The mighty man who provided the amazing first single for Elvis! Little known and surprisingly obscure despite his hits and influence. Born in Forest, Mississippi, he sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. He visited Chicago as member of The Harmonizing Four in 1939 and stayed there but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him living in a packing crate introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to with RCA Victor's Bluebird label. He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and early 1950s to some success and toured widely with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s, however, after battles over royalties. He eventually returned to recording and touring in the 1960s, sometimes labelled "The Father of Rock and Roll", a title which he accepted with some bemusement. Despite this sad story, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup was already a blues legend with the hipper fans by the early 1950s, his 'retirement' and elusiveness only adding to the mystique, the mystery, and the hip-ness of his records. All the cool southern DJs, Rufus Thomas, Bill Haley, Dewey Phillips, played and pushed him as a missing-in-action legend to the cognoscenti, one of these hip, ahead of the game music fans and record collectors was a Memphis boy by the name of Elvis Presley who wanted to be a singer, and decided to record a cool obscurity to let people know he was a pretty hip guy. The rest is history. A first time CD collection of hits and rarities by one of the masters of the blues and one of the originators of Rock n Roll!
|
