THE
DOWNBEATS
A:
Wheels
B: Ghost Riders
7" 45rpm Mono Single - "X" / RCA Italiana 1961(?), style:
surf-western instro
listen to 96k mp3 (right-click
to save): A: Wheels
B: Ghost Riders
Here's a nice and somewhat unusual 45. The Downbeats were a British instrumental band and released this single in 1961. What's on offer sounds quite a lot like surf but the theme of the names, and especially of the music on the b-side is Western movies!
The B-Side features samples of cows mooing and cowboys shouting over a cover of the country classic Ghost Riders in the Sky. This record is the Italian pressing with a PS that says that the song "Wheels" (not the group!) had "one of the biggest hits in America" in the Spring of 1961. It also cites the style as "western/modern" which is relatively fitting.
As it turns out, the personnel on this recording remain pretty mysterious but "Wheels" is a cover of an instrumental written by Buddy Holly's producer Norman Petty, which he first offered to the Fireballs and then gave to a Texas group he renamed the String-A-Longs (bad name!). It apparently sold 7 million copies around the world in 1961 and the Downbeats' version is clearly a cash-in attempt. That said, both sides are very well done and have remarkable charm. Still don't know WHO played on it though!
for the story of the original "Wheels" song, check this out: http://www.superoldies.com/pettystudios/stringalongs.html
new picture of the cover and full info from the disc coming soon...
last update... 31.august.05