Boudleaux (Bood) Bryant, "My Baby's Gone" c/w "I Wanna Go Fast," Hickory 45-1007 (rel. 3/1954)

When Fred Rose and Roy Acuff launched Hickory Records in 1954, it was intended as a conduit for their stable of country and pop songwriters to introduce new material and try their songs out on the public. Among the label's first brace of releases in March of that year was a solo single by Boudleaux Bryant. With his wife and songwriting partner Felice (both wrote independently as well), Bryant had already racked up dozens of hit songs by 1954. 

      Their songs wandered outside the three-chord realm of country music. R&B diva Ruth Brown had a 1952 hit with the jazzy "Have a Good Time" for Atlantic Records. Boudleaux's musical ear picked up influences from all over popular music. He'd been a fiddler in Hank Penny's Western swing band in the late 1930s; in his childhood he trained as a classical violinist. And though he and Felice wrote their share of three- and four-chord songs, they never hesitated to experiment. One of their most acclaimed songs, "Sleepless Nights," makes daring key changes going into the song's bridge; they get far out on a musical limb and then resolve the problem to brilliant effect, like the crowning move in a chess match.

       For M-G-M Records, the two recorded as "Bud and Betty Bryant" in the first few years of the 1950s. By that time, they were established as Nashville's hot up-and-coming songwriting team, and the future looked bright for them. 

     Today's single, which is quite rare, was perhaps an act of indulgence for Acuff and Rose. Boudleaux was an apt musician but a curious vocalist. Outside of Nashville, his singing remained unknown, but his demos were a familiar sound to country and pop artists eager for a big hit. Bryant unveiled one of his darkest songs for this session. "My Baby's Gone," as Billboard suggests in its review, may have been inspired by the songs of Hoagy Carmichael. "Bood"'s vocal seems to emulate Carmichael's world-weary singing style and the session cats, which include Chet Atkins on lead guitar, embrace this after-hours noir vibe well.

    This first-person narrative of a lovelorn alcoholic who faces both demons in a bar-room is bleak, frank and realistic. "My broken heart," he sings, "is a good excuse/for another shot of that blackout juice," to chilling effect. Bryant's homely voice brings a realism to this scenario; he misses some notes and his tone is phlegmatic, but it feels authentic. 

     No one recorded this song after its composer's version. Perhaps its blunt tableau of dive bar, dismal night and hopeless thoughts was too much for more performers. I'd love to hear, say, a Jimmy Witherspoon version of the song. The prolific Bryant could afford to write songs and forget about them; he and Felice's eye were always on the next hit--the song they hadn't yet written but might be a smash.

Billboard and Cash Box approved of Bryant's efforts, though each mag thought a different side was the A. Both call "My Baby's Gone" unusual.

On the flip is "I Wanna Go Fast," which is as perky as "My Baby" is depressed. Ukulele strums add to the bouncy nature of this plea by a horny guy for his gal to join him in some heavy petting. He's in love with her, so it's OK, folks!

     Chet Atkins gets in an outstanding solo, followed by a pianist who may be Marvin Hughes; I'm just guessing. Bryant gets in some jazz chords in the song's bridge; otherwise, this sounds like a song Carl Smith, Little Jimmy Dickens or Eddy Arnold might have gotten a country hit with; again, it went unrecorded by other artists. Bryant's voice is playful on this side; it reminds me of Robert Preston's talk-singing in the 1962 film of The Music Man.

Perhaps a dozen copies survive of this obscure single. All suffer from their being mastered with the wider grooves of a 78-rpm disc. Massive background hiss results when played with a modern microgroove stylus. I intend to get a special stylus to play these early 45s; in the meantime, I put in extra toil to mitigate the hiss and rumble that is, alas, baked into these early Hickory releases (and into most 45s of this period). 

      The Bryants chalked up scores of hit songs from the mid-1950s to the early '70s. The Everly Brothers recorded 29 of their songs; Bob Dylan had a go at two of them on his Self-Portrait album. British beat groups covered their material and Black artists in Nashville had songs custom-written for them, among them Bobby Brinkley ("I'm Just the Guy With the Car"), Nellie Rutherford ("Laughing At Me") and Leona Davis ("Too Many Chicks"). Their song "Rocky Top," recorded by bluegrass group The Osborne Brothers, became the state song of Tennessee.

Tomorrow: Inez Foxx makes Northern Soul magic on a scarce 1966 Musicor single. Charlie Foxx is co-credited as performer, but if he's on this record, I can't hear him.