Gene Simmons, "Bad Boy Willie" c/w "Goin' Back to Memphis," Checker 948 (rel. 4/1960)

Gene Simmons had a major pop hit with the Halloween perennial "Haunted House" in 1964. Few teens who dug that single knew he was a part of Sun Records in its most fervent year of rockabilly. Simmons' debut disc, "Drinkin' Wine," was recorded in 1956. Sun #299 was issued in 1958, when the rockabilly trend had cooled a bit, and didn't sell. That put the kibosh on further Sun discs bearing the Simmons name. (As with many Sun one-shots, he had a bunch of unissued material in the Memphis tape vault to be unearthed decades later.)
        Today's single is his next release under his own name. He made two singles as Monroe Simmons and one as The Simmons, which I assume is a vocal duet. That single, issued on Argo Records in 1959, is crazy-rare. For another Chess Records subsidiary, Simmons went solo. Recorded in Memphis at the studio soon to become Hi Records' home, Checker 948 was right up the Chess alley: a pair of earthy roots-rockers delivered without filigree. It's not in the league of the Sun single, but on its own terms it's excellent. 
        "Bad Boy Willie" is a swaggering, countryfied bopper about a relation to The Coasters' Charlie Brown: rascal, troublemaker, silver-tongued manipulator. With an uncredited harmony voice (which may be identified on a fine CD of Simmons' music by Bear Family Records) and either Bill Justis or Ace Cannon on tenor sax, a la King Curtis, this rowdy tribute to a lovable scamp has a powerful sound that had no chance of making the mainstream pop charts in the spring of 1960. This is the sound the music biz had successfully squelched to the best of its abilities. In the hinterlands, it continued unabated into the British Invasion era; rock 'n' roll never died but it did go underground for a spell.

Cash Box couldn't work up a head of steam about this single, but they did approve, with some of their trademark word-salad (with croutons).

"Goin' Back to Memphis" does indeed recall "Kansas City." Both are classic 12-bar blues, in which the first line is repeated as the second. This time-worn approach creates an intention and rhythm that has served thousands of similar songs. People continue writing new 12-bar blues; the songform ain't goin' away.
        This one features a gripping rhythm guitar groove upfront in the mix, out-of-tune piano (which takes a solo) and Simmons' solo voice in an ode to his home turf, where he'd soon get that big hit for Hi Records. As this-type song goes, it's excellent, though it doesn't stray from a familiar path for one moment.

Destined to a later life of confusion (no, lady, I ain't that guy with the tongue an' them funny platform shoes), Simmons never had another hit on the order of "Haunted House," but he kept recording into the 1980s. He picked up on the rockabilly revival of the 1970s and '80s and passed on in 2006 with the knowledge that he had touched millions of lives with his good-time, high-spirited music.

Tomorrow: we go to New York, where girl group Henrietta and The Hairdooz delight with a tribute to Penn Station, coupled with a ballad co-penned by Hal David. A Liberty Records platter from 1963.