner rhythmus/Harlem Swing-Fud Candrix Orch.
Möglich ist alles (Could be)-Erhard Bauchke Orch.
Rhythmus-Tanzorchester Kurt Hohenberger
Swingin' on that Famous Door-The Delta Four
This way out-Nat King Cole Trio
Yodelin' Jive-The Andrews Sisters/Bing Crosby






NEW LINK*****NOT ON MEGAUPLOAD******




https://rapidshare.com/files/3125947343/skiing.zip