Mister
2005-12-11 15:11:19 UTC
A personal look at just some of the dozens of obscure rock 'n' roll
acts from the '50s---those artists who may have made great or classic
recordings, may have had great success in their live act and had many
bookings, may have appeared on TV, and may have even been lucky enough
to get into some of those corny, zany R&R movies, but just never got
that big break: usually, the hit record.
And we start with a group that actually did have two songs in the Top
40 during 1958 but didn't get much of anything out of it, and who other
than that basically went ignored through their whole rock 'n' roll
career: Dave Appell & The Applejacks.
Dave Appell, the leader, himself was quite a talent. He played guitar
and trombone, had fine vocal ability, was a very talented songwriter,
was most talented at writing arrangements, and could also do quite a
bit of engineering and producing. He was born on March 24, 1922 in West
Philadelphia, PA. By the summer of 1940, at the age of 18, Dave had
joined saxophonist Mike Pedicin's "Four Sharps" formation as a rhythm
guitarist (with all musicians from West Philly). Without any drummer,
they had their first engagements in June 1940 in New Jersey. They
played mostly light swing music. By the time the group name had changed
to The Four Men of Rhythm and then to The Mike Pedicin Quartet, Dave
Appell had left. Mike Pedicin himself would have success later on, do
you remember his hit record "Shake A Hand" from 1957 on the Cameo label
(where Dave Appell later recorded)?
I believe Dave left the group when he signed up with the U.S. Navy at
the start of World War II. During his wartime service, Dave worked as
an arranger and composer for several U.S. Navy big bands, including
Jimmie Lunceford's black orchestra. Dave later arranged for dance
orchestras, including Benny Carter and Earl "Fatha" Hines. By the late
1940s, however, it was pretty clear that the economy could no longer
support big bands, and they were all breaking up, as their popularity
waned. Dave, following in the footsteps of Mike Pedicin, formed his own
small jazz/swing group, the Dave Appell Quartet (which was also known
sometimes as The Dave Appell Trio, or The Dave Appell Quintet). They
played all the nightclubs and lounges in the Philadelphia area and
built up a good reputation there, and in 1950 they cut their first
45rpm, "Brother Bill"/"Sugar Baby" (London #30107), under the name The
Dave Appell Trio. I actually haven't heard the record myself, but I'm
guessing it's a swing or jazz-style recording. It was no hit, but by
this time Dave and his group had built up a reputation as a good "house
band" and so comedian Ernie Kovacs hired them as his studio band for
his first TV program in Philadelphia.
The Dave Appell Quartet spent several years during the early '50s on
the "Ernie Kovacs Show" as studio band, and Dave was also employed as
Music Director on the TV show. You can see and hear this very early
version of The Applejacks on the "Kovacs on the Corner" VHS, showing
some program highlights from the year 1952. However, when Kovacs got
the opportunity to go to network television, that was it for Dave and
his band and they most likely were "let go". The Dave Appell Quartet
then signed with Decca Records, but just before they did, Paul Cohen
(who told Buddy Holly he was "the biggest no-talent I've ever worked
with" in 1956) of Decca suggested Dave change the group name to The
Applejacks. Dave did, and in July 1954, their first record, "My Heart
Will Wait For You"/"Smarter" (Decca #29218) was released. These
recordings have a very calypso-tinged sound, along with full horn
sections and a very swing-sounding style. No rock 'n' roll here yet. In
November 1954, their second Decca release, "Sweet Patootie
Pie"/"Reunion" (Decca #29330) was released, and basically it's the same
thing, very old-fashioned ("Reunion" is a barbershop-quartet
number!!!). It's interesting to note, however, that these songs were
written by Dave with Max C. Freedman, who co-wrote "Rock Around The
Clock", and Harry Filler, who is credited with the arrangement for
"Rock Around The Clock". Bill Haley was just finding success on the
same label of Decca at this very same time as a matter of fact.
The two Decca singles were commercial failures, and Decca dropped The
Applejacks from their contract. In early 1955, Dave and the Applejacks
were playing the clubs out in Los Angeles, when the owner of a tiny
label there, Tone-Craft, told them that a new R&B dance craze, the
"Ookey Ook", was taking Southern California by storm. The Tone-Craft
owner wanted Dave and the Applejacks to do a cover of the Penguins
record "Ookey Ook". The Applejacks ended up doing a very cool, jazzy
version and for the first time there was a bit of rock 'n' roll in the
music of The Applejacks. It was backed with the cute, swinging novelty
number "Honey Bunch" on Tone Craft #200. That record was a regional
hit. Shortly afterwards, the group made another record, "Where Is My
Love?"/"Allrighty" on Tone Craft #202. This was basically cocktail jazz
mixed with doo-wop, especially on "Where Is My Love?" These recordings
are very mysterious, because the only information I could immediately
find on the web about a Tone-Craft Records was that it was a label
founded by a Southern rocker in 1979-80.
Anyway, yet again, Dave only lasted with a label for two singles. He
was more busy writing and arranging songs with Max Freedman for other
artists, anyway. He joined ASCAP in 1955 and even formed his own
publishing company. It may have been the success of Bill Haley with
"Rock Around The Clock" just around this time plus the success of
Dave's white cover version of "Ookey Ook" that inspired him to do so,
but anyway Dave and his group changed their musical style from nothing
but jazz and swing to rock 'n' roll. They began playing a Bill
Haley-style, swinging saxophone-driven rock 'n' roll with a slight
nightclub approach to it. The small President label of New York (which
I have no info about, other than it was owned by publisher Ed Kassner
and featured a lot of young rock talent), signed Dave and the
Applejacks, most likely hoping for another Bill Haley. Indeed, the
first record, "Ring Around My Baby"/"The Love Express" (President
#1005), sounds like the songs may have been written for Haley. "The
Love Express" is an absolute jump blues classic, I wish everyone could
hear it but it's so rare. The next release, "Teenage Meeting (Gonna
Rock It Up Right)"/"Ooh, Baby, Ooh" (President #1006) was also very
Haley-ish. "Teenage Meeting" is a very interesting record, not because
of the annoying background of "teenagers" talking, but because it was
recorded by non-rocker Don Cornell for Coral shortly after the
Applejacks' version. And the song was also written by Julius Dixon and
Ollie Jones, along with NYC disc jockey Alan Freed (although if you
know anything about Freed's writing credits, he probably didn't write
it actually). I believe there may have been some sort of publishing or
promotional deal worked out here.
One of my favorite Appell songs from this period is "The Rock And Roll
Story", backed with the completely over-the-top ballad "Rainbow Of
Love" (President #1011), from April 1956. "The Rock And Roll Story",
while jumping hard with an extremely wild, classic sax solo, attempts
to tell the story of rock and explain some of the reasons why it is so
popular with teens, hinting at Alan Freed as one of the reasons ("Man
on the radio, new kind of rhythm, new kind of show!"). At this time,
Dave and the Applejacks may not have been selling any records, but they
were certainly a fixture on that Pennsylvania/Jersey/Delaware club,
casino, and hotel scene, that played host to so many "house-rock"
groups, like Freddie Bell & The Bellboys, Jimmy Cavello & The House
Rockers, Billy Duke & His Dukes, Don Haven & The Hi-Fi's, Mike Pedicin
Quintet, etc., etc. The "B-movie" producer Sam Katzman may have spotted
the Applejacks at some of these places, and cast them in the part of
Rock'N'Roll Superstar Arnie Haines' backing band in the September 1956
Alan Freed rock film "Don't Knock the Rock". In the movie, Dave Appell
& The Applejacks have some speaking parts, mostly Dave, and provide the
backing to four Alan Dale songs, "I Cry More", "You're So Right",
"Gonna Run" and "Don't Knock the Rock", in the movie. We can't totally
blame poor Dave and crew for having to provide the music to one of the
greatest insults to R&R in these movies. Dave and the Applejacks also
did two of their own songs, their first instrumental, "Applejack", and
the terrible song "Country Dance", in this film, but the actors talk
over the band's songs all the time (GGGRRRRR!!), even the great sax
solo on the otherwise horrible "Country Dance".
I can't say "Don't Knock The Rock" did anything for the band, because
their next record with the two songs from the film (President #1013),
was a total flop, although it was their first record released in
Europe, thanks to the movie. Next Dave and the Applejacks were playing
in Las Vegas, but they soon began to pine for their hometown and
returned to Philly, where they started working for Cameo Records, a
label founded by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe over a Christmas party in
1956. One of the first things Dave and his group did for Cameo was
backing Charlie Gracie on his hits "Butterfly" and "Fabulous". The
Applejacks also provided the bluesy backing on John Zacherle's Top 10
hit "Dinner With Drac". In the summer of 1958, Dave got an idea for a
song from the Philadelphia String Band of a marching-type song with a
dance beat. He wrote an instrumental song called "The Mexican Hat Rock"
that he had his studio band The Applejacks record. It was released on
Cameo #149 in September 1958, backed with the apalling "Sophisticated
Swing", and became a big dance hit on "American Bandstand", with The
Applejacks finally breaking into the national charts under their own
name. "The Mexican Hat Rock" went to #16 on the charts, and the
follow-up instrumental, "Rocka-Conga"/"Am I Bue" (Cameo #155), from
December 1958, hit #38. Dick Clark was the one to thank for these
successes, plus the #70 charting of the next release, "Bunny
Hop"/"Night Train Stroll", (Cameo #158), from February 1959. The
Applejacks did many albums and singles of mostly forgettable dance
instrumentals in this period of 1958-60, just another way to sell
records, I guess, and I'll just name off some of the other good and/or
significant ones: "Happy Jose", which made the Top 40 under the name
"The Dave Appell Orchestra" in 1962, "Hot Toddy", "Back In 60 Seconds",
"Noivous", and the driving "Untouchables Theme".
The Applejacks became the Cameo-Parkway house band, backing such top
artists as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, The Dovells, The Orlons, and
Dee Dee Sharp, whose records Dave also arranged and produced and in
many cases co-wrote with Kal Mann, including "Let's Twist Again"
(Chubby Checker); "Wild One" (Bobby Rydell); "Mashed Potato Time" (Dee
Dee Sharp); "South Street" (The Orlons); "Bristol Stomp" (The Dovells).
Dave would compose the melodies, and Kal Mann would put words to the
hits. Dave's secret to songwriting success was usually take a song that
had gone Public Domain, and re-work it in a rock 'n' roll style. These
were the years of the twist and other dance crazes, in the launching of
which Dave played a vital role. Dave, by the early '60s, was A&R
director at Cameo-Parkway, in charge of finding and developing new
talent, re-arranging and arranging new material, etc., etc. However,
The Applejacks, more or less a studio band now more than an actual
group, just kind of dissolved around 1964-65.
Dave later worked in New York with Hank Medress (formerly of The
Tokens) as producers for Tony Orlando and Dawn hits in the early '70s,
including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" and "Knock Three
Times".
Discussion?
acts from the '50s---those artists who may have made great or classic
recordings, may have had great success in their live act and had many
bookings, may have appeared on TV, and may have even been lucky enough
to get into some of those corny, zany R&R movies, but just never got
that big break: usually, the hit record.
And we start with a group that actually did have two songs in the Top
40 during 1958 but didn't get much of anything out of it, and who other
than that basically went ignored through their whole rock 'n' roll
career: Dave Appell & The Applejacks.
Dave Appell, the leader, himself was quite a talent. He played guitar
and trombone, had fine vocal ability, was a very talented songwriter,
was most talented at writing arrangements, and could also do quite a
bit of engineering and producing. He was born on March 24, 1922 in West
Philadelphia, PA. By the summer of 1940, at the age of 18, Dave had
joined saxophonist Mike Pedicin's "Four Sharps" formation as a rhythm
guitarist (with all musicians from West Philly). Without any drummer,
they had their first engagements in June 1940 in New Jersey. They
played mostly light swing music. By the time the group name had changed
to The Four Men of Rhythm and then to The Mike Pedicin Quartet, Dave
Appell had left. Mike Pedicin himself would have success later on, do
you remember his hit record "Shake A Hand" from 1957 on the Cameo label
(where Dave Appell later recorded)?
I believe Dave left the group when he signed up with the U.S. Navy at
the start of World War II. During his wartime service, Dave worked as
an arranger and composer for several U.S. Navy big bands, including
Jimmie Lunceford's black orchestra. Dave later arranged for dance
orchestras, including Benny Carter and Earl "Fatha" Hines. By the late
1940s, however, it was pretty clear that the economy could no longer
support big bands, and they were all breaking up, as their popularity
waned. Dave, following in the footsteps of Mike Pedicin, formed his own
small jazz/swing group, the Dave Appell Quartet (which was also known
sometimes as The Dave Appell Trio, or The Dave Appell Quintet). They
played all the nightclubs and lounges in the Philadelphia area and
built up a good reputation there, and in 1950 they cut their first
45rpm, "Brother Bill"/"Sugar Baby" (London #30107), under the name The
Dave Appell Trio. I actually haven't heard the record myself, but I'm
guessing it's a swing or jazz-style recording. It was no hit, but by
this time Dave and his group had built up a reputation as a good "house
band" and so comedian Ernie Kovacs hired them as his studio band for
his first TV program in Philadelphia.
The Dave Appell Quartet spent several years during the early '50s on
the "Ernie Kovacs Show" as studio band, and Dave was also employed as
Music Director on the TV show. You can see and hear this very early
version of The Applejacks on the "Kovacs on the Corner" VHS, showing
some program highlights from the year 1952. However, when Kovacs got
the opportunity to go to network television, that was it for Dave and
his band and they most likely were "let go". The Dave Appell Quartet
then signed with Decca Records, but just before they did, Paul Cohen
(who told Buddy Holly he was "the biggest no-talent I've ever worked
with" in 1956) of Decca suggested Dave change the group name to The
Applejacks. Dave did, and in July 1954, their first record, "My Heart
Will Wait For You"/"Smarter" (Decca #29218) was released. These
recordings have a very calypso-tinged sound, along with full horn
sections and a very swing-sounding style. No rock 'n' roll here yet. In
November 1954, their second Decca release, "Sweet Patootie
Pie"/"Reunion" (Decca #29330) was released, and basically it's the same
thing, very old-fashioned ("Reunion" is a barbershop-quartet
number!!!). It's interesting to note, however, that these songs were
written by Dave with Max C. Freedman, who co-wrote "Rock Around The
Clock", and Harry Filler, who is credited with the arrangement for
"Rock Around The Clock". Bill Haley was just finding success on the
same label of Decca at this very same time as a matter of fact.
The two Decca singles were commercial failures, and Decca dropped The
Applejacks from their contract. In early 1955, Dave and the Applejacks
were playing the clubs out in Los Angeles, when the owner of a tiny
label there, Tone-Craft, told them that a new R&B dance craze, the
"Ookey Ook", was taking Southern California by storm. The Tone-Craft
owner wanted Dave and the Applejacks to do a cover of the Penguins
record "Ookey Ook". The Applejacks ended up doing a very cool, jazzy
version and for the first time there was a bit of rock 'n' roll in the
music of The Applejacks. It was backed with the cute, swinging novelty
number "Honey Bunch" on Tone Craft #200. That record was a regional
hit. Shortly afterwards, the group made another record, "Where Is My
Love?"/"Allrighty" on Tone Craft #202. This was basically cocktail jazz
mixed with doo-wop, especially on "Where Is My Love?" These recordings
are very mysterious, because the only information I could immediately
find on the web about a Tone-Craft Records was that it was a label
founded by a Southern rocker in 1979-80.
Anyway, yet again, Dave only lasted with a label for two singles. He
was more busy writing and arranging songs with Max Freedman for other
artists, anyway. He joined ASCAP in 1955 and even formed his own
publishing company. It may have been the success of Bill Haley with
"Rock Around The Clock" just around this time plus the success of
Dave's white cover version of "Ookey Ook" that inspired him to do so,
but anyway Dave and his group changed their musical style from nothing
but jazz and swing to rock 'n' roll. They began playing a Bill
Haley-style, swinging saxophone-driven rock 'n' roll with a slight
nightclub approach to it. The small President label of New York (which
I have no info about, other than it was owned by publisher Ed Kassner
and featured a lot of young rock talent), signed Dave and the
Applejacks, most likely hoping for another Bill Haley. Indeed, the
first record, "Ring Around My Baby"/"The Love Express" (President
#1005), sounds like the songs may have been written for Haley. "The
Love Express" is an absolute jump blues classic, I wish everyone could
hear it but it's so rare. The next release, "Teenage Meeting (Gonna
Rock It Up Right)"/"Ooh, Baby, Ooh" (President #1006) was also very
Haley-ish. "Teenage Meeting" is a very interesting record, not because
of the annoying background of "teenagers" talking, but because it was
recorded by non-rocker Don Cornell for Coral shortly after the
Applejacks' version. And the song was also written by Julius Dixon and
Ollie Jones, along with NYC disc jockey Alan Freed (although if you
know anything about Freed's writing credits, he probably didn't write
it actually). I believe there may have been some sort of publishing or
promotional deal worked out here.
One of my favorite Appell songs from this period is "The Rock And Roll
Story", backed with the completely over-the-top ballad "Rainbow Of
Love" (President #1011), from April 1956. "The Rock And Roll Story",
while jumping hard with an extremely wild, classic sax solo, attempts
to tell the story of rock and explain some of the reasons why it is so
popular with teens, hinting at Alan Freed as one of the reasons ("Man
on the radio, new kind of rhythm, new kind of show!"). At this time,
Dave and the Applejacks may not have been selling any records, but they
were certainly a fixture on that Pennsylvania/Jersey/Delaware club,
casino, and hotel scene, that played host to so many "house-rock"
groups, like Freddie Bell & The Bellboys, Jimmy Cavello & The House
Rockers, Billy Duke & His Dukes, Don Haven & The Hi-Fi's, Mike Pedicin
Quintet, etc., etc. The "B-movie" producer Sam Katzman may have spotted
the Applejacks at some of these places, and cast them in the part of
Rock'N'Roll Superstar Arnie Haines' backing band in the September 1956
Alan Freed rock film "Don't Knock the Rock". In the movie, Dave Appell
& The Applejacks have some speaking parts, mostly Dave, and provide the
backing to four Alan Dale songs, "I Cry More", "You're So Right",
"Gonna Run" and "Don't Knock the Rock", in the movie. We can't totally
blame poor Dave and crew for having to provide the music to one of the
greatest insults to R&R in these movies. Dave and the Applejacks also
did two of their own songs, their first instrumental, "Applejack", and
the terrible song "Country Dance", in this film, but the actors talk
over the band's songs all the time (GGGRRRRR!!), even the great sax
solo on the otherwise horrible "Country Dance".
I can't say "Don't Knock The Rock" did anything for the band, because
their next record with the two songs from the film (President #1013),
was a total flop, although it was their first record released in
Europe, thanks to the movie. Next Dave and the Applejacks were playing
in Las Vegas, but they soon began to pine for their hometown and
returned to Philly, where they started working for Cameo Records, a
label founded by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe over a Christmas party in
1956. One of the first things Dave and his group did for Cameo was
backing Charlie Gracie on his hits "Butterfly" and "Fabulous". The
Applejacks also provided the bluesy backing on John Zacherle's Top 10
hit "Dinner With Drac". In the summer of 1958, Dave got an idea for a
song from the Philadelphia String Band of a marching-type song with a
dance beat. He wrote an instrumental song called "The Mexican Hat Rock"
that he had his studio band The Applejacks record. It was released on
Cameo #149 in September 1958, backed with the apalling "Sophisticated
Swing", and became a big dance hit on "American Bandstand", with The
Applejacks finally breaking into the national charts under their own
name. "The Mexican Hat Rock" went to #16 on the charts, and the
follow-up instrumental, "Rocka-Conga"/"Am I Bue" (Cameo #155), from
December 1958, hit #38. Dick Clark was the one to thank for these
successes, plus the #70 charting of the next release, "Bunny
Hop"/"Night Train Stroll", (Cameo #158), from February 1959. The
Applejacks did many albums and singles of mostly forgettable dance
instrumentals in this period of 1958-60, just another way to sell
records, I guess, and I'll just name off some of the other good and/or
significant ones: "Happy Jose", which made the Top 40 under the name
"The Dave Appell Orchestra" in 1962, "Hot Toddy", "Back In 60 Seconds",
"Noivous", and the driving "Untouchables Theme".
The Applejacks became the Cameo-Parkway house band, backing such top
artists as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, The Dovells, The Orlons, and
Dee Dee Sharp, whose records Dave also arranged and produced and in
many cases co-wrote with Kal Mann, including "Let's Twist Again"
(Chubby Checker); "Wild One" (Bobby Rydell); "Mashed Potato Time" (Dee
Dee Sharp); "South Street" (The Orlons); "Bristol Stomp" (The Dovells).
Dave would compose the melodies, and Kal Mann would put words to the
hits. Dave's secret to songwriting success was usually take a song that
had gone Public Domain, and re-work it in a rock 'n' roll style. These
were the years of the twist and other dance crazes, in the launching of
which Dave played a vital role. Dave, by the early '60s, was A&R
director at Cameo-Parkway, in charge of finding and developing new
talent, re-arranging and arranging new material, etc., etc. However,
The Applejacks, more or less a studio band now more than an actual
group, just kind of dissolved around 1964-65.
Dave later worked in New York with Hank Medress (formerly of The
Tokens) as producers for Tony Orlando and Dawn hits in the early '70s,
including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" and "Knock Three
Times".
Discussion?