Air Week: January 20-26, 2025

“Juke In The Back” begins a behemoth, multi-part series on Chess Records. The Chicago record label, founded by 2 Polish immigrant brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess, proved to be one of the most influential and important labels in not only Blues, but also Rhythm & Blues and its contribution to the birth of Rock n’ Roll. Chess was the musical home of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The Moonglows, The Flamingos and countless other giants of 20th Century music. In part 1, Matt The Cat introduces Leonard and Phil and their foray into the entertainment business, beginning with liquor clubs, nightclubs and eventually a record company. Leonard got a deep education of African-American culture while growing up, living and working on Chicago South Side. The jukebox in his liquor joint was jammed with the down-home Delta Blues that newly-arrived transplants from the South were craving. This set the stage for Leonard’s involvement with the fledgling Aristocrat Record Label. He originally bought into the label to help with distribution and promotion, but as the Blues became more popular, his involvement with the label grew. During the Aristocrat days, local talent from The 5 Blazes, Tom Archia and Andrew Tibbs was beginning to sell outside of Chicago. Tibbs’ song “Bilbo Is Dead” became a minor hit and was banned in parts of the South for its sarcastic tone towards recently deceased segregationist Senator Bilbo. Muddy Waters had only recently begun recording for the label, but in late 1948, he scored a national hit with “Feel Like Going Home” b/w “I Can’t Be Satisfied.” By the end of ’49, Leonard had bought out the other partners and brought in his brother Phil to help. Soon, Aristocrat would get a name-change to Chess and the brothers would be off and running. This week in part 1, we’ll look at where it all began on the Aristocrat of Records.

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Air Week: January 13-19, 2025

Jimmy Reed was a hit-making blues machine back in the 1950s, yet he isn’t as well remembered today as some of his contemporaries. This week, Matt The Cat and the “Juke In The Back” dedicate the entire program to this highly influential bluesman. Reed’s mid-tempo shuffle was unique when first introduced in 1953 and has since become a part of Blues and Rock n’ Roll DNA. Reed, along with The Spaniels, were the first two acts signed to Vivian Carter and James Bracken’s new label, Vee-Jay, out of Gary, Indiana. His first 2 releases didn’t go anywhere, but it was his third, “You Don’t Have To Go,” that put Reed into the R&B top 5. He’d score 19 charting singles over the next 13 years. Some of them, like “Can’t Stand To See You Go,” “Little Rain,” “Honest I Do,” “Take Out Some Insurance,” “Baby What You Want Me To Do,” “Big Boss Man” and “Bright Lights, Big City” have become blues standards. Almost anyone could sing and play a Jimmy Reed tune, but only one man sounded like Jimmy Reed. This week, Matt The Cat loads up the “Juke In The Back” with Reed’s finest sides from 1953-59.

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Air Week: January 6-12, 2025

Let’s journey back 70 years and put the ol’ Rockola Jukebox back in the spotlight as we present part 2 of a 2 part feature on the biggest R&B jukebox records of 1955. It was a year of many firsts. 1955 was the first full year of Rhythm & Blues records consistently crossing over into the Pop Chart. Matt The Cat will point out just how popular some of these records were in the Pop Market. 1955 was also the debut year for Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Etta James. Fats Domino had 6 charting singles this year, 3 of which topped the R&B chart. 1955 was the year of “Blackboard Jungle”‘s tremendous success in helping to deliver Rock n’ Roll music to the mainstream through the popularity of its theme song, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock.” In Part 2, we’ll spin the last R&B chart-topper to NOT cross over into the Pop Chart as well as a healthy dose of vocal group records gaining jukebox spins. Smiley Lews, The Clovers and The Drifters, with a new lead singer, continued to score hits and make 1955 a year to remember. Part 2 covers the jukebox hits from July through December. 

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Air Week: December 30, 2024-January 5, 2025

Let’s journey back 70 years and put the ol’ Rockola Jukebox back in the spotlight as we present part 1 of a 2 part feature on the biggest R&B jukebox records of 1955. It was a year of many firsts. 1955 was the first full year of Rhythm & Blues records consistently crossing over into the Pop Chart. Matt The Cat will point out just how popular some of these records were in the Pop Market. 1955 was also the debut year for Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Etta James. It was the last year for Johnny Ace, who scored the biggest hit of his career, posthumously. 1955 was the year of “Blackboard Jungle”‘s tremendous success in helping to deliver Rock n’ Roll music to the mainstream through the popularity of its theme song, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock.” In Part 1, we’ll look at just how big a record “Unchained Melody” was, with 2 versions topping the R&B Chart and crossing over to the Pop Top 10. Little Walter, Ray Charles and Ruth Brown continued to score hits and make 1955 a year to remember. Part 1 covers the jukebox hits from January to June and Part 2 will focus on July through December.

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Air Week: December 23-29, 2024

This week, the “Juke In The Back” brings the jukebox into the spotlight as we journey back 80 years and dig on the top requested jukebox records from the entire year of 1945. This was a pivotal year for Rhythm and Blues Music as 1945 marked the beginning of a new sound in Black Music. As the war raged on, many of the African-American big bands found it hard to afford such large ensembles, so they slimmed down to rhythm combos. Around the same time, blues singers were expanding their sound to go beyond just a guitar or piano accompaniment. They began adding rhythm sections and thus, Rhythm and Blues was born. 1945 marked the first year that this new style of music dominated the Black Community and the juke joints they patronized. 1945 was a strong year for jump blues cats like Louis Jordan, Joe Turner and Lionel Hampton. The blues cats faired well this year as Pvt. Cecil Gant had one of the year’s biggest hits with his self-penned, “I Wonder,” which was also successfully covered by Roosevelt Sykes and Louis Armstrong. Joe Liggins burst on the scene with “The Honeydripper,” the biggest selling record of the year and quite possibly the entire decade! Matt The Cat’s got a pocket full of nickels and he’s ready to warm up the “Juke In The Back,” so we can all dig that big beat jive of 1945!

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Air Week: December 16-22, 2024

Christmas, like you’ve never heard it before. This year, the “Juke In The Back” cordially invites you to join us at Rosie’s Juke Joint for an intimate Christmas Celebration. Miss Rosie, Bobby The Bobcat and of course, Matt The Cat will be there to make your yuletide bright and present an hour of Christmas tunes that have never been spun before on a “Juke In The Back” holiday program. B.B. King, Gatemouth Brown and Jimmy McCracklin will make sure you have plenty of Christmas Blues, while The Larks, The Soul Stirrers and Pilgrim Travelers provide glorious vocal group harmonies on some obscure Christmas tunes. Jesse Belvin sings about Christmas love while Johnny Moore stops by WITHOUT Charles Brown for a change. Now that’s something you don’t hear every Christmas. So freshen up your ears with a solid batch of hep, cool and groovy holiday records as you join Rosie’s Juke Joint for a jumpin’ Christmas Party!

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Air Week: December 9-15, 2024

There were so many important figures in post WWII Rhythm & Blues that helped build what would become Rock n’ Roll. Today’s popular culture has left so many musical pioneers behind and this week the “Juke In The Back” features Joe Liggins, one such pioneer who’s been largely forgotten. Liggins scored one of the biggest hits of all-time when his “The Honeydripper” hit #1 on the R&B Chart for 18 staggering weeks in 1945. Singer/songwriter and music historian, Billy Vera drops by the “Juke” to tell us how “The Honeydripper” became such an enormous hit. Liggins scored 10 solid hits for Leon Rene’s Exclusive Records before moving to Art Rupe’s Specialty Records in 1950. At Specialty, Liggins had the biggest R&B hit of 1950 when “Pink Champagne went to #1 for 13 weeks and ended up selling more copies than “The Honeydripper.” It looked like Joe Liggins’ career couldn’t be stopped, but soon Rock n’ Roll, the music he helped create, pushed him and his contemporaries aside to make way for the youth movement. Last week, we spotlighted Joe’s younger brother Jimmy and this week, “Juke In The Back” is proud to honor one of the great musical pioneers of the last century as Matt The Cat plays every chart hit from the fantastic Joe Liggins.

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Air Week: December 2-8, 2024

Jimmy Liggins didn’t have the chart success or popularity of his older brother Joe Liggins, but he did have a killer band, a raw sound and quite possibly the “first rock n’ roll record.” Both brothers traveled to California from their native Oklahoma in order to make it in the music business. Jimmy started out as a professional boxer before hanging up the gloves in order to drive his older brother around after the success of Joe’s “The Honeydripper” in 1945. By the end of ’46, Jimmy told Joe that he was cuttin’ out on his own to form his own band and make his own records. He hit the charts with his 2nd single “Teardrop Blues” in 1948. Its flipside was “Cadillac Boogie,” which was Ike Turner and Jackie Brenston’s inspiration for “Rocket 88.” Jimmy Liggins only scored four R&B chart hits during his career, but he cut a trove of groovy plattahs worth hearing. He is definitely one of R&B’s unsung heroes. Get Jimmy Liggins’ story and all the great music that comes with it on this week’s “Juke In The Back” with Matt The Cat.

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Air Week: November 25-December 1, 2024

Bandleader, pianist, composer and sometimes vocalist Buddy Johnson and his chanteuse sister Ella are in the spotlight on this week’s “Juke In The Back.” Johnson was a superstar and one of the hottest live acts of the 1940s in the Black Community, but he barely made a dent with White audiences, though a few of his records actually did cross over into the Pop Chart. Raised in South Carolina, Buddy moved to New York when he was 23 and began touring the world with the Cotton Club Revue. A professed lover of Classical Music, Buddy found his bread n’ butter was playing Big Band Swing and Jump Blues to audiences coast to coast. His touring band was widely popular after WWII, when most large ensembles had paired down to smaller combos. Buddy Johnson always put entertaining the people first and he changed with the times, keeping his style fresh and relevant. He scored numerous R&B hits with “Let’s Beat Out Some Love,” “When My Man Comes Home,” “That’s The Stuff You Gotta Watch,” “(Gotta Go) Upside Your Head” and many more. His sister Ella Johnson was the featured vocalist on many of Buddy’s biggest hits, but he also discovered a young Arthur Prysock, who would go on to greater fame after leaving Johnson. Buddy Johnson wrote some of the era’s most endearing tunes, including “Fine Brown Frame,” “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball” and “Since I Feel For You,” which is now a jazz standard. Matt The Cat loads the ol’ Rockola Juke with Buddy Johnson’s biggest Decca and Mercury sides, spanning 18 years on this week’s “Juke In The Back.” 

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Air Week: November 18-24, 2024

Last week, the “Juke In The Back” featured every recording made by the innovative BO DIDDLEY during the year 1955. This week, the Juke picks it up in early 1956 and showcases BO DIDDLEY’s influential and diverse releases through 1959. He remained mostly off the R&B Charts during this period. That’s inexplicable, since many of the singles issued by Checker Records became R&B, Rock n’ Roll and Blues standards. Many Blues greats have recorded and interpreted Bo’s “Before You Accuse Me (Take A Look At Yourself)” and countless garage bands have taken a crack at “Who Do You Love.” Matt The Cat also highlights the previously unreleased original recording of “Love Is Strange,” recorded almost a whole year before Mickey & Silvia made it a #1 R&B smash. Why didn’t Checker ever issue Bo’s original? We close the program with Bo Diddley returning to the R&B and Pop Charts in 1959 with the doo wop ballad, “I’m Sorry,” the Latin-tinged “I’m Crackin’ Up” and the signifying “Say Man,” which would become BO DIDDLEY’s biggest selling record. Don’t miss BO DIDDLEY: 1956-59 on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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