This week, I’m visiting New York, getting ready for a video shoot on Friday with David Bromberg. Before I left, I decided to post a little clip to YouTube.
As any self-respecting musicologist will tell you, the very first version of LOUIE LOUIE ever recorded by Richard Berry & the Pharaohs, released by Flip Records in April 1957. Some of the other artists on the Flip Records label included The Six Teens, Donald Woods & the Vel-Aires, Arthur Lee Maye, and the Elgins, among others.
One of the things I’m very proud of is the fact I was able to get Ace Records of London in touch with the estate of Flip Records /Limax Music, which resulted in a direct buyout of the entire catalog, and the subsequent re-mastering of all of the original records for the digital domain. It was a win-win situation for all involved, and now people can hear this music without having to deal with mediocre bootlegs mastered from scratchy vinyl.
In the course of my research for my documentary, I interviewed some members of The Sixteens, discussing what it was like to be a part of the Flip Records catalog during the 1950s. As some of the stuff I captured on video didn’t seem to fit into the LOUIE LOUIE story that I’m assembling, I thought I’d share some of this material with the public on YouTube, from music lover to another. There was a significant amount of Hi8 video drop-out problems with this segment that I tried clean up, but I couldn’t remove it all. Oh well.. what do you want for free?
This is a rare, completely impromptu rendition of the song “A Casual Look” performed by Daryl Jones and Kenny Sinclair, two of the original founding members of the group The Six Teens, which also featured Trudy Williams, Ed Wells, Beverly Pecot, and Louise Williams. Later on during the interview, Jimmy Smith, who later joined the Sixteens, participates in the discussion, and more impromptu singing, but I’ll save that for another time. All three of these men were also members of the Elgins.
Kenny passed away in 2003, Jimmy retired from music, but Daryl is still going strong, keeping the spirit of the Sixteens and the Elgins alive with his music. You can find more about what he’s up to going to the Lacoriha Records website, run by Kenny’s widow, Ms. Freda Sinclair.