From:  "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Sep 21, 2004  1:36 am 
Subject:  This Is My Story : Big Boy Myles
 
BIG BOY MYLES

Born Edgar Myles, circa 1933, New Orleans, Louisiana
Died 1984, New York City, New York

Edgar "Big Boy" Myles started his musical career in 1950 as a member
of the Sha-Weez (later Sha-Wees), a nine-piece outfit from New Orleans,
led by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford. Myles was one of the group's three
vocalists and also played trombone. Dave Bartholomew, who was briefly
doing productions for Aladdin Records (apart from his job for Imperial)
signed the group to a recording contract and took them into Cosimo's
Studio on November 23, 1952. Four titles were recorded during this
first and also last session for Aladdin. James Crawford was supposed
to do the lead vocals, but he showed up hoarse from the previous night's
gig and as a result Edgar Myles was forced to do most of the vocals on
the session. Only two of the four titles were released ("No One To Love
Me"/ "Early Sunday Morning", Aladdin 3170), in December 1952. The
single flopped, but now sells in the thousand dollar range because of
its rarity.

While still contracted to Aladdin, Crawford and Myles began to record
for Chess in the autumn of 1953. Leonard Chess put their rehearsal
tape out as a Checker single ("Overboard"/"I Don't Know What I'll Do")
and after a regular contract had been signed, two further Checker 45s
were released in 1954, all credited to Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters.
"Jock-A-Mo" (aka "Iko Iko") just missed the national R&B charts, but
is now rightly considered as a classic.

By 1955 Myles had joined Li'l Millet and the Creoles, where he played
the trombone. They were discovered and signed to Specialty Records
by Bumps Blackwell, who also signed Big Boy Myles as a singer in his
own right. Myles' two Specialty singles rock in rare fashion. "Who's
Been Fooling You", credited to Big Boy Myles and the Shaw-Wees
(Specialty 564), sounds almost more like Professor Longhair than
Longhair's own version, with terrific piano licks by Edgar's brother,
Warren Myles. Sales were disappointing, though, and more than a
year went by before Big Boy returned to the Specialty (or rather,
Cosimo's) studio, to record "Hickory Dickory Dock" (not the same
song that Etta James later recorded) and "Just To Hold My Hand",
this time backed by such luminaries as Lee Allen, Red Tyler, Edgar
Blanchard and Earl Palmer. This single (Specialty 590) was also a
commercial failure, but a poppy cover of "Just To Hold My Hand" by
Clyde McPhatter went to # 26 on the pop charts and # 6 R&B in the
spring of 1957.

In 1960, Myles returned to the record scene with the original version
of "New Orleans" (Ace 605). It lacks the excitement of the Gary U.S.
Bonds hit version, but this comparison is not quite fair, I suppose. Taken
on its own terms, the Big Boy Myles version isn't bad at all. A second
Ace single, "Oh Mary"/"Who Can I Turn To", saw the light in 1961,
followed by a solitary release on V-Tone, but after that Big Boy
disappeared from view. Sugar Boy Crawford says that he never saw
Myles from the time he left for New York until his death in 1984.

More info: http://home.att.net/~marvart/Shaweez/shaweez.html

Most of the tracks mentioned above have been reissued on CD, but
all on different compilations.