From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Nov 11, 2002  6:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Narvel Felts
 
NARVEL FELTS (By Tony Wilkinson) [Very long!]

Born Albert Narvel Felts, 11 November 1938, near Keiser, Arkansas

It was October 1997 and Narvel Felts took the stage at the bi-annual
rock 'n' roll festival at Hemsby, England backed by one of the top UK
groups, The Rimshots. After singing his heart out for around sixty minutes
with a carefully selected blistering rockabilly based set and leaving the
massed gathering yelling for more, he concluded his act with a rattling
shaking version of "Tongued Tied Jill" and then performed a series of
press ups on one hand and holding his guitar aloft in the other. With this
performance, Narvel had entered into the ranks of the Hemsby elite along-
side the likes of The Collins Kids, Ronnie Dawson and The Cadets/Jacks.
The consummate professionalism demonstrated by his quasi vibrato high
soaring country tinged rockin' vocals and working of the stage was a joy to
the eyes and magic to the ears. Felts is clearly a dedicated performer who
is intent on giving the audience what it wants and it is little wonder that he
has scored hits in every decade from the fifties through to the nineties.

Born on 11th November 1938 in a community near Keiser Arkansas, Narvel
like so many of his contemporaries grew up listening to the honky tonk sounds
of Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow and obtained his first guitar at the age of 13,
a Gene Autry model which he describes as being held together with a Prince
Albert tobacco can and baling wire. The family relocated to the small town of
Powe near Bernie, Missouri in 1953 and after picking cotton, he purchased a
new guitar from Sears & Roebuck for $15.95 that he still has to this day.
Early 1956, Felts entered a high school talent competition and sang "Baby
Let's Play House", and "Blue Suede Shoes" as an encore (just imagine being
allowed to perform such numbers at any school gathering at that time in Europe,
Gilbert and Sullivan was as close as we were allowed to rock out!). Weldon
Grimsley, a disc jockey from radio KDEX in nearby Dexter, Missouri was in the
audience and this led to Felts and his friend J W Grubbs securing a regular live

Saturday afternoon broadcast on the station. On 24th March that year, Narvel
met musician Jerry Mercer and proceeded to sit in on some of his gigs,
eventually
joining up with Mercer and The Rhythm & Blues Boys on a full time basis in July
1956. The outfit had a regular Saturday afternoon broadcast on radio KTCB and,
for these, Mercer would record in advance on a portable tape machine.
Fortunately
some of these tapes have survived and have been issued on the CD "More Radio
Rockabillies" (Rockstar RSRCD 012). They demonstrate the emerging fledgling
talent of Felts.

1956 was the year that Matt Lucas joined up with Narvel as the drummer for the
first time, but the position only lasted two weeks. The guys were on their way
back from a show at the B&B Club when they stopped off at a fair in Kennett,
Missouri. One of the stalls featured a hootchy kootchy dancer and Matt got a
bit carried away and joined in the hootchy kootchying. The original drummer
rejoined The Rockets

Arranged by Roy Orbison, Narvel secured an audition with Sun Records in either
August or September 1956. Jack Clement was in charge and told Narvel to write
some more songs and come back with the whole band. This did not happen
until 23rd January 1957, by which time Jerry Mercer had left the band and they
had renamed themselves Narvel Felts and The Rockets. Five songs were cut
at that session, which was followed by a further recording date on 5th April at
which the boys laid down another five tunes. Clement advised Felts that he
thought they had a record worthy of release but that it would take around a year
to issue as they had so much other material in front.

Orbison, who was at the session along with Conway Twitty, recommended that
both guys look elsewhere for a contract. In March 1957, Narvel had met Fred
Varney who had a connection with the Chicago-based Mercury Records and
wanted to arrange to sign him to the label. This had to be declined due to the
existing Sun contract but when the pair met up again later that year, the way
was clear for Narvel and The Rockets to audition and sign with Mercury.
Coincidentally, Twitty also signed with Mercury.

There were three recording sessions for the label between 13th May 1957 and
23rd June 1958 at which a total of 14 sides were laid down and four singles
released.
One of these was an instrumental titled 'Rocket Ride' (c/w 'Dream World')
featuring
the sax playing of Jerry Tuttle. A DJ incorrectly played this disc at 33 1/3
rpm and
this was heard by Mercury President Art Talmadge who thought it made a great
stroll
record. Accordingly the disc was re-recorded as 'Rocket Ride Stroll' and
reissued with
the original flip. Although this is credited to Narvel, the lead sax player on
the re-recording
is the late Sil Austin. All the Sun and Mercury recordings by Narvel, along
with some
others, have been gathered together on the Bear Family CD 'Did You Tell Me' (#
BCD
16220 AH).

Come January 1959, Narvel and The Rockets secured work on the east Canadian
circuit
as a result of the recommendation of Conway Twitty. The outfit proved so
popular that
they spent large chunks of 1959 and 1960 in Canada. Back in January 1959,
Narvel
along with Leon Barnett and Jerry Tuttle wrote the song 'Three Thousand Miles'
which
they recorded at the CKSL Radio Station, London, Ontario the next month. They
also
laid down the first attempts at 'Darling Sue' and 'Cutie Baby'. Felts sent the
recordings
to Mercury but David Carroll, head of A&R, passed and gave Narvel his release
from the
label. Feeling very strongly about the matter, Narvel accepted the situation
and hawked
the tapes to Chet Atkins at RCA and Joe Cuoghi at Hi Records. Atkins was
reasonably
positive whilst Cuoghi was enthusiastic. He called the band to Memphis to
re-record the
titles and signed Felts as a recording artist. This was the first of Narvel's
pactings with Hi.
The session duly took place at the Royal Studio, Memphis in May 1959 with Ray
Harris
producing. It featured Leon Barnett on guitar, JW Grubbs on bass, Jerry Tuttle
on piano
and Memphis drumming legend James Van Eaton. Whilst "Cutie Baby" was
successfully
completed, the attempts at "Three Thousand Miles" did not come off and so it was

decided to stick with the earlier Canadian recording. Cuoghi had an association
with
Walt Maynard and the disc saw the light of day on the latter's Pink label (#
701).
It made waves and broke into the national charts reaching position 92.

This naturally led to a call for follow up recordings and so Felts and The
Rockets fitted
in a return to Hi's Royal Studio in the summer of 1959 in between their
successful
Canadian shows and laid down a further five tracks with Jack Clement and Walt
Maynard
producing. Two tracks, "Honey Love" c/w "Genavee" were overdubbed at a separate

session by the Anita Kerr Singers and selected as the follow up and issued in
November
1959 as Pink 702. This was slightly more successful and reached number 90 on
the
national charts in early 1960. Meanwhile up in Canada, Narvel and the boys
were
experimenting with new songs and laid down some tracks in the studio of CHUM
Radio,
Toronto including "Lonely Hours". Unfortunately these appear to have been lost
as does
the recording of "Rosie" which was a home recording by Narvel.

Another two tracks, "Tony" and "Darling Sue" from the summer of 1959 recording
session were provided with overdubs by The Jordanaires in 1960 and released as
the third Pink single (# 706) the same year. Unfortunately the record did not
chart.
Also overdubbed at the same session was the remaining track "Cindy Lou" but this

did not see the light of day until 1978/79 when released in Europe on the White
Label.

This effectively terminated Narvel's first period with Hi as later in 1960, he
signed with
MGM Records and cut three tracks on 15th September 1960 in Nashville. However,
the cuts remained in the can until 1987 when issued on the vinyl album "A Teen's
Way"
on Bear Family. It was also around this time that Narvel was called up to
enlist in the
USA Armed Forces. He had to serve for six months in the army and then spent
periods
for the next six years in the Missouri National Guard. He made his return to
the
recording studio in late January 1962 and laid down two titles "I Swear By Stars
Above"
and "Little Miss Blue" which appeared on the small Starline label. This is
Narvel's
hardest record to locate.

In the summer of 1962, Narvel linked up with Roland Janes, the legendary
engineer
and guitarist who is justly famous for his days with Sun. This association
lasted until
1966 and saw seven singles released on several of Roland's labels such as Renay
and
Ara. One of these, a revival of "Mountain Of Love", started to make waves
locally and
was leased to the RCA subsidiary Groove Records. Many other recordings were also
made, some as demos, for Janes at his Sonic Studio. Matt Lucas had rejoined
Narvel
as the drummer for the band in 1962 but then he hit big with his revival of "I'm
Movin' On".
As Narvel describes it, 'one day it was the Narvel Felts band with Matt Lucas on
drums,
then the next day it was the Matt Lucas Band with Narvel Felts on vocals and
guitar'.
Matt eventually left the band in 1963 to start out on a solo career.

By mutual consent, and with no recriminations, Narvel left Roland and resigned
with
Hi Records in 1966. The first session took place at the Royal studio with Ray
Harris
again producing. "What's The Use" and "Tonight You Belong To Me" were recorded
with Bill Rice on piano, Roland Terry on bass and Al Jordan on drums. This was
followed by a session with Willie Mitchell producing and featuring Reggie Young
and
Travis Wammack on guitars and others of the Hi house band such as Bobby Emmons,
Tommy Cogbill and Gene Chrisman. Sandra and Donna Rhodes, along with Allen
Reynolds who went on to secure fame and fortune in Nashville, handled back-up
vocals.
The titles were "If I Didn't Care", "It's Too Late" and "To Each His Own". All
five of the
aforementioned tracks cannot currently be located but they may turn up. But the
next
session, using basically the same musicians but a different unknown chorus
produced
the release on Hi 2110 "I'll Trade All My Tomorrows" c/w "The Greatest Gift".
This proved
to be popular in the Memphis and mid-south area and was soon followed by Hi 2118
"Bells" and "86 Miles", again a local success.

The first Hi release of 1967 was "Don't Let Me Cross Over" c/w "Like Magic"
(#2126)
which was followed in the same year by the very popular "Dee Dee/Starry Eyes"
(Hi 2137). The final release of this particular signing at Hi came in 1968 and
was
Narvel's superb revival of the Ivory Joe Hunter song "Since I Met You Baby" (Hi
2141).
This was coupled with "I Had To Cry Again". Between 1966 and 1968, Narvel
recorded
regularly at Hi's Royal Studio with Ray Harris producing and there are at least
fifteen
titles (such as Sea Of Heartbreak", "Day Dreaming", "Baby Jane", another
attempt
at "Four Seasons Of Love" and "Sault St. Marie") that have never been issued and
currently cannot be located.

Come the seventies, things at Hi Records had changed with the death of Joe
Cuoghi
in 1970. Nick Pesce had taken over the running of the company with Willie
Mitchell
producing many of the sessions. The label was developing into one of the
leading
soul labels out of Memphis but Pesce had his eye on the lucrative country market
and so launched the Hi Country label in 1972. Narvel was contacted and
re-signed
with Hi Records for the third time. There were at least three sessions in that
year
but this time they took place at the Allied Studio in Memphis with Lewis Willis
producing. The core of musicians included Buck Hutcheson (later with Jerry Lee
Lewis) and Wayne Cox on guitars, Bobby Stewert on electric bass, Gary Adair on
drums and Jimmy Creason. The Rhodes girls (Sandra and Donna) were the back
up vocalists. The first release was "Endless Love" c/w "Walking To The Pearly
Gates" on Hi Country 8001. A minor point is that the record when released had
the flip as "Walking To The Pearly Gate" but this was a cock-up by Hi Records.
This was followed on Hi Country 8002 by one of Narvel's most popular recordings
at that time, his revival of The Jarmels "A Little Piece Of Soap" coupled with
"You're Out Of My Reach". This was a big record in Memphis and the immediate
tri-state area and even today, when Narvel plays shows in this region, he
receives
as many requests to sing this song as his subsequent big national smashes.

Sensing that revival of previous hits was a rich vein to be mined, the next
release
(Hi Country 8003) was Narvel's interpretation of the Charlie Gracie/Andy
Williams
hit from the fifties "Butterfly". "Chased By The Dawn" was the flipside. Again
this
was a mid south hit and only missed making the national charts by one position.
As with his previous tenure at Hi, Narvel made frequent recording trips to the
recording studio and there are many recordings, at least ten, remaining
unissued.
The titles of these include "Blue Darling", "Ivory Tower", "Sound Of The Wind"
and
the first stab at Troy Shondell's "This Time". As the securing of a national
hit by Hi
Country proved elusive, the label was folded. Seemingly this was the
termination
of Narvel's association with Hi Records but read on.

Hi of course did eventually secure some country hits but these were by Jerry
Jaye in
1976, the main one being "Honky Tonk Women Love Redneck Men". This is available

on the similarly titled compilation of Jaye's country rock output (Edsel EDCD
629).

In 1973, Narvel joined the Nashville base Cinnamon Records and the honey days
began. His first release for the label was his version of Ray Smith's "Rockin'
Little
Angel". Interestingly enough, Smith was signed to Cinnamon at the time and the
label had recorded his updated version of his earlier hit. However the label
manager
and producer Johnny Morris decided to put Narvel's vocals on the same backing
track and release as a single, thus securing a minor hit. However it was with
his
revival of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away" that Narvel went on to core out the mother
lode.
In 1974, Cinnamon folded and Dot/ABC Records adopted Narvel's contract. This
yielded many hits including his updating of "Reconsider Me", originally a R&B
come soul hit for the tan canary Johnny Adams and which was voted the number
one record of the year in 1975 by Cashbox trade paper. His second biggest
national hit was a marvelous reading of Jackie Wilson's "Lonely Teardrops".
Lou Hobbs led the Narvel Felts band around this time.

When Narvel makes a friend, it is usually for life. This is demonstrated by his

fourth (unofficial) association with Hi. Feeling a debt of gratitude for those
who
had persevered with him earlier on, Narvel quietly returned to Memphis between
Christmas and New Year 1975 and re-recorded six of his earlier Hi tracks using
top Nashville session musicians such as Buddy Harmon. The tracks laid down
at this session were "This Time/Since I Met You Baby/No One Will Ever Know/
Sound Of The Wind/It's All In The Game". Contrary to popular misconception,
these titles were not alternative versions cut previously but were fresh
recordings.
These cuts, along with earlier recordings of "Butterfly/You're Out Of Reach/
Chased By The Dawn/A Little Bit Of Soap", resulted in the album "This Time"
issued in 1976 on Hi SHL 32098. The re-recording of "This Time" and "I Had
To Cry Again", which was from 1968, were issued as a single on Hi 2305.
It is worth noting that "It's All In The Game", a massive hit in 1958 for Tommy
Edwards, was originally written in the 1920s by General Charles Gates Dawes
who happened to be vice president of the USA under Calvin Coolidge at the time.

After his golden days at Dot/ABC, Felts continued to record for a variety of
labels and secured hits right through to the nineties. Today, he remains very
much in demand as an act to see and his records are constantly played. In
August 2001, he returned to the recording studio and laid down ten new tracks.
These, with other cuts that Narvel has in the can, will form a new CD. There
is no stopping the man.

Finally there is another connection between Narvel and Hi Records. The current
owners Cream Records bought out the label. The late Al Bennett, who had also
launched Liberty Records, founded this. The link is that Al's mother had dated
Narvel's father.

The foregoing is based on the liner notes for the (UK) Hi CD 'Narvel Felts - The
Hi Records Era 1959-1973' that I had the privilege of writing. These were a joy

to do and the co-operation received from Narvel was above and beyond the call.

Suggested CD Listening:
(German) Bear Family BCD 15515 'Memphis Days' (1990) (Roland Janes recordings)
(Norwegian) Fox CDFX 1007 'Pink and Golden Days' (1991) (then newish recordings)
(UK) Hi HIUKCD 123 'This Time' (1992) (selection of 15 Hi tracks, release now
superseded)
(UK) Rockstar RSRCD 012 (with Jerry Mercer) 'More Radio Rockabillies' (1996).
(radio transcripts from 1956)
(German) Bear Family BCD 15690 AH 'Drift Away' (1996) Best of
Cinnamon/Dot/ABC/MCA recordings)
(German) Bear Family BCD 16220 AH 'Did You Tell Me' (1996) (Sun/Mercury/Pink/MGM
recordings)
(Finnish) Goofin' GRCD 6097 'Narvel Felts At Rollin' Rock' (1999) (Rollin' Rock
recordings vintage 1998/99)
(UK) Hi HILO 186 'The Hi Records Era 1959 - 1973'. (Two tracks short of the
complete Hi/Pink/Starline recordings).
(USA) Cone CD-9801 'Ode To Bub' (1997) (Tribute CD to Narvel's son Bub)
(USA) Cone 2002 'Super Songs Narvelised' (2002) (mainly classic songs given the
Felts styling)