Tuesday 10 December 2013

Day 10 - "Christmas (Comes But Once A Year)" - Amos Milburn

Vinyl junkies will understand it's pretty unusual to have a 'B' side with a different artist from that of the 'A' side but that's what happened with this King Records 45rpm where Charles Brown's classic 'Please Come Home For Christmas' - which featured on the Calendar a few years back (you search for it, huh?) - was coupled with this bell and bass driven cracker from Amos Milburn.
 
Check out the boogie-woogie piano and chunky ska-sounding guitar and spare a thought for Amos who had something of decent career in pre-Rock 'n' Roll R 'n' B / Jazz but who was left behind once Presley started shaking his hips and curling his lip.
 
The irony is, of course, that Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and Little Richard would have all been influenced by Milburn, it's certain they would have heard of him, Amos having a huge string of R 'n' B chart hits leading up to the mid-50's. There was even an attempt to revive the man's fortunes in the early '60's when he cut an album with a fledgling record label from out of Detroit called Tamla Motown but, sadly, it didn't quite make it.
 
Enjoy it now though 'cos once the Government realises that Christmas comes once a year they are gonna tax the hell out of it.
 
 
 

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