Christmas Greeting!
Before I get to the Christmas greeting, this posting provides some musical background on Shreveport, Louisiana, where I grew up. Like most of my peers, I grew up listening to Top 40 AM radio, which included a sizable rock and roll component, but I was largely ignorant of other music in Shreveport, much of which turned out to be quite notable.
Before television, AM radio was the avenue for popularizing music, and Shreveport’s KWKH radio station became a leader in broadcasting experimental and daring music after it went on the air in 1925. With a signal strong enough to reach 28 states, the station began broadcasting a live music show called the Louisiana Hayride on April 3, 1948, from Shreveport’s Municipal Memorial Auditorium. The show followed the lead of Nashville’s WSM, which began broadcasting the Grand Ole Opry in 1925. While the Opry limited its format to well established country stars, the Hayride gave unknown talent a national exposure. The Louisiana Hayride thereby became the “Heaven’s Gate” for performers hoping to reach Nashville’s “Promised Land.”
This distinction is best illustrated by Hank Williams, who had been rejected by the Opry. After convincing the Hayride of his sobriety (albeit short lived) and moving to Shreveport, he began being featured on the Hayride in 1948. Performing soon-to-be classics, such as Move It On Over, Honky Tonkin’, and Lovesick Blues, the Hayride gained notoriety. It was not until his release of Hey Good Lookin’ and Your Cheatin’ Heart in 1949, that the Grand Ole Opry relented and deemed Williams worthy of an invitation. Williams’ success at the Hayride attracted other rising talent to perform there, including George Jones, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Johnny Horton, Kitty Wells, Faron Young, Bob Wills, Tex Ritter, Webb Pierce, and Slim Whitman.
However, the distinction between the Hayride and the Opry went beyond whether an artist had released a successful record album. The Opry dedicated itself to preserving the purity of country music and was slow to allow the use of electronically amplified instruments, percussion, and horns. No such reluctance was displayed by the Hayride. Maintaining the purity of country also led the Opry to reject performances that blended musical styles or genres. The Hayride welcomed country, rhythm and blues, and gospel, as well as the blending of these styles which led to rockabilly and rock and roll.
No performer better embodied this amalgamation of styles than Elvis Presley. He performed at the Opry on October 2, 1954, when he was only 19 years old, but his rockabilly style did not fit well with the Opry’s program. He never performed there again. However, two weeks after performing at the Opry, Elvis made his first appearance at the Hayride performing That’s All Right and Blue Moon, which Sun Records had recently released. That appearance led to a one-year contract with the Hayride, where he became a regular performer playing to capacity crowds in the 3,800 seat Municipal Auditorium.
Elvis’ last performance at the Hayride occurred on December 15,1956. Upon concluding, police escorted him through the crowd to a waiting automobile. As the crowd clamored for an encore and became more frenzied, the Hayride’s emcee stepped to the microphone, and attempting to calm the crowd, uttered the now famous phrase, “Elvis has left the building.”
At the height of its popularity, the Louisiana Hayride was broadcast on 25 radio stations and could be heard from Los Angeles to Chicago, although Shreveport’s KWKH remained the Hayride’s flagship station. A variety of factors, including the rise of television, eventually led to the Hayride’s decline in popularity, and its last performance occurred on August 27, 1960, although there have been several attempts to revive it.
At about the same time (1950s), KWKH aired another show that became widely syndicated. The show was started by a guy named Stan Lewis, who bought 15-minute time slots for his program, but eventually expanded it to one hour. Initially, the show featured blues and gospel music, but soon expanded its format, as it sought to introduce teenagers to new styles of music and make that music available for purchase via mail order.
Lewis got started in the music business by placing juke boxes in Shreveport night clubs. When he couldn’t find the kinds of records that patrons wanted to hear, he opened a record store and then became a distributor for small, independent record companies. At one point, he represented over 600 record labels, distributing their music to record stores throughout the country. In 1972, he sold 2.5 million singles and 470,000 albums.
One of the independents he represented was Chicago’s Chess Record Co., and Lewis contacted Leonard Chess to determine if he might be interested in producing a 1957 rockabilly recording made in the KWKH studios by one of Stan’s record store employees. Chess took the bait, and Chess Records produced Dale Hawkins’ rendition of Suzie Q. Hawkins claimed to have written the song with bandmate Robert Chaisson, but Lewis, as well as Eleanor Broadwater, were subsequently credited as co-writers. Lewis’ claim was bolstered, no doubt, by the recognition that the song’s inspiration was Lewis’ daughter, Susan.
Suzie Q has been covered by a number of artists, but it may be best known as the first “hit” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Released in 1968, CCR extended the song to 8 minutes from Hawkins’ 2:20-minute version. It is the only CCR hit not written by John Fogarty and was my introduction to psychedelic rock.
Lewis went on to own several record companies and produced hits in 1966 with All of These Things by Joe Stampley and the Uniques and in 1968 with Judy in Disguise by John Fred and His Playboy Band. Lewis passed in 2018, at the age of 91. From the 1960s through 1974, every album I purchased was probably from Stan’s Records, and some were purchased directly from Stan the Record Man, himself.
Lagniappe, All These Things. All These Things was recorded on Lewis’ Paula Records, named for his wife Pauline. Also, you may notice that the song was written by N. Neville, who is/was unrelated to the Neville brothers. Rather, N. Neville was a pseudonym used by Louisiana’s great Allen Toussaint. His mother’s maiden name was Naomi Neville. Wow!
Christmas Greeting! I promised to end this posting with a Christmas Greeting. Before I had a blog, my Christmas greeting to workmates featured Darlene Love singing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on David Letterman’s final Christmas Eve show, and she was the subject of my posting a year ago.
However, I’m changing course since this posting has a more country theme. Texas balladeers comprise my favorite segment of country music because I love their ability to tell a story, and my favorite among them may be Robert Earl Keen. His Merry Christmas from the Family will either make you laugh or offend you – or maybe both. Whatever your reaction, the song recognizes that even dysfunctional families are entitled to enjoy Christmas.
And if you’re still “Jonesin’” for Darlene Love, here’s a link. Merry Christmas and thanks for reading!