From:  "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Jul 25, 2004  2:34 am 
Subject:  This Is My Story : Don Weise

DON WEISE (By Tony Wilkinson)

Born 28 February 1936, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska

Spokane, Washington State is the now home town for Don Weise, a guy whose career
stretches way back into the fifties and who is one heck of a genuine person, a
man whom I am proud to call a friend.

Don was born on 28 February 1936 in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, and was one of seven
children. Two of his brothers are singers and guitarists and one of his nieces
has been based in Nashville co-writing songs with the son of Roy Orbison. At
the advent of World War II, the family relocated to Twin Falls, Idaho in 1942.
At the tender age of ten, Don started to compose songs and when he was twelve,
he acquired his first guitar and was soon 'a pickin' and a grinnin'.

He formed his first band when he was sixteen, a four piece acoustic outfit by
the name of The String Kings. Lead guitarist was Jim Hogan, who played in a
Chet Atkins style, along with Cliff Bole and Don on rhythm guitars and Dusty on
upright doghouse bass. They played country, pop, bluegrass and a little blues
on Friday and Saturday nights in music halls, at barn dances and in school
gymnasiums. In 1954, Don along with his bother John relocated to Reno, Nevada
and they, along with Jim Hogan, became a fixture on the Nevada circuit for the
next two years. Eventually the trio split up and Don went out as a solo. He
was booked into the Mystery Lounge, Ely, Nevada at the time when the music of
Presley, Little Richard and other rockers started to make their first real
impact. This turned his head and set him off in the direction of this 'new
music' with the result that both his performances and song writing became rock
'n' roll and rockabilly orientated. He was billed as Don Weise, The Wild Man.
As Don says: "I would jump higher than Elvis, scream louder than Little Richard
and shimmy 'n' shake all over the place. I would be soaking wet with
perspiration from the top of my head down to my shoes from exerting all that
energy. Many of the entertainers from adjacent nightclubs would drop by to see
this wild man going crazy with unbelievable energy."

Come March 1956, Don met a guy by the name of Taps who was a great solo tap
dancer. The pair set of for Los Angeles. They arrived around 3.00 am in the
morning and Don checked into a hotel whilst Taps set off for the Palomino Club
where he appeared when in the area. The next afternoon, Don set off by bus for
Hollywood Music Row and started to talk to a young black man who advised that he
was heading for Specialty Records. Don went along with him. His new friend was
auditioned first and then, after about a quarter of an hour, Don was summoned to
the audition room where he met Art Rupe and Robert 'Bumps' Blackwell for the
first time:

"I picked up my guitar and sang nine or ten of my own up-tempo songs in a crazy
way. Both Art and Bumps said that they liked my music and that they would sign
me to a contract immediately. However they were just about to set off to New
Orleans for a Little Richard recoding session and would be back in around ten
days Art paid me a retainer fee to hold me until they returned."

Don was still technically a minor and so the contract had to be signed by his
mother. Elated by the turn of events, Don wanted to thank Tap for suggesting
that he came to the City Of Angels and accordingly headed off to the Palomino
Club. Taps suggested that he might like to get up on the stage and sing some of
his songs. After giving a great rockin' delivery, the manager came over to Don
and offered him a three fifteen minute shows six night a week engagement. Weise
was there for ten weeks and in that period was backed up by three different
bands:

"Each band played two nights a week, and I was backed by all three bands. They
were the Eddie Clietro Band, Mel Ryan Band and the Gene O'Quinn Band. Gene had
recorded for Capitol and had a pretty good hit with 'Too Hot To Handle'. These
guys were good and could play any style of music but were really country whilst
my show was hardcore rockabilly. Those guys would frequently appear on Cliffie
Stone's 'Hometown Jamboree' or 'Town Hall Party and 'Riverside Rancho Jamboree'.
Most of the stars of these shows, especially the Town Hall Party would be
booked into the Palomino as guest artists or they would drop by to say hi and
get up and sing a few songs. That's where I met Tex Williams, Skeets McDonald,
Freddie Hart, Joe Maphis, Quincy Snodgrass, Tex Ritter and the great Lefty
Frizzell.

I would have been at the Palomino longer but they found out that I was under age
and so I had to leave. After the Palomino, I played the Blue Room in the Valley
and some other clubs in L.A. I also made guest appearances on 'Riverside Rancho
Jamboree', Tex William's radio show, 'Town Hall Party', 'Hometown Jamboree' and
the 'Rocket To Stardom' show."

Art Rupe received the signed contract back from Don's mother and it was agreed
that Don would record four singles and one album for five years plus sign an
exclusive songwriting contract with Rupe's Venice Music:

"To me, Art Rupe was a very nice man and treated me well. I had heard, however,
that he didn't pay Little Richard well for his recordings but he paid me
royalties on sales of my song 'Poor Boy Paul'- I still get royalties. He also
gave me money to live on whilst I was in Hollywood and he got me into the
Musicians Union so that I could work and do shows."

It was around this time that Weise first met Bobby Wayne and the pair formed a
friendship that lasts to this very day. At the time, Bobby was attempting to
secure a contract with Capitol Records. Back at Specialty, Don and Bumps worked
on new songs plus rehearsing and arranging for the first of Don's recording
sessions that took place on 10 September 1956. It was during one such practice
session that Rupe visited and started to discuss the forthcoming movie 'The Girl
Can't Help It in which Little Richard was booked to appear. Rupe offered a part
in the movie to Don but who falsely gave the impression that he was not too
excited by replying 'Sure, I Guess So' and so the subject was not raised again.
This is a source of eternal regret to Weise as he feels he could have been a
part of rock 'n' roll history.

Sadly, there was to be only the one recording session for Specialty. Don had
gone home for Christmas in 1956 and come 1957 was playing Garden City nightclub
area of Boise, Idaho. Whilst he was waiting for his record to be released, he
met a pretty girl and had got married. Early in 1958, Don and his wife returned
to Hollywood but Art Rupe and Bumps Blackwell had parted company. Sonny Bono,
who had a solo release under the name of Don Christy on Specialty #672 with
'Wearing Black/One Little Answer', replaced Bumps at Specialty. Art introduced
Don to Sonny and the pair worked on Weise's songs for a couple of months but
nothing really happened. Whilst at Specialty, Don wrote and recorded in excess
of a hundred songs as demos for Venice Music.

Don also appeared on several Los Angeles television shows and he well recalls an
appearance on 'Town Hall Party' that also included Gene Vincent in the line up
of stars as well as Don's good friend Quincy Snodgrass (Leon Selvy) and The
Collins Kids and Gordon Terry. Don also recalled Gene Davis who has cut some
great rockers and country. Davis billed himself as Gene Davis and The Hollywood
Hillbillies. In the early sixties, he was on a television show in L.A. titled
'Star Route' along with Gen Campbell and others. The show was emceed by Rod
Cameron, the western movies star.

Come 1959, Don found himself back in Boise Idaho playing music on the Garden
City Strip as part of a group by the name of The Echos. Weise called Rupe and
asked Art if he going to release his records:

"He said send me everything you have recorded but he didn't say anything about
the recordings that I had done already at his studio in Hollywood. Anyway as a
result, the Echos and myself went to the KGEM Radio Recording Studio and
recorded four songs, 'Jungle Bop', 'Lanky Bones', Never Again' and a second
version of 'Poor Boy Paul'. Rupe sent back a song-writers contract on 'Poor Boy
Paul' and said that it would be a big hit and that they were making 500 single
sided 45's as publishers demos and that he was sending tem to recording artists
all over the world.

We took 'Jungle Bop' and 'Never Again' from the KGEM recordings and had a few
hundred 45's pressed to promote our band in the region. They were on the KGEM
label but were not published or numbered. Despite this, 'Jungle Bop' developed
into a regional jukebox hit.

Actually, I have recorded 'Poor Boy Paul' three times now. The first was in
1956 and that with The Echos in 1959 was the second version. I cut it again in
1963 for Jerden Records with Neil Livingston on steel guitar. Neil was also on
Charlie Ryan's original recording of 'Hot Rod Lincoln and did all the sound
effects on that disc such as the rods knocking, police siren etc."

Apart from Don on rhythm guitar, The Echos consisted of Kenny Smith on lead
guitar, Al Nelson on bass and Barry on drums. The band played the Garden City
Strip between 1959 and 1963. The strip is a suburb of Boise and was a stretch
about two miles long and consisted of wall-to-wall nightclubs. In late 1962,
Kenny was drafted into the military and the band broke up shortly thereafter.

In 1963, Don and Bobby Wayne linked up again and re-commenced writing songs
together. One of their successes was 'Run Appaloosa Run' which was featured in
the award winning Walt Disney movie of the same title. The pair of songwriters
had a contract with Walt Disney Productions to write the title and/or theme
songs for five or more movies. However due to disagreement over publishing
rights, the contract was nullified. Wayne was recording for the Seattle based
Jerden Records at the time and was scoring with some big records. As a result,
Don started to tour with Bobby: "I had my own spot on the Bobby Wayne Road
Shows. I would open the shows for Bobby and would do the first twenty minutes
or so. We would normally have someone do stand-up comedy plus Dennis Roberts
and the band. Dennis was the other half of the recording group The
Hummingbirds, along with Bobby."

Wayne helped Don obtain a recording contract with Jerden Records and he had two
releases on the label. These were the aforementioned third recording of 'Poor
Boy Paul coupled with 'Walkin' Up A Rainbow (Jerden #45JD 83/84) and 'Big Dan/My
Home Town' (Jerden #45JD 89/90) although the last mentioned was released under
the name of Don Robbins. Don laid down some fifty or sixty songs at the SRC
Studio in Spokane. Many of the songs that he wrote for or with Bobby Wayne were
recorded at SRC including the flip-side of the Harold Horn recording of 'Miss
Ann' which was titled 'Dew B. Dewey (Jerden 750).

1964 saw the Little Richard version of 'Poor Boy Paul', coupled with the 1955
recording of 'Wonderin' released on Specialty 699 and this became an
international hit. The German singer Lisa Fritz also cut 'Poor Boy Paul' under
the title of 'Gedachtnisschwund'. The same year (1964) saw Don returning to
Nevada but this time Las Vegas and commenced playing the club circuit in that
city. He linked up with noted steel guitarist Curly Chalker, who had played on
many Lefty Frizell recordings, and again entered into the recording studio:

"When I moved from Spokane to Las Vegas in 1964, I needed a new record to get me
going. I had just met Curly Chalker and his band and so we went into the
Universal Studio in Vegas and cut three songs. I released two of these, 'Let Me
Hang Around' and 'Dry Farm Land' on Lamp Light (#1001), the only release on the
label. This disc became popular in Vegas and on the Nevada circuit. The
Universal studio was located by the railroad tracks and we had to stop recording
every time a train would pass."

Weise played the Vegas circuit, with a few side trips to Poise, Phoenix and Los
Angeles up to 1968 with the Curly Chalker Band plus the Charlie Walker outfit.
However it was now time for a permanent move back to Spokane where Don obtained
plenty of work backing up many artists appearing in the region plus appearances
in his own right. Of course, he kept song writing. One club that Weise played,
along with local country singer Earle Now, was owned by local businessman Roy
Wilkes who, in 1976, suggested that Don and Earle should visit a recording
studio and offered to finance the deal. Don made contact with his old friend
Bumps Blackwell who agreed to produce the session. Ten songs were laid down in
a studio based in the Eastern Washington College but only two tracks by Don,
'Honky Tonk Fall Of Fame/Is it Really Real' were issued as a single on Chelan
CSL 1503. There was also a single, 'Jimmy's Prayer/Love Is Like The Roses', by
Earle Moe issued from the sessions on Chelan CSL 1502. The topside contains a
recitation by D J, one of Don's sons. Bumps Blackwell had returned to Hollywood
after producing the sessions and it is a mystery as to what happened to the
other six sides recorded. Sadly this was to be the last session produced by
Bumps as he died shortly afterwards after contracting pneumonia.

Come 1972, Don decided that he needed to settle down a bit and provide a firm
base for his family. Accordingly he established a successful upholstery
business making bar and restaurant furniture. This was turned in 1984 into a
restaurant and bar and has become a landmark in Spokane with the reputation for
serving the best chicken in the city (something that I can personally endorse).
However with the passing of the years, Don and his buddy Bobby Wayne have
continued to compose songs and record. In 1996, Don issued a CD of his
compositions on Rainbow Records entitled 'Poor Boy Paul' and this was followed
up in 1998 with the album 'Hot Rod Surfin' Jungle Boppin' Rock 'n' Rollin Boogie
songs' on Spitfire Records. There is talk of a further CD by Don; he has the
tracks ready to go. He has also headlined at one of the Hemsby rock 'n' roll
weekenders in England along with Bobby Wayne.

Mrs. Wilkinson, daughter Colinda and I visited with Don and his family a few
years back in Spokane and the hospitality shown was mind blowing and for which
we remain eternally grateful. There was also a jam session of local musicians
at Don's bar one night, and I can confirm that there is a wealth of talent in
Spokane, especially the lovely Charlie Ryan. Don played an amazing version of
'Goodnight My Love', as an instrumental in 'Sleep Walk' style, that night.
Treasured memories.

Suggested listening:

Rainbow Records "Poor Boy Paul" (1996)

Spitfire Records "Hot Rod Surfin' Jungle Boppin' Rock 'n' Rollin Boogie" (1998)