From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Aug 7, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Freddie Slack
 
FREDDIE SLACK

Born Frederick Charles Slack, 7 August 1910, Westby, Wisconsin
Died 10 August 1965, Hollywood, California

Boogie woogie pianist / bandleader.
Slack started his career as a drummer, but switched to piano soon after
moving to Chicago in 1927. During 1934-36, he worked with Ben Pollack's
band in L.A., and from 1936-'39 he was part of Jimmy Dorsey's band, where
he worked alongside drummer Ray McKinley. Between 1939-'41, he was the
pianist for The Will Bradley - Ray McKinley Orchestra, so named because
both men were partners in the new venture. Slack drew much public acclaim
for his piano work on the band's famous recording of "Beat Me Daddy, Eight
To The Bar" (a # 2 hit in 1940), as well as on many other Bradley recordings.
These helped launch a boogie-woogie fad. Slack was also heard on some Big
Joe Turner recordings during this time, and with another blues man, T-Bone
Walker, later during Slack's Capitol Records days.
Early in 1941, Slack left the Bradley-McKinley band. In 1942, he formed his own
orchestra (as also did Ray McKinley), and was one of the first bands signed for
Johnny Mercer's then brand new label, Capitol Records. His recording of "Cow
Cow Boogie" (Capitol's first big hit, # 9 in the summer of 1942) has become a
classic. The band's popularity was greatly aided by the work of their girl
singer,
Ella Mae Morse, whose voicings were just perfect for the band's Swing styling
and boogie woogie recordings. Between 1942 and 1947 Freddie Slack's band
appeared in a dozen Hollywood films. Most were B-pictures from Universal and
Republic, but the band also appeared in 1943's "The Sky's the Limit", starring
Fred Astaire and Joan Leslie.
Freddie Slack composed perhaps 20 or 30 tunes (most by himself), but his
biggest hit (# 8 in 1946) was "The House of Blue Lights", which he co-wrote
with Don Raye, who is featured as "jabber" on the spoken intro, alongside
Ella Mae Morse. A dozen or more groups and vocalists have covered the
song, including the Andrews Sisters, Merrill Moore, Chuck Miller, Commander
Cody, Asleep At The Wheel, Jerry Lee Lewis (twice!), Chuck Berry and George
Thorogood.

By the end of the 1940s (and the end of the Big Band era), Slack faded from
the spotlight. Boogie woogie purists associate him with the commercialization
of boogie woogie in the early forties, but he must be given credit for
introducing
new ideas into his boogie woogie interpretations and for his arrangements of
orchestra boogie woogie pieces.
He died in 1965, of diabetes according to Joel Whitburn, of alcoholic poisoning
according to Peter Silvester and "under mysterious circumstances" according
to Nick Talevski (author of The Encyclopedia of Rock Obituaries, 1999).

Apart from his recordings with Ella Mae Morse, Slack's boogie woogie work
can be heard on two CD's by Will Bradley and his Orchestra: "Beat Me Daddy
To A Boogie Woogie Beat" (Jasmine) and "1941" (Circle).