Friday, January 8, 2010

Keith Albee


Keith Albee (and Orch)

Albee 102

12893 - Rock-A-billy
12894 - Rockin’ Robin

1964

Distributed by Willard Music Dist., Deposit, New-York

Rock-A-billy was a top-ten hit in 1957 (Guy Mitchell, Columbia Records).
Rock-A-Billy is about rockabilly but is not rockabilly. [...] The singalong chorus consists of only two words, rockabilly and rock, chanted rhythmically and hypnotically. The colorful phrases paint a child’s perspective of rockabilly : “the guitar man chased the old banjo.” The lyrics use catchphrases –blow my fuse, crazy beat, turn me loose, go man go – and use stereotypic images and expressions from the city perspective of country life – “mountain juice”, “head for the hills, “do-si-do”, store-bought clothes, “”lone prairie”.

Craig Morrison (Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and its Makers)
Keith Albee had records on Paragon in 1960 and 1961, a label distributed by Paragon Productions Inc., 1265 Broadway, New York, a company who also was the distributor of the Ronnie label records, which was a song-poem label. But Keith Albee wasn't a song-poem singer as the Nov.20, 1961 issue of Billboard inform us that "Keith Albee is making the rounds of radio stations in New York and Pennsylvania to promote his latest Paragon release, « Tell Him You Are Mine » b/w « Only tonight ».

Rock-A-Billy (sample)

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