- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- This is How it All Began, Vol. 1 presents recordings that provide the foundations for rock and roll music, which were mostly released on Specialty Records.
This is How it All Began, Vol. 1 (Various Artists) (1972): This is a special album that I was delighted to find. The record label is Specialty Records, best known for releasing Little Richard’s early recordings and also prominent in R&B and gospel. According to the liner notes, This is How it All Began, Vol. 1 presents recordings that provide the foundations for rock and roll music (and I completely believe that), which were mostly released originally on Specialty Records. The tracks are divided into five sections: Gospel – the Chosen Gospel Singers, the Soul Stirrers, Alex Bradford, and the Swan Silvertones; Country Blues – John Lee Hooker, Frankie Lee Sims, and Mercy Dee; City Blues – Roy Milton and Joe Liggins; Ballads – Percy Mayfield and the Four Flames; and Jump and Boogie, i.e., jump blues and boogie-woogie – Camille Howard, Roy Milton, and Jimmy Liggins. I have always found This is How it All Began, Vol. 1 to be a coherent album, not a group of individual songs. I never found This is How it All Began, Vol. 2, but I haven’t stopped looking for it. The Chosen Gospel Singers does not have a Wikipedia article, and their history is somewhat sketchy compared to the other groups on This is How it All Began, Vol. 1, despite the fact that Lou Rawls was once a member of the group. “It’s Getting Late in the Evening” was released as their first single on Specialty in 1953. Sam Cooke started his career in the Soul Stirrers, the first traveling African American gospel group; the lead singer in the track “By and By” is Rebert H. Harris, whom Cooke replaced in 1950. The Soul Stirrers (all of their members) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 as an Early Influence. Alex Bradford has an energetic and flamboyant performance style and a soaring falsetto that heavily influenced Little Richard; while Ray Charles adopted his vocal mannerisms and also styled his Raelettes backing singers after Alex Bradford’s group, the Bradford Specials. Professor Alex Bradford and the Bradford Specials recorded “Somebody Touched Me” as the “B”-side of their 1956 single “If Mother Knew”. In an interview with Dick Cavett in 1970, Paul Simon said that he was inspired to write his song “Bridge over Troubled Water” by a lyric in the song “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” by the Swan Silvertones, saying that “I guess I stole it”: “I’ll be a bridge over deep water / If you trust in my name.” “Trouble in My Way” is the follow-up single to “Move Up” b/w “Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” and came out on Vee-Jay Records in 1959; the Swan Silvertones recorded for Specialty Records from 1952 to 1954. The Swan Silvertones and the Soul Stirrers have both been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. The only well-known musician on This is How it All Began, Vol. 1 is bluesman John Lee Hooker; “Don’t Trust Nobody” was recorded by him in 1954. Frankie Lee Sims is a key figure in the Texas country blues movement of the 1940’s and 1950’s who is best known for his 1953 regional hit “Lucy Mae Blues”. “Married Woman” is included on a retrospective album called Lucy Mae Blues (1970) that was released by Specialty shortly after Sims’ death. Also, “I’m Long, Long Gone” b/w “Married Woman” came out as a posthumous Specialty single in 1971. Mercy Dee, born Mercy Davis Walton is a jump blues pianist, vocalist and songwriter. His song “One Room Country Shack” is Dee’s first single for Specialty in 1953; it was a hit single and is now considered to be a blues standard. Roy Milton is an early R&B and jump blues singer; “R. M. Blues” was his first hit song in 1945 and helped establish Art Rupe in the music business. Shortly after this song became a hit, Rupe renamed his label Specialty Records; it was previously known as Juke Box Records. Unlike the other recording artists, Roy Milton has a second song on This is How it All Began, Vol. 1, “The Huckle-Buck” that came out on a single for Specialty in 1949. Joe Liggins is an R&B, jazz, and blues pianist who is best known for his 1945 hit “The Honeydripper” that topped the Billboard R&B charts (then called the “Race Records” chart) for 18 weeks. His song on This is How it All Began, Vol. 1, “Pink Champagne” comes from a 1973 single on Specialty Records. “Please Send Me Someone to Love” is the first hit song for Percy Mayfield in 1950 and reached #1 on the R&B charts for two weeks; Mayfield is best known today for his song “Hit the Road Jack” that was first recorded by Ray Charles. The Four Flames, also known as the Hollywood Four Flames (among many other names) is an R&B group that was formed in 1949. “Tabarin” is taken from their second single in 1951 on Fidelity Records. Lead singer Bobby Byrd of the Four Flames, under the name Bobby Day released several singles in the 1950’s and is best known for his 1958 hit “Rockin’ Robin”. Camille Howard first came to prominence in Roy Milton’s Solid Senders group in the 1940’s; Howard played piano on Milton’s early hit “R. M. Blues” in 1945. Camille Howard’s own hit song “X-Temporaneous Boogie” came out on Specialty in 1948 and reached #7 on the R&B charts. Jimmy Liggins is Joe Liggins’ younger brother and is a guitarist and bandleader. “Shuffle-Shuck” is an instrumental that was released as a “B”-side on Specialty in 1950.