Brian Robert Setzer is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba.
Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", "(She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac", "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring It Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.
Rockabilly is an early style of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" and "hillbilly"; the latter is a reference to country music that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.
David William Edmunds is a Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s-style rock and roll and rockabilly.
"Heartaches by the Number" is a popular country song written by Harlan Howard, and published in 1959. The sheet music was a best seller in both the US and Britain in January 1960.
"Let It Be Me" is a popular song originally published in French in 1955 as "Je t'appartiens" interpreted by Gilbert Bécaud. It became popular worldwide with an English version by the Everly Brothers and later with the duet by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler.
"It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" is a song performed by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, and written by Jim "Moose" Brown and Don Rollins. It was released in June 2003 as the lead single from Jackson's 2003 compilation album Greatest Hits Volume II. It spent eight non-consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard Hot Country Songs in the summer of 2003, and ranked #4 on the year-end chart. In addition, the song peaked at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September, and ranked #65 on the year-end Hot 100, making it the biggest pop hit for Jackson and the first top forty hit for Buffett since the 1970s.
"Running Bear" is a teenage tragedy song written by Jiles Perry Richardson and sung most famously by Johnny Preston in 1959. The 1959 recording featured background vocals by George Jones and the session's producer Bill Hall, who provided the "Indian chanting" of "uga-uga" during the three verses, as well as the "Indian war cries" at the start and end of the record. It was No. 1 for three weeks in January 1960 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and the same on Canada's CHUM Charts. The song also reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and New Zealand in 1960. Coincidentally, "Running Bear" was immediately preceded in the Hot 100 No. 1 position by Marty Robbins' "El Paso", and immediately followed by Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel", both of which feature a death of, or affecting, the protagonist. Billboard ranked "Running Bear" as the No. 4 song of 1960. The tenor saxophone was played by Link Davis.
Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer and songwriter. Between 1990 and 1999, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashville's MCA and Decca branches, with a total of eight albums between those two labels. During this timespan, Chesnutt also charted twenty top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight reached number one: "Brother Jukebox", "I'll Think of Something", "It Sure Is Monday", "Almost Goodbye", "I Just Wanted You to Know", "Gonna Get a Life", "It's a Little Too Late", and a cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". His first three albums for MCA along with a 1996 Greatest Hits package issued on Decca are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); 1994's What a Way to Live, also issued on Decca, is certified gold. After a self-titled album in 2002 on Columbia Records, Chesnutt has continued to record predominantly on independent labels.
"Stray Cat Strut" is the third single by American rockabilly band Stray Cats, released April 17, 1981 by Arista Records in the UK, where it peaked at No. 11 on the Singles Chart. It was taken from the band's 1981 debut album, Stray Cats. That same year, as an import, it peaked at No. 78 on the US Disco Top 80 chart.
"I Can Help" is a song written and performed by Billy Swan. Released in July 1974, the song was a big crossover smash, reaching No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts late that fall. Although Swan had other charting singles on both the Hot 100 and country charts, the song is generally recognized as being Swan's only major hit single release. However, Swan had continued success as a songwriter for other artists and as a session musician.
Twangin... is a 1981 album by Dave Edmunds, and his final recording for Swan Song Records before moving to Columbia Records. The album would also be the last Edmunds solo effort to feature Rockpile.
"If My Heart Had Windows" is a country song written by Dallas Frazier and recorded by George Jones in 1967 on his album of the same name. Released as a single that year, Jones's version peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts.
"16 Candles" is a 1958 song performed by the Crests and written by Luther Dixon and Allyson R. Khent.
"White Lightning" is a song written by the rockabilly artist J. P. Richardson, best known by his stage name, the Big Bopper. The song was recorded by American country music artist George Jones and released as a single in February 1959. On April 13, 1959, Jones' version was the first number-one single of his career. The song has since been covered by numerous artists. Richardson never got to see the success of the record, as he had been killed in an airplane accident 6 days before its release.
"Love Bug", also spelled "Lovebug," is a song by American country music artist George Jones. Jones' version, which also features a young Johnny Paycheck on backup vocals and draws heavily from the Bakersfield sound as popularized by Buck Owens, reached #6 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1965. It was released on his July 1965 New Country Hits album and then re-released as the lead song for his 1966 album of the same name, Love Bug.
"Dixie Fried" is a 1956 song written by Carl Perkins and Howard "Curley" Griffin and released as a single on Sun Records. The song was released as a 45 and 78 single, Sun 249, in August, 1956 backed with "I'm Sorry, I'm Not Sorry". The single reached no. 10 on the Billboard country and western chart in 1956. The single was also released in Canada on the Quality label as #1557. The record was reissued as a 45 single in 1979 on the Shelby Singleton-owned Sun Golden Treasure Series as Sun 10.
"Your True Love" is a 1957 song written by Carl Perkins and released as a single on Sun Records. The single was released as a 45 and 78 backed with "Matchbox" in February, 1957. The recording, Sun 261, reached no. 13 on the Billboard country and western chart and no. 67 on the Billboard pop singles chart that year. The song was recorded on Tuesday, December 4, 1956 when Elvis Presley made a surprise visit to Sun Studios at 706 Union in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis also participated in the impromptu jam session that day known as the Million Dollar Quartet. Jerry Lee Lewis also played piano on the recording.
"Almost Saturday Night" is a song written by John Fogerty and first released on his 1975 album John Fogerty. It was released as a single and reached No. 78. It has been covered by a number of artists, including Dave Edmunds, who also released it as a single to more success, Gene Clark, Ricky Nelson, The Searchers, The Georgia Satellites and Ned LeDoux.
"Hot Dog" is a rockabilly song by country singer Buck Owens, initially released under the pseudonym Corky Jones in September 1956 by independent Californian country label Pep.
