Jukebox Hits

Acrobat Music & Media has a series related to individual artists and some year-by-year multi-artist compilations called Jukebox Hits, my initial experience with which was the Lucky Millinder 1942-1951 volume. That led to the purchase of those dealing with The Clovers (1949-1955), Erskine Hawkins (1940-1950), Ivory Joe Hunter (1945-1950), Buddy Johnson Orch featuring Ella Johnson (1940-1951), Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1942-1947), Andy Kirk & His Clouds Of Joy (1936-1949), Joe Liggins & His "Honeydrippers" (1945-1951), The Johnny Otis Orchestra (1946-1954), Jimmie Lunceford (1935-1947) and T-Bone Walker (1943-1952)I have also found these in the series: Roy Milton, Amos Milburn, Wynonie Harris, Cab Calloway, The Dominoes, Ella Fitzgerald, Ruth Brown, Count Basie, Muddy Waters, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Nat "King" Cole, and multi-artist year compilations for 1942 to 1944, 1947, 1953 and 1955. I'm sure there are probably others.The only puzzling aspect of their approach to the series is that some among them contain upwards of 26 tracks while in others they cut it off at 20, and this one for Lionel Hampton - the greatest jazz vibraphonist ever - is one of the latter as it covers just seven years from 1943 to 1950 (the Jimmie Lunceford volume, by comparison, has 25 tracks and deals with 1935 to 1947).By not extending this to 26 tracks and going back to his first hit with his own orchestra in 1937 (previously he had played with the Benny Goodman) they leave out six pretty significant tunes in the annals of Jazz, including that first hit, The Mood That I'm In, which hit # 20 in March featuring Gene Krupa on drums, and Wizzin' The Wiz, a # 10 in May/June 1939 featuring Cozy Cole on drums and Lionel at the piano, likely his greatest jazz piano performance on record.What IS here, however, almost makes up for that, combined with generally excellent sound reproduction, a discography of the contents, and six full pages of background notes written in May 2003 by Dave Penny. Leading off is one of two versions of the classic Flying Home, co-written by Lionel with Benny Goodman and initially recorded in 1939 by the Benny Goodman Sextet.The one at Track 1, the faster-paced Decca version, is acknowledged as the best, featuring the tenor saxophones of Illinois Jacquet and Dexter Gordon, Ernie Royal on trumpet and, of course, Lionel at the vibraphone. His first hit with Decca after registering his first seven with Victor, it first charted at # 23 Pop in July 1942. Following the introduction of the R&B charts in October 1942 (then called the Harlem Hit Parade), Decca re-released it early in 1943 and in May it rose to # 3 on those charts. That prompted Victor to re-release their version (which features Ziggy Ellman on trumpet), and in August 1943 it reached # 9 R&B.Track 3 is a bit of a puzzle itself. The liner notes acknowledge Joel Whitburn's excellent books as the source for chart details and says that, in this "moonlight" recording for the Keynote label, Lionel "reverts to his first vocation as drummer." And yet, in Whitburn's Top R&B Singles 1942-1999, Evil Gal Blues is credited to SEXTET with DINAH WASHINGTON, and in listing members of the SEXTET, credits Fred Radcliffe as the drummer. Whatever the case, it hit # 9 R&B in April 1944.Next up is On The Sunny Side Of The Street which, with Lionel handling the vocal and Cozy Cole on drums, was actually recorded in 1937. In January 1944 it peaked at # 10 R&B. Hamp's Boogie Woogie, an instrumental featuring the alto sax of Earl Bostic, brought him back to the Pop charts in September/October 1944 when it topped out at # 1 R&B (and stayed there for 6 weeks) and # 23 Pop. Over a year would then go by before he hit with another single, Beaulah's Boogie, another instrumental that levelled off at # 2 R&B in December 1945.Lionel and the band do the vocals, and Herbie Fields handles the alto sax, on the classic Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop with became a monster R&B hit, hitting # 1 in the spring of 1946 and spending 16 weeks at that spot, as well as # 9 Pop (losing out there to the Tex Beneke & The Glenn Miller Orchestra version, which made it to # 4). It would then be another year before his next hit, Blow-Top Blues, billed to Lionel Hampton And His Septet and featuring the vocal of Dinah Washington, which reached # 5 R&B/# 21 Pop in May/June 1947. And that would be his last Pop entry until 1950.In the meantime, he came up with these R&B entries: I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You) - billed to Lionel Hampton & His Hamptonians (the vocal handled by The Hamptonians) - # 2 in summer 1947; Gone Again with vocal by Wini Brown - # 13 in July 1948; Drinking Winem Spo-Dee-O-Dee, Drinking Wine with vocal by Sonny Parker - # 13 R&B in July 1949; Te Huckle-Buck with vocal by Lorene Carter - # 12 August 1949, and its flipside, Lavender Coffin with vocal by Joe James and Lionel - # 13.Early in 1950 Lionel and his orchestra put out what turned out to be one of no less than NINE hit versions of Rag Mop. With The Hamptonians handling the vocal and featuring Wes Montgomery on guitar, his reached # 4 R&B (tied with those by Joe Liggins and Doc Sausage) and # 7 Pop (losing out there to the # 1 Ames Brothers and # 3 Ralph Flanagan versions, but ahead of those by Johnnie Lee Wills (# 9), The Starlighters (# 12), Jimmy Dorsey (# 15) and Eddy Howard (# 24). That was his last ever Pop hit single.His last hit single of any sort then came in October 1950 when Everybody's Somebody's Fool (not the same song as the Connie Francis 1960 hit) reached # 6 R&B with vocal by Little Jimmy Scott. Tracks 11 and 15 to 18 were not national hits for Lionel, but each offers up some memorable performances by the likes of Wendell Culley, Leo Sheppard, Benny Bailey and Richard "Duke" Garrette on trumpet, Gene Ammons at piano, Al Grey on trombone, Jerome Richardson on alto sax and always, naturally, the master himself at the vibraphone (and some vocals).The insert contains 6 pages of liner notes written in May 2003 by Dave Penny, as well as a discography of the contents.

I purchased this very enjoyable CD because I was making up a playlist of recordings mentioned in Jack Kerouac's On the Road. One of the tracks he noted was Lionel Hampton's swinging "Central Avenue Breakdown." I figured I should use Hampton's second, late 40s hit version of his composition because it would have been on jukeboxes during the time period of the book, 1947-50. This disc provides the hit version I needed. (Hampton also recorded the song in the early 40s with Nat King Cole's group; that earlier version isn't included on this disc.)Although I was primarily looking for that one track, I knew I could count on Hamp to provide a lot of other swinging hits, and that wasn't a bad assumption. This collection swings from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

3 stars for content. I was expecting more of Hampton's soloing. Instead, this recording has him more as backup. He's there, but not as central as I had hoped. This CD is okay, but not great.

Fantastic music - well done.

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