From:  "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Aug 31, 2004  1:36 am 
Subject:  This Is My Story : Oscar McLollie
 
OSCAR McLOLLIE

Baritone singer / orchestra leader Oscar McLollie was one of the missing
links between jump blues and rock 'n' roll. For someone who had only one
modest hit, he had a lot of influence : many of his records were covered,
as we shall see below.

In the armed forces during World War II, Oscar sang in a quartet called
The Bullets, putting on USO shows for fellow servicemen. After the war,
he made his way to Los Angeles, the location where he would make all
of his recordings.

After a short stay at Mercury Records in 1951, McLollie started to record
for Leon Rene and his son Rafael, also known as Googie. They had just
set up a new label, Class Records, after the bankruptcy of Exclusive
Records, but decided to make a quiet start and struck an arrangement
with the Bihari brothers to release the Class masters on Modern Records.

Leon Rene would be Oscar's manager, producer and chief songwriter
(often using his pseudonym Jimmie Davis) throughout his recording career.
McLollie's first release under this arrangement was "The Honey Jump"
(Parts 1 & 2, 1953), credited - as would be all of his Modern records - to
Oscar McLollie and his Honey Jumpers. Though not yet quite rock 'n' roll,
it has many elements of the genre. Two saxes try to out-honk each other,
while the piano man is pounding away on the 88 keys. Wild stuff. The song
was covered by the Sauter-Finnigan Orchestra on RCA and by Jackie & Roy
with Charlie Ventura on Coral. McLollie's follow-up, the witty "All That Oil In
Texas", was outsold by a cover version by Ralph Marterie on Mercury.
For Christmas 1953, Leon Rene wrote the old-fashioned "God Gave Us
Christmas", which failed to catch on, but after the holidays, the swinging
flip, "Lolly Pop" (written by Googie Rene), started to make noise for Oscar.
It was covered by none other than Louis Jordan for his final Decca date.
The year 1954 saw several good up-tempo releases by McLollie, like
"Mama Don't Like", "What You Call 'em Joe" and "Wiggle Toe", but with
no commercial success. "Love Me Tonight"/"Take Your Shoes Off, Pop"
became Oscar's only UK release, on London HL 8130. "God Gave Us
Christmas" was reissued by the Biharis for the 1954 Yuletide season,
this time with a jumping B-side, "Dig That Crazy Santa Claus", hoping
to appeal to the growing teenage market.

By 1955, Oscar and his Honey Jumpers were in heavy demand as live
performers. More Modern singles were released in that year, among them
"Roll Hot Rod Roll"/"Convicted" (Modern 970). The former starts off with
a "One for the money" chorus that resembles the one that Carl Perkins
would use to kick off "Blue Suede Shoes" a few months later. "Convicted"
(his biggest seller on Modern) showed that McLollie was also a fair ballad
crooner and was covered by Lu Ann Sims and Gene O'Quin. It was also
recorded by Dale Hawkins, whose version remained unissued until 1998.

After an interval at Mercury, Oscar was reunited with Leon Rene on his
reactivated Class label. It was here that he scored his only (pop) hit, a
duet with Jeanette Baker, "Hey Girl, Hey Boy" (# 61) in 1958. The tune
was covered by Louis Prima and Keely Smith and turned into the title
of one of their movies.
For the rest of the fifties and early sixties, Oscar McLollie played clubs
and theaters in L.A., but did not score with further recordings. Reportedly,
he moved to the Philippines, where he appeared in low-budget martial arts
flicks. He is said to be now living in the Pacific Northwest, where he still
works the lounges, singing his jump tunes and big ballads.

More info: http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/mclollie.html

Recommended listening:
Oscar McLollie and his Honey Jumpers, Hey! Lollie Lollie (Ace CDCHM
879). 18 tracks. Released in 2003, this is an anthology of his up-tempo
sides for Modern. It uses previously unissued alternate takes of "Dig That
Crazy Santa Claus" and "Hey Lolly Lolly", an undubbed version of "Wiggle
Toe" and previously unissued instrumental versions of "Hot Banana" and
"Mama Don't Like It", as well as a previously unissued alternate take of
"Roll Hot Rod Roll". There is particularly fine saxophone work throughout.