Randy & The Radiants

Ace Records recently released Randy & The Radiants – Memphis Beat. Alec Palao, the driving force behind this release, stopped by Sun Records last summer and we dug through all the old tapes to find every last recording of the Radiants. The resulting release is an excellent glimpse into Sun Records post Elvis, Johnny, Roy, and Jerry. In short, the Radiants were Sam’s answer to the Beatles. The included photos and 15-page insert really fill this package out nicely. Excellent all around!

In 1964, when the British Invasion reared its ugly – to the established American record biz – head, Memphis’ original pathfinding rock’n’roll imprint, Sun Records, was in its twilight years. Sam Phillips was never a follower of trends, but when his son Knox presented a fine example of the local grass roots reaction to the British in the shape of the Radiants, Phillips acknowledged their talent, and signed the enthusiastic youngsters to Sun. Their two singles on the iconic yellow label now count as the highlights of its latterday catalogue.

True to the diffuse nature of its musical heritage, Memphis had an interesting and unpredictable take on what the Beatles and their ilk inspired. Randy & The Radiants are an excellent example of this, and most likely the earliest: slightly derivative perhaps, but certainly inspired in content. Though the garage rock crowd know the band’s name for the crunchy chording of My Way Of Thinking, the considerable cache of Sun sessions from 1964 and 1966, the best of which are included upon “Memphis Beat”, reveal the Radiants as several fret-notches above the average teenage combo of the time.

There is the expected quotient of frat-band raunch and Anglicised rockabilly – while it is fascinating to hear the band cover older Sun copyrights such as Boppin’ The Blues– but the true gems in the Radiants canon are guitarist Bob Simon’s contemplative originals, with their own mature blend of harmony and soul, akin to that of the best British beat like the Searchers. The searing, irresistible Truth From My Eyes would have made a great mid-period Hollies single, and tunes like To Seek And Then Find, Nobody Walks Out On Me or I Won’t Ask Why are so effortlessly Mersey in execution, it’s easy to forget the grandaddy of rockabilly is behind the mixing desk. Add the warm, authoritative rasp of Randy Haspel, Memphis’ answer to Allan Clarke, and one can understand Sun’s excitement in having found a local and commercially-potent interpretation of the British beat.

As Haspel relates in a fascinating memoir included in the booklet to MEMPHIS BEAT, the tremendous promise of the Radiants was cut short just as they were hitting their stride, largely due to events beyond their control. But any group should be proud of what Randy & The Radiants accomplished in what was a relatively brief time together. That Knox and Sam Phillips helped them to their moment in the sun (pun intended) is the icing on the cake.

By Alec Palao

The Jesters

This is yet another great release by Ace Records, and again curtsy of Alec Palao.

It’s remarkable to ponder the fact that, as thoroughly as the vaults of the legendary Sun Records have been mined over the forty years since Sam Phillips shut up shop in 1967, some of the best rock’n’roll the label produced has remained hidden until now. I speak of course of the incredible Jesters, and the small but incendiary collection of recordings they made at Sun in 1965. True, a few bits and pieces have snuck out over the years, but always with the implication that, aside from their wellregarded 1966 single ‘Cadillac Man’, the rest of the band’s material was substandard British Invasion-influenced fare.

A quick listen to the hair-raising contents of “Cadillac Men” will show just how blindingly wrong that idea is. This is some of the most cathartic and crazed 60s rock I have ever come across, comparable to Dean Carter or the Sonics in its sheer power and fury. As the Sun historians know, playing guitar for the Jesters was Sam’s son Jerry, along with a quixotic individual by the name of Teddy Paige, whose leads are the proverbial headless chicken of rockabilly yore, hot-rodded with a corrosive blues edge. Add to that a pumping rhythm section and the soulful bawling of lead singer Tommy Minga, and there can be no doubt that the Jesters stand up there with Billy Lee Riley or Sonny Burgess as great Sun rockers; the true garage analogue to the wildmen of Sun Records’ 50s heyday.

“Cadillac Men” contains everything the Jesters recorded for Sun, produced by Knox Phillips, with Sam no doubt smiling approvingly over his son’s shoulder. We have also added four essential tracks by Minga’s subsequent combo the Escapades. ‘I Tell No Lies’ and ‘Mad Mad Mad’ are acknowledged Memphis garage classics, and are presented here for the first time legitimately licensed and in great sound quality.

The Jesters

And if the sounds weren’t enough, the combo’s brief history, as revealed in the lengthy liners, is even stranger than fiction, encompassing as it does Memphis maverick Jim Dickinson, a future medieval knight, and The World’s Most Perfectly Formed Midget Wrestler. It’s been mentioned to me on more than one occasion that with a story like the Jesters’, you don’t actually need any music to be entertained, but believe me, you’ll be as excited as I was upon discovering the incandescent magic of this amazing combo.

By Alec Palao