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To: My Favorite Headache

IMO, he had the greatest Rock and Roll band in the 50’s, The Upsetters. Having Grady Gains as lead sax man didn’t hurt either. His ‘Ready Teddy’ and ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ drove all of us teenagers into a frenzy. Great top down convertible music.


18 posted on 09/03/2013 10:25:29 AM PDT by duckman (I'm part of the group pulling the wagon!)
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To: duckman

How he pestered and pestered to get recorded is an interesting story in itself.


27 posted on 09/03/2013 10:38:07 AM PDT by TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl
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To: duckman
IMO, he had the greatest Rock and Roll band in the 50’s, The Upsetters. Having Grady Gains as lead sax man didn’t hurt either. His ‘Ready Teddy’ and ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ drove all of us teenagers into a frenzy. Great top down convertible music.

And Grady is still playing after all these years (mostly around Houston publicly and for private parties). He's even released a few albums in the last 3 decades but the best to start with is the gray market compilation of his original recordings

http://www.gradygaines.com/cms_home/index.html

GRADY WAS SAXOPHONIST AND BANDLEADER for Peacock Records' Don Robey when he met Little Richard and became leader of the Upsetters. They recorded many classics like "Long Tall Sally", "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On" and when Richard (temporarily) retired, Grady was hired by Sam Cooke to lead his band. After Cookes' death, Grady continued to play all the great houses like The Apollo and the Palladium, backing up Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Bo Diddley, Etta James, Jackie Wilson and many, many others. When Grady came off the road he returned to Houston for some years but the force of disco in the 80's moved Grady to tour Europe, and to play festivals. Starting again in the early 90's, Grady re-formed the Upsetters and has been playing private parties, clubs, and festivals ever since. His music is authentic, soulful and represents the best music from 6 decades - Grady is the real deal.

Milton Hopkins (Sam Lightnin' Hopkins' cousin) is also still playing and recording. He was in the Upsetters for a time in the 1950s-early 1960s. He had previously played with Big Mama Thornton and Johnny Ace (he recorded with Johnny Ace and was at the show where Johnny accidentally killed himself). He later played guitar for BB King.

54 posted on 09/03/2013 2:27:51 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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