Johnny Otis - Rock Me Baby: The Mercury And Peacock Sides 1951-55 (2007)

Repressing. Johnny Otis was something of an iconoclast. While it is common nowadays for young white people to emulate the style and speech of young African-Americans, during the first half of the 20th century the opposite was true. Otis was considered strange that he, a man born white, would forego all the racial privileges that that birth-right entailed to buck the trend and pass for a black man. He had black friends, lived in the black neighborhood and married a black woman, and his reward was the support of the black community during his record-making years making him the most successful white act of the 1950s on the Billboard R&B chart. This CD represents the early 1950s recordings of Johnny Otis, which are the rarest and least-reissued of his career. We kick off with a short blast from his radio and TV show signature theme to introduce proceedings and allow Johnny himself to describe what will follow: Rockin' R'n'B, greasy Doo-Wop, mighty Jump Blues and Swing sides give US Johnny Otis in full effect!! 29 tracks total. Rev-Ola Bandstand.