Johnny Rebb And His Rebels - Rebel Rock (1958)

(Tommy Steele)
Australia

B-side on Columbia, the band’s first single, with Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode on the A-side. They first charted with Hey Sheriff (1958), the B-side of their second single, on Leedon.

Johnny Rebb (Donald Delbridge, 1939-2014) had been signed for one single on Columbia before joining Sydney entrepreneur Lee Gordon’s Leedon and Lee Gordon labels. He became a regular on Johnny O’Keefe’s Six O’Clock Rock, even filling in as host in JO’K’s absence.

See also: Highway of Love (1959), and I Put A Spell On You (1966) by Australian surf instrumental band The Atlantics, recorded when Rebb had become their lead singer later in the 60s.

Johnny Rebb had been retired from the music business for many years when he died in July 2014.

Disambiguation: This is not the Johnny Rebb who released at least one single on New Orleans label Flame in 1959.

Further reading: 1. Johnny Rebb obituary at Sydney Morning Herald. 2. Johnny Rebb at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Terry Stacey for suggestion.

Tommy Steele And The Steelmen - Rebel Rock (1956)

(Tommy Steele)
UK
Original version

B-side on Decca by former merchant seaman and pioneering British rock’n’roller Tommy Steele (Thomas Hicks, b. 1936). He started out emulating country star Hank Williams before catching the early rock’n’roll wave and charting with Rock With The Caveman (1956, #13 UK) and Rebel Rock’s A-side Singing The Blues, covering Guy Mitchell’s hit.

Tommy Steele soon diversified into lighter entertainment, recording in a variety of genres, often comical or light-hearted (Little White Bull, What A Mouth). He appeared on the stage (She Stoops to Conquer, Half A Sixpence) and in films (Tommy The Toreador, the Half A Sixpence film).

He is also a songwriter, although his biggest hits were written by others including Lionel Bart and Mike Pratt. They were also Steele’s collaborators on A Handful of Songs, awarded the 1958 Ivor Novello for Most Outstanding Song of the Year.

Further reading: 1. Tommy Steele biography by David Clarke is brief but full of detail. 2. Filmography at IMDb. 3. The Wikipedia article.

Bonus track
In The Trumpet Volunteer, a comedy track on The Best of Sellers (1958), Peter Sellers plays a pop star introduced by a BBC-style interviewer as “Mr Iron”. The name suggests Tommy Steele although Mr Iron is possibly intended to be a generic British rock’n’roller of the day, an uncultured lad who has been rocketin’ up the charts.

The interview covers Iron’s new record, a pepped up arrangement of Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary (c. 1700). Iron’s rockin’ update is heard near the end of the track.

♫ Listen at YouTube

Writer credits for the track are to Sellers with Ken Hare, and Ron Goodwin was music director for the album (I can’t explain the variation in the Wikipedia article). I suspect the musical section of The Trumpet Volunteer was written by Hare and no doubt realised with Goodwin’s participation. Hare is credited on two other tracks with musical content, We Need The Money (Sellers–Ken Hare) and I’m So Ashamed (Hare).

Johnny Rebb And His Rebels - Rebel Rock (1958)

Tommy Steele And The Steelmen - Rebel Rock (1956)

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