Brown, Billy
His Rockin'est (10")
Billy Brown was already in his thirties when the rocknroll big bang of 1956 hit, but his advantage was that he was no newcomer. Beginning his musical career as a singer around Virginias round-ups, in 1950 Billy signed with Columbia Records, where he remained for three years, recording country and hillbilly, until he left music for the Uncle Sams calling. His return to music took him first to Decca and then to Stars. Inc, where he would release a single that would make a difference, including on the A-side the song DID WE HAVE A PARTY, a full-fledged response to PARTY that Elvis was promoting in his new film Loving You. At the recording session, Billy was accompanied on guitar by future country star Jerry Reed. There was no more hillbilly in Billy's music, only rock'n'roll. That record took him back to Columbia: the label was madly looking for an answer to RCA's Elvis, and thought Billy had a chance, so they reissued the record DID WE HAVE A PARTY / IT'S LOVE, giving it good promotion, even leading to Billy appearing on the national TV show American Bandstand. During the rest of 1957 and 1958, Billy would do 4 more sessions for Columbia, backed by the entire Nashville A Team at the Owen Bradley Studio. Four more singles would come out of those sessions, always between rock'n'roll and pop, with great songs like RUN'EM OFF, FLIP OUT or NEXT, but the sales didn't go as far as Columbia intended. In 1959, Billy left Columbia, and a year later Billy would release 3 more singles on Republic, moving between country and rock'n'roll. Although the three singles enjoyed a deployment of means in the studio very appropriate to Billy's style, none of the records had the promotion they deserved, and didnt succeed. This LP recovers Billy Brown's rockinest songs, all of them belonging to his period between 1957 and 1961 for Columbia and Republic, authentic rock'n'roll and pop pearls, which until now had not been recovered in a complete album dedicated to this artist. DeeJay Francho