Joe Liggins - Jukebox Hits 1945-1951

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), T-Bone Walker (1943-1952), The Johnny Otis Orchestra (1946-1954), Jimmie Lunceford (1935-1947) and Lionel Hampton (1943-1950)

The sound quality is excellent and the 10 pages of background notes, written in 2008 by Bob Fisher, include track-by-track comments and a discography, while sprinkled throughout with vintage photos and poster reproductions. 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.

This one covering Joe Liggins & His "Honeydrippers" gives you all 14 hits he had between 1945 and 1951, beginning with the monster that gave his band their nickname, The Honeydripper, Parts 1 & 2 which came out in mid summer 1945 and surged to # 1 on what then passed for the R&B charts where it would remain for 18 weeks. It also scored at # 13 Pop, no mean feat for an R&B tune from a small label (Exclusive 207). He followed that late in the year with Left A Good Deal In Mobile, billed as Herb Jeffries with Joe Liggins & His Honeydrippers on Exclusive 208 - # 2 R&B in November b/w Here's Hopin' (not included).

Early in 1946 he went head to head with Erskine Hawkins, who had the advantage of RCA Victor as his label, on Got A Right To Cry, and while both got to # 2 R&B (the Hawkins version was shown as I've Got A Right To Cry), the Liggins side also scored at # 12 Pop on Exclusive 210 b/w Blue Moods (not here). You then get failed 1946 singles - I Know My Love Is True b/w Miss Betty's Blues on Exclusive 212, the instrumental Caravan on Exclusive 216, and Sugar Lump on Exclusive 219 (the B-sides, not here, were You Ain't Goin' To Heaven No How and Boddle-do-Da-Deet). The next hit is the instrumental Tanya, which made it to # 3 R&B in October on Exclusive 231 b/w Breaking My Heart (omitted).

He wouldn't return to the charts until August 1947 when another instrumental, Blow Mr. Jackson featuring the tenor sax of James Jackson, also topped out at # 3 R&B b/w The Blues on Exclusive 244 (not here). Almost a full year would then pass before he reached back to 1925 and Ben Bernie's hit, Sweet Georgia Brown, taking it to # 7 R&B in July 1948 b/w Dripper's Blues, which itself finished at # 9 on Exclusive 271. Since that worked well, his next release, Sweet And Lovely, dating back to Gus Arnheim's 1931 hit, made it to # 14 R&B in August, while the flip, Roll `Em, a rollicking instrumental, went even higher to # 9 in October on Exclusive 41X. His final hit with Exclusive came that same October when The Darktown Strutter's Ball, first a hit way back in 1918 for Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan, finished at # 7 on Exclusive 49X b/w Spook's Holiday, a Hallowe'en novelty - but not here unfortunately.

His next hit wouldn't come until 1950, by which time he had moved to Art Rupe's Specialty Records to join younger brother Jimmy, who had been there since 1948. And for that he chose to take a shot at a tune that was seemingly done by everyone that year - Rag Mop - with his rendition finishing at # 4 R&B that February on Specialty 350 b/w Ramblin' Blues (not here). Huge Pop hits with that belonged to The Ames Brothers, Ralph Flanagan, Lionel Hampton, Johnnie Lee Wills, The Starlighters, Jimmy Dorsey and Eddy Howard, while Hampton's effort also made the R&B charts, as did one by Doc Sausage.

Then came another monster hit for Joe, Pink Champagne, a # 1 R&B for 13 weeks that summer, as well as # 30 Pop, on Specialty 355 b/w Sentimental Lover (omitted). His final two hits came in 1951 with Little Joe's Boogie peaking at # 5 R&B in January on Specialty 379, and Frankie Lee making it to # 9 in February on Specialty 392. Neither B-side - Daddy On My Mind and I Just Can't Help Myself - is here. What you do get, however, is the failed single One Sweet Letter b/w Whiskey, Gin And Wine which emerged that year on Specialty 402.

As thorough a compilation as you're going to find on Joe Liggins.

I bought this product to get the CD recording of "Honeydripper, Part 1", and I am very pleased with it. However, this particular product's "Honeydripper, Part 2" lacks the tone quality, for some reason, that comes across on another Joe Liggins rendition of the same tune - for example the version on the CD "Joe Liggins & The Honeydrippers" on the Specialty record label. All-in-all though, I am very pleased. Of all twenty-one tracks, I found only four tunes that I would probably NOT play for my own listening pleasure. I'm an old timer who first heard many of these tunes on "78's". For you "iPhoners", that's a 78RPM Phonograph record. You put a nickel in the Juke Box to play it - No one I knew had a record player at home.