A little pause in posting.........

Sorry, I have tons of music to post....tons! I'm putting a hard drive upgrade in the laptop (Oooo...surprise. eh?) Got a little Birthday $$ from the parental units, and am pulling out the 250GB to upgrade with a 500GB tomorrow, so I'm a little delayed in getting to it. Oh, and also bought myself the new iPod Touch 4G........Oh, my.....it's digital CRACK....evil, evil, evil time sucker.....so very fun to play with.  Stay tuned....some good stuff to come

Another serving of Halloween cheesecake, anyone?? ;)

Benny Goodman Quartet...........1937

I'm in the middle of compiling a massive list of June Christy tunes. But, meanwhile, I  thought maybe I'll put up a list of Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet sides....Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Gene Krupa, and Lionel Hampton. It'll be a lot of broadcast stuff, and some studio sides........stay tuned :)

Two Dorsey's for the price of one.........

T.D.

 J. D.

Oh, how I love my old radio broadcasts.........especially transcriptions of bands. This afternoon....two separate Hollywood Palladium dates, one from Tommy Dorsey's Orch., and one from Jimmy Dorsey.

The T.D. broadcast (1940) features Frank Sinatra, the Pied Pipers, and the band. The J.D. broadcast (1941) features Bob Eberly, Helen O'Connell, and the band.

Fun stuff.........enjoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?862btda6gaz62lb

Self indulgent parental bragging moment...........

I was out running this morning.  I usually take my iPod (some of the best ideas for tune lists come from random iPod shuffle results during morning runs, btw...). Anyhow, mine needed charging, so I grabbed Sarah's. I always love to hear what she has on playlists, it helps restore my faith (or lack of) in the listening habits of the American teen. So it seems she's heavy into Bruno Mars these days, which is cool, 'cuz I have and enjoy "Doo Wops and Hooligans" (excellent CD). But mostly, I'm continuously surprised that she really has been listening to a lot of excellent older music....stuff that I post. She always jokes about what I do on here to her friends, "Mom has this obsession with things recorded during the Depression..........", but apparently my propaganda is working.. >:)  I found  Rosemary Clooney, Dinah Washington, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Dionne Warwick, Joni Mitchell, Ella Fitzgerald June Christy, Anita O'Day..........I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Oh, and NO Justin Bieber.........'nuff sed. She DOES watch Glee, but she's been asking for one of those T-shirts that Christina Aguilara was wearing online that says, "Auto Tune is for pussies", so in spite of the language on it......she gets brownie points for not buying into the hype of the modern pop singer (pretty face with a digitally-enhanced voice). Just had to share that.

Gettin' a tad misty....for the sounds of Miss Christy......yup, upcoming retrospective :)

I'se a muggin' (yeah, I know...any excuse for a bad pun....)

Pics for tonight.....(now don't any of y'all write in complaining that it's your Grandmother and I'm airing your families' dirty laundry or whatever)

"Marlene Dietrich Overseas: American songs in German for the OSS" 1952

I got this 10" LP as a teen (filched it from my father's records, and he let me keep it). I had this thing about 10" records (no jokes about Bullmoose Jackson tunes, please...), I always liked the small format, etc...Anyway....an interesting history, here. La Dietrich did propaganda recordings of American songs in German for the OSS during the war. After the war, Mitch Miller at Columbia Records asked her if she would record them for commercial release. She did. I believe these were recorded in 1950, although this was released in 1952. Artistically, this is an interesting little collection, too. Actually quite good. Dietrich's vocals are as good as can be expected from her, the translations of the lyrics are a little unusual, but the gist of the songs get across pretty well, IHMO. Give it a listen.....I just dug this out tonight and put it on the turntable...hadn't heard it in quite a few years. I was looking online today, and saw it in the re-released format, on a 33rpm LP, entitled "Lili Marlene". I didn't like the cover art nearly as much as the original that I have (see below)

 

Nah....nice gams...but not nearly as cool as La Dietrich in dirty combat boots....lol.

So, here we go:

Lili Marlene

Mean to Me

Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Surrey With the Fringe on Top

Time on My Hands

Taking a Chance on Love

Miss Otis Regrets

I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night

http://www.mediafire.com/?6g1jha00t57hcx3

Lee Wiley..........

Lee Wiley

Lee Wiley (October 9, 1908 – December 11, 1975) was an American jazz singer popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. Wiley suffered temporary blindness, but recovered, and at the age of 19 was back with Reisman again, with whom she recorded three songs: "Take It From Me," "Time On My Hands," and her own composition, "Got The South In My Soul." She sang with Paul Whiteman and later, the Casa Loma Orchestra. A collaboration with composer Victor Young resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got The South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere," the latter an R&B hit in the 1950s.

In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shops. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of Cole Porter (1940) and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and Vincent Youmans and Irving Berlin (1951). The players on these recordings included Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, Fats Waller, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, and the bandleader Jess Stacy, to whom Wiley was married for a number of years. These influential albums launched the concept of a "songbook" (often featuring lesser-known songs), which was later widely imitated by other singers.

Wiley's career made a resurgence in 1950 with the much admired ten-inch album Night in Manhattan. In 1954, she opened the very first Newport Jazz Festival accompanied by Bobby Hackett. Later in the decade she recorded two of her finest albums, West of the Moon (1956) and A Touch of the Blues (1957). In the 1960s, Wiley retired, although she acted in a 1963 television film, Something About Lee Wiley, which told her life story. The film stimulated interest in the singer. Her last public appearance was a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1972 as part of the New York Jazz Festival, where she was enthusiastically received.

Wiley died on December 11, 1975 in New York City after being diagnosed with colon cancer earlier that year. She was 67 years old. She was survived by her second husband, Nat Tischenkel, whom she married in 1966.

From: http://www.allaboutjazz.com

Sensual and dignified, sophisticated and warm, Lee Wiley has inspired outbursts of sheer poetry from many a captivated listener. Her sound induces a “marvelous,” “ticklish” sensation, akin to “running your hand over a piece of fine Harris tweed,” marveled producer Dave Garroway. She “blows smoke rings, each note a puff that melts into wisps of vibrato,” conceptualized author Will Friedwald. Her voice and style “have long since made me extremely eager to go to bed with her,” disclosed critic James Frazier. Not content with this daring confession, he also bluntly labeled her “one bitch of a singer.”

Protested singer and Wiley scholar Barbara Lea: “She had more fire, more rhythm, more roughness, more silkiness, more deep personal warmth, than the job description of Pop Singer called for.” Asked writer Richard Hadlock, in an open letter to Wiley, “Lee, have you ever wondered why so many… from road-tough musicians to jaded pub-crawlers, act like kids on Christmas when they hear you sing?” (Wiley did wonder.) The eulogies could go on for pages, but the point is clear enough: Lee Wiley is a singer with a certain mystique.

The Wiley mystique was generated by both personal and professional circumstances, and further fed by some willful biographical manipulation by her musical associates, her record labels, and the artist herself. Nicknamed “Pocahontas” and characterized as regal by her friends, Wiley descended from the princess of a Cherokee tribe and from an English missionary who married an American parishioner... according to publicity material. Her birth date remains uncertain - initially given as 1915, then moved back to 1910, still more recently to 1908 - and revisionism has taken over the more sensational aspects of her biography (running away from home in the late 1920s, temporary blindness after a fall from a horse in the early 1930s, a near encounter with tuberculosis in the mid-1930s, etc,).

Her looks most certainly contributed to the Wiley allure. Her brother Ted once reported that everybody wanted to marry the tall, strikingly attractive Oklahoman with corn-colored hair and olive skin. (”Everybody” included the eight-times-married bandleader Artie Shaw, whose offer was declined by the twice-married singer.) One motivation for her long retirement (from about the age of 50 until the years preceding her death from cancer, in 1975) was the apparently high price that Wiley placed on physical attractiveness. It was her contention in 1971 that “singing includes a number of things ... aside from the voice ... these girls who are trying to get up on the bandstand at forty years old ... doesn't make any sense to me.”

An enigmatic personality likewise fueled the fascination. Various oral and written accounts paradoxically depict her as difficult and easy to work with; proud and/or bitter about the treatment received from the music business; heavily addicted to alcohol but outspokenly intolerant of other musicians' addictions; foul-mouthed, even unkind to other singers yet fiercely loyal to those within her own circle; hesitant while speaking though assured when singing. Friends and colleagues further portray her as a woman with a strong sense of integrity and a fierce sense of independence, traits that caused her to give up on various “golden” opportunities to further her career. The best documented of such opportunities happened in 1935 when she departed from a feature role in the top-rated Kraft radio show because its producers refused to give billing to composer Victor Young, who was then personal and musical partner.

Wiley's relatively small discography further contributes to her mythic status. Over a four-decade career, she recorded less than ten albums and about 40 singles; live and radio broadcasts make up for the remainder of her material in circulation. Thus her mystique stems not only from her biography and her persona, her looks and her sound, but also from a sort of bittersweet adoration accorded to great but under-recorded artists.

Always a favourite of mine, I don't know why I hadn't gotten to a list of her stuff yet.....now I have :)

And so..........some Lee Wiley


Manhattan (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
Any time, any day, anywhere (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
I've got a crush on you (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
I don't stand a ghost of a chance (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
How deep is the ocean (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
Don't blame me w/ the Eddie Condon's Town Hall 1944
The man I love  w/ the Eddie Condon Orch 1944
I've got a crush on you w/ Fats Waller 1939
A Hundred years from today w/ Glen Grey and the Casa Loma Orch. 1934
Lady be good w/ the Joe Bushkin Orch.
Easy to love
Keepin' out of mischief now
Looking at you (longer version)
Looking at you (shorter version)
Long about MidnightAs time goes by 1956
Baby's awake now 1940
Baby won't you please come home (b'cast) 1951
Back home again in Indiana 1971 (From her last studio LP, "Back Home")
Between the devil and the deep blue sea 1940
Body and soul 1946
Come to me my melancholy baby w/Billy Butterfield and His Orchestra, 1957
Deed I do 1952
Don't blame me 1945
Find me a primitive man 1939
Give it back to the Indians 1954
Glad to be unhappy 1940
Hands across the table w/ The Victor Young Orch.  1934
Here's love in your eye (b'cast) 1936
Hot house Rose 1940
I don't stand a ghost of a chance
I leave these reminders for you 1933 w/ The Victor Young Orch.
I left my sugar standing in the rain
I'm coming Virginia 1934 (b'cast)
I'm in love tonight It's only a paper moon 1945 w/ The Jess Stacy Orch.
I've got Five Dollars 1940
I've got the world on a string 1940
Kalman/Ruby medley 1938 (b'cast)
Let's call it a day w/ The Dorsey Brothers  1933
Let's fly awayThe Memphis blues 1957
I gotta right to sing the blues w/ The Dorsey Brothers 1933
Easy come easy go w/ Johnny Green Orch. 1934
But not for me w/ The Max Kaminsky Orch./Fats Waller
Good night medley- 1934 (b'cast) Paul Whiteman Orch, V=Ramona, Bob Lawrence, Jack Fulton, Lee Wiley
Funny little world w/ the Paul Whiteman Orch 1934 (b'cast)
If I love again w/ The Paul Whiteman Orch 1934 (b'cast)


http://www.mediafire.com/?dlpr35uhnxi75x1



Soft lights and sweet music (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
More than you know (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
Oh, look at me now (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
Time on my hands (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
Street of dreams  (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
A woman's intuition (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
Sugar (That Sugar Baby O'Mine) (from the 'Night in Mahattan" 10" LP) 1950
You're an old smoothie 1933  (duet with Billy Hughes) w/ Victor Young Orch. 1933
Sugar (That Sugar Baby O'Mine) w/ Bunny Berrigan 1935
Someone to watch over me w/ Fats Waller
My One and Only (What Am I Gonna Do?) w/ Joe Bushkin's Orchestra
Sweet and Low Down w/ Joe Bushkin's Orchestra
S'wonderful w/ Joe Bushkin's Orchestra
You've got me crying again w/ The Dorsey Brothers 1933
A woman alone with the blues 1947
Motherless child w/ Justin Ring's Orchestra  1934
My funny valentine 1954
My melancholy baby 1957
On the sunny side of the street 1945
Rise and shine 1950
Some sunny day
Stars fell on Alabama 1956
Stormy weather 1940
Summertime 1938
Suppertime 1933
Take it from me 1931 w/ Leo Reisman Orch.
Three little words 1936
Too good to be true 1936
Wherever there's love 1944
You Came To My Rescue (b'cast)
You Do Something To Me 1940
You turned the tables on me 1936
Sugar w/ The Jess Stacy Orch. 1940
Got the south in my soul 1932 w/ Leo Reisman Orch.
Time on my hands 1931 w/ Leo Reisman Orch.
A Thousand goodnights 1934 (b'cast) w/ Paul Whiteman Orch.
Upside down  1934 (b'cast) w/ Paul Whiteman Orch.



http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DDOEOQAO

A little Friday morning mix of R&B...........

Just a little random old R&B list for a Friday morning.....

Willie Mabon-I don't know
McKinley Mitchell-Rock everybody rock
Chuck Higgins-Wet back hop
Jimmy Wilson-Jumpin' from six to six
Arthur Lee Maye and the Crowns-Oochie Patchie
Big Maybelle-Rockhouse
Eddie Boyd-Jimmy's jump
Lil Millet-Rock around the clock
Gene Phillips-Rock bottom
Joe Liggins-Walkin'
Gene Forrest and the Four Feathers-The Wiggle
Little Willie Littlefield-Kansas City
Earl Bostic-That's a groovy thing Pt. 1 & 2
Terry Timmons-Ain't got nobody to love
Edna McGriff-Ooh, little Daddy

http://www.mediafire.com/?cys4d6qcseu4k50

In this Lee Wiley kinda mood tonight............ :)

Images for a Thursday.........

This did just make my morning........ :)

The Treniers.........

And, last, but certainly not least...........The infamous can of Extra Fancy Lower Alabama POONTANG  (From the exclusive recipe of Miss Pussy Galore)  ** it was a promotion for the release of "Poon Tang"** :)

Ahhhh..........The Treniers.You do not know how hard it was to gather what I wanted for THIS list!  I didn't have all that much, except for a few things that were "really" low bit rate encoded items from a friend....YouTube rips of live stuff, some 78s, and one CD of recorded stuff.  I really feel that most of their recorded output suffers next to what their live performance offered, anyway, IMHO.  Well, you're going to have to take this list for what it is....not perfect or complete by any means. To get a feel for what great entertainers they were, you really have to look to all the video that's out there, showing them at their best (which is pretty damned great). There is a ton of them on YouTube, which is quite the blessing for all of us....

Now, for some bio:

The Treniers were an American musical group led by identical twins Cliff and Claude Trenier, with The Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra which included Don Hill on saxophone, Shifty Henry  and later James (Jimmy) Johnson on bass, Henry (Tucker) Green on drums and Gene Gilbeaux on piano, with the Treniers Twins and later additional Treniers brothers joining the group on vocals. The name was shortened to "The Treniers" and there were many other session musician and line up changes over the years. Active since the 1940s, they played a cross between swing and early rock n' roll. Though their sound is more swing influenced, the Treniers incorporated a thumping backbeat and copious songs that included the words "rock" and "roll" - "Rocking on Sunday Night" and "It Rocks! It Rolls! It Swings!", for example, and in the 40's were already playing "Rockin' Is Our Bizness," which was a reworded version of Jimmie Lunceford's "Rhythm Is Our Business" of the 1930s (the Trenier twins got their start playing in Lunceford's band). They were also known for the humorous content of many of their songs, and their on stage acrobatics were seen as precursors to the wild antics of many later rock and roll groups. Their lively stage presentation influenced The Shadows in the UK in 1959 and beyond.

In the 1950s, they moved closer towards an R&B influenced sound, but were unable to weather the influx of rock and roll. Nonetheless the group was considered a strong influence on bands such as their contemporaries Bill Haley and His Comets, and they were in fact one of the first to record Haley's "Rock-a-Beatin' Boogie". (One of the Trenier brothers would later claim in an interview in Blue Suede News magazine that he was responsible for Haley deciding to record rock and roll; this account is disputed.)

One of the first times rock and roll appeared on national television was in May 1954 when the Treniers appeared on the Colgate Comedy Hour, hosted by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. During the playing of their songs, Martin and Lewis participated in the antics, and when the drummer got up and stepped aside, Jerry Lewis sat down and played drums for one song.

The group appeared in several films in the 1950s including The Girl Can't Help It and Don't Knock the Rock (which also featured Haley), and continued to perform as recently as 2003.

In 1955, the group released the song "Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)" about Giants center fielder, Willie Mays, which included some dialogue by the Hall-of-Famer himself. The song is included on the soundtrack to Ken Burns 1994 documentary Baseball.

In 2008, surviving member Milt Trenier still performs semi-weekly at Chicago area restaurants.

They appeared in the following films:   Don't Knock the Rock (1956), The Girl Can't Help It (1956),  Calypso Heat Wave (1957), and  Juke Box Rhythm (1959).

Here is Milt's home page: http://www.rockabilly.net/milttrenier/ (GO THERE!!!)

And....a pretty good discography:  http://www.rocky-52.net/chanteurst/treniers.htm

And, also this (below) :  http://www.roctober.com/roctober/greatness/treniers.html

LONG LIVE THE TRENIERS
By John Battles and Jake Austen

(From Roctober #18, 1997)

The Treniers are unquestionably one of the first (if not the  first), self-contained REAL ROCK AND ROLL groups, ever. They are also probably the greatest living entertainers in showbiz today. Among some very gifted peers, they stand out as the only pioneering Jump Blues stylists to not only thrive when the rest of the world caught up with this Rock'n'Roll stuff (some ten years after they started it) but also to continue to thrive in the ensuing decades as a successful, and far from sedate, lounge act. The group has survived the ever-changing cycle of disposable pop culture trends thrown their way not in spite of their resistance to change, but because of it. By upholding traditions thought long gone by many, and by keeping it lively, The Treniers' performances are just as vital and hypnotizing today as they were in the era when they helped to create Rock'n'Roll. I'd like to think that they've been having too much fun to fully realize this.

Identical twins Claude and Cliff Trenier were born into a very musical family in Mobile, Alabama on July 14th, 1919. In 1939 they began to attend Alabama State, but studies took a backseat to their love of music. Montgomery, Alabama was then a hotbed of musical talent and the twins were soon performing with the likes of Joe Newman, saxophonist Don Hill (who still performs with the group today), and pianist Gene Gilbeaux. After leaving school, and after the World War II draft took them out of commission for a while, they were at it again. Claude began a tenure with the seminal Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra, bringing Cliff in to record "Buzz Buzz Buzz," (which appears on the Dr. Horse Treniers reissue collection, You're Killin' Me) and Claude found himself providing vocals for several Jazz legends. In 1945 Claude did a successful years' residency at The Melody Club after replacing the great (but foul-mouthed) Wynonie Harris at Club Alabam. The twins, however, were inseparable and they were soon back together and eventually got Gene Gilbeaux, who became the band's arranger, and Don Hill back in the fold.

The Artists Formally Known as The Trenier Twins and the Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra, The Trenier Twins, and finally The Treniers, were born kicking and screaming as sure as the day the twins actually entered the world. Signing their first recording contract a half century ago with Mercury Records, The Treniers quickly earned a reputation as much for their frantic actions on stage as for their music itself. While Claude and Cliff were undeniably the real court jesters, the entire band moved in perfect synchronicity, like Siamese quintuplets connected by a single pulsebeat. Agile as a snake, wilder than a hyena, the group was a perpetual motion machine. But then, how can you not move when The Treniers are on your stereo, your TV, or if you've had the good fortune, on stage, live and in your face? The beat, as well as the joy they produce, is infectious.

In the early fifties, The Treniers' real heyday began. Joined by older brother Buddy and younger brother Milt, they signed with the legendary Okeh label, producing a remarkable string of killer Rock'n'Roll sides, each of them an out of the ball park homer in terms of quality, if not always sales. It's been said that The Treniers couldn't capture all the energy of their live act in the confinements of the studio, but what they did come up with are some of Rock'n'Roll's finest moments nonetheless. "Rockin' Is Our Business," "Rockin' On Saturday Night," and "It Rocks, it Rolls, it Swings!" are all self-explanatory in their rockingness. The drunken revelry of "Hadacol (That's All)," the horniness of "Poon-Tang!" ("Poon is a hug! Tang is a kiss!" Uh, yeah...) and the audacious date rape classic "(Uh Oh) Get Out Of The Car" (Covered by Richard "Louie Louie" Berry and Sammy Davis, Jr.), were all done strictly in fun, but were the beginnings of a revolution that, fortunately, was televised. Taking what they learned from artists they'd worked with and admired like Louis Jordan, Amos Milburn, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown and Jimmie Lunceford, The Treniers added their own inimitable personal touch and took the whole thing into the highest gear imaginable. Rock and Roll was still better known as a metaphor for sex, and The Treniers were bringing it to it's first climax!

Other artists would soon reap the rewards of the seeds they had sown, but The Treniers found themselves in a very respectable position of visibility by 1956, their departure from Okeh notwithstanding. They were reaching a wider audience through various TV shows, including Jackie Gleason's and Red Skelton's programs, and through a number of movies, Don't Knock the Rock and The Girl Can't Help It being the best known today. In the former, The Treniers appeared with Alan Freed, (who had been honored by a Treniers original for his theme song) along with Little Richard and Bill Haley. For those who recognize Haley's place as one of the breakthrough Rock'n'Roll artists with "Rock Around The Clock," another direct lineage between The Treniers and the birth of Rock'n'Roll exists. Haley, who had caught The Treniers act in New Jersey when he was still a Country artist with his group The Saddlemen, "and wasn't nothin'" as Claude says, was significantly influenced by their sound and show. In Don't Knock The Rock, The Treniers' explosive, boozy, bluesy, hand-clappin, finger-snappin' performance of "Rockin' On Saturday Night," in a thoroughly whitebread setting, is at once provocative and surreal. The even more pronounced clowning on "Out Of The Bushes" takes the prize. Alongside prettyboy Milt's almost robotic primping, Claude and Cliff hold court in bughouse square, each attempting to outdo the other in sheer craziness, even resorting (before even some parents of the Lallapaloser Nation were born) to stage diving! The song itself, more or less a word of warning from a stalker, ("Something's gonna jump out of the bushes and grab you...") is an outrageous combination of some more complicated Jazzy sequences and The Treniers' own brand of contagious humor. It even spawned one purely novelty version by Joe Besser soundalike Crazy Otto. "It was big in Guam," Claude jokes today.

Their real crowning cinematic moment came in the (hourglass) form of The Girl Cant Help It, the greatest Rock'n'Roll movie of all time. In gorgeous Technicolor and stereophonic sound, The Treniers performed a well beyond crazed, "Rockin' Is Our Business," by then their signature song and still their set opener. In such a class-A package, with an All-Star lineup that included Little Richard, Julie London, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, Abbey Lincoln and The Platters, The Treniers still stand out like Jayne Mansfield's Double D's! Only little Richard could have possibly matched them for flamboyance and kick-out-the-jams conviction, but then again, he did do three songs.

By the late '50s, Rock'n'Roll was going out in a blaze, not one of glory, but of deaths, scandals and personal turmoil. Alan Freed was crucified on payola charges. Dick Clark, inexplicably, eluded such a fate, though he started playing records so bad, Freed couldn't have been paid to play them. He became the movement's new "leader," while Freed went on to die broke and broken. The living didn't all fare much better. The Treniers found themselves on the fateful tour of England with Jerry Lee Lewis where he brought himself down by making public his marriage to his teenage cousin, ("That big dummy!" Claude sums up in his best Redd Foxx). Where could The Treniers turn to in the dawning of the era of teen idols who wouldn't know ROCK if it hit them upside the head? Would you believe, Vegas?

Once the smoke had cleared, The Treniers found themselves doing very well on the Vegas/Atlantic City circuit. Milt had left by then to pursue his own solo career, cutting some strong sides in a big, brassy baritone, not unlike Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Nephew Skip, also possessed of a fine set of pipes and enough good looks to keep the ladies coming back, took Milt's place and remains with the group to this day. Rock and Vegas up to that time had been strange bedfellows. Even Elvis flopped in Vegas his first time out in 1956. But The Treniers came in anticipating that the patrons not only demanded a show, but the sun, the moon and the stars as well, and The Treniers were there to give it to them. Louis Prima had already proven you could rock in Sin City and not starve. Though his distant cousins in the Rat Pack, (except for Sammy who liked anything hip) dismissed Rock'n'Roll as a passing fad, Prima staged his comeback by incorporating it's rhythms into his act. With charisma and versatility (they mastered every style of pop imaginable at the time), The Treniers, along with Prima and his hired gun Sam Butera, were the only artists to rock Vegas and Atlantic City with class and without compromise. When other Rock'n'Soul artists were gaining acceptance by the early 70s, they had already staked their claim. One such figure was Elvis Presley who met up with The Treniers and told them how as a kid he had learned "Good Rockin' Tonight" from their version.

Brother Milt opened a most swinging lounge of his own right here in his wife's home town of Chicago. He booked the band twice a year between engagements in Vegas and Atlantic City, though their visits to the Windy City have been more sporadic since the aura of Atlantic City has dimmed in recent years. Through the years they've shared stages with the likes of Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Bill Cosby. Cosby was so fond of Cliff that he named his television character, Heathcliff Huxtable, after him. Their success in Vegas has been phenomenal and even recently, against stiff competition obviously, they've won Las Vegas Entertainers of the Year several times.

The group displayed remarkable longevity and seemed indestructible, but sadly, fourteen years ago a reminder of their own humanity fell upon them. In 1983, Cliff Trenier passed away. Claude was now faced with what was probably the biggest decision of his life. Should he retire the group, or should he carry on in Cliff's memory? The bond was so strong between these twins, that the decisions one makes are undoubtedly influenced by the other. Cliff had been called home, and for the rest of The Treniers, their home in this life, too, was beckoning. They returned to the stage. Skip, approaching his 25th year in the group, ably took the dual frontman position with Claude (Buddy has since retired). Don Hill is still lending his distinct sax wizardry to the band, while acting as an affable fall guy to Claude's and Skip's incessant goofing. Dave Akins, also a veteran from years back, keeps the beat steady and smokin', while more recent additions, bassist Donald Jackson and keyboard payer Jack Holland, keep the groove and help things move.

To witness The Treniers now is to be transported to an atmosphere and an age that one could be forgiven for thinking we'd never again witness. The friendliness they convey and the obvious love for their work is so genuine. Their kind of one-on-one rapport with an audience I've rarely seen elsewhere, and it brings the things my generation has missed out on to light. Most younger performers should live to move like Claude and Skip do today. Of course The Treniers would land in the hospital if they were doing all the things they used to do on stage, but then, so would most guys my age if they tried to do what the Treniers still do every night. The Treniers are still, as always, a live act. Always about life and always lively. LONG LIVE THE TRENIERS!


Well, since starting this list, I did some running around....I got some more stuff from a few contacts, added to what I have, etc....and, here is my FAR FROM PERFECT little list,  it's still missing many recordings that I wish I had...........consider it a jumping off point, if you will. If you don't know the Treniers, this could be a good listening point to start at....if you know them well....well, just...whatever...lol.  In any event, you should look into the fairly large amount of video of their performances that exists.......very fun stuff.

So without further ado.......The Treniers.......

Go! Go! Go! 1951
Hey, Sister Lucy 1948 as Trenier Twins
You're killin' me 1953 Milt TRENIER & His SOLID SIX
It rocks! it rolls! it swings! 1952
Hadacol (that's all) 1952
Flip our wigs 1953 Milt TRENIER & His SOLID SIX
Hey Boys, Better Get Yourself An Extra
Rockin' on  Sunday night 1952
Rock bottom 1953 Milt TRENIER & His SOLID SIX
Poon Tang! 1952
Near to me 1948 as Trenier Twins
Rockin' is our bizness 1953
Hey you
No baby no 1948 as Trenier Twins
Sometimes I'm happy 1848 as Trenier twins
Day old bread 1954 Milt Trenier
I'll follow you
Straighten up baby 1954 Milt Trenier with The Gene Gilbeaux Quartet
Cool it baby 1956
It's a quiet town (Crossbone Country) 1948 as Trenier Twins
Trapped (in the web of love) 1954
Bald head  1954
My Convertible Cadillac 1948 as Trenier Twins
Drinkin' wine spo-dee-o-dee 1958    As  Fabulous Treniers
Margie     
MaduneSure had a wonderful time last night 1947 as Trenier Twins
I miss you so 1948 as Trenier Twins
Wild in Wildwood 1958 As  Fabulous Treniers
Lover come back to me 1956
Ride man rideWe want a Rock and Roll President 1956
Peace bond blues
When you're finished talkin'Rock 'n' roll call 1956
Rock-a-way
Never, never 1963
It rocks!  it rolls! it swings! (a YouTube ripped live version)
Everybody get together 1950
Hi-yo silver 1952
Plenty of money 1951
When your hair has turned to silver 1963

http://www.mediafire.com/?ad2rler2ln2cu7u

Squeeze me 1953 Milt Trenier & His Solid Six
This is it 1953
Give a little time 1954 Milt Trenier
Sugar doo 1953
I got the blues so bad
Rock-a-beatin' boogie 1954
I said noAin't she mean 1948 as Trenier Twins
Say Hey (Willie Mays song)(Uh Oh) Get out of the car 1955
Sorrento 1956
I'm gonna see my baby 1945 Jimmie Lunceford Orch (with Claude Trenier)
Hey JacobiaThat someone must be you 1945 Jimmie Lunceford Orch (with Claude Trenier)
Why 1954 Milt Trenier with The Gene Gilbeaux Quartet
Good rockin' tonight 1956
Lady luck
The longest walk
Ain't nothin' wrong with that, baby 1954
Gonna catch me a rat 1959 Milt Trenier
Hey little girl 1951
 
 
http://www.mediafire.com/?lbqaexqjqmzpfhj

Vintage beer labels Pt 2.........Chicago brews

Operating on the theory that the continuous search for excellence in 20th Century graphic design is best accomplished with a cold one in hand, I give you...............

As I always say, if you're not going to drink in moderation, stay home.........and make sure to give your children lots of interesting stories to share when they're in therapy, years from today ;)