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It should’ve happened… multiple hits, a massive career, world recognition and all the rest.

G.L. CROCKET

 

It was a wild ride; a brief one… He only recorded

eight songs, as best we know.

Jack Daniels, the owner of Four Brothers Records,

the last label he recorded for, said that G.L. CROCKET

was an alcoholic and tough to dealing with.

Crocket is legend for one song and it was not a big

 seller, nor a chart-maker, “Look Out Mable.” It

was recorded in Chicago in Mel Rwynolds’ southside studio, in 1957. It was G.L.’s first time in the

professional studio. As a novice up from Carrollton, Mississippi, G.L. knew not what he had, nor how

the music industry worked. London without in-put added his name as co-writer on the disc he issued

on his Chief label…and as by a G. Davy Crockett—to cash in on the Disney Crocket fad.

That disc would outlive both men—the creator and the sycophant.

”Look out Mable” rocked distinctively…. Fans claim it’s one of the few Black American rockabilly

recordings ever; while blues freaks say, “No way, it just a solid boppin’ blues number and not a dang

good one, at that.”

Upon release, Billboard magazine reviewed it but it was a still-born. G.L. born George L. Crockett in

1928 disappeared. Eight years later, in 1965, G.L. reappeared in Chicago playing blues. Some say he

had done some backed up for Freddie King, or Magic Sam. Jack Daniels, the owner of his next and last

label, Four Brothers, offered to record him. G. L. had brought in a new tune he had, “It’s a Man Down

There.” Daniel’s being the sycophant—a quite common practice utilized by small record labels–took co-

writing credits on what would be G.L.’s lone R&B charting. The tune rose to number 13 on the

Billboard’s R&B listings; 67 on the pop charts. The famed Jimmy Reed recorded a response, “I’m the

Man Down There” and two further 45s were issued; then followed the big-time disappearance…

In 1967 at the age of 38 G.L. Crocket was dead. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage resulting from

hypertension.