Tiny Topsy. "Aw! Shucks Baby" c/w "Miss You So," Federal 45-12302 (rel. 6/1957)
Our new podcast, which dropped today (oops!) is also the fourth annual celebration of women in music. Among its 22 tunes is one side of today's featured single: the debut disc of the distinctive Tiny Topsy. In real life, this performer was Otha Lee Moore, whose stay on this globe was too short. In her 34 years, she left behind a bundle of distinctive performances but never translated her in-person success with hit records.
Some sources state that she weighed 300 pounds; others stay 250. She had a voice that could remove paint from walls. Were she to materialize in Washington D.C., I'm sure she could mend our current political problems by terror-shaming The Orange Stain into a nice, cozy prison cell. (That is my Christmas wish.)
Tiny was in the ballpark of Willie Mae Thornton and Big Maybelle: femme blues belters who dominated a recording microphone and mesmerized live audiences. She grew up in Chicago and got into music around 1945. She was a featured vocalist with local bandleader Al Smith. Her act wowed local audiences, and in a master-stroke of irony, while her band made boatloads of records, she never did until today's disc, cut in the late spring of 1957.
The main intention of this debut was for King Records to get a cut on a hot song out of bayou country. Lillian Offitt's debut single for Excello Records, "Miss You So," had just hit and King sensed a hit they could shoulder into. Ms. Offitt's rendition got the chart hit (#8 on the national r&b charts) and I'm sure Tiny's got lots of jukebox play. In 1957, the time-honored conceit that a song mattered more than who performed it persisted; it's common to see three or four competing versions of a popular number in the music mags of this era.
It's battle of the bands territory to discern which "Miss You So" is best; we'll get to that later. First up is "Aw! Shucks Baby," a song credited to Eddie Davenport, who co-wrote "Fever" with Otis Blackwell. I suspect Otis had a hand in this song as well; it has his idiomatic lyrical style. With vocal group The Five Chances backing her up, Tiny growls, roars and coos this affectionate (as Cash Box might have called it) with genuine fervor. The hip barrage of exclamations and clever turns of phrase get a fascinating delivery from this vocal powerhouse. To quote Cash Box for real: It is a happy, swingy wax.
Some sources state that she weighed 300 pounds; others stay 250. She had a voice that could remove paint from walls. Were she to materialize in Washington D.C., I'm sure she could mend our current political problems by terror-shaming The Orange Stain into a nice, cozy prison cell. (That is my Christmas wish.)
Tiny was in the ballpark of Willie Mae Thornton and Big Maybelle: femme blues belters who dominated a recording microphone and mesmerized live audiences. She grew up in Chicago and got into music around 1945. She was a featured vocalist with local bandleader Al Smith. Her act wowed local audiences, and in a master-stroke of irony, while her band made boatloads of records, she never did until today's disc, cut in the late spring of 1957.
The main intention of this debut was for King Records to get a cut on a hot song out of bayou country. Lillian Offitt's debut single for Excello Records, "Miss You So," had just hit and King sensed a hit they could shoulder into. Ms. Offitt's rendition got the chart hit (#8 on the national r&b charts) and I'm sure Tiny's got lots of jukebox play. In 1957, the time-honored conceit that a song mattered more than who performed it persisted; it's common to see three or four competing versions of a popular number in the music mags of this era.
It's battle of the bands territory to discern which "Miss You So" is best; we'll get to that later. First up is "Aw! Shucks Baby," a song credited to Eddie Davenport, who co-wrote "Fever" with Otis Blackwell. I suspect Otis had a hand in this song as well; it has his idiomatic lyrical style. With vocal group The Five Chances backing her up, Tiny growls, roars and coos this affectionate (as Cash Box might have called it) with genuine fervor. The hip barrage of exclamations and clever turns of phrase get a fascinating delivery from this vocal powerhouse. To quote Cash Box for real: It is a happy, swingy wax.
Classic Cash Box-isms abound in this
chipper thumbs-up review.
"Miss You So" offers the rare opportunity to hear a cover that bests its source material. Lillian Offitt's original is excellent, and you can hear it here...
Ms. Offitt's delivery is more gentle and composed; otherwise, Topsy's version is a dead ringer for the Excello hit. But the fierce performance she gives takes the cake. At a slightly faster tempo, it generates more a sense of menace than romance. Offitt sounds sorrowful and resigned to her loneliness; Topsy waits with rolling pin by the front door, ready to deliver vengeance (tho' she will perhaps set the kitchen implement aside and commence to some hanky panky upon her fella's return).
It's a powerful version and gets my vote for Best in Show. See what you think.
Ms. Offitt's delivery is more gentle and composed; otherwise, Topsy's version is a dead ringer for the Excello hit. But the fierce performance she gives takes the cake. At a slightly faster tempo, it generates more a sense of menace than romance. Offitt sounds sorrowful and resigned to her loneliness; Topsy waits with rolling pin by the front door, ready to deliver vengeance (tho' she will perhaps set the kitchen implement aside and commence to some hanky panky upon her fella's return).
It's a powerful version and gets my vote for Best in Show. See what you think.
Long ago, on Fascistbook, we played Tiny's final single for Chess Records' Argo imprint, recorded in 1959 and released in '61. After seven attempts that all ended in failure, Topsy returned to full-time live performing. On the night of August 15, 1964, after a night's performance in a local club, Ms. Moore fell ill and was hospitalized. She suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and died the next day.
In 2016, members of The Killer Blues Headstone Project, a Michigan-based non-profit, placed a new headstone to Ms. Moore's grave in Alsip, Illinois. The Project has, since 2008, placed over 170 headstones at the graves of blues musicians, who were often buried without much ado (and sometimes without a proper marker to identify them). You can learn more about them here: https://killerblues.net/our-story/
In 2016, members of The Killer Blues Headstone Project, a Michigan-based non-profit, placed a new headstone to Ms. Moore's grave in Alsip, Illinois. The Project has, since 2008, placed over 170 headstones at the graves of blues musicians, who were often buried without much ado (and sometimes without a proper marker to identify them). You can learn more about them here: https://killerblues.net/our-story/
Tomorrow: Annisteen Allen returns with a sought-after, surreal Capitol Records r&b platter from early 1955. I got a recent upgrade of this single and now's the time to hear it!
Cashbox hit the nail on the head: '...happy, swingy wax' and '...beat jump wax.' What an emotive grrr-owling voice Miss Moore had. Thanks for the inferior version link.
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