Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos | |
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Compilation album by Various artists | |
Released | 2010 |
Recorded | 2009–2010 |
Genre | Rock and roll, garage rock |
Label | The Wind Records, Norton, Burger Records |
Producer | Rich Tupica, Billy Miller |
Daddy Rockin' Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & the Diablos is a vinyl-only tribute album released by The Wind Records and distributed by Norton Records. On January 21, 2013, Burger Records re-issued the compilation on cassette tape.
It features 13 Nolan Strong covers by various rock and roll, punk and garage bands, including the Dirtbombs, Reigning Sound, Mark Sultan, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, Outrageous Cherry, the Hentchmen, Cub Koda, Andre Williams, and Lenny Kaye, among others.
The record was compiled in memory of Strong, a Detroit-based R&B singer known for his high tenor voice that influenced a young Smokey Robinson. Strong, who signed to Fortune Records in 1954, was a pre-Motown sensation. He is best known for his hit songs "The Wind" and "Mind Over Matter". He died in 1977 and is buried in Detroit. Because Fortune Records ceased operations in the mid-1980s, Strong's music has remained out of print since then.
The tribute album received positive reviews from a number of publications, including published reviews from Uncut Magazine and Razorcake. All Music Guide hailed the compilation as "one of the best tribute albums of recent memory." . The Los Angeles Times noted, "each cut is a tender love ballad to an overlooked legend."
Lenny Kaye is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group.
Zephire Andre Williams was an American R&B musician who started his career in the 1950s at Fortune Records in Detroit. His most famous songs include the hits "Jail Bait", "Greasy Chicken", "Bacon Fat" (1957) and "Cadillac Jack" (1966). He was also the co-author of the R&B hit "Shake a Tail Feather".
Michael "Cub" Koda, born Michael Uszniewicz in Detroit, Michigan, was an American rock and roll singer, guitarist, songwriter, disc jockey, music critic, and record compiler. Rolling Stone magazine considered him best known for writing the song "Smokin' in the Boys Room", recorded by Brownsville Station, which reached number 3 on the 1974 Billboard chart. He co-wrote and edited the All Music Guide to the Blues, and Blues for Dummies, and selected a version of each of the classic blues songs on the CD accompanying the book. He also wrote liner notes for the Trashmen, Jimmy Reed, J. B. Hutto, the Kingsmen, and the Miller Sisters, among others.
Eric Goulden, known as Wreckless Eric, is an English rock/new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single "Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time. It was also acclaimed as one of the "top 40 singles of the alternative era 1975–2000".
The Dirtbombs are an American garage rock band based in Detroit, Michigan, notable for blending diverse influences such as punk rock and soul while featuring a dual bass guitar, dual drum and guitar lineup. The Dirtbombs were formed by Mick Collins as a side project and started recording songs by 1995.
Amy Rigby is an American singer-songwriter. After playing with several New York bands she began a solo career, recording several albums which had only modest sales despite enthusiastic reviews. She settled into a career of touring while raising a daughter, then formed a duo with Wreckless Eric whom she also married. As of November 2011 they continue to tour from a base in upstate New York. She is the author of a memoir, Girl to City.
Nathaniel Mayer was an American rhythm and blues singer, who started his career in the early 1960s at Fortune Records in his birthplace of Detroit, Michigan]], United States. "Nay Dog" or "Nate," as he was also known, had a raw, highly energetic vocal style and wild stage show. After a 35-year absence from music, in 2002 Mayer began recording and touring again, releasing albums with Fat Possum, Alive Records and Norton Records.
Eskew Reeder, Jr., usually known by the stage name Esquerita, and occasionally as S.Q. Reeder or The Magnificent Malochi, was an American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist, known for his frenetic performances. He has been credited with influencing rock and roll pioneer Little Richard.
Nolan Strong and the Diablos, also billed as The Diablos Featuring Nolan Strong, were an American, Detroit-based, R&B and doo-wop vocal group, best known for their songs "The Wind" and "Mind Over Matter". They had one record that spent a week on the US Billboard R&B chart, "The Way You Dog Me Around", which reached no. 12 in January 1956. The group was one of the most popular pre-Motown R&B acts in Detroit during the mid-1950s, through the early 1960s. Its original members were Nolan Strong, Juan Gutierrez, Willie Hunter, Quentin Eubanks, and Bob Edwards.
Nine Lives is a box set of Robert Plant's solo work, released on 21 November 2006. It includes remastered and expanded editions of nine albums with unreleased tracks and b-sides and a DVD.
Reigning Sound is an American rock and roll band originally based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, now located in Asheville, North Carolina. In 2012, it signed to Merge Records. The band's current lineup includes songwriter Greg Cartwright, Benny Trokan (bass), Mike Catanese (guitar), Mikey Post (drums) and Dave Amels (organ).
Godzuki was an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan, United States, together between 1993 and 1999.
The Sleepers are an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois.
Greg Cartwright, also known by his stage name Greg Oblivian, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Memphis, Tennessee. He currently fronts Reigning Sound and is signed to Merge Records. After moving away from Memphis in the mid-2000s, he has since lived with his family in Asheville, North Carolina.
Mark Sultan is a Canadian musician and entrepreneur from Montreal, Quebec. He was a member of a number of Canadian garage bands including the Spaceshits, Les Sexareenos, and Mind Controls. He has also spent time performing as a one-man band under the pseudonym BBQ, a moniker which has followed him beyond his solo career to his collaboration with former Spaceshits bandmate Blacksnake in the two-man band, The King Khan & BBQ Show. Mark Sultan usually performs using a number of aliases including Needles, Krebs, Von Needles, Skutch, Creepy, Bridge Mixture, Kib Husk, Noammnn Rummnyunn, Blortz, Celeb Prenup, and BBQ. In 2007 he released his first album as Mark Sultan entitled Sultanic Verses. In 2010, Sultan released $ as Mark Sultan and The Ding Dongs, the debut self-titled LP by Sultan and Bloodshot Bill.
The A-Bones was an American garage rock band from Brooklyn, New York. Their name was derived from a song by The Trashmen. The band was formed in 1984 by vocalist Billy Miller and his wife, drummer and co-vocalist Miriam Linna, in the wake of a prior band collaboration, The Zantees. The couple were at the time editors of the rock and roll culture fanzine Kicks and on the threshold of launching Norton Records. Guitarist Bruce Bennett replaced original guitarist Mike Mariconda shortly after the band was formed. Marcus "The Carcass" Natale replaced founding bass player Mike Lewis, prior to recording the A-Bones second E.P. Free Beer For Life in 1988 and as well contributed original songs with other members. Tenor sax player Lars Espensen further filled out the group from 1990 until 2010.
"Diddley Daddy" is a song by Bo Diddley. The song was issued as a single on Checker Records in June 1955. His second single, it followed on the heels of the success of the eponymous "Bo Diddley." The song spent four weeks on the Billboard R&B chart in the summer of 1955, peaking at No. 11.
"The Wind" is a 1954 doo-wop song by Nolan Strong & The Diablos. The song appeared originally on the group's second 45rpm single, "The Wind" b/w "Baby Be Mine". The lyrics describe a man who feels the summer wind blow as he thinks about a lover who left him.
The Demon's Claws are a Canadian garage rock band from Montreal. They are known for blending a trashy 1960s punk sound with raw folk and country melodies. The band is signed to In the Red Records.
Detroit, Michigan, is a major center in the United States for the creation and performance of music, and is best known for three developments: Motown, early punk rock, and techno.