Air Week: May 19-25, 2025

The Larks are one of the most influential and best sounding vocal groups of the early 1950s and yet, they are never remembered quite as well as many of their contemporaries. That might be because they only had 2 charting singles and neither record sold well after its initial release. But don’t let the numbers fool you, the Larks were a top-notch group with outstanding leads provided by Eugene Mumford, Allen Bunn and David McNeil, who occasionally sang a solid bass lead. Matt The Cat presents part one of a two-parter on The Larks on this week’s “Juke In The Back.” This week, we’ll focus on the group’s gospel roots, their charting records and the very start of the original group falling apart. Along the way, they recorded “Eyesight To The Blind,” “Little Side Car,” “When I Leave These Prison Walls,” “My Reverie” and many other standouts. You won’t want to miss the tremendous music and eye-opening stories of one of R&B’s greatest vocal groups.

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Air Week: May 12-18, 2025

Amos Milburn was the complete package. He could play boogie woogie piano with the best of ’em, having been influenced by the great Pete Johnson. He sang the smoky R&B ballad almost as well as his buddy Charles Brown and he could shout the blues alongside Roy Brown and Wynonie Harris. Milburn’s delivery was indeed a hit with the public as his Aladdin Records releases spawned 4 #1 R&B records and a total of 16 charting singles (3 of them double-sided hits). This week in part 2 of our 2 part series, Matt The Cat spins Milburn’s great Aladdin releases from 1950 to ’56. During those years, he scored his 4th and final #1 R&B hit, “Bad, Bad Whiskey” and launched a string of drinking songs, which included “Thinking and Drinking,” “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer,” “Let Me Go Home, Whiskey” and “Good, Good Whiskey.” Milburn still rocked the jukeboxes with the hits, “Walking Blues,” “Let’s Rock A While,” “Sax Shack Boogie” and “Tears, Tears, Tears,” but by the end of 1953, the hits had stopped. The music was changing and Amos Milburn would be another casualty of the incoming Rock n’ Roll movement. Here he was, one of the architects of the new music, but like so many others, he could not make the transition with the new, younger record-buyers. Heavy drinking, epilepsy and 2 strokes would shorten his life, but his legacy lives on. Don’t miss the conclusion of Amos Milburn, this week on the “Juke In The Back.” 

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Air Week: May 5-11, 2025

Amos Milburn was the complete package. He could play boogie woogie piano with the best of ’em, having been influenced by the great Pete Johnson. He sang the smoky R&B ballad almost as well as his buddy Charles Brown and he could shout the blues alongside Roy Brown and Wynonie Harris. Milburn’s delivery was indeed a hit with the public as his Aladdin Records releases spawned 4 #1 R&B records and a total of 16 charting singles (3 of them double-sided hits). However, he wasn’t a star right out of the gate and had to spend 2 years building up his audience for his big 1948 breakthrough, “Chicken Shack Boogie.” From there, the floodgates opened and Milburn enjoyed a few years of solid hit-making, before the crossover success of Rock n’ Roll would snuff out sales. He is mostly remembered today for his drinkin’ songs, but this week on part one of our two-part series on Amos Milburn, you won’t hear any of those types of songs. His career began with the strong sound of boogie woogie and the smoky balladry inspired by Charles Brown and Nat “King” Cole. So lend an ear as Matt The Cat fills the “Juke In The Back” with Amos Milburn’s early career from 1946-49 on this week’s program.

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Air Week: April 28-May 4, 2025

This week, the “Juke In The Back” solutes the Unsung Ladies of R&B! We’ll dig deep into a stack of shellac from some women you know, like Varetta Dillard, Ann Cole and The Cookies, as well as from some that you may not know, such as Gwen Johnson and Bonita Cole. Matt The Cat will also feature an audition tape by the seldom heard Olive Brown, which was never issued at the time. None of the chanteuses on this week’s program have catalogs deep enough to be main features, so we’ve gathered them together so they can shine on their own program. Pick up on what these ladies are puttin’ down on this week’s “Juke In The Back” and the “soul that came before Rock n’ Roll.”

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Air Week: April 21-27, 2025

This week, “Juke In The Back” features The Griffin Brothers, one of the unsung Rhythm & Blues groups from the early 1950s. Jimmy and “Buddy” Griffin began in their hometown of Norfolk, VA in the late ’40 playing jump blues. They settled in Washington, DC and were asked to backup Roy Brown on “Hard Luck Blues” in April, 1950. That recorded went to #1 in August and soon the brothers had their own record deal with Randy Wood’s Dot Records out of Gallatin, TN. With vocalists Margie Day and Tommy Brown, The Griffin Brothers Orchestra scored six charting R&B hits from 1950-52, before embarking on separate solo careers in 1954. Matt The Cat features The Griffin’s biggest hits, jumpin’ B-sides and solo records on this week’s “Juke.” The Griffin Brothers were an important part of R&B’s rise, scoring a #1 smash in early 1952 with “Weepin’ & Cryin'” (featuring Tommy Brown on lead vocals) and now they’re finally getting their due, even if time has left them behind.

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Air Week: April 14-20, 2025

Let’s get together, throw some nickels in the ol’ Rockola Jukebox and celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the “Juke In The Back.” It’s hard to believe that Matt The Cat’s been droppin’ down the plattahs and makin’ ’em splattah like pancake battah for 15 years. He couldn’t have done it without the listenership and support of all you hep cats and crazy kittens. This week, we open up the Request-O-Matic Hotline and take some of your requests as well as play some records that have never been played on previous “Juke In The Back” programs. We take the opportunity to look back at the last 15 years before blasting into the next 15 years with next week’s program. So belly up to the bar at Rosie Juke Joint and get ready for a solid hour of what we do best, vintage Rhythm & Blues from the Jukers that make it possible. Thank you! 

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Air Week: April 7-13, 2025

The “Juke In The Back” digs deep into New Orleans Rhythm & Blues this week to focus on Bobby Mitchell & The Toppers, one of the few vocal groups to come out of a city best known for its blues, jazz and cajun roots. The Spiders were the best known vocal group to come out of 1950s New Orleans, but Bobby Mitchell & The Toppers were probably more versatile in the sense that they could not only shout the blues, like Roy Brown or Wynonie Harris, but they could also harmonize like a top notch doo wop group. Bobby Mitchell is best remembered today as the cat who originally sang “I’m Gonna Be A Wheel Someday,” two years before Fats Domino would cut it, but it was his “Try Rock n’ Roll” from 1956 that would be his only charting hit (reaching #14 nationally). That song capitalized on the emerging rock n’ roll craze and remains a record of its time. Bobby Mitchell and The Toppers were definitely a vocal group of their time, but they are well worth checking out as Matt The Cat gives them the spotlight treatment on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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Air Week: March 31-April 6, 2025

Producer Jerry Wexler called Etta James, “The greatest of all modern blues singers.”  That’s great praise coming from a guy who worked with the greatest of the greats for 50 years.  Etta had an amazing talent for mixing a bit of tenderness and heartbreak into her gritty, tough and soulful voice.  She had a style all her own and she played by her own rules.  Her success on record was equally matched by her personal failures off-mic, dealing with drug addiction, bad relationships and financial problems.  On this week’s “Juke In The Back,” Matt The Cat looks at how this incredible legend got started, focusing on Etta’s first recordings from 1954 to her great rise in 1960.  Through these records, you’ll hear that even in her early days, Etta’s music had great depth and variety.  We honor the late, great Etta James, this week on the “Juke In The Back.”

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Air Week: March 24-30, 2025

With so many wonderful vocal groups present during the 1950s, it took a few distinct ones to lead the pack and blaze the trail. The Heartbeats are always right up there with The Clovers, Harptones, Moonglows, Flamingos and the other leaders who carried the torch lit by the Orioles and Ravens during the late ’40s. The Heartbeats began as the Hearts in 1953, but before making their first record in 1955, changed their name after a female group called The Hearts scored a big hit with “Lonely Nights.” Their first record came out in mid-1955 on Network Records. Although it was not successful, it gave them something to interest Hull Records, a tiny startup looking to enter the vocal group scene. Their first few records for Hull got regional airplay and made the charts in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was “A Thousand Miles Away,” their 4th Hull single that really took off nationally. Knowing the record would do better on a label with greater distribution and push, they jumped over to George Goldner’s storied Rama Records and “A Thousand Miles Away” went top 5 R&B and #53 Pop. Now one of the biggest vocal groups in the country, they continued to release slightly more polished songs for Rama and Gee, before falling apart by the end of 1959. Matt The Cat presents The Heartbeats’ story and their fantastic music on this week’s “Juke In The Back.”

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Air Week: March 17-23, 2025

Paul Gayten is one of the unsung heroes of rhythm & blues and one of the many architects of rock n’ roll. This week, Matt The Cat spotlights Gayten’s great contributions to music on the “Juke In The Back.” Paul Gayten scored the first New Orleans’ hit of the post World War II R&B era with “True (You Don’t Love Me)” in 1947, thus kicking off a legacy of rhythm hit-making and influence from the Crescent City. His work with vocalists Annie Laurie and Chubby “Hip Shakin'” Newsome is legendary. As a songwriter, producer and talent scout for Chess Records, Gayten discovered and signed Clarence Henry and Bobby Charles and worked with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Gayten made great contributions to R&B and Rock n’ Roll, but gets very little recognition these days. Matt The Cat and the “Juke In The Back” are out to change that with this week’s heartfelt dedication to the late, great Paul Gayten.

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