Previous Vocal Group Record of the Week
#796 (9/14/13 - 9/27/13)

"Strong Red Whiskey*"/"If You Let Me**"
by John Greer And The Rhythm Rockers
*Vocal by John Greer and Ensemble
**Vocal by John Greer and Dolores Brown
on RCA Victor 4484
released in 1952


[The above image courtesy of Galen Gart.]

Above: Clipping from March 1952. John Greer was a saxophone player, vocalist, and band leader. He had been with Lucky Millinder for a short time before forming his own band, The Rhythm Rockers, in 1949.

Click HERE for an article about John Greer by J.C. Marion.
(Will open in a separate window)



Above: Article about Dolores Brown from the San Jose News dated 8/16/40.


Above: Article about Dolores Brown from the Afro-American Newspaper dated 8/4/45. Dolores Brown and The Auditones had two releases on the Sterling label in 1947.

Afro-American Newspaper (January 29, 1944): Valentine Girl Of Servicemen by Ted Yates....Dolores Brown, lovely vocalist with the Don Redmond Orchestra, has nominated herself as "the Valentine Girl" of the armed forces. She will autograph a pic of herself to any serviceman merely for the asking. All letters are to be forwarded to this writer since the band will soon be off on a series of one-nighters. I promise the boys she'll get every request....



John Greer And The Rhythm Rockers had several records on RCA Victor with drinking as the topic.

Some drinking-related releases by John Greer And The Rhythm Rockers:
RCA Victor 22-0023 "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee" (1949)
RCA Victor 22-0104 "Red Juice" (1950)
RCA Victor 20-4293 "Have Another Drink And Talk To Me" (1951)
RCA Victor 20-4484 "Strong Red Whiskey" (1952)
RCA Victor 20-5531 "Drinkin' Fool" (1953)


(At Left: Clipping From The Billboard dated 10/27/51)




Above: Label image of RCA Victor 4484 released in February 1952. Both sides are composed by "Thomas-Biggs," although the flip has their names switched. Joe Thomas was a saxophone player in Jimmy Lunceford's Orchestra, later becoming an A&R Man for RCA Victor. He conspired with Howard Biggs on many compositions, such as "If You See Tears In My Eyes". Biggs was a pianist, composer and arranger, who arranged songs for Savannah Churchill while she was at RCA Victor. "Strong Red Whiskey" is somewhat reminicent of Joe Liggin's 1950 hit "Pink Champagne."

John Greer (And The Rhythm Rockers) had releases on RCA Victor from 1949 to 1953. He then recorded for RCA Victor's r&b subsidiary, Groove, as John Greer and Big John Greer from 1954 to 1955. Then he moved on to King Records from 1956 to 1957.

Greer recorded one other side with Dolores Brown on RCA Victor in late 1951. He also teamed with Damita Jo for one side on RCA Victor in 1953.

The Billboard Review (2/16/52):

JOHNNY GREER AND THE RHYTHM ROCKERS
Strong Red Whiskey
(78) A solid vocal by the ensemble on a better than average blues, with good lyrics and a powerful performance by the ork. A good disk that could catch some coin.
If You Let Me (73) Pretty slow-tempo ballad gets a nice run-thru by Greer and group and some mellow music from the ork. A danceable and listenable item.

(NOTE: Ratings had a range of 0-100 with 70-79 as "good.")

Listen to this week's selections by John Greer And The Rhythm Rockers on RCA Victor 4484 from 1952:
[Audio restoration by Dave Saviet.]

     A. Stream RealAudio (DO NOT USE...LISTEN USING DOWNLOAD REALAUDIO)...
 
          1. Strong Red Whiskey
          2. If You Let Me
 
          BOTH played in sequence

     B. Download RealAudio...
 
          1. Strong Red Whiskey
          2. If You Let Me

     C. Stream/Download Media Player...
 
          1. Strong Red Whiskey
          2. If You Let Me


     [To download audio files, right-click on link and then select "Save (Link) Target As..."]


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