And finding out a tiny factoid makes me happier than learning the national tree of Moldova is the sour cherry or the walnut, although I am planning to bake a cherry-walnut pie on Moldovan Independence Day (August 27).
And that brings us nowhere near close to today's topic, which is a rock 'n' roller from the early days, Mr Billy Lee Riley, from Pocahontas, Arkansas.
Nothing ever worked out right for Billy Lee. He was one of the first singers signed to Sun Records in Memphis, and had minor hits with "Rock With Me Baby" and "Flyin' Saucers Rock and Roll" in 1956. Fellow Sun musician with the same middle name Jerry Lee Lewis played piano on his records, and Billy Lee seemed ready to break big with "Red Hot" in the fall of 1957.
You probably recall studying these lyrics in a poetry appreciation class. Billy wrote them, likely inspired by Edgar A. Guest:
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
Yeah! My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat
Well she ain't got money, but man she's really got a lot.
Well I gotta gal, six feet four, sleeps in the kitchen
With her feets out the door but,
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
Well she ain't got no money, but man she's really got a lot.
Well she walks all night, talks all day
She's the kinda woman gonna have her way, but
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
Well she ain't got no money, but man she's really got a lot.
Well she's the kinda woman who's a lounge-around
Spreadin' my business all over town, but
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
Well she ain't got money, but man she's really got a lot.
Well she's a one man's woman which is what I like
Not a wishy washy woman change her mind every night, but
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
My gal is red hot - your gal ain't doodley squat!
Well she aint got money, but man she's really got a lot.
I would say this tender ballad holds up well in the light of Shelley, Byron and Burns.
But things were not about to go the way of Billy Lee Riley's dreams. In them, he had the big smash hit record with "Red Hot," the appearances on Ed Sullivan, the fan clubs, the movie deals.
Instead, Sun Records told him they were going to promote Jerry Lee Lewis and his smash hit "Great Balls Of Fire" instead. Jerry Lee Lewis - the guy who played piano on Billy Lee's records! He got the big breaks and the big hits and his career took off in a zoom. What happened to that is a story for another day.
Billy Lee Riley moved around after that disappointment, winding up playing harmonica on records such as "Please Let Me Wonder" by the Beach Boys in 1965, By 1970, he gave up music and was back in Arkansas, starting a construction firm.
Even his chance at a comeback was snuffed out. A young man named Robert Gordon cut "Red Hot" and "Flying Saucers" in 1978, and as the rockabilly revival swept the nation, it swept right past Billy Lee. Even the endorsement of Bob Dylan couldn't put him on top. Dylan was a longtime fan who helped arrange for BLR to record an album called "Hot Damn!" in 1997, but don't feel bad if you didn't buy it. Very few people ever heard of it, and fewer yet bought it.
Dylan offered this elegy to Billy Lee after he was gone:
He was a true original. He did it all: He played, he sang, he wrote. He would have been a bigger star but Jerry Lee came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don't stand a chance. So Billy became what is known in the industry—a condescending term—as a one-hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one-hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who's got 20 or 30 hits behind him. And Billy's hit song was called "Red Hot," and it was red hot. It could blast you out of your skull and make you feel happy about it. Change your life.
More: 2005, he fell on the slippery floor in a store and needed several surgeries. He passed away from colon cancer in 2009.
And when you go to YouTube to hear "Red Hot," you see a picture with the song, a picture of a guy named Charlie Gracie, who recorded the mellow hit "Butterfly."Billy Lee couldn't win, but we can salute him every time we meet a 6" 4" woman who sleeps in the kitchen with her feets out the door.
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| not Billy Lee Riley, YouTube. |
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