Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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BUZZ CLIFFORD

“BABY SITTIN’ BOOGIE”

(Johnny Parker)    Columbia 41 876

No. 6    March 13, 1961

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Buzz was born Reese Francis Clifford  Ill, on October 8, 1942, in Berwyn, Illinois.  Buzz was hot on

Westerns and singing cowboys.  Mom and Dad bought him a guitar, and the boy would stroll around

the house pickin’, grinnin’, and makin’ up the words to his own cowpoke tunes.  As a high school senior,

Buzz entered an amateur contest at the Morris County Fair in New Jersey, and clobbered the competition.

Soon after some work as a stunt man, construction worker and lifeguard, Columbia Records approached

him to cut some recordings.  The first, “Hello Mr. Moonlight,” lived and died without notice.  But his

novelty number–complete with  goo-goo sounds from the producer’s kid–took off.

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Buzz’s tot tune was so catchy that it charted across-the-boards: pop/rock, C & W, and R & B.   The follow-

up, “Three Little Fishes,” was another cutesy number, but neither this nor any further 45s would click.

In the mid-’60s, while producing disks for ABC-Paramount and Apt, Clifford recorded some self-penned

folk-rock sides for RCA.   As the decade came to a close, he had a fine hippie-headed LP  issued by Dot

titled See Your Way Clear.