The real “Shoppin’ For Clothes”

Before recording as Boogaloo (RN: Kent Harris; b: Oklahoma City, 1930) & His Gallant Crew, Harris made his recording debut backing his sister Dimples Harris as Ducky Drake on the Trend label in about 1953.  Changing his stage name to Boogaloo, he recorded the talking blues “Talk About A Party” b/w “Big Fat Lie” in a style not unlike that of label mate, Prince Patridge.  However, it was the follow-up and Boogaloo’s final Crest that took on importance well after the record had completed its meager sales.  Originally, entitled “Clothes Line (Wrap It Up)” (b/w “Cops And Robbers”) it was a wry comedic visit to a clothing store to buy a suit. When the protagonist’s credit “didn’t go through,” he was left sans suit.  Several years after “Clothesline,” the Coasters hit the top 100 with the same composition, this time entitled “Shoppin’ For Clothes,” with songwriter credits to Leiber-Stoller, whom Harris had recalled from his days at American Music. The flipside to “Clothesline,” “Cops And Robbers” was similarly purloined by Bo Diddley in 1957, though it didn’t hit. Both cases were settled informally.

When Little Richard gave up rock & roll

Many stories of Little Richard’s defection from rock and roll have been advanced. Some historians have claimed he spotted the flaming re-entry of Sputnik from the deck of a ship and threw all of his jewelry into the Pacific off the coast of Australia.Grady Chapman, of the Robins, who backed Little Richard on “The Girl Can’t Help It” – written for the Jayne Mansfield movie of the same title b/w “All Around the World” was around the world and on tour with Little Richard at the time.

“We went down to the Philippines with Little Richard on a Pan Am flight. One of the motors froze up and when we woke up they’d turned it off so it wouldn’t catch fire. Little Richard said, ‘If we get there, I won’t sing no more. Birds was meant to fly.’ He gave up singing, got rid of all his jewelry.” According to other accounts, after this incident, Joe Lutcher convinced him to keep away from rock and roll for a little less than a decade, but when the Beatles began having hits, Little Richard jumped back into the fray.