Dale Hawkins hailed from the swamps near Shreveport, Louisiana. The skinny, pimply faced white kid had a penchant for employing great guitarists like Roy Buchanan and James Burton. James Burton, who would go on to play with Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley and Gram Parsons, plays on this Hawkins original, La-Do-Dada. This A-Side, Hawkins' 5th single, was released on the legendary Chicago blues label, Checker (a subsidiary of Chess Records) in July of 1958. He may be the only white guy on that label. Anyone?
Dale Hawkins got into the production business and worked with The Uniques, who we just featured a few days ago, Mike Nesmith of The Monkees, The Five Americans and The Blue Things. The Blue Things, incidentally, covered La-Do-Dada in 1965 for their major label debut.
Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!
Cool one! Just two sweet chords, add some jangly piano, rumbly bass and a little high-hat. The bridge seems like a key change, but the key goes back down after the all-too-short raucous lead!
ReplyDeleteDel Saint did one single with Checker. He was of Slovakian descent.
ReplyDeleteOur Slovak friend beat Dale by one month!
DeleteWell, actually Dale's first release See You Soon Baboon came out in July '56, some two years prior to Mr. Saint.
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