From Wikipedia:

“Frankie and Johnny” (sometimes spelled “Frankie and Johnnie”; also known as “Frankie and Albert” or just “Frankie”) is a traditional American popular song. It tells the story of a woman, Frankie, who finds that her man Johnny was “making love to” another woman and shoots him dead. Frankie is then arrested; in some versions of the song she is also executed.

It has been suggested that the song was inspired, or its details influenced, by one or more actual murders. One of these took place in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 15, 1899, when Frankie Baker, a 22-year-old dancer, stabbed (or shot) her 17-year-old lover Allen “Al” Britt, who was having a relationship with a woman named Alice Pryor. Britt died of his wounds two days later.  On trial, Baker claimed that Britt had attacked her with a knife and that she acted in self-defense; she was acquitted and died in a Portland, Oregon mental institution in 1952.

The song has also been linked to Frances Silver, convicted in 1832 of murdering her husband Charles Silver in Burke County, North Carolina. Unlike Frankie Baker, Silver was executed.

In 1899, popular St Louis balladeer Bill Dooley composed “Frankie Killed Allen” shortly after the Baker murder case.

The first published version of the music to “Frankie and Johnny” appeared in 1904, credited to and copyrighted by Hughie Cannon, the composer of “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey”; the piece, a variant version of whose melody is sung today, was titled “He Done Me Wrong” and subtitled “Death of Bill Bailey”.

Another variant of the melody, with words and music credited to Frank and Bert Leighton, appeared in 1908 under the title “Bill You Done Me Wrong”; this song was republished in 1912 as “Frankie and Johnny”, this time with the words that appear in modern folk variations:

Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts
They had a quarrel one day,
Johnny he vowed that he would leave her
Said he was going away,
He’s never coming home, etc.

Also:

Frankie took aim with her forty-four,
Five times with a rooty-toot-toot.

The 1912 “Frankie and Johnny” by the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields also identifies “Nellie Bly” as the new girl to whom Johnny has given his heart. What has come to be the traditional version of the melody was also published in 1912, as the chorus to the song “You’re My Baby”, with music is attributed to Nat D. Ayer.

The familiar “Frankie and Johnny were lovers” lyrics first appeared (as “Frankie and Albert”) in On the Trail of Negro Folksongs by Dorothy Scarborough, published in 1925; a similar version with the “Frankie and Johnny” names appeared in 1927 in Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag.

Several students of folk music have asserted that the song long predates the earliest published versions; according to Leonard Feather in his Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz it was sung at the Siege of Vicksburg (1863) during the American Civil War and Sandburg said it was widespread before 1888, while John Jacob Niles reported that it emerged before 1830.  The fact, however, that the familiar version does not appear in print before 1925 is “strange indeed for such an allegedly old and well-known song,” according to music historian James J. Fuld, who suggests that it “is not so ancient as some of the folk-song writers would have one believe.”

Since “Frankie and Johnny” is a traditional song there is no single definitive version of the lyrics. Several versions were collected by Robert Winslow Gordon. The refrain common to most versions is: “He was her man, but he was doing her wrong.” The name of the song’s “other woman” varies, Alice or Nellie Bly being the most usual ones. The gunshot that kills Johnny is often depicted by the onomatopoeia “rooty toot toot.” Many versions open with the quatrain: “Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts/Lordy, how they could love/They vowed to love one another/Underneath the stars above.”  Another common opening is:  “Frankie was a good girl/everybody knows/she paid a hundred dollars/for Al’s one suit of clothes.” A common conclusion is:  “This story has no moral/This story has no end/This story only goes to show/That there ain’t no good in men.”

At least 256 different recordings of “Frankie and Johnny” have been made since the early 20th century. Singers including Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Lena Horne, Lonnie Donegan, Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Taj Mahal, Charlie Patton, Charlie Poole, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Vincent, Fats Waller, Van Morrison, Brook Benton, and Stevie Wonder.

As a jazz standard it has also been recorded by numerous bands and instrumentalists including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Bunny Berigan, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. Champion Jack Dupree set his version in New Orleans, retitling it “Rampart and Dumaine”.

The story of Frankie and Johnny has been the inspiration for several films, including Her Man (1930, starring Helen Twelvetrees), Frankie and Johnnie (1936, starring Helen Morgan), and Frankie and Johnny (1966, starring Elvis Presley). Terrence McNally’s 1987 play, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which was adapted for a 1991 film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In 1930 director and actor John Huston wrote and produced a puppet play entitled Frankie and Johnnie based on the Frankie Baker case. One of Huston’s main sources was his interview with Baker and Britt’s neighbor Richard Clay.

Actress and playwright Mae West inserted her ballad in her successful Broadway play Diamond Lil. West sang the ballad again in her 1933 Paramount film She Done Him Wrong, which takes its title from the refrain, substituting genders.

The climax of Robert Altman’s 2006 film A Prairie Home Companion is Lindsay Lohan’s rendition of the song with quasi-improvisatory lyrics by Garrison Keillor.

The tune is often used Merrie Melodies cartoons by Warner Bros. as the theme or motif for a meretricious or zaftig woman. The song was the basis of a 1951 UPA animated cartoon, Rooty Toot Toot, directed by John Hubley. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject.

Daniel Clowes drew a comics adaptation of a somewhat explicit version of the song’s lyrics. It is included in the collection Twentieth Century Eightball.

e. e. cummings used a version of “Frankie and Johnny” (spelling the latter name “Johnie”) as the centerpiece for his 1927 play Him.

The radio series Suspense did a dramatization of the lyrics on May 5, 1952 with singer Dinah Shore as Frankie. The script was subsequently produced on February 3, 1957 with singer Margaret Whiting.

If you have any suggestions for “Head to Head”, leave a comment.

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT – FRANKIE (1928)

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CHARLEY PATTON – FRANKIE AND ALBERT (1929)

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MAE WEST – FRANKIE AND JOHNNY (1933)

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LEAD BELLY – FRANKIE AND ALBERT (1935)

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JOHNNY CASH – FRANKIE’S MAN JOHNNY (1958)

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LONNIE DONNEGAN – FRANKIE AND JOHNNY (1960)

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SAM COOKE – FRANKIE AND JOHNNY (1963)

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ELVIS PRESLEY – FRANKIE AND JOHNNY (1966)

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Floyd Council

Floyd Council (September 2, 1911 – May 9, 1976) was an American blues guitarist and singer. He became a well-known practitioner of the Piedmont blues sound from that area, popular throughout the southeastern region of the US in the 1930s.

Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to Harrie and Lizzie Council, Floyd began his musical career on the streets of Chapel Hill in the 1920s, performing with two brothers, Leo and Thomas Strowd as “The Chapel Hillbillies”. He recorded twice for ARC at sessions with Blind Boy Fuller in the mid-thirties, all examples of the Piedmont style.

Council suffered a stroke in the late 1960s which partially paralyzed his throat muscles and slowed his motor skills, but did not significantly damage his cognitive abilities.

Floyd Council

Folklorist Peter B. Lowry attempted to record him one afternoon in 1970, but he never regained his singing or playing abilities. Accounts say that he remained “quite sharp in mind”.

Council died in 1976 of a heart attack, after moving to Sanford, North Carolina.

Syd Barrett, of English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, came up with the band’s name by juxtaposing the first names of Council and South Carolina bluesman Pink Anderson. He noticed the names in the liner notes of a 1962 Blind Boy Fuller LP (Philips BBL-7512). The text, written by Paul Oliver, read: “Curley Weaver and Fred McMullen, (…) Pink Anderson or Floyd Council – these were a few amongst the many blues singers that were to be heard in the rolling hills of the Piedmont, or meandering with the streams through the wooded valleys.”

RUNAWAY MAN BLUES

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POOR AND AIN’T GOT A DIME

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Yank Rachell, Son Bonds, Charlie Pickett

Son Bonds (March 16, 1909 – August 31, 1947) was an American country blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a working associate of both Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon, and was similar in his guitar playing style. According to Allmusic journalist, Jim O’Neal, “the music to one of Bonds’s songs, “Back and Side Blues” (1934), became a standard blues melody when Sonny Boy Williamson I from nearby Jackson, Tennessee, used it in his classic “Good Morning, School Girl”.” The best known of Bonds’ other works are “A Hard Pill To Swallow” and “Come Back Home.”

Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, Bonds was also billed on record as “Brownsville” Son Bonds, and Brother Son Bonds.

Son Bonds and Charlie Pickett

Sleepy John Estes earlier recorded work had used backing from Yank Rachell (mandolin) or Hammie Nixon (harmonica), but by the late 1930s he was accompanied in the recording studio by either Bonds or Charlie Pickett (guitar). Bonds also backed Estes at a couple of later recording sessions in 1941. In reverse, either Estes or Nixon played on every one of Bonds’ own recordings. In the latter stages of his career, Bonds played kazoo as well as the guitar on several of his tracks.

According to Nixon’s later accounts of the event, Bonds suffered an accidental death in August 1947. While sitting on his own front porch late one evening in Dyersburg, Tennessee, Bonds was shot to death by his short-sighted neighbor, who mistook Bonds for another man with whom his neighbor was having a protracted disagreement.

The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1991) – Wolf Records – This compilation album covered all known material from Bonds, recorded between September 1934 and September 1941.

OLD BACHELOR BLUES

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• On this date in 1896, American Singer, Ethel Waters was born
  

• On this date in 1912, American Singer, Songwriter and Actress, Dale Evans was born
  

• On this date 1n 1922, American Saxophonist, Illinois Jacquet was born
  

• On this date 1n 1945, British Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist, Russ Ballard of Argent was born

• On this date 1n 1949, American Drummer, Bob Siebenberg of Supertramp was born
  

• On this date in 1952, American Bass Guitarist, Bernard Edwards of the bands Chic and Power Station was born
  

• On this date in 1961, Irish Drummer, Larry Mullen of U2 was born

The Rivieras

The Rivieras were a rock and roll group formed in the early 1960s in South Bend, Indiana, United States. They are best known for their hit “California Sun.”

The Rivieras were made up of teenagers from South Bend Central High School. This group should not be confused with the Coed Records East coast Rhythm & Blues group of the same name who had hits in the late 50s and the early 60s. The group was originally called the Playmates, but was forced to change their names as there was already a group playing under that name. As a result, the group decided to rename themselves after the Buick Riviera.

The Rivieras were one of the many groups in America that became part of the “frat rock” movement in the early 1960s. The group had their greatest hit in 1964 with “California Sun”. It reached #5 in the main U.S. pop chart. In fact, “California Sun” was one of the last songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart before the “British Invasion”. The song has become a classic on “oldies” radio in North America over the years.

Both personal reasons and drastic changes in pop music led to the split-up of the group in 1966.

The Rivieras

Members:

• Marty “Bo” Fortson (born 1945): vocals and guitar
• Doug Gean (born 1951): bass guitar
• Joe Pennell: guitar
• Otto Nuss: organ
• Paul Dennert: drums

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Fortson and Pennell left the group for the marines shortly after recording “California Sun”. They were replaced by Jim Boal (lead guitar) and Willy Gaut (vocals, rhythm guitar). The band’s manager Bill Dobslaw took over as lead vocalist on recordings of subsequent lesser hits.

Near the end of the band’s life, other members left the group under parental pressure to focus on education. Various replacements were used to fill in the vacancies including Jeff McKew (vocals, guitar) and Terry McCoy (drums).

THE RIVIERAS

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WILD WEEKEND

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LET’S HAVE A PARTY

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Tommy Facenda

Tommy “Bubba” Facenda (born November 10, 1939) is an American rock and roll singer and guitarist. He is best known for his one-hit wonder single, “High School U.S.A.”

Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Facenda was asked to join Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps in 1957, where he was given the nickname “Bubba”. Facenda and Paul Peek became known as “The Clapper Boys” of Vincent’s band, because of their trademark handclap style during live shows. Facenda toured with Vincent and appeared in films with him, but by 1958 had left Vincent to seek a solo career. He signed with Nasco Records and released his first single, “Little Baby” b/w “You Are My Everything”.

The single received no attention, and Facenda headed to New York City, where he met Frank Guida, the head of Legrand Records. Guida asked him to record a novelty song entitled “High School U.S.A.”, using names of high schools in his home state of Virginia.

Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps with the "Clapper Boys" Paul Peek and Tommy Facenda wearing green

Atlantic Records picked up the song for national distribution, and had him record 28 different versions of the tune, using regional high school names from various parts of the United States. The song became a nationwide hit, reaching #30 on the Black Singles Chart and #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. All 28 versions were combined into one chart listing.

He recorded a follow-up single, the self-penned “Bubba Ditty”, which was released in 1960; after this he served in the military through 1962 and then returned to Portsmouth, where he worked as a firefighter for the Portsmouth Fire Department. He toured again with the Blue Caps beginning in 1982, including in Europe. Facenda also later did some stage acting, performing in a play entitled Just Us.

HIGH SCHOOL U.S.A.

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GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE

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PLEA OF LOVE

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