From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Mar 23, 2002  2:23 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Sticks McGhee
 
STICK(S) McGHEE

Born Granville Henely McGhee, 23 March 1917, Kingsport, Tennessee
Died 15 August 1961, Bronx, New York City, New York

He may have not been as prolific or celebrated as his brother Brownie,
but guitarist Sticks McGhee cut some great boozy blues and R&B from
1947 to 1960 - including the immortal "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee".
Young Granville McGhee earned his nickname by pushing his polio-stricken
older brother Brownie through the streets of Kingsport, TN, on a cart that
he propelled with a stick. McGhee was inspired to pen "Drinkin' Wine"
while in Army bootcamp during World War II; it was apparently a ribald
military chant that the McGhees cleaned up for public consumption later on.
Sticks McGhee's first recorded version of the tune for J. Mayo Williams's
Harlem logo made little impression in 1947, but a rollicking 1949 remake for
Atlantic (as Stick McGhee & his Buddies) proved a massive R&B hit (# 2,
also # 26 pop), with brother Brownie chiming in on guitar and harmony
vocal. The tune has attracted countless covers over the years - everyone
from Jerry Lee Lewis (twice) and Johnny Burnette to Wynonie Harris and
Larry Dale has taken a sip from this particular wine flask.
After one more smash for Atlantic, an instrumental version of "Tennessee
Waltz Blues" (1951, # 2), McGhee moved along to Essex, King (where
he waxed some more great booze numbers from 1953 to 1955 - "Whiskey
Women and Loaded Dice," "Head Happy with Wine," "Jungle Juice," "Six
to Eight," "Double Crossin' Liquor"), Savoy, and Herald, where he made
his last 45 in 1960 before lung cancer cut him down the following year.

CD: The Chronological Sticks McGhee, 1947-1951 (Classics 5012). Issued
in 2001 with liner notes by Dave Penny.