From: "Dik de Heer" Date: Thu Sep 12, 2002 1:18 am Subject: Born To Be With You : Ella Mae Morse ELLA MAE MORSE (By Jean-Marc Pezet) Born 12 September 1924, Mansfield, Texas Died 17 October 1999, Bullhead City, Arizona Ella Mae Morse was one of the most exciting vocalists of the 1940s and 1950s, a hard-to-classify, Texas-born, white singer who knocked everyone out with her hip, black infected vocals from the moment she hit the scene as a seventeen-year-old with boogie pianist Freddie Slack's Orchestra in 1942 (she had already been the featured vocalist with the Jimmy Dorsey Ochestra before). Her vocal that year on the huge hit "Cow Cow Boogie" (first for her and the first hit for the then fledging Capitol label), quickly established her as a name, and dozens of hits followed, both with Slack and under her own name. Sides like "Mister Five By Five", "Buzz Me", "The House Of Blue Lights", "Pig Foot Pete", Oakie Boogie", "The Blacksmith Blues" remain classics, and "The House Of Blue Lights", in particular, has been hailed as one of the seminal recordings in rock'n'roll history. Uncommonly versatile, Ella Mae could handle anything, from jazz to country, from R&B to lush pop. She recorded her last sides for Capitol in 1957, retiring from the studios while still in her early 30s. She always had a deep love for R&B and she recorded a stunningly good LP titled "Barrelhouse, Boogie and The Blues" in 1954 with covers of The Ravens' "Rock and Roll All Night Long", the Drifters' "Money Honey", Bull Moose Jackson's "I Love You, Yes I Do" and Ruth Brown's "Daddy Daddy" that deserves to be in everyone's collection. Recommended listening: - "Capitol Collectors Series" CAPITOL CDP 7 95288 2 - "Barrelhouse, Boogie And Blues" 5 CD BOXX BEAR FAMILY BCD 16117 Recommended reading: Ella Mae Morse entry in "Unsung Heroes Of Rock'n'Roll" by Nick Tosches.