Wade And Dick (The College Kids), "Bop Bop Baby" c/w "Don't Need Your Lovin Baby," Sun 269 (rel. 4/1957)
We set the wayback machine for 1955. The place: North Texas State College, located in Denton, TX. Students Dick Penner and Wade Moore grew up digging roots music and, ere long, performing it. Penner was a big fan of the country duo Johnnie and Jack (me too!) Wade’s faves were sophisticated pop/jazz harmony groups—The Four Freshmen, The Hi-Los, The Four Aces.
The two met on campus and, despite coming from different zip codes of Musicville, they hit it off. They noted the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll and decided to get in on the action. As the story goes, in February 1955 they confabbed on the roof of a NTS frat house with a sixer of beer. Wade brought his ukulele and I presume Dick supplied the paper and pencil. Before the third can of beer could be opened, the boys had written “Ooby Dooby,” a classic slice of early uptempo rock.
Both realized they had a potential hit on their hands. And both copyrighted the song—unbeknownst to the other, and to two rival publishing houses. Penner sent the song to Sam Phillips’ Hi-Lo Music, while Wade went with Peer International. (Peer bought Phillips out of the song, sensing its long shelf-life as a rock standard.)
“Ooby Dooby” was recorded by fellow college student Roy Orbison for his classic debut single. Roy cut it on March 4, 1956. A day later, Sid King and The Five Strings did a version for Columbia Records. Janis Martin, the rip-roarin’ “Female Elvis,” covered it for RCA Victor. And, before Wade and Dick could cash their royalty checks, Sam Phillips signed the duo to Sun.
The guys had to wait until their winter break to make it to Memphis. On December 14th, they laid down four songs. Two were chosen for their sole Sun single; the others languished in the can ‘til Sun’s unissued material was indexed, IDd and released on vinyl and CD.
The single came out in April 1957, but both songs were enough ahead of the bell curve that they sounded fresh and inviting—as they still do today. Sun 269 is one of my favorite singles from the label. Speaking of which...
“Bop Bop Baby” has the intense harmony duet of Penner and Moore, solid drumming by Roger Berkeley and hot-shot guitarist Bob Izer, who keeps hitting a complex, dissonant chord. (For music nerds, it’s an E7 chord with a sharped ninth.) These little stings of the scorpion’s tail prod the song along in high gear. The sinister approach of the guitar at song’s start is fabulous.
Wade and Dick sing great together; they seem tuned into the same channel of urgency and give it 110% from start to finish. This is, to these ears, a perfect rock 'n' roll record.
On the flip, “Don’t Need Your Lovin’ Baby” is a solo Dick Penner stand with Wade and a third party providing backup. This highly modal song is years ahead of its time—it sounds like something one of the invading British rock groups of 1964 might have composed and recorded. Izer is again a blazing, aggressive guitarist and locks in with drummer Berkeley to create and sustain a hypnotic mood.
Penner’s mellow voice, which ought to work against the record’s success, manages to help the emotional whirlwind keep its form for the length of the song. It’s more adventurous that the songs of many Sun artists, and a memorable meeting of the rough and the smooth.
This turned out to be Wade and Dick’s only record. Dick Penner did a solo single for Sun, which is harder to find than this one. After a post-graduate stint in the service, Penner decided that academia was his calling. He taught English Lit at the University of Tennessee for decades. After his 2000 retirement, he traveled the world, and was surprised by a call from Knox Phillips, Sam’s son, to inform him that “Bop Bop Baby” would be used in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line (in one of the film’s many erroneous placements of things in the film’s timeline). He’s still with us, and I hope he’s safe and well at present.
Wade Moore went into manufacturing and investment, sang in a Houston church choir and raised a family. He passed on at age 80 in 2015.
UK boutique label Cornelius Records put out a single, with picture sleeve, that comprises this single's B-side with an unissued track from the guys' Sun session. Only 300 copies were made, and I'd love to lay hands on a copy before they all vanish. In an ideal world, we'd have Wade and Dick albums, but sometimes one incredible single is all ya get, and this is at the top of the heap.
Tomorrow: UK beat group The Buckinghams deliver a fuzz-laded Beatle-esque pounder on a 1964 Laurie Records single. Both tracks were exclusive to the US and deliver the musical goods in force!
Love these! "Bop Bop Baby" is a classic example of rock from that time—twangy electric guitar and driving drumbeats. "Don't Need..." has a relentless beat that leaves one breathless. How did kids dance to this one?
ReplyDeleteNice! That second cut is outstanding and fresh. Great lead vocal!
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