Hank Williams doesn't dig Milton Berle - 1951

[Mister Moon]

You maybe a bit surprised by this but, I've not really been a Ricky Nelson fan. His voice, to me, didn't suit rock'n'roll, it was too soft vocal it didn't have the power to do such riveting and compelling rock belters. His soft vocals on things like "Boppin' The Blues", "Trying To Get To You" and "Good Rockin' Tonight" is just too weak for such rocking numbers. He's ok on the Burnette penned numbers. His voice works better on his pop stuff like "It's Late" and "Poor Little Fool". Its been said that Ricky's version of "Bucket" was influenced by Sonny's...I think Sonny has acknowledged this as well.

Not surprised at all. I have known many people who don't like Ricky Nelson for the same reasons you mention. I have always tried to take Nelson for what he was. There's no way we can compare him to the heavyweights. But I do enjoy many of his early recordings, done in the 50s and early 60s for Imperial. He was no first rate rocker, but he was special. Some of his versions stink, but he lends an interesting flavour to others, and of course there are maybe a dozen of tracks originally done by him that are true 50s classics.

He was indeed influenced by Sonny Burgess's version of "Bucket". As I mentioned above, he recorded it after Sonny's, in February 1958 - Burgess's single had been released around December 1957. And he even imitates his way of singing the last chorus.

Did you like "T" Texas Tyler's version ? It's more boogie based than Hank's, with that piano. I like Hank's best. It may be more subdued by comparison, but it has more class, I think.

[Mojo Filter]

You maybe a bit surprised by this but, I've not really been a Ricky Nelson fan. His voice, to me, didn't suit rock'n'roll, it was too soft vocal it didn't have the power to do such riveting and compelling rock belters. His soft vocals on things like "Boppin' The Blues", "Trying To Get To You" and "Good Rockin' Tonight" is just too weak for such rocking numbers. He's ok on the Burnette penned numbers. His voice works better on his pop stuff like "It's Late" and "Poor Little Fool". Its been said that Ricky's version of "Bucket" was influenced by Sonny's...I think Sonny has acknowledged this as well.

Not surprised at all. I have known many people who don't like Ricky Nelson for the same reasons you mention. I have always tried to take Nelson for what he was. There's no way we can compare him to the heavyweights. But I do enjoy many of his early recordings, done in the 50s and early 60s for Imperial. He was no first rate rocker, but he was special. Some of his versions stink, but he lends an interesting flavour to others, and of course there are maybe a dozen of tracks originally done by him that are true 50s classics.

He was indeed influenced by Sonny Burgess's version of "Bucket". As I mentioned above, he recorded it after Sonny's, in February 1958 - Burgess's single had been released around December 1957. And he even imitates his way of singing the last chorus.

Did you like "T" Texas Tyler's version ? It's more boogie based than Hank's, with that piano. I like Hank's best. It may be more subdued by comparison, but it has more class, I think.

Yeah, we certainly can't compare Ricky to the heavyweights of rock'n'roll because he did songs that were in his vocal range, which was quite limited. But his style of vocal didn't really suite the cover versions he chose to do. But all artists stick to what their abilities are, very few have a wide range of vocal capabilities. He did do some great stuff in rock'n'roll - "Believe What You Say", "Stood Up" and "Waitin' In School" these are certainly up there with the rest of the rock'n'roll classics.

It's said that Ricky wasn't really into rock'n'roll, which I find hard to believe, but did it because of how popular it was at the time.

Yes, "T" Texas Tyler's version of "Bucket" is nice.

[Mister Moon]

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[Mojo Filter]

Just love this UK 1957 EP release:

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The cover is Sooo cool!

[Mojo Filter]

Just found this great image that i've not seen before. It's unusual to see Hank messing with a fiddle:

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No other information was available. So where and when it was taken, i've no idea.

[Mojo Filter]

Nice little folio from 1950:

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I was trying to find other pages to this folio but couldn't, so I don't know what songs are inside.

[Mister Moon]

Just found this great image that i've not seen before. It's unusual to see Hank messing with a fiddle:

510508 Lister Hank Ottawa.jpg

No other information was available. So where and when it was taken, i've no idea.

On top left, a caption can be seen. I can't read all of it, but this would be Capitol recording artist Big Bill Lister and Hank during their visit to Ottawa in May 1951 (according to Colin Escott's biography, they played there on May 8).

In 1951, Lister recorded for Capitol three songs written by Hank, none of which would be officially recorded by Williams, although many years later one of them, "There's A Tear In My Beer", did surface as a demo, which was found at Lister's home.

Lister toured briefly with Williams as an opening act, and it seems he became friends with him.

[Mojo Filter]

Just found this great image that i've not seen before. It's unusual to see Hank messing with a fiddle:

510508 Lister Hank Ottawa.jpg


No other information was available. So where and when it was taken, i've no idea.

On top left, a caption can be seen. I can't read all of it, but this would be Capitol recording artist Big Bill Lister and Hank during their visit to Ottawa in May 1951 (according to Colin Escott's biography, they played there on May 8).

In 1951, Lister recorded for Capitol three songs written by Hank, none of which would be officially recorded by Williams, although many years later one of them, "There's A Tear In My Beer", did surface as a demo, which was found at Lister's home.

Lister toured briefly with Williams as an opening act, and it seems he became friends with him.

Oops! Didn't notice the caption. Thanks.

I posted the picture on my mobile so i really didn't see the caption on a small screen.

Had you seen the image before?

[Mister Moon]

Just found this great image that i've not seen before. It's unusual to see Hank messing with a fiddle:

510508 Lister Hank Ottawa.jpg


No other information was available. So where and when it was taken, i've no idea.

On top left, a caption can be seen. I can't read all of it, but this would be Capitol recording artist Big Bill Lister and Hank during their visit to Ottawa in May 1951 (according to Colin Escott's biography, they played there on May 8).

In 1951, Lister recorded for Capitol three songs written by Hank, none of which would be officially recorded by Williams, although many years later one of them, "There's A Tear In My Beer", did surface as a demo, which was found at Lister's home.

Lister toured briefly with Williams as an opening act, and it seems he became friends with him.

Oops! Didn't notice the caption. Thanks.

I posted the picture on my mobile so i really didn't see the caption on a small screen.

Had you seen the image before?

No, it was new to me. But I had seen at least a couple more of Hank playing fiddle. See this link :

http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JoePenny1.html

[Mojo Filter]

Just found this great image that i've not seen before. It's unusual to see Hank messing with a fiddle:

510508 Lister Hank Ottawa.jpg


No other information was available. So where and when it was taken, i've no idea.

On top left, a caption can be seen. I can't read all of it, but this would be Capitol recording artist Big Bill Lister and Hank during their visit to Ottawa in May 1951 (according to Colin Escott's biography, they played there on May 8).

In 1951, Lister recorded for Capitol three songs written by Hank, none of which would be officially recorded by Williams, although many years later one of them, "There's A Tear In My Beer", did surface as a demo, which was found at Lister's home.

Lister toured briefly with Williams as an opening act, and it seems he became friends with him.

Oops! Didn't notice the caption. Thanks.

I posted the picture on my mobile so i really didn't see the caption on a small screen.

Had you seen the image before?

No, it was new to me. But I had seen at least a couple more of Hank playing fiddle. See this link :

http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JoePenny1.html

Thanks for posting the link.

Nice pictures and write up there.

[Mojo Filter]

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[Mojo Filter]

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[Mojo Filter]

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[Mister Moon]

Nice sheet music. Many thanks.

The one for "Lovesick Blues" still credited incorrectly Hank as the writer of the song, as did the initial copies of the single. It was all later amended in order to credit Cliff Friend and Irving Mills.

I don't know why, but the publicity photo used in the last two sheet music examples you posted has always appeared to me as being a reversed image. I have taken it from the last one and put it the other way around. Do you think it looks better this way ?

Hank b.jpg

[Mojo Filter]

Nice sheet music. Many thanks.

The one for "Lovesick Blues" still credited incorrectly Hank as the writer of the song, as did the initial copies of the single. It was all later amended in order to credit Cliff Friend and Irving Mills.

I don't know why, but the publicity photo used in the last two sheet music examples you posted has always appeared to me as being a reversed image. I have taken it from the last one and put it the other way around. Do you think it looks better this way ?



Hank b.jpg

Yes, I did notice the crediting on "Lovesick Blues", but for some reason didn't say anything about it myself. The song itself is Hank's biggest seller, i think, and he didn't write it - though he wrote a lot better songs than that but none of them matched the "Lovesick Blues" sales. That is until "Your Cheatin' Heart" came out, but Hank never lived to see it's success.

Anna_Chandler_-_Lovesick_Blues.jpg

I didn't notice the reversed image, but yeah, you're example does look the correct way. The picture is used on a lot of Hank's sheet music. Here's another one:

9944836808.jpg

The picture looks pre MGM, a very early portrait. Sterling publicity shot?