From: Waxowilko
Date: Fri May 20, 2005  5:09 pm 
Subject: Re: [Shakin_All_Over] This Is My Story - Al Hendrix  

AL HENDRIX (By Bo Berglind)

Born Clyde Allen Hendrix, 12 November 1934, Dade County, Miami, Florida
This is the story of one of those guys who, whilst not achieving national
chart success, gave us some great rock 'n' roll music. Just listen to his
tracks on the recently released compilation "That'll Flat Git It, Volume
13" (ABC-Paramount recordings) and you will discover and, hopefully, agree as to
how relevant that opening comment is.

Al Hendrix was born Clyde Allen Hendrix on 12th November 1934 in Dade
County, Miami, Florida.. Two years previously, on 16th January 1932, his parents
had been blessed with their first child, daughter Patricia Jean Aaron. The
last addition to the family came on 23rd April 1939 with the arrival of Judith
Elizabeth Chasin. Later that year the family relocated to California and
settled in Lynwood where they stayed until 1945. They then moved back to Tampa,
Florida for two years before settling in Odessa, Texas.

Al's father, Joseph Allen, was a professional butcher whilst his mum Lena
Jean Jenkins was a housewife who was also talented as a guitar picker and singer
with her two sisters Pat and Lil. During the two years the family lived in
Tampa, they listened every Saturday night to the Grand Ole Opry. When we asked
Al the reason for moving around, he told us that his dad loved to travel and
to try out new places.

In the late forties and early fifties Al took a liking to Hank Williams Snr.
and his music. Accordingly, he decided to enter an amateur contest in 1952
at Odessa High School and won first prize singing ™Long Gone Lonesome
Blues™.

Later the same year, he came second in the County Amateur Contest held in
Midland, Texas performing ™Lonesome Whistle™. Leon Payne's band backed all the
contestants in this competition and, for Al, this was a first time. Up to
then, he had gone out as a solo performer. The following day Leon Payne
called around to see Al’s parents to seek their agreement to letting Al go on
the road as a musician with his band. For Al's mum, this was out of the question
and so Leon unfortunately received a firm â™No!™

In March 1953, Al enlisted in the USA military and served for three years,
including an eighteen month tour of duty in Korea. He was honourably
discharged from the services, having attained the rank of a corporal in the
military police.

When Al left the army, he came out to a significantly changed world of
music. Rock 'n' Roll was driving all before it and Elvis Presley became
Al's new favourite. Shortly after his discharge, he and the family moved to
Bakersfield, California. It was here, at the Blackboard Cafe, that Al met
Buck Owens. As the acquaintance developed, Al and Buck made music together, often
with Bill Woods and The Orange Blossoms Playboys.

Around this time, Al made his television debut on the Los Angeles based show
"Rocket To Stardom" but Al cannot unfortunately recall the exact date.
In 1958 Al was hired by Joe Keplinger (aka Jolly Jody) to be the lead singer
for his group called "Jolly Jody And The Go Daddies", and they packed in
3,300 at the County Fair Grounds in Bakersfield, California. That same year Al
recorded, as a member of the band, "Rhonda Lee" and "Go Daddy Rock" for the
Tally label. Tally Records had been founded by Lewis Tally and Fuzzy Owen in
Bakersfield around 1956/1957. There were two associated music publishing
companies with Lewis owning Lu-Tal Publishing whilst Fuzzy had Owen Publishing.

The company soon moved to Baker Street and built a recording studio.
On the aforementioned ™Rhonda Lee™ session, the musicians were Al on vocal
and rhythm guitar with Paul Raley (g), Joe Keplinger (sb), George
McLaughlin (ts) and Jimmy Phillips (d). We asked Al where band memeber Jerry
Adams fitted in and he replied that Jerry was not on the recording. Adams was a
rhythm guitarists and back-up vocalist for the Go-Daddies but was not included
on any of their recordings.

The two sides were first released on Tally #119 but were quickly picked up
by ABC Paramount (#9901) in February 1959 for national release. Despite the
intial signs of promise, the disc was commercially stillborn.

At the subsequent session for Tally, Al recorded the Buck Owens song "Hot Dog" 
in which ABC showed an interest in but failed to issue the recording
(possibly due to the poor sales of the previous release). On this session, Al
again sang and played rhythm guitar and the other musicians were Joe Keplinger
(sb), Jimmy Phillips (d), Paul Raley (lg), Richard Gonzales (ts) and an
unknown friend of Richard on baritone sax, It took the guys all evening to
complete this master which Al, so far without success, has tried to locate.

Al later gained a release from Tally and signed with Phil LaGree's new label
LaGree Records which was based in Los Angeles. At the same time Phil also
signed Al's publisher Herb Montie, whose wife worked for Cliffie Stone at
Capitol. LeGree had prevously worked for Dot Records and Al was the first act
he signed for his new venture. The initial recordings were "I Need You" and
"Young And Wild" which were cut at the Gold Star Studios in Hollywood using
Jesse Campbell (lg), Joe Keplinger (sb)and Jimmy Phillips (d) with Al on vocals
and rhythm guitar.

The disc was issued in 1960 and soon Liberty Records showed an interest with
the result that they leased them for nationwide release. "I Need You" was a
number one hit in El Paso, Texas for six weeks. However, for some strange
reason, despite this localised success, Al was never booked to perform in El
Paso. Alan Freed was playing the flipside "Young and Wild" every hour on
his radio show in Los Angeles. Incidentally, we were unable to trace the record
in the Liberty label listings and so therefore it has to be assumed that the
company was responsible for national distribution only.

"I Need You" also made the top 20 in San Diego with the result that Al was
booked to appear on the Wink Martindale television show at the Pacific Ocean
Beach and at a show hosted by Art Laboe at The Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
We asked Al if there were any special memories that he had from those days
and he related the following to us: "Most vividly was when I was on the Wink
Martindale T. V. Show. As the show was about to begin, I was standing next
to the porpoise pool waiting for the music to start, all of a sudden one of
the porpoises decided to leap up out of the water next to where I was standing,
If I hadn't moved fast, I would have been drenched!!!! What a moment - total 
shock - a close call. Big big laughter from the audience and Wink Martindale."

Several years later, Al looked up Phil LaGree to use his label for the
release of two songs he wanted to record, "Georgia Kate" and "Mixing Fun". The
session was held at Gold Star Studio and the musicians accompanying Al on
vocals and rhythm guitar were: Fred Ringer (lg), Joe Keplinger (b), Jimmy
Phillips (d) and Pat Bannister (p). Unfortunately they were unable to obtain
adequate distribution and the project fell by the wayside. These were Al's last
dealings with LaGree. Phil LaGree later moved to Mexico City with his wife and
daughter.

Hendrix then pacted with Pike Records in Bakersfield which was owned by Roy
Flowers and Leon Hart. Four sides were cut at Gold Star in Hollywood and
of these "™Monkie Bite" c/w "For Sentimental Reasons" were released in 1962
as Pike #5912 "Monkie Bite" got great reviews and showed great potential
but others decided that the lyrics were far too sexually suggestive and so again
poor distribution resulted. The other two sides from this session "Jumpin'
Johnny" and "Fooling Around" remained unissued at the time.

During these years, Al played all over the Los Angeles area at County Fairs,
Shopping Centres, Clubs together with Marine, Army- and Air Forces Bases in
Southern California. He appeared on the Bakersfield television shows hosted
by Jimmy Thomason and Cousin Herb Henson. That for the last mentioned was
titled "The Trading Post Gang" and was a talent outlet for all the musicians
then around the Bakersfield region. The show was mainly for country acts and
Buck Owens was a frequent guest into the seventies..

Al went to college in the mid sixties under the G.I. Bill and went to work
for General Dynamics Corporation. It was here that he met the lady who was to
become his second wife in 1969.and the couple remain happliy maried to this
very day. He has a daughter by his previous marriage together with three
grandchildren.

Currently Al and his wife reside in Auburn, California, which is located in
the foothills of Northern California and has worked for a security company in
Sacramento. Hendrix recently contacted Buck Owens in Bakersfield with a
view to releasing a new version of the latter"s "Hot Dog".

Al: "I'm happy to say that we have just recently recorded it, and he will
have a copy of it within the week. We are now working on an album of my songs
that I have written over the years. So far, we have finished four songs. I
hope we can find someone to distribute them.

"I am 69 and coming out of retirement. What about that? Musicians never die,
good ones that is. We just keep coming back! "

That brings us up to date with the Al Hendrix story. It is to be hoped that
the album gets released and we are able to see his stage show over here in
Europe. Al is more than willing to come over and show us his rockin' soul.

Note: In 1985, the Dutch record company White Label issued their Pike
Records Album (#4418) and amongst the tracks included therein were Al's
"Jumpin' Johnny" and "Foolin Around". Furthermore, "Jumpin Johnny" was issued
on LP 1010 in 1996 from the Netherlands.