"BIG" GEORGE HARDIN, "UP THE HARLEM WAY" C/W "BLUE," RECORTE 45-403 (REL. 5/1958)

I knew this one was gonna be unusual. I didn’t have to hear it: weird label, odd performer name, odd song title. My instincts improve with each year as I plow through unknown records. None of this record’s information said it would be a tame, bland experience.

It’s the only record of “Big” George Hardin, recorded in 1958 for the Recorte label, and it has at least one of its able-bodied session men ID’d by the vocalist. Guitarist Everett Barksdale is urged on at 1:32: “Aah…take it, brother Everett!” King Curtis plays blazing sax in a performance this enigmatic singer/composer failed to name-check.

“Big” George has an unusual approach to rock ‘n’ roll on his celebratory “Up the Harlem Way,” which feels close to those song-poem efforts mentioned here last Saturday. Awkward phrases combine with the feel of a bookish adult whose attempt to connect with his hip teenage audience is just a touch off. He sings with hearty stiffness, if such a concept is feasible. He has a booming, deep voice (which must have come from a large, forbidding frame) but he doesn’t quite have the rebop. That is the record’s charm: someone whom we hear give so much effort to deliver a teen-friendly rocker.

The backing band is on fire, and, sans the vocal, might have been the support for a hot rockabilly session. As with yesterday’s disc, “Up the Harlem Way” makes clear the connection between white rock ‘n’ roll and Black rhythm and blues. They collide on cloud-cuckoo land on this singular performance.

>>>Hear it HERE!!!<<<

“Blue” is the ballad side, and it’s more suited to Hardin’s unusual approach. On this flip, his voice is bathed in reverb, with an ethereal femme chorus who often sound like they’re in Connecticut and the band so soaked in studio atmosphere they’re just a soup of sound, with piano and drumbeat audible.

George’s performance suggests a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins on a ballad kick, and that’s just what this song needs. His vibrato and phrasing are unpredictable, as is his pitch; he sings a bit lower than his comfy range. All this is beneficial to a curious and fascinating performance. In an ideal world, there’d be a “Big” George Hardin album where he tackles standards like “I Love Paris” and “Where or When” in this inimitable style.

Cash Box reviewed all the other Recorte releases around this one; they were perhaps so baffled their reviewer went into a fugue state and missed dinner that night.

Alas, this was it for this performer, who left zero trace of his existence in the pages of history. I feel his was a fascinating life. Anyone who could make such an odd record HAD to be one interestin’ cat.

>>>Hear it HERE!!!<<<

Tomorrow: Jerry Butler’s brother Billy delivers a pair of Curtis Mayfield-penned and produced Chicago soul winners via an Okeh single from 1965.