Big Joe Turner - The Atlantic Albums '2021

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Cherry Red
02. Roll Em Pete
03. I Want a Little Girl
04. Low Down Dog
05. Wee Baby Blues
06. Youre Driving Me Crazy
07. How Long Blues
08. Morning Glories
09. St. Louis Blues
10. Piney Brown Blues
11. Shake, Rattle and Roll
12. Flip Flop and Fly
13. Feeling Happy
14. Well All Right
15. The Chicken and the Hawk (Up, up and Away)
16. Boogie Woogie Country Girl
17. Honey Hush
18. Corrine Corrina
19. Midnight Special Train
20. Hide and Seek
21. Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop
22. Crawdad Hole
23. Sweet Sixteen (feat. Van Piano Man Walls Orchestra)
24. Chains of Love (feat. Van Piano Man Walls Orchestra)
25. Jump for Joy
26. Teenage Letter
27. Love Roller Coaster
28. Lipstick, Powder and Paint
29. Morning, Noon and Night
30. I Need a Girl
31. Red Sails In the Sunset
32. Blues In the Night
33. After a While
34. World of Trouble
35. Trouble In Mind
36. TV Mama
37. You Know I Love You
38. Still In Love
39. Wee Baby Blues (Single Version)
40. Rock a While
41. Baby I Still Want You
42. The Chill Is On
43. Poor Lovers Blues
44. Dont You Cry
45. Ti-Ri-Lee
46. Married Woman
47. Midnight Cannonball
48. Ill Never Stop Loving You
49. After My Laughter Came Tears
50. Bump Miss Susie (feat. Van Piano Man Walls Orchestra)
51. Switchin In the Kitchen
52. Nobody In Mind
53. Until the Real Thing Comes Along
54. I Get the Blues When It Rains
55. Rebecca
56. When I Was Young
57. Dont You Make Me High
58. Time After Time
59. Pennies from Heaven
60. Here Comes Your Iceman


 Read Full BiographyThe pair initially traveled to New York at John Hammonds
behest in 1936. On December 23, 1938, they appeared on the fabled Spirituals to
Swing concert at Carnegie Hall on a bill with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, the
Golden Gate Quartet, and Count Basie. Turner and Johnson performed Low Down Dog
and Its All Right, Baby on the historic show, kicking off a boogie-woogie craze
that landed them a long-running slot at the Cafe Society (along with piano
giants Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons).

As 1938 came to a close, Turner and Johnson waxed the thundering Roll Em Pete
for Vocalion. It was a thrilling up-tempo number anchored by Johnsons crashing
88s, and Turner would re-record it many times over the decades. Turner and
Johnson waxed their seminal blues Cherry Red the next year for Vocalion with
trumpeter Hot Lips Page and a full combo in support. In 1940, the massive
shouter moved over to Decca and cut Piney Brown Blues with Johnson rippling the
ivories. But not all of Turners Decca sides teamed him with Johnson; Willie The
Lion Smith accompanied him on the mournful Careless Love, while Freddie Slacks
Trio provided backing for Rocks in My Bed in 1941.

Turner ventured out to the West Coast during the war years, building quite a
following while ensconced on the L.A. circuit. In 1945, he signed on with
National Records and cut some fine small combo platters under Herb Abramsons
supervision. Turner remained with National through 1947, belting an exuberant My
Gals a Jockey that became his first national R&B smash. Contracts didnt stop him
from waxing an incredibly risqué two-part Around the Clock for the aptly
named Stag imprint (as Big Vernon!) in 1947. There were also solid sessions for
Aladdin that year that included a wild vocal duel with one of Turners principal
rivals, Wynonie Harris, on the ribald two-part Battle of the Blues.

Few West Coast indie labels of the late 40s didnt boast at least one or two
Turner titles in their catalogs. The shouter bounced from RPM to Down Beat/Swing
Time to MGM (all those dates were anchored by Johnsons piano) to Texas-based
Freedom (which moved some of their masters to Specialty) to Imperial in 1950
(his New Orleans backing crew there included a young Fats Domino on piano). But
apart from the 1950 Freedom 78, Still in the Dark, none of Turners records were
selling particularly well. When Atlantic Records bosses Abramson and Ahmet
Ertegun fortuitously dropped by the Apollo Theater to check out Count Basies
band one day, they discovered that Turner had temporarily replaced Jimmy Rushing
as the Basie bands frontman, and he was having a tough go of it. Atlantic picked
up his spirits by picking up his recording contract, and Turners heyday was
about to commence.

At Turners first Atlantic date in April of 1951, he imparted a gorgeously
world-weary reading to the moving blues ballad Chains of Love (co-penned by
Ertegun and pianist Harry Van Walls) that restored him to the uppermost reaches
of the R&B charts. From there, the hits came in droves: Chill Is On, Sweet
Sixteen (yeah, the same downbeat blues B.B. Kings usually associated with;
Turner did it first), and Dont You Cry were all done in New York, and all hit
big.

Turner had no problem whatsoever adapting his prodigious pipes to whatever
regional setting he was in. In 1953, he cut his first R&B chart-topper, the
storming rocker Honey Hush (later covered by Johnny Burnette and Jerry Lee
Lewis), in New Orleans, with trombonist Pluma Davis and tenor saxman Lee Allen
in rip-roaring support. Before the year was through, he stopped off in Chicago
to record with slide guitarist Elmore James considerably rougher-edged combo and
hit again with the salacious T.V. Mama.

Prolific Atlantic house writer Jesse Stone was the source of Turners biggest
smash of all, Shake, Rattle and Roll, which proved his second chart-topper in
1954. With the Atlantic braintrust reportedly chiming in on the chorus behind
Turners rumbling lead, the song sported enough pop possibilities to merit a
considerably cleaned-up cover by Bill Haley & the Comets (and a subsequent
version by Elvis Presley that came a lot closer to the original leering intent).

Suddenly, at the age of 43, Turner was a rock star. His jumping follow-ups --
Well All Right, Flip Flop and Fly, Hide and Seek, Morning, Noon and Night, The
Chicken and the Hawk -- all mined the same good-time groove as Shake, Rattle and
Roll, with crisp backing from New Yorks top session aces and typically superb
production by Ertegun and Jerry Wexler.

Turner turned up on a couple episodes of the groundbreaking TV program Showtime
at the Apollo during the mid-50s, commanding center stage with a joyous
rendition of Shake, Rattle and Roll in front of saxman Paul Hucklebuck Williams
band. Nor was the silver screen immune to his considerable charms: Turner mimed
a couple of numbers in the 1957 film Shake Rattle & Rock (Fats Domino and Mike
Mannix Connors also starred in the flick).

Updating the pre-war number Corrine Corrina was an inspired notion that provided
Turner with another massive seller in 1956. But after the two-sided hit Rock a
While/Lipstick Powder and Paint later that year, his Atlantic output swiftly
faded from commercial acceptance. Atlantics recording strategy wisely involved
recording Turner in a jazzier setting for the adult-oriented album market; to
that end, a Kansas City-styled set (with his former partner Johnson at the piano
stool) was laid down in 1956 and remains a linchpin of his legacy.

Turner stayed on at Atlantic into 1959, but nobody bought his violin-enriched
remake of Chains of Love (on the other hand, a revival of Honey Hush with King
Curtis blowing a scorching sax break from the same session was a gem in its own
right). The 60s didnt produce too much of lasting substance for the shouter --
he actually cut an album with longtime admirer Haley and his latest batch of
Comets in Mexico City in 1966!

But by the tail end of the decade, Turners essential contributions to blues
history were beginning to receive proper recognition; he cut LPs for BluesWay
and Blues Time. During the 70s and 80s, Turner recorded prolifically for Norman
Granzs jazz-oriented Pablo label. These were super-relaxed impromptu sessions
that often paired the allegedly illiterate shouter with various jazz luminaries
in what amounted to loosely run jam sessions. Turner contentedly roared the
familiar lyrics of one or another of his hits, then sat back while somebody took
a lengthy solo. Other notable album projects included a 1983 collaboration with
Roomful of Blues, Blues Train, for Muse. Although health problems and the size
of his humongous frame forced him to sit down during his latter-day
performances, Turner continued to tour until shortly before his death in 1985.
They called him the Boss of the Blues, and the appellation was truly a fitting
one: when Turner shouted a lyric, you were definitely at his beck and call. ~
Bill Dahl

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