The Juke In The Back” focuses on the “soul that came before rock n’ roll,” the records that inspired Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and countless others.
Atlantic Records was the most influential, significant and important independent record label to come out of the late-1940s, during a time when there were many great, small indie labels being born. What gave Atlantic the advantage over Specialty, Chess, Modern, Vee-Jay, Exclusive, King, etc is the breadth of material, variety of music styles and the sheer number of hit records that led to the Rock n’ Roll explosion of the mid-1950s. Matt The Cat and the “Juke In The Back” present this behemoth series celebrating the first 10 years of Atlantic’s existence: 1947-57.
This week in part two, we’ll see how Atlantic continued its sporadic hit streak with a few charting instrumentals from saxophonist Frank “Floorshow” Culley as well as Professor Longhair’s debut record for the label. Ruth Brown, who had a pretty quiet start to 1950, ends the year with the biggest hit of her career and one of Atlantic’s best selling records of all-time. “Teardrops From My Eyes” hit #1 in early December and remained there for 11 weeks, carrying it deep into 1951. This was the beginning of Brown’s decade-long reign that earned Atlantic the nickname, “The House That Ruth Built.”
This program is highlighted by excerpts of an interview Matt The Cat conducted with Atlantic’s co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, a few years before his death in 2006.
So buckle in and prepare yourself for an in-depth, multi-part look at the history of Atlantic Records, which could also be described as a look at the history of American Music itself.
Join Matt the Cat for Juke in the Back, this afternoon at 03:00 PM Eastern, after "The Lost Lennon Tapes" with Elliot Mintz and before "Only The 80s" with Anne Cosgrove, on Mushroom FM, the home of the fun guys, making four decades of magic mushroom memories!
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