THE BLUE CRYSTALS, "BROKE UP" C/W "QUEEN OF ALL THE GIRLS," MERCURY 71455 (REL. 5/1959)

 

If the image in today’s marquee looks familiar, it is. This is the first of two singles by a Midwestern teen duo who recorded as Day and Knight for Josie Records in 1960. Refresh your memory here:

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A year earlier, the duo made their first disc in Mercury Records’ Chicago studios, in one of the last gasps of authentic rock ‘n’ roll from a major label. This May 1959 platter approaches garage rock in its aggressive sound and is free of the little “improvements” that a New York arranger would’ve insisted take place and thus ruin the recordings.

Like many a teen duo of the era, their sound owes something to The Everly Brothers’, whose harmonies inspired a generation of young musicians (including those four lads from Liverpool) and are under-rated as the major musical influence they were and still are. Thus, we hear the gonzo guitar chords that don’t otherwise occur in either song and a rugged attempt to achieve the Nashville sound of those famed siblings.

Because these are Midwestern performers, their edges are rougher and their strike harder—and that’s all for the best. Get your dancin’ shoes on and prepare to dissect a rug!

“Broke Up” borrows the harmonized “la la la” riff from The Bell-Notes’ 1958 Top 10 hit “I’ve Had It.” That theft is forgiven as they deliver an intense account of a guy who’s been dumped by his girl because of his philandering. The two, as The Blue Crystals, are much more in-key than on the Josie single, where one voice wanders far afield from proper pitch.

Add some musical surprises—chord changes that anticipate the early Beatles songs and a tougher-than-normal approach by all parties concerned—and you have a marvelous slice of toe-tappin’ teen turmoil.

Cash Box seal of approval.

“Queen of all the Girls” does the Everlys-inspired guitar introductions, then dives into a rockin’ narrative of a guy intent on snagging the most popular girl in school. A menacing sound from the band adds oomph to this mover. A year earlier, this might have troubled the hit parade. By mid-1959, rock ‘n’ roll was in temporary retreat, and seen as a fad that had come and gone. Arrangers and producers became the creative forces behind pop records, in an atmosphere that gave us Phil Spector, Bob Crewe and Burt Bacharach—control freaks whose sonic approach defined an era and did lead to many brilliant records. The creative power was out of the hands of the performers; if lucky, one of their original songs might be used as a B-side; otherwise, they were mere pawns on the musical chessboard, limited in purpose and control. The events of 1964 would break popular music free of this Svengali approach, though some of those producers would continue to make great recordings; they, too, had to adapt to changing times.

Tomorrow: Black duo Dean and Jean deliver a favorite song of The Cramps in “Turn it Off,” one side of a super 1958 Ember Records platter. The B-side is a dead-ringer for Sam Cooke’s “Bring it On Home to Me,” five years before the fact!