Welcome to a new edition of Bear Family's popular series "Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight," this time featuring none other than Johnnie Lee Wills!
Johnnie was the younger brother of Bob Wills, for whom he played tenor banjo during the early years of Bob's success. In 1940 Bob Wills decided to split up the Texas Playboys to meet the ever-growing demand for live appearances nationwide. To keep radio work and dances steady in their home base, Tulsa, Bob entitled Johnnie Lee to remain in Oklahoma and form his own group - Johnnie Lee Wills and All the Boys.
This compilation offers many interesting sides issued on Decca, Bullet Records, and RCA Victor. The Decca and Bullet sides have long been unavailable on CD.
John Lee Wills did not record as much as his brother, but he had two major hits that helped define the genre and spur many cover versions: Rag Mop and Milk Cow Blues. Johnnie Lee Wills was quintessentially Western Swing and a great band leader, employing quality sidemen.
Deeply rooted in the rhythms and styles of the 1930s, Johnnie kept his arrangements tight, simple, and danceable. Thus, Johnnie Lee Wills and All the Boys were hugely successful with dancers, swinging and rocking Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa until disbanding in 1964! They also remained a radio fixture on KVOO, Tulsa, until 1958.
This collection offers some of the long-neglected Decca and Bullet sides of Johnnie Lee Wills and All the Boys, including his 1950 Bullet release Rag Mop, a #2 country hit that also reached the pop top ten. This is high-profile fun for all you jitterbuggers, finger snappers, rockers, and rug cutters: Try hopping to Boogie Woogie Highball without losing a drop of your cocktail; try Square Dance Boogie – way too hip for all them squares anywhere; try the lofty fiddle rendition of Glenn Miller's classic In The Mood; try scatting to Four Or Five Times; try the swinging I'm Leaving (Yes, Indeedy) - showing where Bill Haley and his Comets drew inspiration from. After all that, get yourself some homebrew and get low down with the risqué Milk Cow Blues, Oo Oooh Daddy, and Devil's Blues.
Rare, hot, and swinging – let's all ball with Johnnie Lee Wills and his Boys: Best on Bear Family Records®!
1. The Band's A-Rockin'
2. The Thingamajig
3. Blackberry Boogie
4. Coyote Blues
5. A Bad Deal All Around
6. She Took!
7. I Like You Best
8. Let Me Be Boogie Woogie Highball (Bullit)
9. Hot Check Baby
10. Levee Blues
11. A-L-B-U-Q-U-E-R-Q-U-E
12. Smoke On The Water
13. Sold Out Doc
14. Four Or Five Times
15. Rag Mop
16. Two Timing
17. Two Step Side Step
18. In The Mood Milk Cow Blues
19. There Are Just Two I's In Dixie (Two Blue Eyes That Mean The World To Me)
20. Tom Cat Bogie
21. Oo Oooh Daddy
22. Honey In The Horn
23. Ten Little Bluebirds In My Lapel
24. Silver Dew On The Bluegrass Tonight Southland Swing Bees In My Bonnet Square Dance Boogie
25. Devil's Blues Boogie Woogie Highball (Transcription)
26. I'm Leaving (Yes Indeedy)