The “Golden Hits Of The 50s”
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THE JOHNNY OTIS SHOW
“WILLIE AND THE HAND JIVE”
(JOHNNY OTIS)
Capital 396
No. 9 August 4, 1958
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“The Godfather of “Rhythm & Blues” he has been called. The label while appropriate is much too
confining to do justice to this wonderful wonder. Johnny’s been there, everywhere and seemingly long
before anyone considered it. Johnny Otis (b. John Veliotes, December 28 1921, Vallejo . CA) has
performed as a arrange, publisher, musician (vocalist/drums/vibraphone/piano), writer (“Dance With Me
Henry, “Double Crossing Blues,” “Every Beet of My Heart,” the Beatles’ “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey” renamed
“Kansas City”, the FIESTA’s “So Fine,” (with claims to co-authorship of “Hound Dog”), disk jockey (L.A.’s
KFOX, KPPC, KPFK..), producer (JOHNNY ACE, Richard Berry, Charlie Brown, Wee Crayton, Sugarcane
Harris, Louis Jordan, Joe Liggins, Little Richard, Amos Milburne, Roy Milton, Gatemouth Moore, Joe
Turner, Eddie “Cleanheed” Vinson…), TV variety show host (one of the first TV rock’n’roll programs: “The
Johnny Otis Show”, 1956-61, initially for L.A.’s KTTV), talent scout (“discovered Hank Ballard & the
Midnighters, Charlie Brown, Etta James, Little Willie John, Little Esther Phillips, Devonie “Lady Dee”
Williams, Jackie Wilson, the Robins, Willie Mae Thorton, Mel Walker…), record company owner (Ultra,
Dig, Eldo, Blues Spectrum…), nightclub co-owner (the famed Barrelhouse, in Watts), frontman and
founder of the genres first “Rock’n’Roll Caravan of Stars.
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He’s been a painter, sculptor, actor (Clint Eastwood’s 1971 film, Play Mist For Me) a politician (ran for the
California Assembly, acted as Deputy Chief of Staff for US Congressman Mervyn Dymally, Newspaper
Columnist (for the Los Angeles Sentinel). author (Listen to the Lambs, published by W.W. Norton
Company, 1965 and for more than a decade now, a preacher (pastor of the Landmark Community
Church).
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Otis had his first “hit” in ’46 with “Harlern Nocturne,” a huge seller, that mysteriously never charted
nationally, pop or R&B. The R&B hits would happen thereafter, but 1950 was definitely Johnny Otis’ year,
ten recordings made Billboard’s R&B listings: “Double Crossing Blues (#1), “Mistrusting Blues” (#1),
“Misery” (#9), “Cry Baby” (#6), “Cupids Boogie” (#1), “Deceivn Blues” (#4), “Dreamin Blues” (#8),
“Wedding Boogie” (#6), “Faraway Blues” (#6) and “Rockin Blues” (#2).
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“I only had one hit, as you say, one pop hit,” explained Johnny in an exclusive interview, “because in
those days when I was operating there was a well-defined black show business and the general pop-white
orientated market. My stuff was blues and jazz orientated and my audience was black. The record
companies that I was with had dealing in the Black areas and that was all the promotion I got. It wasn’t
until the mid ‘50s that the music began crossing over. So. back in the early days I must have had 30 Hits,
that I wrote or that one of my singers sang, but they were all called ‘rhythm & blues’ hits.”
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Johnny peaked in popularity before the pop/rock’n’roll audience took note. He was there just before the
acknowledged birth of rock’n’roll and the momentary mixing of the races and their musics, that is except
for his one-off: “Willie and the Hand Jive.”
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Johnny was asked when he signed with Capitol Records in 1957 was his sound reshaped by the major
label? “Yeah, Yeah, ha. They wanted me to be more tolerable to the White audience. Some of that stuff I
don’t like because of that. But.. ah, it’s okay. It’s alright. I really have no complaint about ‘Willie.’ It’s
been good to me. But some of the later stuff they issued was really attempts to sound the way Whites
would like to have it; least that was the theory. The fact was, by the time the Whites were hearing it, it
wasn’t my sound.”
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Most rock’n’roller fans that are historically astute of pop platter when they hear the “Hand Jive” think
Johnny is a copy on that “Bo Diddley Beat.” “Na. Let me tell you,” says Johnny, “the first time I
encountered that rhythm was just as a kid [in the early ’40’s] playing in “Count” Otis Matthews and the
Oakland House Rockers. He was a young guy from the Mississippi area who played boogie woogie and
barrel house piano. We were just kids in the neighborhood when he told me I was gonna be his drummer.
This bit, this beat was the highlight of his show. He told me to do this–what he called–‘shave and a
haircut six bits beat’ and keep beatin’ it. Count had some cans filled with rice or pebbles and he’d get
some girls to get up an shake’em. The lyrics always changed but he’d sing something like ‘Mama bought
a chicken/thought it was a duck/stuck ‘em on the table with his legs stuck-up.’ Sure it was Bo Diddley-
like things, but they’re no more Diddley’s than anyone else’s.
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“I was down south, after I’d had a few hit records and saw a chain gang which is a traumatic experience,
seeing men in chains, under the shotgun, and in the hot sun. Rather then be defeated they’d sing all Day.
Workin’ on the railroad they’d be called gandy dancers and their long metal hammers would go chung-gy-
chung-gy-chung and they’d sing out the same stuff. Next time I heard it was on a hit called ‘Hambone’
[Red Saunders & His Orchestra #20, 1952]. All that predates me and Bo. It’s all there in the stream of
life. You can only draw from what’s there.
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“One day Bo was at my house. We both raised chickens and ducks and I was given him some and he said
‘Motherfucker, what are you doin’ taken my song?’ He said it half serious. I said to ’em. ”You ever
heard ‘Hambone’? And he said, ‘Ssssh!’
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“There’s been some talk that a major television production company might revive my “Johnny Otis Show”
as a weekly thing. The word is that I am the “Lawrence Welk” of Black Music.” It was a great thing he
had there [1956-1961]. What we’d do is have our band playing live and backing guests like Wilson Pickett,
Ruth Brown, the Temptations. All music, pure music. What predominates now is not musicianship,
whether we find it entertaining or not the kids do. But, it’s now all exhibitionism and slick tricks, smoke
bombs, flash, and profanity. Shit, I’ve got nothing against profanity, but it shouldn’t be so public. And
that rap thing with it’s strident, angry war-like stance–it all sounds the same. Enough all ready. It’s sad,
sad. We don’t value great singers and instrumentalists. They’re not to be found on the charts. The
current stuff has got no soul, no feeling, and it’s successful. I’ve long said America loves to eat shit, and
probably always has. It goes down better than the real thing. Imagine the wealth of artists out there right
now· who’ll never get to realize their talents. I know there· new Sarah Vaughn’s, new Mahalia Jacksons
out there right now.
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