Until this year, I had never heard of Ella Mae Morse. Why should I ? Her big hit, "The house of blue lights", made the charts the year I was born.
"House of Blue Lights" 1945
But in looking back through the years of music I found a rocker kinship with her song, her attitude and style.
Money Honey 1953
She didn't know what rock and roll was, the term had not been invented, but if she had come along 10 years later she would have been considered a rock and roller.
"Rock me, Roll me, All night long" 1953
I am including links to some of her music and to wikipedia for more background information on her life. She was hired by Jimmy Dorsey at age 14. She lied about her age and was promptly fired as soon as the band leader found out. She was back with a big band three years later touring and cutting records.
Mo Info
I hope you will give my leaping assumption a little credence by giving this Mansfield, Texas native a good hearing. I know Mansfield of today. It's one of the smaller DFW suburbs. It must have been a tee niny little town in the 40's. So how did she get so hip so young ? I think Bob Wills and other western swing guys were working out of nearby Fort Worth. The area was jumping with blues and swing. Who knows but she obviously was tuned in.
"Cow Cow Boogie" 1942
She was just seventeen when she was recording some of these songs. You would have thought she had been around the tonks for twenty years or more.
The new Boomer Culture blog will continue to bring you this Saturday night music program. There will be stories such as this on Rock and Roll history. I will do something on newer music "recommendations". From time to time we will stray into other interesting genre's. It's all for fun and that's what music is supposed to be about. I hope you all enjoy this new series.
The Boomer Magazine is brought to you by:
John Boykin
"The Hard Hat Photographer"
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Same reaction from Pearl in Little Rock and Linn in Alabama..Interesting hmmmm.
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