Covered: Jesse Stone: 1942-1985

Until a few days ago (writing this in May 2025), I had never heard of Jesse Stone. But I found out about him while research possible additional subjects for my Covered series on well-covered songwriters. What really caught my eye was that he was the one who wrote the song "Shake, Rattle and Roll." That was one of the most pivotal songs that launched the popularity of rock and roll music. Rolling Stone Magazine has rated it as 127 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

But while Stone is best known for that song, he wasn't a songwriting one-hit wonder. Ahmet Ertegun, the head of Atlantic Records, the most important R&B record company in that era, once stated that "Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock and roll sound than anybody else."

Stone's music career went way back. He actually came from a family who put on minstrel shows, and began performing at the age of four! His first big success as a songwriter came with the song "Idaho," which sold over a million copies in 1942. That's not really a style of song I like, but I've included it since it was a pivotal song in his career. Things got more interesting as the rock and rock era dawned in the early 1950s. Another big success for him was "Money Honey" by the Drifters, which Rolling Stone Magazine also put on their list of the top 500 greatest songs of all time. "Flip, Flop and Fly" by Big Joe Turner and "Don't Let Go" by Roy Hamilton were also especially big hits.

Stone had his own career as a singer, as well as a producer and arranger. He had a fine voice, but never had any hits of his own. He certainly stood out for being a successful Black songwriter in the 1950s when there were very few others. (Although Otis Blackwell comes to mind as another key exception.) His success as a songwriter petered out in the early 1960s as musical styles change. Most of these songs are the original versions, except for the last three, which came significantly later. He died in 1999 at the age of 97.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on him:

Jesse Stone (musician) - Wikipedia

This album is 47 minutes long. 

01 Idaho (Benny Goodman with Dick Haymes)
02 Cole Slaw [Sorghum Switch] (Louis Jordan)
03 Losing Hand (Ray Charles)
04 Money Honey (Drifters)
05 Shake, Rattle and Roll (Bill Haley & His Comets)
06 As Long as I'm Moving (Ruth Brown)
07 Razzle-Dazzle (Bill Haley & His Comets)
08 Flip, Flop and Fly (Big Joe Turner)
09 Crazy, Crazy Party (Cues)
10 Don't Let Go (Roy Hamilton)
11 Love Is A-Breakin' Out (Roberta Sherwood)
12 Red Hot Love (Billy Williams)
13 Private Eye (Buddy Wilkins)
14 Like a Baby (Elvis Presley)
15 Smack Dab in the Middle (Ray Charles)
16 Your Cash Ain't Nothing but Trash (Steve Miller Band)
17 Liptstick, Powder and Paint (Shakin' Stevens)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AhbgKxJs

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/BtYyaOvcEyjyV9q/file

I don't know much about the cover photo except that it looks to be a promotional photo from the 1950s. It was originally in black and white, but I colorized it using the Krea AI program.

Louis Jordan - Unique Soundies & Radio Broadcasts (1942-1947)

Here's something out of left field compared to what I usually post here. I've never posted music from the 1940s before. Generally speaking, I only have a limited appreciation of music before the rock and roll era (which began around 1955), but I'll make a big exception for Louis Jordan. I enjoy the "jump blues" style that he was the king of. In my opinion, it was the most rocking music prior to rock and roll, and it has lots of humor and period charm. I think he gets underappreciated these days compared to some other famous pre-rock and roll artists, but he was massively popular with black audiences in the 1940s, and with good reason.

I never posted any of his music prior to this, because everything I had from him was officially released, and I don't like to post that sort of thing unless I have a special reason. But recently I discovered that there's a bunch of his songs that STILL have never been officially released, and they're generally really good! 

The reason many of these recordings exist due to a strange, short-term phenomenon called "soundies." You can see the Wikipedia entry about that here:

Soundies - Wikipedia

Here's how I see it. When soundies began in 1940, television as we know it hadn't even been invented yet. Soundies were much like music videos of later decades, giving fans a rare chance to actually see as well as hear the musicians they loved. You put a dime into a machine and then were able to watch a visual performance of a song. Louis Jordan made more soundies than most, probably because he was so popular, plus he and his band had a lot of visual charisma that fit the format well. At the same time, albums hadn't caught on much yet (his first album wasn't released until 1946, despite him having many hits prior to that), so he could only release a limited number of songs as singles. Thus, many of the songs he performed as soundies were never otherwise recorded in the studio. 

I was able to find a collection of his soundie videos (through SoulseekQT) and converted them to mp3s. There are many more than what I've presented here, but I've only included songs that I believe aren't on any of his archival albums. In addition, about half of the songs are ones that he performed for various radio shows but again weren't recorded in the studio. (Technically, many of these songs have been released on album, but I believe those are dubious "grey market" releases that aren't officially sanctioned, so I don't count those.)

By the way, the soundies phenomenon ended in 1947, when the main company making them folded. I suspect that was due to a changing market after World War II (which ended in 1945), especially the sudden rise of television.

I think many of these songs are among his best. I particularly like the first one, "Old Man Mose." You can watch the soundie for that one and many of the others on YouTube. In that video, he gives an amusing parody performance of an evangelical preacher.

The only problem with these soundie recordings is that some of them are fairly rough. There were a couple of songs I excluded because they were too rough. There are three more I've only included as bonus tracks, due to sound quality issues. A couple more that I did include here, such as "Good Morning Heartache" are borderline. But the most of the songs sound surprisingly good for unreleased recordings going all the way back to the 1940s.

This album is 37 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

By the way, I've recently come across some other interesting and rare Louis Jordan music. Let me know if you're interested in me posting that here, since this type of music is different from what I usually post.

01 Old Man Mose (Louis Jordan)
02 Down, Down, Down (Louis Jordan)
03 Fuzzy Wuzzy (Louis Jordan)
04 Jordan Jive [Instrumental] (Louis Jordan)
05 If You Can't Smile and Say Yes [Please Don't Cry and Say No] (Louis Jordan)
06 Let Your Hair Down, Baby (Louis Jordan)
07 When I Grow Too Old to Dream (Louis Jordan)
08 Re-Bop [Instrumental] (Louis Jordan)
09 Baby, You're Just Too Darned Good to Be True (Louis Jordan)
10 Seventh Avenue (Louis Jordan)
11 Honey Child (Louis Jordan)
12 Tillie (Louis Jordan)
13 Sweatin' on Swing Street [Instrumental] (Louis Jordan)
14 Good Morning Heartache (Louis Jordan)
15 Wham, Sam [Dig Them Gams] (Louis Jordan)

Hold On (Louis Jordan)
In the Land of the Buffalo Nickel (Louis Jordan)
Long Legged Lizzie (Louis Jordan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15262603/LouisJ_1942-1947_UnqueSoundiesRadioBroadcasts_atse.zip.html

I'm happy at how the cover art turned out. I based it on a poster for a 1946 movie called "Beware" that starred Louis Jordan. I cropped it, changed the text, and made other changes to get the best parts of the rectangular poster into a square space. I also added the record company logo and a couple other little touches to mimic the look of his earliest albums.