Tuesday, April 22, 2014

CLIFFIE STONE "COOL COWBOY"

("Better Than The Beatles" is back on-line)

As a companion piece to the "How The West Was Swung" album by Vegas crooner Pete Brady that we posted here a few days ago, here's another unlikely cowboy/modern jazz combination collection. Some of the same Western standards that Brady interpreted are featured here, as well. But this one comes from the other side of the fence: Cliffie Stone wasn't a Rat Packer heading out west like Brady, but a major country music figure (Capital Records A&R man, radio and tv host, and some recording success as well) putting down his lariat, and picking up a martini glass. 

This album is fun one, but it's def not as hip as "How The West Was Swung" - the jazz on songs like "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" is more Dixieland than bebop, and the vocals are by a pretty white-bread co-ed vocal choir. Still, Stone's take on The Sons of The Pioneers classic "Cool Water" swings like a rusty saloon door, dad. And dig the nutty cha-cha version of "Don't Fence Me In."

Better yet are the originals, like the title song, a hysterical number about a cowboy so cool, he'll "build a dude ranch on the moon." The like-minded "Cool Cow Boogie," concerns a hep-cat who's "got a knocked-out western accent with a Harlem touch."

CLIFFIE STONE "COOL COWBOY"

1 Cool Cowboy
2 The Streets of Laredo
3 Don't Fence Me In Cha-Cha
4 Tumblin Tumbleweeds
5 Cool Cow Boogie
6 High Noon
7 Jingle Jangle Jingle
8 Blood On The Saddle
9 Along The Navajo Trail
10 Cool Water
11 Sierra Sue
12 Ragtime Cowboy Joe


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this - it's a lot of fun. Love those 50s vocal combos...

BTW "Cool Cow Boogie" is a reading of "Cow-Cow Boogie", from "Ride Em Cowboy" an Abbot & Costello film that has Ella Fitzgerald in the cast!

It's a strange one for Cliffie to cover as it swung right from the start, and was a huge swinging hit for Ella Mae Morse in 1942, when she was about 17. Check her performance out here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8567aNfK4Nk

Or if you prefer, there's a Dorothy Dandridge "soundie" version -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xovmaG9S0sQ

And finally Ella had a hit a few years later with her version which also featured the Inkspots - and a bit of 40's rapping ;-)}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN8FnmJUNK4

Thanks for all the gems you uncover - I don't drop by here as often as I should, but every time I do there's always something wonderful to enjoy!

Mr Fab said...

Well, thank you kindly, pardner - appreciate all the info/links. And yep, I have a soft spot for those unhip vocal groups, I love songs like "Summertime Summertime" and "Mr Sandman."

Anonymous said...

If you want the WORST album that Cliffie Stone had a piece of, look up his Cliffie Stone Singers' Hank Williams Lp from '65. It's a King Family vocal pop album sound, just eviscerates the songs. Pew.

Windy

Mr Fab said...

Pretty funny, windy. I have Cliffie Stone's "Square Dance USA" album with square dance versions of songs like "Tiny Bubbles": "Tiny bubbles, in the wine, now swing your partner, do-si-do" etc.

N.Shatz said...

Mr Fab please re-up link
thnx