Artist: Rosco Gordon
Author: Rosco Gordon/Jules Taub
Label: RPM
Year: 1952
Cut in Memphis on the same day as B.B. King's 3 O'Clock Blues. Not with Sam Phillips but at Tuff Green's House, another local hole in the wall. Session fixed by Ike Turner. Clearly inspired by Buddy Johnson's No More Love (Decca - '51), sung by his sister Ella (reissued on Ace cd Walk 'Em: The Decca Sessions).
Covers:
Owen Gray [as Running Around; Jamaican]
Keith Hudson [real reggae version]
Reggae also hails from Memphis! Rosco's piano shuffle inspired Fats Domino in songs as Be My Guest ('59) and It Keeps Rainin' ('61), before hopping over to Jamaica where this particular brand of offbeat R&B evolved into ska and rocksteady. Chris Blackwell (Island) considered Rosco Gordon as a first-line influence on Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)